Stage

As COVID restrictions were being lifted, theaters were looking for ways to take the first step toward a new normal, a way to start small and remember what it was like to produce a performance.

In the 2004 film “The Notebook,” rich girl Allie Hamilton is wooed by a blue-collar Noah Calhoun who’s so persistent – even securing their first date by threatening to drop to his death from a Ferris wheel if she declines – that the Millennial-favorite romantic drama is comically spoofed in numerous YouTube videos as a thriller about a deranged stalker.

As the phrase goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” But Jaz Vega, festival director of Stage Left Theater’s legacy production “Empower,” found that when it came to putting together the reader’s theater-style production celebrating the joys of womanhood, “If you want something done, ask women” was more accurate.

A mother’s love can be well-meaning but overbearing. From a child’s perspective, that love can feel supportive, but also suffocating.

A couple summers ago, two Shakespeare Coeur d’Alene actors were performing a modern take on a scene from “The Taming of the Shrew” at Art on the Green in Coeur d’Alene.

When preparing for this interview on the nationally touring Broadway adaptation of “The Notebook,” I felt like I was at a disadvantage as I had never read the Nicholas Sparks book of the same name on which the musical was based or seen the wildly popular movie adaptation, starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.

In “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Esmeralda and the Romani of Paris risk being driven out of the city because they are “Gypsies.”

If she wasn’t a real person, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life would read like a fictional story. A tale of a woman who experienced the death of her older sister at a young age and the death of her mother the day before she graduated high school.

The first time comedian and actor Harland Williams traveled through Washington state, he was on his way to Hollywood.

Smart, sassy, curious and willing to try new things – Junie B. Jones is the spunkiest kindergartner (and eventually first grader) around.

World Ballet Company co-founder Gulya Hartwick has heard it all before.

It happens every time.

As a young animator, comedy was initially a means to an end for Josiah Carlson. He needed characters and funny voices for the cartoons he created, so he did them himself.

Though the tour isn’t stopping in Spokane, some in the area likely perked up upon hearing about the latest national tour of “The Sound of Music.”

In the theater world, casting choices are fairly unsurprising, to an extent.

As the saying goes, “Behind every great man is a great woman.”

If you could go back, would you re-do your high school years?

When seeing a musical that incorporates elements of “Alice in Wonderland,” you expect a lot of whimsy, a lot of fantasy, a lot of “How did they do that?” moments.