The Search for Meaning Book Festival, Rent, The Final Week of Exhibits at The Asian Art Museum, And More Critics' Picks
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
Our music critics have already chosen the 30 best concerts in Seattle this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genre—beginning with Presidents' Day events and continuing through the Search for Meaning Book Festival (featuring the authors of All The Light We Cannot See and Hidden Figures), the closing week of exhibits at the Asian Art Museum before it closes for renovations, musicals Rent and The Pajama Game, and many more.
MONDAY
RESISTANCE & SOLIDARITY
Lore Pop-Up Dinner 2.0
February 20 is Presidents' Day, a day upon which we celebrate the work of great men like George Washington (freed us from tyranny) and Abraham Lincoln (freed slaves from our tyranny). Our current president is actively trying to sell us off to corporate interests and/or Russia, which is a bummer after all the work that George and Abe put in. Here in the liberal bubble of Seattle, it's easy to feel like this is all some nightmarish TV show and not actual cable news. It feels distant and out of reach, and I often find myself wondering just what exactly we can do about it. Obviously, the only thing we're good at: eat fancy food at hip pop-up dinners. Lore Pop-Up, which threw a successful pop-up at Saint John's all the way back in January of 2016, is at it again, and this time they're donating 10 percent of the proceeds to the ACLU. Y'know, that organization that is dedicated to beating back Trump's illegal executive orders and preserving our key freedoms and such? Saint John's is a vital Capitol Hill restaurant and a generally great space to be in, Lore's Facebook page indicates that they know their way around "new Asian comfort food," and there really isn't a more freedom-loving way to celebrate Presidents' Day than by eating multicultural food in a gay-friendly restaurant next to an ultra-progressive sex-toy store. America, fuck yeah! TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
This event is sold out online.
Not MY Presidents' Day: Outrage Onstage
This event, with all profits going to the ACLU's Washington State Chapter, promises a cash bar speakeasy, "unpredictable stations," and a wide variety of performances from Seattle heavy-hitters including renowned folk art songstress Naomi Wachira, David Schmader (former Stranger staffer and author of Weed: The User's Guide), the dancers from ShatterZone, burlesque artist Scandal of Bohemia, actor Rudy Roushdi, Xolie Morra and the Strange Kind, "sculpture sound dance" from Lelavision, Teatro Zinzanni’s Kevin Kent, pianist Victor Janusz, performer Justin Huertas, dancer Randy Ford, "raucous ringleader" Rebecca M Davis, and musicians Abel Rocha, Madeleine Sosin, and Amy Denio of Correo Aereo.
Red, White & ACLU: A Benefit Show For The ACLU
On Presidents' Day, express your patriotism by enjoying comedy, burlesque, and more. Your ticket money—all of it—goes straight to the ACLU.
READINGS & TALKS
John Darnielle: Universal Harvester
John Darnielle is the face of the Mountain Goats, an angsty indie folk band known for its lovely melodies and even lovelier lyrics ("I hope that our few remaining friends/give up on trying to save us/I hope we come up with a fail-safe plot/to piss off the dumb few that forgave us"). He's also a celebrated author—his debut, Wolf in White Van, was a National Book Award nominee. Hear him read from and talk about his second novel, Universal Harvester, which, as Erik Henriksen wrote in his review, is "a book about loss, mothers, and rural America’s particular brand of ominous dread."
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
FILM
Noir City 2017
If you love cinema, then you must love film noir. And if you love film noir, then you must love the Noir City festival, which will feature a number of known and less known movies in this genre that has lots of spiderlike women, lots of long knives, lots of rooms with dark curtains, lots of faces of the fallen, and lots of existential twists and turns. CHARLES MUDEDE
MONDAY-THURSDAY
ART
Chris McMullen: C.S.E. (Collaborative Stacking Extravaganza!)
