Seattle Theater+Dance

Pamela Reed in Luna Gale at Seattle Repertory Theatre Photo: Alan Alabastro, used with permission As the Seattle Repertory Theatre's literary director, part of Kristin Leahey's job is to forge a link between the works on stage and the lives of the audience. Rebecca Gilman's "Luna Gale" deals with the issues of modern foster care. Ethics and politics, issues in the social work system, and addiction are touched upon in this new work, originally commissioned for the Goodman Theatre. In the drama directed by the Rep's artistic director Braden Abraham, veteran film, television, and stage actor Pamela Reed plays a social worker grappling with the decisions that will forever change the course of a foster child's life. “It’s beautifully written and an edge-of-your-seat thriller as well,” Leahey said. “’Luna Gale’ has won every major award that it has been up for. It’s a really profound play and I’m exceedingly proud of the events that we...

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Le Corsaire: A Pirate’s Tale, Photo: Lindsay Thomas, used with permission Pacific Northwest Ballet School ’s new production of “Le Corsaire: A Pirate’s Tale” turns a 19th century popular ballet into an 80-minute swashbuckler for younger fans. PNB’s education programs manager Doug Fullington reconstructed and staged “Le Corsaire” using dance notation from St. Petersburg, Russia, which represents Marius Petipa’s 1899 version of the ballet. Fullington also recently discovered the 1857 notation from Lyon, France, likely based on original version of the ballet danced in Paris that same year. "Based on Byron’s poem, very loosely, it had its initial run in Paris in 1856/57 and went to Russia right away, where it was hugely popular," he said. “I first worked with “Corsaire” when I got asked to go to Munich and help revive dances for Bavarian State Ballet. We’d done a little bit of it here in 2004, “Le Jardin Animé” (...