Kate Jaeger News

Balagan Theatre made three major announcements during a packed Season Preview Party at the Moore Theatre on Monday, June 10: 'Nirvanov' as the fifth show in the 2013-2014 mainstage season, a star-studded trio of leading ladies in Carrie: The Musical, and a newly created New Works Program, whose Summer Series debuts July 6.

Balagan Theatre will introduce the 2013-2014 mainstage season with a free community celebration, tonight, June 10, 7:30pm at the Moore Theatre, featuring America's Next Drag Superstar, Jinkx Monsoon (also known in Seattle as musical actor Jerick Hoffer), and Broadway star and Tony Award winner Alice Ripley, best known for creating the role of Diana Goodman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal.

Balagan Theatre will introduce the 2013-2014 mainstage season with a free community celebration, Monday, June 10, 7:30pm at the Moore Theatre, featuring America's Next Drag Superstar, Jinkx Monsoon (also known in Seattle as musical actor Jerick Hoffer), and Broadway star and Tony Award winner Alice Ripley, best known for creating the role of Diana Goodman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal.

If you've seen it you know you love it. "August: Osage County" has got to be one of the most powerful stories to grace the stage in quite some time. And soon everyone will love it as it's about to be turned into a movie due out next November with a powerhouse cast. But until that time you can still visit with the Westons right here in Seattle with the regional premiere of this stunning work brilliantly put up by Balagan Theatre.

Start the New Year off elegantly -with improv? Really? Austen Translation is an extraordinary unscripted play based on the works of Jane Austen -the grande dame of English romantic fiction. With hits like Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice, Austen's books have turned mortal women (and men) into slobbering mounds of tearful flesh. Jet City Improv has partnered with Book-It Repertory Theatre to help turn those tearful mounds into giant balls of laughter and joy. In this brand new feature-length improvised comedy, audience suggestions are translated into Jane Austen's very dignified, and very proper, world of landed gentry, grand ballrooms, English manor houses, love, valor, sense and… sensibility.

Voting is now underway for the Seattle Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Seattle Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Seattle Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Seattle Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Voting is now underway for the Seattle Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

There's a certain amount of pressure when a theater company becomes the first in the area to produce a big name show locally. Yes, it's a coup to be the first to get the rights (and Balagan seems to be cornering the market on that this season) but they also need to do the show justice or else, why bother? This is why what Balagan is pulling off with their current production of "Avenue Q" is all the more spectacular. Not only have they put up one of the new hot shows but they've done it in a way that rivals any tour of the show and created an outstandingly fun time that will leave you grinning all the way home.

SketchFest Seattle is the world's original sketch comedy festival and has established a reputation for presenting the best and most original comedy from around the globe. Currently in its 14th year, SketchFest has announced its 2012 line-up and festival dates to share with the city of Seattle.

SketchFest Seattle is the world's original sketch comedy festival and has established a reputation for presenting the best and most original comedy from around the globe. Currently in its 14th year, SketchFest has announced its 2012 line-up and festival dates to share with the city of Seattle.

Spots are still available for the Musical Theater Academy. Designed for kids ages 8-12, this year's performance will be Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. August 1-5. This rock musical revue is based on the Emmy Award winning 1970s TV series Schoolhouse Rock, featuring the songs 'Conjunction Junction,' 'Just a Bill,' and 'A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing.' Directed by Kate Jaeger, Kody Bringman, Becca Orts and Lindsey Larsen. Call 206-938-0963 x102 to apply.

A show about two nobodies writing a musical about themselves writing the musical they are in. Sounds a bit self-serving and pandering. They even note that in the course of the play and that's the impression I've always had of it from the cast recording. And while I still have that impression to an extent, the current production of "title of show" from Curly Stache Productions and Balagan Theatre showed me a new side of it. A side that's funny and sweet and for the most part keeps itself from being mired in an endless series of in-jokes.

For the ArtsWest 2012-2013 season, Artistic Director Christopher Zinovitch has announced a selection of plays, beginning in September with a fast-paced irreverent rock musical about the country we live in - a Broadway blockbuster, that received Tony Award© nominations, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and two Drama Desk nominations. The holiday season will include a mix of rockin' holiday hits in a fond salute to 1960's girl groups. Audiences will then travel from Liverpool to Greece with a middle-aged, working class housewife in a classic comic masterpiece. The season's fourth play, another recent Broadway blockbuster, exposes the fundamental truths that result when opposing views of family and friends collide. The season will close with a genius at work as Beethoven and a musicologist examine the creative process against a background of passion and parenthood.

Balagan Theatre has moved into its new home on Capitol Hill, presenting four productions in eight weeks, including the third installment of one-act comedy festival Death, Sex and the return engagement of Broadway (and Seattle) smash-hit musical Spring Awakening.

It's almost over! There's just THREE days of voting remaining for the 2011 Seattle Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Seattle Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 26, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out.