Seattle artist Chris McMullen creates interactive, moving sculptures. This time, his piece fills the entire room while encouraging "kinetic engagement"—"meant to encourage face-to-face communication and grounding in our increasingly digital world." See it before it closes on Thursday.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCE
Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine
Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine sounds a bit like Dante's Inferno—but with a fairy-tale spin and plenty of puppets. Mary must endure nine horrible nightmares to save her soul. Written by Amy Escobar and directed by Eddie DeHais.
There will be no performances on Tuesday or Wednesday.
MONDAY-SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
#SeattleBurgerMonth: Will You Survive?
Lil Woody's regular menu is extravagant enough: you can always order a Painted Hills beef burger slathered in bleu cheese and pickled figs or topped with two fried eggs and bacon. In February, the cheap burger joint is adding chef specials from local stars. This week, you have until 2/20 to tackle Aaron Willis's knockout Merguez Sausage Burger, with "Roasted Garlic Chimichurri Aioli, Piperade of Sun dried tomatoes and Piquillo peppers, Arugula, Ciudad in-house spiced Lamb sausage link" (plus burger patty). Jason Stratton of Artusi, mamnoon, and mbar will be the last chef to debut a meaty masterpiece, on 2/21: the "Big Freedia," featuring fried cauliflower, pistachio, Calabrian chile relish, feta cheese, tahini mayo, mint, cilantro, and Baharat-spiced beef.
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Academy Awards Conversation at Hotel Sorrento
If your heart starts to race at the thought of women in elaborate ball gowns clutching golden statuettes, your attendance is required at this deep-dive into the Academy Awards. Since last year, Three Dollar Bill has been hosting some excellent quarterly queer-film talks; this one is all about the Oscars, queer nominees, who's on the list and who should be on there instead, and how LGBT representation is faring these days in top-tier cinema. Leading the talk are local queer-culture luminaries Brian Davis (Gay City Health Project), Jen Kilchenmann (Three Dollar Bill), Beth Barrett (Seattle International Film Festival), Ryan Crawford (Jetspace Magazine), and Sara Michelle Fetters (MovieFreak). Also, because it is happening at the Sorrento, there will be plates of charcuterie served in a manner that you are not entirely sure how to politely eat. MATT BAUME
FOOD & DRINK
Taste the World
Spend your dining-out dollars (only 30 of them!) on nine "global comfort dishes" at a benefit for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project by Seattle Met magazine. Celebrate the city's diversity with food, specialty cocktails, live music, and free admission to the Wing Luke Museum (showing the Stranger-recommended exhibit Year of Remembrance: Glimpses of a Forever Foreigner).
TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY
PERFORMANCE
Waning
Kamaria Hallums-Harris's Waning is a coming-of-age story about Luna, a black teenager who falls in love with a woman and then later falls in love with a man. Before she's sorted out her sexuality and her feelings for the woman, she becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, a spiritual familiar, Leuanna, guides her through the history of people brutalizing and lynching black women. On Tuesday night shows, the crew will lead audiences through a self-care breathing ritual involving lavender packets, and on Wednesdays there's an open mic following the performance. White audience members are encouraged to bring a friend of color. Directed by Sadiqua Iman and co-produced with Earth Pearl Collective. RICH SMITH
TUESDAY-FRIDAY
PERFORMANCE
The Pajama Game
The Pajama Game, the 1950s musical with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, is a love story, a labor dispute set in the golden age of American manufacturing, and an excuse for a bunch of big dance numbers. In the production at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Billie Wildrick plays Babe, the head of the factory's grievance committee, who butts heads with Sid, the new superintendent of the factory. From the moment Sid stumbles out during "I'm Not at All in Love," the song Babe sings to convince her coworkers she's not romantically interested in him, their chemistry is palpable. She sings with bright, winning clarity and he has a deep, buttery baritone. But their love story is upstaged by an impressive array of supporting performances. The show drags in places because of Bob Richard's choreography, which strikes me as beneath this cast's abilities—lots of jumping around and gesturing and little else. But director Bill Berry builds enough visual delight into the staging that it's still a pleasure to watch the story unfold. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ART
Ellen Garvens
This week is the final week to see this solo show of work by Ellen Garvens (Chair of the Division of Art at UW), featuring her recent archival inkjet prints and videos and presented by Norman Lundin. The exhibit also includes a small selection of work from Prosthesis, Garvens's series of sculptures and photographs that examine "her own personal experiences with the body."
