THURSDAY
STAGE
THE SEAGULL
If writer/director Wayne S. Rawley can take The Dukes of Hazzard and make it seem like something special, imagine what can happen when he wraps his mind around a classic. Money & Run, his loving, long-running, Southern-fried TV parody, doesn’t even hint at what Rawley will do with Chekhov’s play about the tangled heartaches surrounding a famous actress and her writer son. The salute this time, Rawley says, isn’t spoofy. He’s upped the comedy value, sure, but for the most part simply adapted the 19th-century original’s story and structure and relocated the action to contemporary Californiaas good a milieu as any for loves to be lost and found and lost again. Pay-what-you-can preview Thurs., May 22. Opens Fri., May 23. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.; 2 p.m. select Sun. $12-$15. Theater Schmeater, 1500 Summit Ave., 206-325-6500. STEVE WIECKING
FRIDAY
VISUAL ARTS
MFA 2003 EXHIBITION
I love the Henry’s annual show of graduating UW MFA studentsno matter what you think of the art, all those energetic young artists in one space, each trying to make a splash, makes for a terrific spectacle, not to mention the tense, unspoken drama of artistic one-upmanship. This year’s show has almost as many ceramicists as painters, and a handful of other artists working in photography, printmaking, sculpture, and fibers. One of the participants is Jill Stutzman, whose untitled oil painting is seen above. Opening reception: 5-8 p.m. Fri., May 23. Runs through Sun., June 15. UW campus, 206-543-2280. DAVID STOESZ
MONDAY-TUESDAY
FILM
DOING TIME
Prison movies mean jailbreaks, sadistic guards, and Steve McQueen endlessly bouncing a ball against a wall in solitary, right? Wrong. In this true-life-inspired tale of a harmless middle-aged war-gamer who goes to the stir for three years on minor weapons charges, there’s nary a riot or a tin cup rattled against the bars. No one is dragged screaming to the electric chair. Instead, Hanawa (played by Tampopo‘s Tsutomo Yamazaki) and his four cellmates spend lots of time folding, cleaning, and asking for permission to pee; everyone is absurdly, fastidiously polite and well-mannered. It’s like Mr. Hulot Goes to Jailor Zen in the penas Hanawa and his buddies obsess over food, play baseball poorly, and pay closer attention to their minutely regimented lives than we do to our free ones. Part of SIFF. 6:30 p.m. Mon., May 26. Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St. 4:45 p.m. Tues., May 27. Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St. SIFF info: 206-324-9996. BRIAN MILLER
TUESDAY
READINGS
MICHAEL LEWIS
Lewis is one of those writers who can make anything interesting, which is going to be one hell of a challenge this time since he’s writing about, God help us, baseball. (Of all the neglected topics!) OK, I realize I’m in a minority here. Everyone else loves reading about, watching, and ruminating on baseball, especially intellectuals. Fortunately Lewis’s latest, Moneyball, looks to be neither a cultural appreciation nor a nostalgic paean to the sport’s better days but rather a genuine piece of journalism, exploring how the Oakland A’s managed to win their division in 2002, despite having the league’s second-lowest payroll. 7 p.m. Tues., May 27. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 206-634-3400. MARK D. FEFER
THURSDAY
DANCE
KINGDOM
Mary Sheldon Scott’s choreography has a tendency to sneak up on you. What starts out as a simple movement phrase, like a series of leg swings, alters over time, shifting direction or phrasing, adding a twist or a step, until you blink and find the dancer you were following suddenly is across the room or suspended in someone’s arms. In Kingdom, Scott extends this process of transformation over the entire evening. What begins as a group of short, disjointed phrases, divided by moments of stillness, gradually segues to a long outpouring of speed and momentum, thrusting legs, grimacing faces, and chewing mouths. The members of Scott’s company (including Alethea Adsitt, above) are all dancing especially well right nowthe movement Scott is feeding them combines the powerful flow of modern dance with the clarity of ballet, and they are eating up the challenge.
8 p.m. Thurs., May 22-Sat., May 24. $12-$16. On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., 206-217-9888. SANDRA KURTZ
