theater

  • Contemporary Plays Available as E-Books

    Months into this pandemic, Seattle’s theatres are still dark and the Central Library’s amazing play file is still behind closed doors. Nonetheless, there are still ways for you to access play scripts virtually and stay engaged with some stimulating contemporary theatre as we all await the theatres’ re-openings. Here are three plays that are available… Continue reading

  • Shakespeare Shows and Shorts on Kanopy

    If you’re like me, you’ve been spending the past few months missing going out to see plays and performance in Seattle’s theatre scene. As the days get warmer and brighter and summer seems just around the corner, we still don’t know whether we will be able to enjoy Shakespeare in the Park season as we… Continue reading

  • Audiobooks Voiced by Your Favorite Seattle Actors

    It has probably happened to you. You suddenly sense that the performer you’re enjoying live on stage sounds hauntingly familiar. What you may not have realized is that theirs was the voice reading into your airpods on that morning’s commute. Here’s just a small sampling of local talent on audio. One of Those Malibu Nights,… Continue reading

  • Seattle Rep’s TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS: Beyond the Theatre

    Seattle Repertory Theatre presents TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Nia Vardalos, adapted from the book by Cheryl Strayed from May 17 to June 23, 2019. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this list of books and films to enhance your experience of the show. Before she wrote a runaway bestselling memoir of solo hiking the Pacific… Continue reading

  • Book-It’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: Beyond the Theatre

    Book-It’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: Beyond the Theatre

    Book-It Repertory Theatre presents THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Judd Parkin and directed by Victor Pappas, from June 6 to July 1, 2018. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this list of books, music and films to enhance your experience of the show.  Oscar Wilde shocked Victorian sensibilities with his… Continue reading

  • Bird Week: Shakespeare’s Birds

    Bird Week: Shakespeare’s Birds

    The Seattle Public Library is partnering with the Seward Park Audubon Center for Bird Week, April 23-30, in celebration of the center’s tenth anniversary and the National Audubon Society’s 2018 Year of the Bird. ‘Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a… Continue reading

  • Le Guin, Allende, Bradbury & More, This Spring at Thrilling Tales!

    This Spring Thrilling Tales, the library’s popular story time for grown ups, is branching out with new monthly evening events in addition to our regular lunch hour gatherings. Now in its 15th year, the program celebrates the joy of story with live readings of compelling, intriguing, wondrous and suspenseful stories. Here’s what’s coming up in the… Continue reading

  • Seattle Rep’s HERSHEY FELDER AS IRVING BERLIN: Beyond the Theatre

    Seattle Repertory Theatre presents HERSHEY FELDER AS IRVING BERLIN from February 23 to March 18, 2018. Librarians at Seattle Public Library created this resource list of books, CDs, DVDs and musical scores to enhance your experience of the show. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” “Blue Skies” “Always” “Cheek to Cheek” “Puttin’ on the Ritz” “Easter Parade” “What’ll I Do”… Continue reading

  • Never mind Hallowe’en: Christmas is the Original Haunted Holiday.

    It’s that time of year again – a time of ghosts and goblins, of sudden chills and flickering candle flames at the stroke of midnight, of frights and haunts and things that go bump in the night. No, this isn’t a leftover post from Hallowe’en. For the Victorians, the spookiest holiday of the year was… Continue reading

  • This Valentine’s Day, Use Your Words!

    What truly says “I love you” to your Valentine? A fancy dinner out? Good luck getting a table, or avoiding romantic indigestion as you navigate the desperate crush of other romance seekers. A box of chocolates? Hardly original, and not exactly helpful with our New Year’s resolutions. Do diamonds speak louder than words? Nope – not even close:  … Continue reading

  • Bring Down the House

    Have you heard the latest about William Shakespeare? Oxford University Press recently credited Christopher Marlowe as co-author for Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3. NPR has an interesting interview with Gary Taylor, Florida State University professor and one of the general editors of The New Oxford Shakespeare, in which he details the process for… Continue reading

  • Theater at the Library Presents – Edge of Our Bodies

    Posted by Richard Capitol Hill Library and the Washington Ensemble Theater are teaming up to present the one-woman show Edge of Our Bodies. Sunday April 6 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Capitol Hill meeting room. Here’s a bit about the show: “On a cold Winter night, a precocious and pregnant 16-year-old aspiring writer… Continue reading

  • Everything and the Kitchen Sink: Social Realism in post-war Britain

    The rain falls hard on a humdrum town This town has dragged you down And everybody’s got to live their life And God knows I’ve got to live mine… So goes the opening verse of The Smiths‘ classic song, “William, It Was Really Nothing,” a brilliant pastiche of British post-war, kitchen sink dramas. The Manchester… Continue reading

  • Poets at Play

    Did you know that, Langston Hughes has the distinction of being at the top of the list of the most popular historical poets? This little gem was discovered on the Academy of American Poets website, which keeps a list of the most popular contemporary and historical poets. Known for his poetry, Hughes wrote the celebrated… Continue reading

  • Keeping you in Suspense: Thrilling Tales for Autumn

    It seems like Summer was hardly here at all, but longer chillier Fall nights are waiting in the wings, and with them a fresh batch of chilling stories for the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups. Taking place in the Central Library’s Microsoft Auditorium on the first and thirdMonday each month from 12:05 –… Continue reading

  • Alvin Ailey’s Revelations

    From Revelations to Cry, a Kinetic Mopal of Been Here and Gone, Come and Get the Beauty of It under a Hot Blood Burning Moon, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is heading towards Seattle on a Caverna Magica of Days Past, Not Forgotten.* The company will grace the stage of the 5th Avenue Theatre on… Continue reading

  • Let me tell you a story

    In March of 2005, I sat down in front of a crowd in our auditorium and read them a story about a man planning to poison his wife. Six years later, our regular lunch hour program Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups is still going strong on the first and third Mondays of every month,… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales for 2010.

    Entering its sixth year, the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups continues to thrill and delight. Last year’s season was our most popular yet, and this year we’ve got a great slate of tales, many from yesteryear. Thrilling Tales takes place in the Microsoft Auditorium on level one of the Central library, on alternating Mondays from 12:05 –… Continue reading