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Rent
Paramount hosts this touring production of Jonathan Larson's Rent, the dated yet persistently enduring 1996 rock musical about sex, art, AIDS, drugs, death, and la vie boheme.
Well
There’s a lot going on in Tony Award-winning Lisa Kron’s Well, a darkly comic, socially engaged, meta-theatrical “solo show with people in it," as Kron herself describes it. Sarah Rudinoff plays the playwright, Lisa, who can't understand how her mother found the energy to save her neighborhood from being gentrified but who now struggles to get off the easy chair. They both suffer from the same invisible "hereditary" illness, but Kron managed to kick it by moving to NY, coming out as a lesbian, and eating good food. Using dark humor to handle emotionally intense, biographical material is Kron’s wheelhouse. She adapted Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home into a smash hit musical on Broadway, and also created another "solo" show called 2.5 Minute Ride, which dramatizes a trip Kron and her father—a Holocaust survivor—took to Auschwitz. “It’s actually very funny,” Rudinoff told me. Well will be, too. RICH SMITH
WEDNESDAY
RESISTANCE & SOLIDARITY
Convergence Series: #30 Bainbridge and ACLU of Washington
So you're not much for marching and loud chanting chills you to the bone, but you still want to be an activist? No shame and no problem. This event makes it real, real easy to help out the ACLU. Slurp up tasty brews from Bainbridge Brewing, nosh on some food pairings, and feel good about where your money's going.
READINGS & TALKS
Ichiro Kawachi: Income Inequality and Population Health
It's not news that income inequality is rampant, but is it making (most of) us sick? Harvard Professor of Social Epidemiology Ichiro Kawachi will discuss the evidence for and against inequality's harm to the health of the population.
Isaac Marion
Isaac Marion authored the best-selling zombie romance novel Warm Bodies, which was noticed for telling an apocalyptic story from the perspective of one of the zombies, and adapted into a popular film with the same title. At this event he'll share his newest work, The Burning World, another installment in the Warm Bodies series.
Melissa R. Michelson
Melissa R. Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College and co-author of the book Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights (Oxford University Press), will discuss how and why political opinions about LGBT rights have changed so quickly.
Migrations and Marches
In collaboration with writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell, Congressman John Lewis created the graphic novel trilogy MARCH about his life story. As the press materials state, "John Lewis is an American icon whose commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to a seat in Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from being beaten by state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president." The book recently won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and tonight all three men will give a talk about it as part of programming for Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series. The talk at Benaroya Hall is currently sold out online, but there will be standby seating, and there will be a live simulcast in the Plestcheeff Auditorium at the Seattle Art Museum that's free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis (The Migration Series will also be open and free until 9 pm). If you can't make it to SAM, there will also be a live stream online.
