Arts Briefs | August 21, 2025
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Concerts in the Park
Vashon Park District’s next act in its month-long series of free concerts in Ober Park, The Cumbieros, will light up the stage at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21.
The Seattle band’s infectious blend of “new cumbia” combines traditional South American rhythms with ska, rock, and psychedelic flair. With dynamic instrumentation rooted in Colombian musical tradition — guiro, horns, guitars, and percussion — the group’s mission to get crowds up and dancing.
Opening the show at 7 p.m. will be 9-year-old Indigo Alton, a talented young violinist and performer. She’s acted and sung in local Vashon theater productions, played violin in holiday showcases and wowed passersby with her busking talents.
The Concerts in the Park series will conclude on Thursday, Aug. 28 with a beloved local band, The Great Divide, playing its signature blend of country rock, Texas swing, and straight-up rock.
Members include Loren Sinner, Bob Goering, Jerry Wilks, Lonesome Mike Nichols, Greg Hitch, Randy Webb and Dan Tyack. All are from Vashon, with the exception of fiddler Wilks, who comes from Yakima, and Goering, who will be flying in for the show from his home in Hawaii.
Youth multi-instrumentalist Neko Rogneby will open the Aug. 28 show.
To find out more, visit vashonevents.org.
Sister Act
Drama Dock will present “Sister Act” from Thursday, Aug. 21 to Sunday, Aug. 24, at Vashon Center for the Arts.
The musical, featuring an all-star cast of local performers and rising Seattle talent directed by Drama Dock’s interim artistic director, Kelly Godell, has show times at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 21-23, with matinees offered at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 23 and 24.
“Sister Act,” seen by millions when it first lit up the silver screen in 1992, fuses disco, gospel and Motown to tell the comedic and heartwarming tale of a sassy lounge singer who is forced to hide out in a convent after being placed in a witness protection program.
Drama Dock’s production will introduce island audiences to a rapidly rising star in the Seattle theater and music scene, Kiana Kendall, a fourth-year musical theater major at Pacific Lutheran University. In “Sister Act,” Kendall will take the stage alongside her younger sister, Vanessa Bassi, who also has a role in the show — making the show a true “sister act” in more ways than one.
Long-time islander and cellist Rowena Hammill will make her acting and singing debut in the comedic role played by Dame Maggie Smith in the film — the exasperated Mother Superior of the convent.
The cast also includes Zoey Wilson, Alex Drissell, Erika Stranberg, Dianna Daniel, Marjon McDermott, Gaye Detzer, Leonard Su, Michael Wishkoski, Gabriel Dawson, Damian Sevilla, Joquin Mackinster, Sue DeNies, Julea Gardener, Elizabeth Stephens, Diane Kutzke, Ruby Johnson and Cedar Henderson.
Find out more and get tickets at dramadock.org.
James Taylor Tribute
Taylor Made, a group of seven notable regional musicians, will bring the music of James Taylor to a concert at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24, at Vashon Theater.
The band faithfully recreates the magic of classic hits culled from Taylor’s vast repertoire of 22 studio and live album releases from the 1970s to the present. Expect favorites including “Fire and Rains,” “Handy Man, “Carolina in my Mind,” “Country Road,” “Up on a Roof,” “Shower the People,” and many more.
Band members include Larry Murante, Scott Donaldson, Mark Zyla, Jim Savery, Robert Gardunia, Nati Popova and Michael Clune.
Find out more and get tickets at vashontheatre.com.
Standing Nation
Island theater-maker Mik Kuhlman’s “The Standing Nation: Remembering Our Kinship with Trees” will return for four performances on August 22, 24, 30 and 31. The solo immersive outdoor theater piece will be performed in forests on Vashon.
“Standing Nation,” first performed by Kulhman in 2022, is a flexible outdoor theater experience, with recorded music composed by Max Sarkowsky. The event can be staged at private homes and on behalf of community organizations in the Pacific Northwest.
Email mikshowtix@gmail.com for reservations and information about times and locations of performances. There is limited seating for each show.
Music at Sugar Shack
Head to the backyard of Vashon Sugar Shack to hear the iconic island band Publish the Quest at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22. A multi-band show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, will include performances by Kinski, Patrons of Husbandry and Whiting Tennis. Enter both shows from the alley behind the business, at 17636 1ooth Ave SW.
Rizo and Making Movies
The showstopping chanteuse Rizo and the band Making Movies will appear together at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at Open Space for Arts & Community.
The New York Times has called Rizo’s act “a fierce but kindhearted fusion of comedy, burlesque, performance art, and rock and roll.” Making Movies, a Latin Grammy-nominated band founded by Enrique Chi, is rooted in the rich and diverse musical and cultural traditions of Panama.
Find out more and get tickets at openspacevashon.com.
Mary Beth Curran
Melanie Beth Curran, a New York City-based folklorist, traditional musician and writer, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at Open Space for Arts & Community,
Curran’s live performance transports listeners back and forth over centuries of musical history and landscape, exploring shifting narratives in Irish musicality through traditional American and Irish songs, hidden histories, and rousing original music.
Curran was a Fulbright recipient for her work documenting the living musical traditions of Bretagne, France.
Get tickets and find out more at openspacevashon.com.
Isaac Slade
Isaac Slade, the Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum singer-songwriter, will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6, at Vashon Center for the Arts. His career-spanning solo set will feature songs from his former multi-platinum-selling rock band The Fray, as well as new music.
Slade, a Vashon resident, serves as a board chair on a music education initiative with Colorado Governor Jared Polis, aiming to provide universal music access for every K-12 student in Colorado. He works with several organizations in the fight to end human trafficking, and keeps busy with other projects including including running Vashon’s vinyl record shop, Side Stack Records.
Get tickets and find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
Amanda Knox
The first two episodes of Hulu’s “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at Vashon Theater as a fundraiser for the Washington Innocence Project.
Amanda Knox and her husband Christopher Robinson will be on hand to talk about the new series and answer questions from the audience. Knox and Robinson are executive producers for the eight-episode series, along with Monica Lewinsky and Warren Littlefield (“Handmaid’s Tale,” “Fargo” and “Dopesick”).
“Twisted Tale” tells the story of Knox’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment after the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007. The series then follows the public scrutiny that Amanda endured after she returned home and builds to her extraordinary return to Italy in 2022 to meet with her Italian prosecutor, Guiliano Mignini.
Liangong
Island performer, dancer and movement teacher Arlette Moody will offer a series of 12 classes, from 6:40-7:35 p.m. on Thursday nights, beginning Sept. 4, on Liangong, a health excercise practice developed in China in the 1970s. Participants will learn the first 18 exercises of the practice, which will address aching neck and shoulders, healing backaches and strengthening hips and legs. The classes will be held at Tree of Life Wellness Center.
Find out more and register at arlettemoodymovement.com.
“Fish War”
Backbone Campaign’s Meaningful Movies series will continue with a screening and discussion of “Fish War” from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, at Vashon Theatre.
The film covers the time period in the 1960s and 70s, when the state of Washington started arresting Indigenous tribal fishers. Scores of legal battles culminated in a landmark Supreme Court case that was meant to put an end to the violent Fish Wars. Fifty years later, the fight for salmon continues.
See a trailer for the film at tinyurl.com/4kwke58t.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with speaker Ed Johnstone, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Chairman, and moderator Patrick Christie, a professor at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.
The screening is made possible with support from Vashon Theatre, Island Green Tech, 4Culture, Friends of Thunderbird, Vashon Heritage Museum, Vashon Maury Island Land Trust and the Meaningful Movies Project.
