There’s no place like home to enjoy the arts

Homegrown entertainment is easy to find.

As the era of coronavirus rolls into its summer season, there is still no shortage of artful content online, as international venues go digital to brighten the nights of those who continue to stay safely at home.

It’s prime time — for those who miss the plush seats of performance halls — to pull up a corner of the sofa to brush up on their Shakespeare, tune-up on Tennessee Williams and escape to the ballet.

Homegrown entertainment is also easy to find — with performances by local music heroes popping up on YouTube and Facebook Live on a regular basis. Vashon Theatre has also pivoted online, offering rentals of new movies.

This week, you can even purchase local art online, in an online auction of one-of-kind, artist-painted Adirondack chairs.

Catch as much as you can. You’ll be amazed at the bounty.

Ballet with a local connection

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s full production of “Swan Lake,” will bow on YouTube and Facebook, starting at 7 p.m. Friday, May 22, and running through 11:59 p.m Wednesday, May 27.

The production, helmed by choreographer Kent Stowell and filmed in 2018, has a special treat for Vashon audiences — it stars Noelani Pantastico in the tragic principal role of Odette/Odile.

Pantastico, as island dance lovers know, is also the co-founder of Seattle Dance Collective, a new company that premiered its inaugural program last July in four sold-out performances at Vashon Center for the Arts. Sadly, a second performance at VCA by the troupe, planned for this summer, has now been canceled, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Visit vashoncenterforthearts.org for more information on the cancelation, which was announced Tuesday.

And for now, take the opportunity to revel in Pantastico in “Swan Lake.”

Performed to sold-out audiences with each revival, PNB’s production of the ballet premiered in 2003 with scenery and costumes by two Tony-Award winning designers, Ming Cho Lee (scenery) and Paul Tazewell (costumes). Tazewell also designed the costumes for Hamilton. For more information about the virtual broadcast, visit bit.ly/PNBSubscribe or bit.ly/PNBFacebook.

See National Theatre’s “Streetcar”

Have you been following London’s National “Theatre at Home” series? If so, you’ve seen James Cordon in “One Man, Two Guvnors,” as well as top-flight productions of “Jane Eyre,” “Twelfth Night” and “Frankenstein.” But wait, there’s more on the way. Starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 21 until May 28, a heart-stopping production of Tennessee Williams’ “Streetcar Named Desire,” starring Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois, will be on offer. Find out more about that show, and what theatrical marvels the National Theatre will continue to unspool, at nationaltheatre.org/uk/nt-at-home.

Make your house an arthouse

Missing art house and indie films? Look no further: Vashon Theatre has transformed itself into a virtual multiplex in recent weeks, currently offering six new independent and foreign releases for multi-day rentals. Titles currently on offer include “Fourteen,” “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” “St. Frances,” “The Booksellers,” “The Whistlers,” and the Brazilian arthouse blockbuster, “Bacarau.” Visit vashontheatre.com to get to the films.

One More Mile delivers the blues

Vashon’s venerable blues band, One More Mile, will play a live-streamed concert at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 21. The links to watch are facebook.com/chuck.keller.7 or Facebook.com/OneMoreMileBlues. The band is fronted by Jason Lollar (vocals/lead guitar) and Mike Nichols (vocals/harmonica) — a musical brotherhood that goes back decades. Rounding out the band are keyboardist/ vocalist Tony Mann, bassist/vocalist Chuck Keller and drummer/vocalist Wesley Peterson. Expect original grooves and classic funk, blues and rock and roll covers in the vein of James Cotton, Albert Collins, Little Walter and The Meters.

Asiya Korepanova plays at last at VCA

The Russian-American concert pianist, composer, transcriber, artist and poet will deliver a pre-recorded concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 23, streamed from vashoncenterforthearts.org. Set to perform at the arts center in person on May 2, Korepanova decided instead to film the concert at her home in Boston, as an exclusive show for VCA. A live Q and A on Zoom will follow the concert. For more information and to register for the Q and A, visit vashoncenterforthearts.org.

Bid on a perch to sit a spell

Vashon Center for the Arts’ Garden Tour will have to wait until 2021, but a very special art project conceived for this year’s tour is still happening.

A number of island artists were each given a wooden Adirondack chair as a canvas for their talents, with full creative control over what to do with it. The chairs were originally meant to be auctioned during the 2020 Garden Tour to help generate support for VCA — in addition to being a much-anticipated walking tour of island gardens, VCA’s annual tour also serves as a major fundraising event for the arts center.

Through May 31, VCA is sill holding the auction online, so 11 lucky winners can take home the chair of their dreams. Visit vashoncenterforthearts.org to bid on the chairs, created by Kari Ulatoski, Kristen Reitz-Green, Eddy Radar, Gator Lanphear, Britt Freda, Kolibri Overstreet, Jon-Eric Shafer, Lyle Harris, Susan Bates, Keith Prior and Allison Halstead Reid.