Arts Briefs | August 7, 2025

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Vashon Island Film Festival

Vashon Film Institute is currently unspooling its 4th annual Vashon Island Film Festival — a feast of award-winning independent filmmaking — from Aug. 7-10, at Vashon Theatre.

See the lineup and purchase tickets and passes at vashonislandfilmfestival.com. Film Institute membership, at $79.99 per year, includes an all-access festival pass and other benefits.

Concerts in the Park

Up next in Vashon Park District’s free Concerts in the Park series, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, will be Wild Rumours, a popular Seattle-based Fleetwood Mac tribute band.

With a lineup of veteran Seattle-area musicians, Wild Rumours pays homage to Fleetwood Mac’s 1970s heyday, delivering up the iconic songs 1975’s album, “Fleetwood Mac,” and 1977’s “Rumours,” in all their timeless glory.

Originally conceived as a one-night tribute to these two albums, the members of Wild Rumours have since taken their show to stages around the western United States. Fronted by the powerhouse vocals of Jen Ayers, Wild Rumours is buttressed by the rhythm section of Geoff Reading and Richard Davidson, and flanked by instrumentalists Annastasia Workman, Patrick Porter and Kathy Moore. Find out more about the band at wildrumoursband.com.

Opening for Wild Rumours will be Rowan McBennett and Marlowe Cardoza. McBennett, a jazz pianist and percussionist, has played piano for 14 of his 18 years and will head off to study music at New York University this fall. Cardoza plays bass and piano, and dabbles in voice and trombone. She has been studying music for 10 years, and also hopes to have a career as a musician.

On Thursday, Aug. 14, The Sweet Lillies, who play what they call “String-Americana” music, will take the stage in Ober Park for the weekly concert series. Mickey Fontaine, a Vashon youth musician who — among other achievements — plays six-string electric bass in local theater productions and with rock and jazz groups, will open the show.

To find out more about the concert series, visit vashonevents.org.

Zander Knodt hometown concert

Join the island’s own Zander Knodt, a wunderkind pianist now living in New York City and playing with various groups and leading his own piano projects, when he returns to Vashon Center for the Arts for a free concert from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9.

The concert is one of several that Knodt has performed with notable ensembles this summer in prestigious venues in the Northwest. His broad musical influences range from Bach and Chopin to Bob Dylan, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock. Shortly after his 18th birthday, in 2022, Knodt left Vashon to attend New York City’s prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he continues to study music under pianist Jeremy Manasia.

No tickets are required for Knodt’s Aug. 9 concert. For a preview, visit his YouTube page at tinyurl.com/ZanderYouTube.

Ian Moore

Ian Moore’s annual birthday concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, on the back lawn of Vashon Sugar Shack, at 17636 100th Ave SW.

Moore, who moved to Vashon just over 25 years ago, is a celebrated guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer originally from Austin, Texas, whose genre-defying sound blends blues, soul, rock, and folk.

With a discography spanning more than a dozen studio and live releases, he has toured extensively across the U.S. and internationally, earning a devoted fanbase and critical acclaim.

Beyond the stage, Moore is a passionate advocate for musicians’ health and well-being. He co-founded SMASH (Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare), a nonprofit dedicated to providing healthcare resources to working musicians. A Grammy Governor and lifelong student of music and culture, Moore balances his creative pursuits with a deep commitment to community and family.

The show, for ages 21 and older, has a ticket price of $20, with entry through the gate located in the alley behind the venue. Food and a full bar will also be available at the show.

Theater in the park

The Vashon Park District’s new summer play series, “Once About A Time,” has two upcoming free productions in Ober Park. At 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, see “Hamlet” as performed by Seattle’s Young Shakespeare Workshop, and on Aug. 17, attend the revivial of Vashon Repertory Theatre’s original production of “Oscar’s Journey.” Bring a blanket, a picnic, and enjoy the wit, romance and comedy of Shakespeare under the open sky at Ober Park.

First Nations Stories

Vashon Island Unitarian Universalists’ Social and Environmental Justice Committee will conclude its summer series of free films focused on First Nations voices at 10 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, at Lewis Hall, located on the hill behind Burton Community Church.

The Aug. 10 film is “Promised Land,” a documentary that follows Duwamish and Chinook tribal members as they fight for the restoration of treaty rights they have long been denied.

Blessing Chimanga

Discover the music of Blessing Chimanga, an internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean musician, in a special Vashon appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, at Wine Shop Vashon.

Islander Debra Heesch is presenting the afternoon concert.

Chimanga is a marimba maestro, singer, songwriter, percussionist and cultural ambassador who has performed worldwide with collaborators from his own country, Gambia, South Africa and Kenya.

Find out more about his music and life at blessingchimanga.com.

Talk in Seattle

An artful service of poetry, dance, magic and insight “Embodying Restorative Justice: Kural, Gandhi, MLK and the Art of Beloved Community,” will take place at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, at Plymouth Church, located at 1217 6th Ave in Seattle.

The service is part of multidisciplinary series, “Sanctuary: At Home in the Body,” produced by islander Leah Okamoto Mann.

Speakers at the Aug. 10 service will be island author and poet Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, Sinead Young, of the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership at Morehouse College, and Kelle Brown, the senior pastor of the church.

Ciscoe Morris Talk

Attend a garden talk by Ciscoe Morris, a famed horiculturist in the Pacific Northwest, from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, at Vashon Theatre.

The talk is being presented by Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club. Club members will be admitted free; tickets for non-members are $10.

Sister Act

Tickets are now on sale for Drama Dock’s production of the hit musical, “Sister Act,” which will feature an all-star cast of local performers. Find out more and get tickets to the show, running Aug. 21-24 at Vashon Center for the Arts, at dramadock.org.