TeenTix Blog

Rarely do I enter a play with as many thoughts and questions as I had going into Richard III at Seattle Shakespeare Company. There was so much to be explored: would a historical play remain accessible not only 400 years after it was written, but 500 years after its events occurred? And what would it be like to see this play – with 21 male characters and 4 female characters – presented by an all-female cast? The answers I found are a testament to the power of Shakespeare’s words to cross boundaries of gender and time, and a testament to what amazing, powerful theatre Seattle Shakespeare Company’s actresses can create when they bring life to all his words – not only those of his few female characters.

One feature which makes all-female productions so exciting, particularly when it comes to all-female productions of Shakespeare, are the opportunities offered for female performing artists, who tend to have fewer opportunities than their male counterparts in the world of Shakespeare. The bard’s plays contain far more roles for men than for women, perhaps because they were originally performed by all-male casts. All-female productions like this open the door for audiences to experience the unique talent and perspectives that female performers can bring to the full array of magnificent roles Shakespeare created. And works of art placing women in positions of power, onstage and behind the scenes, are much-needed today and always. So naturally, I was excited that Seattle Shakespeare Company had chosen to collaborate again with the upstart crow collective to present this sequel to Bring Down the House, their highly-praised all-female adaptation of the Henry VI trilogy.

Hey TeenTixers!

One of the perks of being a member here at TeenTix is offers like this one - Bellevue Arts Museum has generously opened 10 FREE spots for TeenTix passholders to join their Members-Only Curator Tour that’s happening on Friday, September 21st from 7 - 8 PM.

Are you a high school student that loves comedy? Do you like to laugh, have fun, and make new friends? Join the ComedySportz High School League!

We are thrilled to announce the newest Press Corps program: The Teen Editorial Staff! The Teen Editorial Staff is a group of five teens who will edit and curate the content for the review section of the TeenTix blog. These five youth will lead a newsroom of teen writers who will cover events selected by the editors at TeenTix’s Arts Partners.

A statement from the Teen Editorial Staff: "As teens, we feel that art is often made inaccessible for our demographic. As the Teen Editorial Staff, we are working to fix that by giving teens a voice in the adult-dominated world of arts criticism." Meet the Fab Five:

The TeenTix Newsroom is a group of teen writers led by the Teen Editorial Staff. The Editorial Staff is made up of 5 teens who curate the review portion of the TeenTix blog. Editorial Staff members decide which art events to cover each month, then assign teen writers to review them. Editorial Staff members edit all teen writing before it is published on the TeenTix blog.

Teen writers are eligible to receive a stipend of up to $20 per review!

You've got the power.

The #2018TeenyAwards is the Biggest Little Awards Show in Seattle, where the fate of each nominee rests in YOUR hands! That's right, TEENS get to make the final decision each year about which organizations will take home a coveted Teeny Award and the sweet, sweet bragging rights that go along with it.

SO DON'T DELAY: VOTE NOW and tell us about the art you loved seeing!

We are excited to launch applications for the Fall Press Corps Intensive! The Press Corps Intensive is a FREE five-week arts-going and criticism practice workshop. The Fall session runs October 10-November 18. In this program,10 teens will work with professional writers and critics who will help mentor and hone your arts criticism skills. The session includes five different art events at several TeenTix Arts Partners.

You’ll see: Theater performances at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Seattle Public Theater A visual art exhibit at NAAM A film at Three Dollar Bill Cinema A concert at Fremont Abbey Arts

See the newest installation of this Whim W'Him staple: Choreographic Shindig is back and better than ever!

TeenTix Members are encouraged to reserve up to 4 tickets for you and all your friends for this event (a rare chance to snag seats in advance with your TeenTix pass!) so don't delay - fill out this form now to see the show on one of the following dates:

Hey, TeenTix Members & Greater Youth Arts Access Community!

This week we said goodbye to our headquarters of the last several years and moved our offices into the Armory on Seattle Center Campus. We're SO STOKED to return to the building where our program began 14 years ago! Celebrating this homecoming has been the perfect balance of extremely sweet and frenetic.

Our friends at Three Dollar Bill Cinema know that there's nothing better than settling down with a bag of popcorn and a movie--which is why they're not only offering FREE outdoor movies this year, but a ~special deal~ on popcorn for TeenTix Members!

