Comedy takes the stage at Hit & Run Festival
Stage Left Theater in downtown Spokane is playing host to the eighth annual Hit & Run festival, featuring staged readings of short comedic works.
Seven directors will helm 11 plays starring 34 actors. The playwrights come from Spokane and Newman Lake, New York City and Framingham, Massachusettes – and points in between. The event is being coordinated by Sandra Hosking, who has written one play and is directing two others.
Other participants include Spokane writer Ron Ford, New York playwright Rich Orloff, and actors Jhon Goodwin, Stephen Holcomb, Tami Rotchford and Amy Sherman.
The festival runs Nov. 7 and 8, with shows each night at 7:30. Tickets are $10, and are available online at www.spokanestageleft.org or by calling (509) 838-9727.
Organizers advise patrons that Stage Left’s “intimate space” can fill up quickly, so advance ticket purchases are recommended.
For a list of the plays, visit Stage Left’s website and click on “Performances.”
December concerts set
Cellist Zuill Bailey is being celebrated by his alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University, with its Outstanding Alumnus Award this weekend.
In the meantime, tickets are on sale to see Bailey, artistic director of the Northwest Bach Festival, perform concertos by Joseph Haydn, Camille Saint-Saëns and Sergei Prokofiev with pianist Elizabeth DeMio.
The concerts, part of the Bach Festival’s Winter Classics Tour, will be in two locations over two days: Dec. 6 at the Historic Fort Sherman Chapel, 322 Hubbard St., in Coeur d’Alene, and on Dec. 7 at Barrister Winery, 1213 W. Railroad Ave., in Spokane. Both concerts will start at 5 p.m.
Tickets are $35 general admission, and $18 for students, and are available through all TicketsWest outlets. For more information, visit www.nwbachfest.com.
Soon there’ll be an opportunity to see Bailey perform online. As part of the alumni award presentation, Bailey was scheduled to perform with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. A video recording of that concert should be available on the Johns Hopkins YouTube channel in three or four weeks.
Sleater-Kinney sells out
Sleater-Kinney, the all-girl punk band, burst out of Olympia in the 1990s and recorded seven albums before going on hiatus a decade ago. Since then, the band members have gone on to other projects, none as high profile as guitarist Carrie Brownstein, who co-created and stars in the IFC series “Portlandia.”
When news came out on Monday that Sleater-Kinney - which also features singer/guitarist Corin Tucker and drummer Janet Weiss – was releasing a new record in January and going out on tour, the world noticed. And even better for Spokane fans, that tour was starting right here, on Feb. 8, at the 1,400 seat Knitting Factory.
There was a small presale early in the week through the band’s website. It sold out in four minutes. Still, Knitting Factory manager Matt Judge said Wedneday there would be ample tickets available when the show went on sale to the public on Friday.
Maybe ample was too strong a word. In Judge’s words, the “system got CRUSHED by consumers!” By 10:20 a.m., there were only 100 seats left. Within a few minutes, those were gone, too. Judge called it a record-selling show for Spokane’s Knitting Factory.
A few things may be at play. First off, the band hasn’t yet announced concert dates in Seattle and Portland – although as Brownstein tweeted on Monday, “Stay tuned for more tour dates!! Duh!” Still, it’s possible hardcore fans from the West Side are happy to trek to Spokane to see Sleater-Kinney. Add to that the fact that it’s the opening date on the tour, and that might pique people’s interest even more. Factor in Brownstein’s visibility, and it’s easy to see why this show sold so fast.