♪♪
-Hi, there, and welcome to the show.
I'm Nancy Guppy,
and we are coming to you from MadArt,
the supremely unique contemporary arts organization
in South Lake Union who, after 15 robust years,
is closing its doors in mid-July.
♪♪
Founded in 2009 by Alison Milliman,
the mission of MadArt has been to serve
as a catalyst for making new,
installation-based works
by supporting artists
and encouraging them to experiment
with materials and ideas
that expand their professional practices.
On top of that, MadArt since day one
has invited visitors, regular folks like you and me,
to engage with the working artists
around the creative process,
both conversationally and hands-on.
Actually helping the artists make the work.
The impact of MadArt on the community, local and global,
cannot be overstated,
and we are profoundly grateful to founder Alison Milliman,
current executive director and curator Emily Kelly,
the MadArt team, and most of all,
the 84 amazing artists who have wowed us with their vision,
passion, and skill.
MadArt's final show, Mad Studio, being installed now,
is a group exhibition featuring over 50 past MadArt artists.
It opens June 8 and runs through July 13.
We've got a great lineup for you,
including... -♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-An interactive rock musical.
-Be ready to have your socks knocked off
because the performers are phenomenal.
-A hidden gem in Pike Place Market.
-I think houses have, you know, spirit.
And I think this one,
it definitely talks to you.
-And "Awesome" the band goes acoustic.
-♪ Down that hole ♪
♪ Of this world ♪
♪ You'll fall through ♪
♪ Goodbye ♪
-And we'll begin with a beautiful craft
of blowing and bending neon.
♪♪
-It involves space gas, it involves electricity,
it involves chemistry.
You're in touch with elements
that you don't really understand.
♪♪
Neon is the name that we've given to a tube
that's under vacuum,
that conducts electricity and puts light out.
♪♪
I think most people think that their machine made,
you know, I think most people walking by the neon
thinks some machine made that and think that
the whole thing was 3D printed
and nothing could be further from the truth.
You know, they're looking at a,
you know, very hands-on piece of work.
♪♪
It's a very solitary practice
where it's sort of you against the materials,
and I like that kind of focus.
♪♪
At a shop this size, we have dedicated designers
that work with client-supplied art to kind of
turn that into a sign version of their product, of their logo.
Being that I'm working with paper and fire,
you need to keep things pretty tidy, or else,
you know, you can pretty easily light your table on fire.
And there's several different flames that you use.
The primary one that you're using is a cannon fire.
The other fire that we use is called a ribbon burner.
And then the third thing that we have is a hand torch.
And you're basically just heating the glass
and following around the pattern to create these shapes.
When you bend a piece of neon,
the wall diameters collapse as you bend it.
Like as if you took a garden hose and folded it in half.
And so after you make the bend,
you blow with air back out
to keep the wall -- the diameter the same throughout the tube.
The next stage is to put the gas in the tubes
and light them with a high-voltage transformer.
When you hear a neon sign, that kind of familiar hum,
largely you're hearing the static around the tubes
called the corona.
And so you are hearing a static charge
that's kind of around all the components of the neon sign.
There's a lot of challenges
when it comes to producing a neon tube.
There's just a lot of little pitfalls that you can get into.
You know, neon's also very fragile.
It's a little bit like an egg
where you can strike it real hard in one direction
and everything's fine, and you tap it gently in another place
and it's it breaks immediately.
♪♪
When I'm doing my own things,
I have a lot more chance to work on a tube
again and again and again.
I'll make 30 or 40 of a piece
and pick the best one,
and that's just not something I can do commercially.
You know, the first or second try has to be good here,
so I'll try a much more challenging pieces.
I'm trying to maybe show off a little bit,
you know, I want another bender to see that
and realize that I've really come up with something.
Neon has kind of a unique output to it,
kind of a energy or a vibe that you can feel.
It really draws people in in a way
that no other light source does.
There's just something that you can feel about that.
It's hard to put your finger on,
but it's there.
♪♪
-Learn more about Western Neon,
including showroom hours and location
at westernneon.com.
If you like your entertainment shaken, not stirred,
"Venus & The Vixens: Games of Love" is for you.
Here's a behind the scenes sneak peek.
-We're here at Emerald City Trapeze Arts.
We're about to have a rehearsal here,
the first time that we're going to have
all of the game leads and the leads for the show
in the space at the same time.
Next Wednesday will be our second full rehearsal
and the band will be here, so we're really, like,
eking up towards what is opening week.
In 15 days, we're going to open the show. Ah!
-♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-Who will worship at the altar of Venus?
-It is an interactive rock musical
based on the myth of Cupid and Psyche,
which is an epic love story.
Venus plays an important role as well.
She's Cupid's mom. -The goddess of love.
Very jealous.
And it's got games.
So what the audience experiences
is an hour of games and food and drink
by this fantastic bar and butcher called The Ruby Brink.
And then they have this incredible show
with music and characters and unbelievable singing.
-♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-Remember, you can't win if you don't play.
-♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-It's now or never.
What are you waiting for?
-The band is an all female band.
It is some of the best female musicians in Seattle.
Sari Breznau wrote the score.
-She talked about the opportunity
to indulge her musical theater geek,
and then she wrote something and it's unbelievable.
It's Broadway worthy.
-♪ You were the one who taught me ♪
♪ That love is all there is ♪
♪ It's the only thing that matters ♪
♪ Our guiding star ♪
♪ It's who we are ♪
-I would say to fully experience this show,
to have the most fun,
I would wear really comfortable shoes
that you can run around in,
and... -[ Laughs ]
-...be ready to play with people you don't know,
and be ready to have your socks knocked off
because the performers are phenomenal.
-We got a call yesterday from someone who's
bringing a bachelorette party
and I'm like, "That is perfect."
