Take a Stand appoints artistic director

Take a Stand Productions, a local theater company, has named Chris Boscia as its new artistic director. The appointment, effective immediately, was made by the group’s president, Torena O’Rorke, and its board of directors.

Boscia is a well-known community activist and island theater artist who has appeared in or directed local productions of “The Normal Heart,” “She Kills Monsters,” “Out!” “True West” and other productions.

Since 2016, Take a Stand has produced shows on Vashon including “The Vagina Monologues,” “My Mother, Myself,” and “Crimes of the Heart.” Under Boscia’s artistic leadership, Take A Stand will now be dedicated to producing theatre and educational resources that embolden women, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+ artists and others.

“I really feel like we have a new responsibility as theatre artists to serve a broader community that is more inclusive and more focused on racial and gender equity,” said Boscia. “… I’m delighted to take over the helm of Take A Stand and extremely anxious to dig deeper. Our goal is to not only delight audiences on the island and beyond, but to provide voices for artists that otherwise would not a get a chance to join on the process.”

Take a Stand is now building an artistic staff of educators, directors, tech advisors, playwrights, performers and more, Boscia said. Future endeavors will include a summer play series, outreach to incarcerated BIPOC citizens, and new plays dealing with important and timely social issues. For more information or to provide input, contact Boscia at takeastandtheatre@gmail.com.

Call for Nature/Landscape Art

Curators of an upcoming exhibit at Vashon Center for the Arts, “Over/Growth,” are seeking proposals for art installations that creatively use natural materials. The exhibit will be part of a four-week Summer Arts Fest exhibition in August, taking place in Heron’s Meadow. The 2-acre meadow is a collaboration between VCA and the Vashon Nature Center; their joint mission is to restore the wetland area to a thriving habitat for wildlife, to serve as a demonstration site for bio-restoration work and to create a space of confluence between art and nature.

Curators Cyra Jane and Leslie Zenz envision a selection of medium to large-scale outdoor installations by Vashon artists, inspired by the environment.

To apply, artists should send the following to Cyra Jane (sirenicity@gmail.com) and Leslie Zenz (leslie.k.zenz@gmail): 10 images of their work titled “Artist Name=Title of Work.jpg” that are no wider than 1500 pixels each, a brief statement of interest. Additionally, artists can optionally send a proposal. Prior installation experience isn’t necessary.

The curators will shortlist eight to 10 artists who will then have three weeks to draft a site-specific proposal for their project, which could be a pre-existing installation that hasn’t been shown on the island before or something completely new. The opportunity to create lasting landscape architecture for the Meadow is a potential as well. The curators are not promising funding, though they are exploring multiple avenues for it.

The deadline for applications is April 8; write to the curators at the email addresses above with additional questions and to receive a more detailed call for entries.

Audition for summer shows

Vashon Repertory Theatre is holding auditions for its upcoming Summerfest, with performances of two shows at various locations on Vashon. Performances will be from July 22 to Aug. 1. These are paid performances.

Auditions for “Woody Guthrie’s American Song,” by Peter Glazer and directed by Charlotte Tiencken, will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 17, and 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 18, at Vashon’s United Methodist Church Choir Room. Prepare a folk song to sing, there will be an accompanist.

Auditions for Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” directed by Darragh Kennan, will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 28, on Zoom. Prepare a one-minute monologue, Shakespeare preferred, or contemporary. For both sets of auditions, sign up and send a resume to charlotte@scarletproductions.com.

The company is also looking for stage managers, prop and wardrobe personnel, stagehands and box office volunteers. Please contact the same email if interested.