That's right, TeenTix Members can get FREE popcorn when they show their TeenTix Pass at the concession stand!

One of our favorite events of the year is THIS WEEKEND--join us for Seattle Art Fair from August 2 - 5. Stop by and enjoy more than 100 local, national and international galleries alongside the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest!

Speedy Graphito, The Dream of Roy, 2017

We're stoked to offer our teen members exclusive access to $5 TeenTix tickets per day, in addition to a 20% discount on all ticket types for adults. Click here to purchase tickets online, or use your TeenTix Pass at the door!

Do you know a teen who is always getting their friends to go to shows? How about a teen who works to keep arts education in school? Or a teen who creates opportunities for other teens to express themselves through art? Or a teen who pours themselves into leading a drama club, poetry slam, photography club, writing club, dance team, or WHATEVER KIND OF AWESOME ARTY CLUB? Know anybody like that?

Nominate them for the Youth Arts Advocate of the Year Award! The Youth Arts Advocate of the Year Award celebrates a teen who makes big contributions to our region's arts and cultural community through passion, advocacy, and leadership.

The New Guard has deliberated and are EXCITED to share the nominees of the 2018 TEENY AWARDS! 2018 TEENY AWARDS NOMINEES

ORGANIZATION AWARDS Celebrating the region’s most teen-friendly arts organizations 1. FAVORITE ORGANIZATION Voted on in real-time at the Teeny Awards ceremony All TeenTix partner organizations nominated except reigning favorite organization, the Seattle Repertory Theater.

TeenTix has been hard at work revitalizing the Press Corps program, and we've got some SUPER EXCITING NEWS: we're now announcing the launch of the TeenTix Press Corps' Teen Editorial Staff program!

The Teen Editorial Staff is a group of 5 teens who will run the review portion of the TeenTix blog. These Staff members will edit and curate the content of the blog and decide which art events are covered. This is your chance to shape the TeenTix blog and make it relevant for teens like you! What's the most exciting part of this new addition? Editorial Staff will have the opportunity to receive a stipend of up to $50/month based on their full communication and participation within the program. SCHEDULE (please read carefully!)

The battle cry “Us versus them,”and the brutal labeling accompanying it, is all too familiar today. One might not expect a seemingly simple historical fiction musical to offer a relevant response, yet Taproot Theatre’s Sweet Land does just that with touching, convicting, and joyful power. Sweet Land tells the story of a young German woman, Inge Altenburg, who travels to Minnesota to marry a man she’s never met, Norwegian Olaf Torvik. But with World War I a recent and painful memory, Olaf’s community condemns the match, delaying the marriage. The events of this waiting period–the challenges faced, relationships built, and lives changed—are the heart of the musical’s story.

Molli Corcoran and Tyler Todd Kimmel in Sweet Land, the Musical at Taproot Theatre. Photo by Erik Stuhaug.

The piece is a tour de force for Molli Corcoran (Inge) and Tyler Todd Kimmel (Olaf), who carry the story with moving, grounded brilliance. Corcoran’s vocal versatility and acting ability are immediately evident in her introductory song, which clearly establishes both her talent and Inge’s character (kudos to composer Dina Maccabee and lyricist Laurie Flanigan Hegge for the soaring work of storytelling that is the score). The tough, loving, courageous “mail-order bride” Inge is unafraid to be the voice of reason and to act in defiance of “what people will think.” Her “strength, power, and grace” are some of the first things to strike her fiancé. Olaf is a man of few words—yet Kimmel skillfully creates the character through his striking physicality and presence. Long before he has spoken, the audience knows Olaf well, and, in moments when the stage is full of movement and sound, it is the still, shy farmer who draws the audience’s eye. While waiting for the outside approval the community requires before allowing their marriage, Inge and Olaf come to understand and love one another. Their blossoming relationship—conveyed as much through wordless glances and softening physicality as through words—is a joy to watch. Brownie and Alvin Frandsen (played by April Poland and Chris Shea, respectively) offer contrasting and complementary enthusiasm, loquaciousness, and levity as they alone support—and are ultimately supported alone by—Inge and Olaf. Notable among the many less supportive members of the community (played by a small but versatile ensemble) is Hugh Hastings as Pastor Sorensen, the minister who refuses to marry Inge and Olaf and who plays a large role in turning the community against the couple. Hastings and the writers of the musical’s book, Perring Post and Laurie Flanigan Hegge,make this character (who could easily become the stereotypical uber-conservative villain) refreshingly believable, complex, and ultimately redeemable.