Because it's about love and it's about fun.
It's lots of laughter. -Bring a date.
-Or find a date. -[ Laughs ]
-That's another thing you could do.
-Oh, when you're there. -Yeah.
Come looking for a date.
-And then the other three musicians will be
ground level on the stage.
I think the biggest challenge for me
has been the amount of things that we're trying to do
and the amount of time we have to actually be in this space
and put it together.
So we've been rehearsing all over the city --
we've been down at the Seattle Drum School
and over at the Children's Theater,
in different venues, Dance Underground,
using different spaces to block and work scenes and work music.
And tonight is one of the first times
we're going to start putting it together.
But there's a lot of people who need to be on their game
and know what their time and their fit is,
and then we have to go "drrrr" with the dominoes
and have it all sequenced together.
We really need to have more fun on this planet.
Like, there's a lot of time spent
not having a great time for a lot of reasons.
-We've been creating for 35 years,
putting shows together and this was, during the pandemic,
Martha's like, "We have to do something good for culture."
And Seattle needs it, and the performing arts community needs it,
and the audience needs it. -The area,
this venue -- my heart.
-Yeah, I mean, it feels a little bit like
we just gotta step up,
all of us, and do what we can
to make the world a better place.
-Yeah.
-The last song in the piece
is called "Risk It,"
and the tagline for the show is
"You can't win if you don't play."
So it's pretty laid out there.
If you want to have a good time, you got to get some
skin in the game. -♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-It's now or never.
-"Venus & The Vixens: Games of Love"
is a 21 and over show
and runs May 30 through June 16
at Emerald City Trapeze Arts.
Ticket information is at venusandthevixens.com.
-♪ Venus and the Vixens ♪
-Remember you can't win.
-And now a visit to a charming
and magical place called The Rabbit Box.
♪♪
-The Rabbit Box is are warren for like-minded people,
artists, and really kind of a hub for community.
-♪ Let's keep this party polite ♪
-Creating this space was to encourage people
to come in after the pandemic
and feel like they had a place to go that was cozy
and welcoming and encouraging
for the arts to kind of come back,
but also that the audience feels a little bit
like they're part of the performance that's happening.
I think because the space is small enough,
the audience often gets to feel like they're part of the story.
I'm a bibliophile.
So how do you create a room that feels
like you're walking into a book?
"The Rabbit Box" is a quartet published in like 1970
by Joseph Pintauro, and never reprinted,
and the quartet's called "The Rainbow Box,"
and each of the books represents a different season
and "The Rabbit Box" is the book of spring.
It's a children's story for adults,
but it's really an elegy to, like, Mother Earth and humanity.
And it's a letter to the world and a letter to the heart.
And the rabbit itself is a nuance of connection.
If you've been through something
and you know someone else has been through that thing too,
then that is the name of the book -- "The Rabbit."
It's the name of the feeling.
"Soft about the moss, the wild fern,
and curls ever so gently where rabbit is born,
king of nervous things.
If crocuses in the dirty snow made you cry
and remember things,
those things you remembered,
that is my name -- I am the rabbit."
♪♪
I wanted something that was classy,
that was comfortable,
that was cared for,
and that was going to always develop into its own thing.
We've done some wonderful things with Jon Langford
from The Mekons art show meets concert.
We've done some kid-hosted bingo games
that also includes Deaf audience with sign,
working with Loosegroove Records.
and Brittany Davis has probably been one of my favorite things.
Stone Gossard has been really helpful,
and we get to experience some real improv joy and laughter
from Brittany in a way that
I've never really experienced.
-We're about to go "Ah!"
Next thing you know, you start all over again.
[ Laughter ]
-I think houses have, you know, spirit.
And I think this one, it definitely talks to you.
-♪ Summer rain ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
-Spaces always have their own agenda, you know?
And this space definitely has its own agenda.
And we are not owners of it, you know, we're guardians of it.
You know, it's in the Pike Place Market.
So it's not something that belongs to us.
So how do you become a good guide to something
that is part of a greater community?
It is a matter of saying, "Hey,
this is an amazing place and it's for everybody."
♪♪
-For hours, location, and a full performance calendar,
go to therabbitboxseattle.com.
♪♪
And that's a wrap.
Big thanks to MadArt for hosting us
and more importantly, for 15 years of inspiring,
mind-expanding art experiences.
Their final exhibit, Mad Studio, opens June 8
and more information is at madartseattle.com.
And we're going to leave you with some music.
"Awesome" the band is doing an acoustic show
at Washington Hall on Sunday, June 16.
That's Father's Day,
and I infiltrated a recent rehearsal
to see what they've got cooking up.
It's going to be good, so enjoy and we'll see you soon.
-♪ If the hole ♪
♪ My world ♪
♪ Falls on me ♪
♪ Don't save me ♪
♪ Go ♪
♪♪
♪ Down that hole ♪
♪ Of this world ♪
♪ You'll fall through ♪
♪ Goodbye ♪
♪♪
♪ I'll never fly, I'll never fly ♪
♪ I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll ♪
♪ I'll, I'll, I'll ♪
♪ I'll never have wings ♪
♪ Like you ♪
♪♪
♪ I'll ♪
♪ Fall ♪
♪♪
♪ Now I'm old ♪
♪ Goodbye world ♪
♪ I'm still falling ♪
♪ Oooh ♪
♪♪
-When's the show, you guys?
-June 16.
June 16.
-July 1. -No, June 16.
-Tomorrow. It was today. -Father's Day.
-Oh, Father's Day. -Christmas Eve
2059. -My birthday!
-Christmas Eve. -Oh, forget it!
-Sorry! June 16!
-Wait, wait, wait, wait.
♪♪