Witness Immersive is a New York and London based company which has spread its innovative creativity to various cities around the country. Its second show in Seattle, The Double, performed by a stellar local cast, brought an interdisciplinary performance medium to the city which has thus far gone mostly untapped—immersive dance theatre.

In all our lives, there comes a frightful day when catastrophe strikes. We look around the room to find support from the nearest adult or superior, as we have always done, but when we do, we realize with great suddenness: Oh no. We are the adults in the room. The Grown-Ups, written by Simon Henriquez and Skylar Fox and originally devised by Nightdrive, took its humble place as Dacha Theatre’s third mainstage show of their season. It toured parks and campfires in and around the Seattle area, bringing its nostalgic story to a widespread public. 

The show is a packed variety hour (and a half) featuring all manner of dance, illusion, aerials, and comedy. Oh yeah—and birds. At the start the audience is notified that the show might be different and more interactive than they are used to: “Things may happen above you, or behind you…and if you’d like to show your approval, feel free to do a little bird call.”

I closed out Pride Month by attending the fabulous and charming Queer Talent Show at Friday Afternoon Tea in Wallingford. This Queer and woman-owned business is a wonderful location with kind and knowledgeable staff, and their get-together for the end of Pride was cozy, loving, and all-around magical. Owned by the amazing Friday Elliott, Friday Afternoon Tea is quite simply the place to be.

For the uninitiated, the Triple Door is a longtime dinner-and-a-show venue in Seattle’s downtown that seats some 300, The Sound of Strip is an improv burlesque show set to the music of a live cover of The Cure, and Ruby Mimosa (aka The Effervescent EnterTEASER) is a local star noted as one of the most influential performers in the world by 21st Century Burlesque and the genius mind behind BurlesKaraoke.

Jasmine Joshua and Heather Ragusa’s musical Here & Their, starring Chloe Payne and Meg McLynn, is shaping up to be a new Queer musical classic! With top-tier vocals, witty lines, and songs that are sometimes hilarious and sometimes heart-wrenching, Here & Their brings a fresh perspective on Queer stories that many of us can relate to as well as creates levity during these dark times. This musical is joyous, hopeful, and feels like finally taking a deep breath after a tense and stressful start to 2025.

While the play had a lot of workshopping to do, its commentary was important. It gave a wide representation of LGBTQ+ lives and showed the isolation felt beneath the weight of conservative cultures throughout the world. It also showed the resilience of Queer communities in the face of oppression and brought the conflicts in the Middle East centerstage, demanding viewers to remember them. 

When asked to attend the 2^nd annual Seattle Fetish Ball and write about it, I only had one question at first: What do you even wear to fetish balls? I’m the type of person that needs to look at menus, check parking, and figure out how long a walk from place to place is. I like being informed, but mostly I have a fear of being or looking out of place. Luckily, they had guidelines. Fetish wear required, it was clearly intended to be a safe space for the fetish/kink/alternative communities.

On a Saturday night in April in the Denny Triangle neighborhood, vintage glamour was present at the doors of Seattle’s Kremwerk complex. DJ duo Théque Support (composed of Hot N’ Spicy Disco and Moonlighter) were bringing their monthly evening of Disco Dust to Seattle, with a set from special guest Heidy P visiting from New York. Moonlighter and Hot N’ Spicy Disco are both from Detroit, the official birthplace of techno and a continuing hub of electronic music innovation. At the duo’s monthly disco parties, hosted in Kremwerk’s newest dance room, Cherry, they go old-school, dusting off vinyl records and using turntables.

Created by Eva Anderson, Derek Bishé, Mali Elfman, Eric Hoff, Tommy Honton, and E3W Productions (Aaron Keeling, Austin Keeling, Natalie Jones), AOTW is a completely new flavor of production. The focus of AOTW is to create a deeper relationship between art and its participants, and the entrancing world of The Shape of the Night is completely enrapturing, entangling you in the story, performance, and atmosphere. The Shape of the Night is an art gallery, an escape room, a drag show, a play, and a magical realm.

On a Friday night in Capitol Hill, a crowd of eager theater-goers entered through the unassuming front doors of Seattle Open Arts Place to watch the debut of a new theater company. Well Behaved Women and Co were putting on their inaugural production, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play).

So naturally, when Dacha Theatre, who so often defies the status quo of theatre, took on Kate Hamill’s Emma, they began the show by having audience members pluck up the women’s etiquette guide pages—which had been left on every seat—and shred them, stating they were throwing etiquette out the door.

Audience members held onto these shreds and threw them when cued. The pieces fluttered down as white confetti upon the jubilant opening wedding scene of Mrs. Weston (Kayla Walker), and Mr. Weston (Van Lang Pham).

Digital matchmaking algorithms grow exhausting and disheartening, so it’s no wonder many hopeless romantics flock to tales of the ‘Ton with their lavish balls, promenades through the parks, and swoon-worthy, witty banter. 

The matriarch of such tales, Jane Austen, turns 250 years old this year. In celebration, Dacha Theatre is hosting a theatrical bash with a presentation of Emma, a contemporary, feminist take on Austen’s novel, written by Kate Hamill. 

There's nothing more titillating than the forbidden. Tacoma Cabaret, partnered with YouWen Production Company, knows this and flawlessly executed a Prohibition-themed show called “Velvet Rope.”

Christine Deavel’s Blue to Blue follows Beryl, a grieving daughter (played by Cecelia Frye) who can’t seem to stop getting packages of her recently deceased mother’s things delivered to her door. Beryl is accompanied by a pair of ghostly psychopomps who help her evaluate what to do when it feels like there’s no way forward.

Equipoise, defined as a balance of forces, is a name well suited for the debut Seattle dance company created by Heather Smith and Samantha Weissbach. The company, which set upon their first performance at the Yaw Theater on Friday, February 28, offered audiences a blended style of movement, tapping into the grounded athleticism and aesthetics of modern dance and the emotionally driven, raw beauty of contemporary dance.

On February 28, Seattle band Deep Sea Diver released their fourth album, Billboard Heart, their first release on the Sub Pop label. As part of their promotion of the record, the band performed songs from the album on release night at Easy Street Records in West Seattle and hosted a record signing event for fans after the show.

Writer and dance director Carol Levin published her poetry collection Confident Music Would Fly Us to Paradise in 2014. As a patron for all distinct art forms, Levin dedicates her collection to the Seattle Opera. The collection offers a deep dive into many intricate facets of a colossal opera production. 

3 weeks, 12 venues, 100+ performances. The San Francisco Sketch Festival (SF SketchFest) is renowned as the largest festival dedicated to stand-up, improv, sketch, and all comedic art forms. The 2025 world-class lineup includes Bill Murray, Kathryn Hahn, Tim Curry, the casts of Futurama and Children’s Hospital, and an anniversary staged reading of Airplane!

Barboza in Capitol Hill is a long, rectangular underground bar. Seventies ballads are playing while pink and blue lines of light beam down from industrial rafters to the dance floor below. People sit tucked away at cozy circular booths lit by flickering red candles while others gather near the stage. In the crowd, I see the opening band milling about and chatting with audience members. This is the band waltzerr, and they are about to perform their opening set before a performance from Kellan, followed by the night’s headliner, Ayo Dot & the Uppercuts.