Photo by Eric Stuhang.

In Oscar Wilde’s second most lauded play, Sir Robert Chiltern (Ryan Childers) faces a difficult personal and political decision: publicly promote a canal scam that would effectively end his career, or have it ended for him by the leaking of a scandal from his past. His problem is compounded when his virtuous wife Gertrude (Candace Vance) declares that were he to have any such blemish on his record (she, of course, has no knowledge of Robert’s little secret) that he would lose her love forever. A verbal battlefield unfolds, soon involving the conniving Mrs. Cheveley (Nikki Vesel) and surprisingly insightful dandy Lord Goring (Aaron Lamb). Also among the lively cast of characters are the shockingly modern ingénue Mabel Chiltern (Anne Kennedy Brady) and the overbearingly old-fashioned father Lord Caversham (Nolan Palmer). Like Wilde’s other famous societal satire, The Importance of Being Ernest, An Ideal Husband turns the mirror back on Victorian society to show the true absurdity in their behaviors and tendencies. And in true Wilde style no matter how trivial or far-fetched the situation, the humanity and flaw of each character shines through to make for compelling theater.

All of the beautiful repartee took place on a fittingly beautiful and slightly distorted version of an 18th century Romantic painting by Francois Boucher. The elegant fluidity of Mark Lund’s scenic design was well complimented by the creative direction of Karen Lund. The twists and turns of the blocking could have easily become distracting if the ensemble hadn’t fully committed to the mocking triviality so inherent in Wilde’s plays. Ryan Childers and Aaron Lamb are especially enjoyable as the torn Sir Chiltern and the ever-entertaining dandy Lord Goring. The rest of the cast struggled a little with their lines and British accents, but their dedication to the material in Act Two more than made up for any lacking in the first half.

Photo by Eric Stuhang.

Perhaps a bit surprisingly, this Victorian satire is more than applicable to our current culture of all-access TV and 24-hour news. In a time when celebrity and politician scandals are a dime a dozen, it behooves us all to learn a little forgiveness. With school back in session, Taproot’s production of An Ideal Husband is the perfect balance of light-hearted comedy and down-to-business moral lesson needed to get us through the changing fall weather. And if you prefer to take your theater with a side of romance, grab some 2-for-1 tickets to the show on October 7th (thereby killing two not-for-profit birds with one arts-supporting stone) as a part of Arts Crush 2011’s Date Night program.  Please consider Green public transportation  Seattle options for the show.   You will outwardly chuckle at the follies of Wilde’s world of old and inwardly sigh at the similarities between them and yourself. Besides, in all seriousness, this play is most worthy of love.

Review by Kacey Shiflet.

The Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce celebrates Seattle’s summer-time with the 61st annual Greenwood Seafair Parade on Wednesday July 27th from 6pm to 8:30pm. “This year we will be having Dean Ridgway from Ridgeline Ranch with his darling Welsh ponies offering pony rides in the Greenwood Fred Meyer parking lot,” says Parade Director Ann Woodward. “The ponies will be set up by 10am so this will be a great opportunity for families to bring their children before the parade and have a ride!”

The Ridgeline Ranch is located in Sequim on 30 acres of pasture with 3 spring-fed ponds. “It is a pony paradise,” says Dean who has been providing pony rides for 22 years. “I enjoy working outside with my ponies and watching the parents smile and the children enjoy the ride.”

The Greenwood Seafair Parade takes place from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27. The parade—which is the oldest neighborhood Seafair sanctioned parade in the region—runs south along Greenwood Avenue from North 95th Street to North 85th Street, and then heads west to 6th Avenue Northwest. Thousands of people typically line the route. The parade features over 100 entrants including bands, drill teams, horses, dogs, floats, pirates and more. Detailed parade information after the jump.

This post sponsored by SeattleTravel, with great summer-time ideas for visitors around Seattle.

“We know how important Seafair and the Greenwood Parade are to the community. We are pleased we can help contribute to its success.” responded Melinda Merrill, director of Public Affairs at Fred Meyer. Fred Meyer has long sought to develop an expansion of the Greenwood Fred Meyer store, an expansion that was scaled back considerably from the residential mixed-use development project considered by the community in 2010.