Roxane Gay
Writer, cultural critic, and famous feminist Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, An Untamed State, and the forthcoming book Hunger) will speak as part of Seattle Arts & Lectures' "Women You Need to Know" series.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Bring Down the House
Bring Down the House is a two-part adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry the VI trilogy, aka the history plays about the War of the Roses, wherein a backstabby personal beef between the House of Lancaster and the House of York grows increasingly backstabby while the country rots around them. (Sound familiar?) Seattle Shakespeare Company has never produced the Henry VI plays before. They've also never collaborated with Rosa Joshi and Kate Wisniewski of upstart crow collective before, a group that produces plays with all-female casts. And I don't think I've ever seen a director employ hyper-dramatic (and hyper-loud) Taiko drums in a Shakespeare play before. All of that seems like reason enough to go. Plus, any time Keiko Green is in something, it's probably worth a look. RICH SMITH
ART
Tabaimo: Utsutsushi Utsushi
Utsutsushi Utsushi, by acclaimed Japanese artist Tabaimo, is the third in a series of solo exhibitions by already well-known contemporary Japanese artists who nevertheless have not shown much in Seattle, presented by the Asian Art Museum. (The series began with Mr. in 2014 and continued in 2015 with Chiho Aoshima.) Each exhibition has been distinguished not just by being a prepackaged touring show but for including premieres of new works. Of the eight video installations in Tabaimo's Seattle show, she created four particularly for this exhibition. For inspiration, she used pieces in the museum's own personal collection, including the famous gold crows screens. The historical works are presented in a display adjacent to the new pieces in an exploration of the Japanese concept of "utsushi"—the emulation of masterworks as a form of artistic education. JEN GRAVES
This exhibit will close on Sunday, after which the Asian Art Museum will close for renovations.
Terratopia: The Chinese Landscape in Painting and Film
To demonstrate that landscape has been a consistent and prominent feature in Asian art beginning in the third century and continuing through today, this juxtaposes classic pastoral depictions of rural China with a modern film by Yang Fudong.
This exhibit will close on Sunday, after which the Asian Art Museum will close for renovations.
THURSDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Bad Blood? A Conversation about the FDA Ban on Gay Blood
The FDA forbids blood banks from accepting donations from sexually active gay men, as many found to their frustration in trying to give blood for victims of the Orlando massacre. Why this restriction? Is it medically justified, or only the result of bigotry? Join a conversation with Professor Emeritus Phil Bereano and Christopher Peguero, two gay activists, and Dr. Aubuchon, CEO of Bloodworks Northwest, to find out.
Derek Thompson: Hit Makers
Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson writes about economics, labor markets, and the entertainment business. At this event, he'll talk about his new book, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction, and look at what makes a hit (from celebrities to business ventures) a hit.
FOOD & DRINK
Guest Chef Night
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. This week, Chef Gabriel Chavez of Chavez will cook a menu including langostino and crab tamales, pork barbacoa, and churro ice cream sandwiches.
Hama Hama Oyster Pop-Up
Taste Hama Hama oysters at Holy Mountain Brewing—they say "It's absolutely prime time for oysters right now." They'll be $18/dozen or $1.50 each.
FILM
Viva Italia! Italian Film from Neorealism to Fellini
Revisit the greatest works of mid-century Italian cinema with works by Monicelli, Rossellini, Fellini, and other masters of postwar Neorealism and the more stylized movements that followed. This week, watch The Conformist, a 1970 political drama from Bernardo Bertolucci.
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCE
Three Americans: Voices of Hope
Director Anita Montgomery brings you performances by three monologuists in an effort to inspire hope and passion for diverse American voices. Every Friday night, there will be a post-program discussion. The plays and actors are The Birds Flew In (by Yussef el Guindi and performed by Annette Toutonghi), Déjà Vu (by Regina Taylor and performed by Cynthia Jones), and a selection from Draw the Circle (by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and performed by Megan Ahiers).
ART
Visual Art Selections from the Women's March
The Center on Contemporary Art's exhibit of posters from the Women's/Womxn's marches (D.C. and Seattle) will close on Saturday. See selections from the protests juried by female and femme artists.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Awaiting Oblivion: Temporary Solutions for Surviving the Dystopian Future We Find Ourselves Within at Present
The title of this Tim Smith-Stewart/Jeffrey Azevedo performance screams RELEVANT TO YOUR CURRENT PSYCHOLOGICAL/POLITICAL INTERESTS, but it's been in the works since it debuted (in part) at NW New Works in 2015. Inspired by the works of Claude Cahun, a French surrealist poet/photographer who may have been agender before Westerners had fixed terms for nonbinary gender identities—this genre-fluid, meta-theatrical show "follows the story of AO, an anonymous street artist who has tasked Tim and Jeffrey with the creation of a performance as a way to share AO’s 'temporary solutions' for existing within our collapsing empire," according to press materials. Alice Gosti is doing the choreography, Skylar Tatro is doing some acting, and Tristan Roberson is doing the lights. Those people are very good at doing the things they're doing. RICH SMITH
Bright Half Life
This play by celebrated playwright Tanya Barfield (known for her play Blue Door , as well as her acclaimed work on the TV show The Americans) depicts Vicky and Erica's relationship from first love to marriage to fights to the end of life. This New Century Theatre Company production is directed by HATLO, who helmed Thatswhatshesaid.
