I love theatre and for the past decade have only attended shows in Portland. However, I moved to a tiny rural town a few years ago, and recently discovered that across the river in Longview (somewhat bigger rural town), there is a theatre company.
My boyfriend Will is visiting from Rhode Island. Since he treated me to a show at Trinity Rep in Providence when I visited in January, I thought it would be fun to return the favour and take him to a show here.
Stageworks Northwest Theatre is now running The Pirates of Penzeance until April 7th. It’s a community production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s well-known comedy. For the blue-collar port town of Longview, Washington, they would have been forgiven for making some cuts to the show in order to pull it off. Instead we enjoyed the real deal: comedic talent, great singing, and a live orchestra.
Please forgive the relatively poor quality of my iPhone photos taken while seated in the audience, but they do give a sense of the fun, the great costumes, the splash of colour in every scene. This entertainment is inexpensive, every seat is a good seat, and we definitely felt part of the community there, while listening to patrons talk about holding season passes and other shows they saw. If you live around here, support your local arts and go check it out!
Conscious Engagement 
I’d say you have done very well with the photos
Thank you Derrick! I held my phone in my lap and tipped it up. That way I didn’t block anyone’s view from behind me. I chose the best ones from the night to include here.
Looks fun, Crystal. Peggy and I are getting tickets for the Wizard of Oz this summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Are you and Paul coming this way? –Curt
Hi Curt! I bought the 5-show Shakespeare pass, so I guess I can go to any of the shows! I just put Will onto the plane last night. We did do a lot of traveling while I showed him the sights, but did not make it as far south as you and Peggy. Does Bone feel like travelling via post? Will is returning in July, and we will definitely be catching some OSF shows at that time. I’ll give you a heads up and we’ll try to meet finally.
Sorry about calling Will, Paul. 🙂 Bone would be quite happy traveling by post. Could you give me your address again. He’s excited! We are actually planning to stick around this summer. Maybe. 🙂