The Greenwood Seafair Parade takes place from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. on July 27 and runs south along Greenwood Avenue from North 95th Street to North 85th Street, then heads west to 6th Avenue Northwest. Thousands of people line the route each year. The parade features over 100 entrants including bands, drill teams, floats, pirates and more.

For more information about the parade, or how to enter a unit in the parade, contact the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce at 206-789-1148 or info@greenwood-phinney.org.

When Taproot Theatre launches its 35th Anniversary Season next week with The Odyssey, Phinney Ridge resident Mark Chamberlin takes the stage as Odysseus.

From a Victorian miser on a journey of the soul to an ancient warrior on an odyssey of epic proportions, Chamberlin has played it all. Fresh out of his role of Ebenezer Scrooge in ACT’s A Christmas Carol, he joins the cast of The Odyssey—a mythic tale of epic proportions re-told by playwright Mary Zimmerman with her trademark humor, witty twists and imagination. Homer’s ancient Greek epic comes alive in this production—with 13 actors portraying over 85 characters—with mythological monsters, gods and adventurers and one of the most enduring stories in history.

Coming straight from A Christmas Carol, Mark had just one week before rehearsals began for The Odyssey. When asked what it was like switching gears from Scrooge to Odysseus, Mark had this to say.

“I’ve played Scrooge before, so the basics were in place. With The Odyssey I have the opportunity to invent from the ground floor.”

Models of Odysseus have been played by numerous actors over the years, from George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou to Kirk Douglas in Ulysses.

“Great characters like Odysseus offer such a huge range of opportunities for any actor,” Mark said, when asked what it was like to step into this role. “Maybe that’s why we never agree on a definitive interpretation.”

Caption: Mark Chamberlin, right, as Odysseus with
Nicholas Beach (Hermes) and Nikki Visel (Athena).
Photo by Erik Stuhaug.

In addition to roles on various Seattle stages, Mark has appeared on Broadway and in a number of film and television projects. In addition, he is the president of the ALS Association Evergreen Chapter’s board of directors, and also serves on the boards of the UW School of Drama and New Century Theatre Company.

The Odyssey—an adaptation based on Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of Homer’s poem, and directed by producing artistic director Scott Nolte—kicks off the 2011 season with an opening night on February 4. The production runs through March 5, with previews on February 2 and 3. For more information or to buy tickets, visit www.taproottheatre.org.

Sidewalkless in Seattle // Sep 15, 2010 at 2:49 am

SDOT should immediately begin to update traffic counts for Greenwood-Phinney using automatic counters. This will serve as baseline data. Then after Rapid Ride starts the counts are taken again, and then we’ll see.

Cut-through traffic might matter a little less if the city committed to making all Greenwood streets safe for pedestrians. Which at present they are not. The rest of the city is full of best practices which for some reason are all judged inappropriate for Greenwood. This. Must. Change.

Ducki3x // Sep 18, 2010 at 3:07 pm

Can you expand on the reasoning cited for the BAT lanes pushing traffic onto Greenwood-Phinney streets? For that matter, a link to the actual proposal would be nice – I went looking for it on the SDOT site, but didn’t find anything that seemed to align with this.

admin // Sep 18, 2010 at 8:25 pm

Great questions. In general, the more that traffic is restricted on Aurora (via car lane reductions versus current capacity), the more cars who will seek to avoid the backup by using neighborhood streets. We’ve requested a copy of the grant application from the City of Seattle. There are many positive impacts, but want to ensure all results are carefully considered.

admin // Sep 18, 2010 at 8:25 pm

A copy of the King County Transit RapidRide E Line link has also been added to the article, which has many related facts.