FRIDAY
PERFORMANCE
La Petite Mort’s Anthology of Erotic Esoterica
See "the darker side of performance art" at this eerie, secretive variety show with circus arts, burlesque, music, and more. Feel free to wear a mask if you'd rather not be seen.
Shlong Song
Woody Shticks, one of the interarts storyteller troupe known as the Libertinis, will put on a frenetic one-man show about "his days inside a Puritan cult" and "his nights inside consenting adults" at the new theater space 18th & Union.
READINGS & TALKS
It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop
It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop is a new collection edited by Jason McCall and PJ Williams that features work by more than 50 writers (including Tara Betts, Robert Lashley, and Jericho Brown) as well as more than 30 writing prompts. Celebrate its release with readings from poets including Robert Lashley, Quenton Baker, and Brian McGuigan, as well as music by WD4D.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam in 1975. This year, his debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as a bunch of other top awards. The book tells the story of the American war in Vietnam from the perspective of a communist spy serving in the Vietnamese army. He's got a couple new books coming out—including Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, a multi-genre investigation about the way different nations remember, work through, and forget the lessons of war—but he'll read from his latest, The Refugees, a collection of short stories that explores "immigration, identity, love, and family." RICH SMITH
FOOD & DRINK
International Dumpling Crawl
Discover Chinatown-ID history through local dumplings on a one-mile tour combined with tasty lil' starch pillows. As the Wing Luke Museum explains, dumplings tend to crop up around Lunar New Year in great quantities, as they "represent wealth, looking similar to ancient gold ingots in some Asian Pacific cultures."
Slovenian Friday Dinner Series
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what Slovenian food is like, and I would never seek it out were someone not to remind me of it. Thankfully, Pioneer Square’s Delicatus has done just that—they’re doing Slovenian cuisine as part of their ongoing themed dinner series, and I’m thoroughly intrigued. There are dandelion greens with Tolminc cheese, a Slovenian regional specialty. There’s prosciutto-wrapped trout, and there is nothing that is not improved by being ensconced in prosciutto. The main meat is braised beef paprikash, a paprika-rich cousin of goulash. Delicatus is offering up four courses for $50, tax and tip included. That ain’t bad for what looks to be a really, really good meal. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
Puppy Pajama Party
The greatest innovation of 2017 is the blending of pups and pajamas for a cozy night of snuggles and shots. Hosted by Caressa (Northwest Handler 2017) and Skuff Pup (Northwest Puppy 2017 and International Puppy of the Year 2016), you’re invited to strip down to whatever you wear to bed—and if you sleep nude, you’ll just have to get creative about covering anything that’ll get you arrested in public. Bootblacks, a coat check, and Jell-O shots will be on hand, freeing you to mosh and pant and generally fog the windows. MATT BAUME
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Dear White People
Explore race through performance (that will "bring levity to political language" and highlight a diversity of perspectives) at this event that will feature live music, burlesque, poetry, dance, and spoken word.
SPORTS & RECREATION
Smash Putt
This is basically the zenith of fun in a dreary Seattle winter. You get wasted, you play bizarro-world mini golf (including a hole featuring a golf ball cannon), and you generally are reminded how fun works. Last time I went, they even had the Infernal Noise Brigade marching around the venue, sowing chaos. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
SATURDAY
ART
(in)compatible
This exhibit of new works explores "post-internet"—a movement that moves beyond the novelty of the internet, breaking it down and using it in art—through sculpture, video, and installation by media artists Kathleen Daniel, Carla Gannis, Faith Holland, and Dylan Neuwirth. Today is your last chance to see it before it closes.