Mickalene Thomas’s most recent exhibition, MUSE: Mickalene Thomas Photographs at the Henry Museum and tête-à-tête is a reminder of the importance of community in the process of creating and experiencing art. The collection features Thomas’s photography and film—both lesser known aspects of her artistic repertoire, but ones that deserve just as much appreciation as the imposing rhinestone-studded paintings she’s best known for. The exhibit, based on a book of the same title released in 2015, is embellished with a tête-à-tête of works curated by Thomas of artists she knows and takes inspiration from, including the work of Derrick Adams, John Edmonds, and Carrie Mae Weems among others.

Derrick Adams. Crossroads. 2012. Courtesy of the artist.

Our friends at Seattle Public Theater have been doing THE MOST this year to make sure TeenTix Members have plenty of theatrical outlets, but this time they're joined by Community Partner Foundry10, offering two free mentorships on the design side!

There are 16 spots total in these ~Summer Mentorships~ in both Costume Design and Scenic Painting and Design. If you love learning how the process of costuming works OR how sets get designed, put together, and painted, this is for YOU. The behind-the-scenes theatrical world is here for the taking! To apply, please fill out the form below:

Our ~super generous~ friends at Seattle International Film Festival are offering TeenTix Members TWO HUNDRED (200) complimentary tickets for their screening of the film Eighth Grade next Thursday, July 19 @ 7:00 PM!

The film weeds through the minefield that is modern adolescence through the view of Kayla, a thoughtful 13-year-old girl on the precipice of completing junior high. A social media life coach of sorts, Kayla produces YouTube videos to her imaginary subscribers about self-love and confidence, yet can't quite put these into practice in her own life. Eighth Grade was written and directed by YouTube musical comedy heartthrob Bo Burnham, who you also might recognize from his two Netflix specials! Peep the trailer right here:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is not your typical Broadway musical. Instead of chorus lines and tap numbers, the show features an onstage band and 90 minutes of punk rock. On top of that, the characters are eclectic. There’s Hedwig (played by Nicholas Japaul Bernard), who struggles to come to terms with her identity after a botched sex-change operation (although she is genderqueer, she uses she/her pronouns); Yitzhak (played by Dani Hobbs), Hedwig’s husband, whom she hates; and the unseen Tommy Gnosis, a rock star and Hedwig’s ex-lover, who abandoned her after learning that she was not technically a woman. Through these characters, their relationships, and dramatic, powerful songs, the show presents its central message: that one must embrace change and the unknown.

Throughout the show, Hedwig seems fixated on the past and present, instead of looking to the future, something that was mirrored in the staging. Because we normally read from left to right, stage left (from the audience’s perspective) is reminiscent of the past, while stage right symbolizes the future. During the show, Hedwig tended to stay stage left/center, displaying her obsession with her life before the operation and her relationship with Tommy, as well as her inability to focus on her current self and what’s to come. On the other hand, Yitzhak, who sits stage right, essentially becomes the show’s future—at the end of the show, they sing alone while Hedwig leaves the stage.

Powerful. That's the first word that comes to mind when talking about Familiar, a play written by Danai Gurira, a well-known African American actress. This play is a masterpiece that everyone should see at least once. Drama is one of the oldest forms of entertainment, and, as humans, we love drama. This makes the play a hit for the audience as it is packed with the twists and turns that make a great family drama. Gurira draws from her own heritage for this play as it brings up many topics like culture, Zimbabwe, identity, and of course, family.

This play revolves around an African family from Zimbabwe and the conflicts they go through about race and identity. The family consists of two sisters, Tendi, the eldest, and Nyasha, the youngest; the parents, Marvelous and Donald; and two aunts, Margaret and Anne. When Tendi decides to get married to a white guy named Chris, most of the family has their own opinions, and her sister, who is afraid Tendi will lose her heritage, has the strongest opinion. The play progresses as more family shows up and causes more havoc in the small American-style house. The plot thicken as the story of this American Zimbabwean family unfolds.