Quincy // Sep 19, 2010 at 2:24 am

First of all, almost no one ever uses the far right lanes of Aurora, especially northbound in the Winona to 115th segment. Everyone lines up in the middle lane. On the southbound side, even in the mornings when no parking is allowed in the curb lane, people just do not use it. Plus, take a look at what has happened on Aurora from 145th to 165th, where the exact same kind of upgrade has happened: there has been no increase in traffic on Meridian, Ashworth, Greenwood etc. that I can detect. I use Meridian no more or less than I did before the upgrade. No one misses the third lane. In fact, just like on 5oth between I-5 and Stone/Greenlake, which had a general purpose lane converted into a turning-only lane, it’s better. I am certain the planned changes will also be an upgrade.

Ducki3x // Sep 19, 2010 at 2:38 am

Awesome, thanks for the extra info!

Despite the loss of a lane, I’d think there might be some benefits to commuters with the BRT program, especially with the Transit Signal Priority technology. If implemented properly, this might help keep traffic moving quickly up and down the Aurora corridor during commute times, although it might make the experience crossing the highway worse for those trying to go east-west.

For my money, the most consistantly bad parts of the Aurora commute are the backup from the Zoo to the Bridge (southbound in the morning) and from the north-end of the lake through 85th (northbound in the afternoon), the latter being the only time I really take advantage of the third, right-hand lane. The problem here mainly seems to be left-turn traffic backing up at the lights and spilling into the main lanes of traffic & the timing of the 85th intersection. If the controlled left-turn lane could be re-engineered or re-timed, I doubt I would ever use the third lane…

I’d be curious to see where the AAMA is getting their info about the street closures – I don’t see anything in the (admittedly limited) documentation on the KC site you linked to. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they know something I don’t, but I’d love to know more before passing judgement on that aspect of the plan.

Curlove // Sep 19, 2010 at 1:48 pm

The Aurora Avenue Merchants Association opposes any attempt to improve Aurora because it is perceived as a threat to their automobile oriented businesses. Any improvements that might encourage people to walk along or near Aurora or take the bus rather than drive is a threat to their businesses. People might start wanting businesses that cater to pedestrians and bus commuters. Oh no!

This opposition has kept the communities along Aurora dangerous, blighted, disinvested, and crime ridden for too long. I would hope the community councils would organize around any effort to make Aurora safer and more attractive. Just go up to 145th and look over into Shoreline and you will see what is possible. It makes Aurora in Seattle look like some third world country.

Although the Seattle bus routes are certainly not Seattle limos, we believe that the city can find an amicable solution to keep traffic moving on Aurora – yet not pressure the neighborhood streets.

BAT lanes — bus lanes like the ones that already exist on southbound Aurora — would be extended to both directions of traffic between N 46th and N 66th, and then from Winona Ave N to N 115th St. Like current BAT lanes, these would be business and transit-only lanes going south during the morning commute and north during the evening.

The plans also calls for new and improved RapidRide bus stations along Aurora — although the specific locations haven’t been determined — along with 5 million in pedestrian improvements, including 7000 feet of new sidewalks and 100 new curb ramps. The rest of the grant money would go to 23 new Metro buses, and Transit Signal Priority technology that would allow them to move up and down Aurora more quickly.

Phinney and Greenwood are the two neighborhoods with the largest stake in this proposal, considering that it affects the section of Aurora that makes up the eastern neighborhood border. According to an email from SDOT, “This proposal would improve pedestrian mobility along Aurora, enhance access to transit, improve transit speed and reliability, and support the implementation of Metro’s Aurora Rapid Ride service.”

At their meeting this week, the Phinney Ridge Community Council couldn’t agree on the proposal and decided not to send a letter of support for SDOT’s grant application. Although several members did support the proposal, and some even said they might use the high speed buses themselves, others worried that expanding the BAT lanes would drive traffic from Aurora onto neighboring side streets, where speeders are already a major complaint.

The Aurora Avenue Merchants Association opposes the SDOT proposal for similar reasons. A notice on the front page of their website (auroramerchants.org) reads “AAMA does not support King County Metro & SDOT plans to close side streets on Aurora and replace them with fancy bus shelters for RapidRide. All traffic should remain on the HIGHWAY and not be sent onto the neighborhood streets.” According to the Seattle P-I (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/366269_aurora09.html) the merchants also opposed a similar proposal in 2008. That plan was eventually scrapped by the City.