READINGS & TALKS
Chelsea Werner-Jatzke: Adventures in Property Management
Local poet and writer Chelsea Werner-Jatzke (author of Thunder Lizard and co-founder of the Till writer's residency) will celebrate the release of her new chapbook, Adventures in Property Management, a series of flash fictions about her time managing Capitol Hill's mysterious Malden Apartments. Werner-Jatzke will be joined by fiction writer John Englehardt, poet Lauren Ireland, multimedia artist and writer Leena Joshi, and DJ Isabel Von Der Ahe.
Sacred Breath: Ernestine Hayes, Raven E. Heavy Runner, and Elissa Washuta
The Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington will host the second event in the new quarterly reading series highlighting Indigenous writers and storytellers, called Sacred Breath because, as they write in press materials, "Both storytelling and reading aloud can impact audiences through the power of presence, allowing for the experience of the transfer of sacred breath as audiences are immersed in the experience of being inside stories and works of literature." This reading will feature writers Ernestine Hayes (Blonde Indian, an Alaska Native Memoir), Raven E. Heavy Runner (oral historian and storyteller), and Elissa Washuta (Starvation Mode and My Body Is a Book of Rules).
Search for Meaning Book Festival
Want a better world? Don't we all. Hear from scholars, fiction writers, and poets at this eighth annual community festival on how we can contribute. Guests will include Matthew Desmond (author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City), Margot Lee Shetterly (author of Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race), Anthony Doerr (author of All the Light We Cannot See), and many more. There will also be a pop-up book shop with author signings, an art exhibit highlighting existential works, and a documentary theater performance of Re-Entry by Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez.
FOOD & DRINK
The Masonry and KEXP's Farmhouse Fest
Farmhouse style ales are wonderful, and this event provides you the opportunity to taste some rare ones, all while listening to the stimulating sounds of some of KEXP's excellent DJs. Also, all proceeds benefit KEXP, which hopefully means I don't have to spend so much time on my long ass morning commute listening to said DJs beg for money. Everyone wins. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
OPERA
Katya Kabanova
In this opera of romantic tragedy full of original music inspired by Slavic folk songs, celebrated Czech composer Leoš Janáček weaves a story of isolation, provincial oppression, true love, and familial dysfunction. It is relatively rare to come across a full production of Janáček's opera, which NPR described as having one of the most subtle of all villains: "In his dark drama Katya Kabanova, Leos Janácek gives us one of the most unusual and contemptible villains in any opera, and one of the most disturbing, as well: the sort of person who can live among us, quietly and without anyone objecting. She's a little old lady, a respected citizen and the mother of a grown son. She also thinks that her own way of judging what's moral, and what's not, is the only way—and that anyone who disagrees, even those closest to her, must pay a terrible price. And the people around her? They look the other way. They can't condemn her intolerance without re-examining their own." Just thinking about her gives me chills. This is a rare treat, and a dive into respectability politics (oh, so relevant). It's an all-new production by Australian director Patrick Nolan. JEN GRAVES
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Aid for Syria
With the current uproar in this country, it's all too easy to forget that chaos is tearing into lives elsewhere on a terrifying scale. Support the Syrian American Medical Society's work with Syrian citizens and refugees at this benefit. There will be a silent auction, food by Succulent Catering, and talks to inform you of developments in and around Syria from those who have observed on the ground.
PERFORMANCE
Raisins in a Glass of Milk
The Raisins ensemble will present scenes and monologues in a one-act play about being actors of color. Their goal: "[T]o show that People of Color should finally be seen as a standard, essential part of storytelling as opposed to stereotypes, controversies, and out-of-date statements."