Arts Briefs | July 3, 2025 | Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

Jam in the Atrium

The Jam in the Atrium series will continue its free-to-the-public presentation of top-echelon jazz from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, July 5, in the atrium of Vashon Center for the Arts.

In this installment, the series will welcome a living legends of jazz saxophone, Pete Christlieb, along with his wife and trombone wizard, Linda Small. The couple will be joined by in-demand pianist David Lee Joyner.

Christlieb’s career in performing, recording, and producing has put him alongside such other jazz giants including Quincy Jones, Gene Ammons, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, Ahmad Jamal, Earl Klugh, Anita O’Day, Michel Legrand, Natalie Cole, Rosemary Clooney. He has also played countless solo spots on popular albums with Steely Dan, The Beach Boys, Cheryl Bentyne, Tom Waits and many more.

Small is one of the most respected and admired trombonists of this era, said Phares.

Phares added that one of his early career highlights, decades ago, was to back Christlieb in a quartet at Centrum Jazz, and he is now “jazzed-up” about finally getting to play with him again.

A Photographic Memory

Oscar and Emmy Nominated screenwriter, director and producer Charlie Siskel will lead a discussion following a special screening of the documentary film, “A Photographic Memory,” with Rachel Elizabeth Seed, the film’s director/producer/co-writer, and Christopher Stoudt, its co-writer and editor.

The screening will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, at Vashon Theatre.

The film is an intimate, genre-bending portrait of a daughter’s attempt to piece together a picture of her mother, an avant-garde journalist she never knew.

Revealing a vast archive that included lost interviews with famed photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gordon Parks, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Davidson, Lisette Model, and others, Seed’s film explores memory, legacy and stories left untold.

Using audio and photographic archives from her mother’s career, “A Photographic Memory” tells the story of Seed’s investigation into hidden remnants of her mother’s life and reconstructs the legacy she left behind.

For more information and tickets, visit vashontheatre.com.

Studio Ghibli Festival

Friends of Mukai has opened its popular annual Studio Ghibli Festival, with 7 p.m. screenings on Tuesday evenings at Vashon Theatre.

This year, the slate of films includes works by beloved Studio Ghibli co-founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

Pre-show karaoke — a popular offering in last year’s festival — will be on tap again this year, so show up early at the theater to grab the mic — and also to avoid long lines at the concession counter.

Tickets to the event cost $6 each, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Next up in the series is “The Boy and the Heron,” Miyazaki’s 2023 film, with a screening on July 8.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service,” made in 1989, will be shown on July 15, and “Ponyo,” Miyazaki’s 2009 classic, will light up the screen on July 22. The series will wrap on July 29 with “The Tale of Princess Kaguya,” a 2013 film directed by Takahata.

Visit mukaifarmandgarden.org for additional information and to donate to support the series.

Subconscious Population

At 7 p.m. Saturday, July 5, head to the Sugar Shack’s lawn to see the iconic island band Subconscious Population, fronted by Ron Hook, and dance the night away to the band’s masterful and timeless music including reggae, blues, funk and rock.

Sugar Shack shows have a $10 cover charge (cash if possible) and are for ages 21 and older only. Enter through the alley behind Sugar Shack, at 17636 100th Ave SW.

The Grown-Ups

Dacha Theatre will present “The Grown-Ups” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 5, outdoors at Open Space for Arts & Community, at 18870 103rd Ave SW.

The intimate work of theater, described by The New York Times as “part satire, part scary story,” follows a group of counselors at Camp Indigo Woods, who are trying to mold the leaders of tomorrow — when tomorrow is looking bleaker and bleaker.

TimeOut New York raved about the play, saying it “approaches theater as an act of radical intimacy.”

Get tickets, offered at a pay-what-you price, and find out more at openspacevashon.com. The play is recommended for ages 13+, due to explicit language, challenging themes, references to political violence, and college students drinking alcohol.

Concert and puppet show

“How to Fool a Dragon (And Save the World”), a concert and puppet show by award-winning songwriter and children’s author Eric Ode, will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, on the lawn of Vashon Library (weather permitting). The high participation show is for ages 3-8, accompanied by an adult.

Two nights of comic theater

“SeaMan,” billed as “a nautical revenge comedy,” will be performed at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, at Open Space for Arts & Community, at 18770 103rd Ave SW.

The show, conceived and performed by award-winning fringe festival veterans Amica Hunter and Bruce Ryan Costella, tells the life and adventures of a salty old sea captain, and is described as being like “the illegitimate love child of “Gilligan’s Island” and Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse.”

According to The Edmonton Journal, the 60-minute show, rated NC-17, is “campy, hilarious and horrifying — for adults with a silly side.”

The next night, Hunter and Constello will be back with “Cowbaret,” described as a “cultish gameshow-style ruminat revue” in celebration of “bovine brilliance.” The Orlando Sentinel called the show “a Monty Python-esque tribute to all things cow.”

“Cowbaret,” running 60 minutes with adult language and themes as well as audience interaction, will bow at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at Open Space.

Get tickets for both shows and find out more at openspacevashon.com.

Harpsichord and flute

Attend a concert of the Salish Sea Early Music Fesival at 12 p.m. Monday, July 14, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, at 15420 Vashon Highway SW.

Renowned Spanish harpsichordist Irene Roldàn and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan will play a program of music by Bach and Scarlatti.

Cohan, also the director of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival, said that Roldàn’s performance at the Urbino Early Music Festival in Italy was “the most moving exciting solo harpsichord recital” he has ever heard.

Roldàn, currently living in Basel, Switzerland, won the prestigious Bach Prize at the XXXIII International Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and has performed as soloist at major early music festivals in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and around Europe. Her performances with Cohan will be her first in the United States.

The concert has a suggested donation of $20 to $30, with those 18 and younger admitted free. Find out more at salishseafestival.org/vashon.

PianoFete

A beloved Vashon Center for the Art festival, PianoFete, will take the stage each night from Wednesday, July 9 through Saturday July 12, in Kay White Hall.

The event features renowned concert pianists Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Rexa Han, Konstantin Soukhovetski and Daria Kiseleva.

Performances at 7:30 p.m. on both Wednesday, July 9, and Thursday, July 10, will feature all four pianists. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 11, Gryaznov and Han will join forces for an evening billed as “Pianos Dancing Cheek to Cheek.”

PianoFete’s finale, set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 12, is billed as a “Cinematic Farewell” and again will feature all four pianists, this time playing their own arrangements of acclaimed film scores, from “Titanic,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Schindler’s List,” and a medley of scores from James Bond films. That evening, the pianists will also joined by Vashon-Maury Chamber orchestra and G-Phil to play Alexander Tsfasman’s “Jazz Suite,” as arranged by Gryaznov.

Get tickets, which are free for youth, and find out more at vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Correction: Previous versions of Arts Briefs listed the incorrect time for Dacha Theatre’s performance of “The Grown-Ups” at Open Space for Arts & Community on Saturday, July 5. The show starts at at 7:30 p.m., not 8 p.m. We regret the error.