Although the current proposal is not without its opponents, it does present one possible picture of the future of public transit in Phinney-Greenwood. We are hoping this does not force more people off the bus and into Seattle cabs – away from the city’s purpose to keep transit efficient and Aurora moving.

The annual “Pig Out” to fight hunger will happen across North Seattle on October 14th, 2010 including some of the top restaurants in Phinney Ridge and Greenwood. A portion of sales from designated restaurants listed below will be donated to soup kitchens that serve almost 200 meals per week to low income, disabled, and elderly neighborhood restaurants. The event is a “Pig Out” because a portion of meals from breakfast, lunch, and dinner all go to help the needy. Last year – the event raised over $4,000 for the Phinney soup kitchens and you can help out while having a great meal. PhinneyRidge.org is a huge advocate of this event and encourages you to participate in this worthy cause to help the hungry.

Participating Restaurants:
74th Street Ale House
Baranof Restaurant
Barking Dog Alehouse
Carmelita
Fatty’s Corner Pizzeria
Fresh Flours
In the Red Wine Bar
Kouzina
Mae’s Phinney Ridge CAfe
New Noodles
Oliver’s Twist
Picnic
Porst!
Red Mill Burgers
Romio’s Pizza
Santa Fe Cafe
Stumbling Goat
Wingdome
Yanni’s Greek Restaurant

You can also donate directly to help the hungry by sending a check to the Phinney Neighborhood Association at 6532 Phinney Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103. Get more information or your questions answered by calling 206-783-2244.

“Up until this month, we have rented three separate spaces for our programs. Now we can co-locate our programs and better integrate our services,” says Lori Drabant, Vice President of Development & Communications. “This facility will allow us to increase our presence and our capacity to serve the north Seattle community.”

To kick off the grand opening, a celebration will be held at the Community Resource Center which will also be a stop on the Greenwood Community Art Walk. There will be live music, refreshments, and local art from community members and Volunteers of America clients.

“The Greenwood community has always been so supportive of our north Seattle programs,” says Drabant. “We are excited to welcome the community into our new facility to celebrate its grand opening.”

Guests are welcome to stop by anytime between 5:00pm and 8:00pm on June 11th at9041 Greenwood Ave North to hear stories of hope and take a tour of our new facility.

Volunteers of America Western Washington is one of the region’s most comprehensive human service organizations. With the help of our generous donors we are able to respond to 350,000 requests for assistance each year from families in crisis, children at risk, seniors, and adults with disabilities.
For more information, visit www.voaww.org.

Come out for amazing deals and secret finds at the Seventeenth annual Greenwood Garage Sale Day! It’s a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and find new deals for your home.

In addition to garage sales and rummage sales all over the neighborhood (see map), there will also be:
* A Flea Market in Phinney Neighborhood Center lower parking lot,
* A Tool Sale at the Tool Library,
* A Rummage Sale at the Greenwood Senior Center

Board Positions:
We have Board positions for interested community members available including: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. and the following standing committee positions. If you’re interested, email info@greenwoodcommunitycouncil.org

Committees:
Planning and Land Use Committee: to engage ongoing neighborhood development activities and to proactively engage in community planning and development utilizing existing City and Neighborhood plans, including but not limited to zoning, parks, and design review.

Health and Safety Committee: to engage in neighborhood environmental health and safety issues, work with existing community/public safety groups including but not limited to G.A.I.N. (Greenwood Aurora Involved Neighbors) and local police/fire personnel.

Public Outreach Committee: to engage community neighbors on matters involving the GCC, solicit community involvement within the GCC, manage GCC social events, liaison with other community social groups, and update social events calendar, including events not directly associated with the GCC.

Transportation Committee: to engage in the maintenance and development of vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian circulation, including but not limited to sidewalks, traffic calming, crosswalks, pedestrian corridors and mass transit.