Behind the scenes photos

(From left: Kate Ayers (White), Heather R. Christopher (Pink), Heather Cantrell (Nice Guy Eddie), Jamie Jenson (Marlene Nash), Jenifer Rifenbery (Blonde))

(From left: Kate Ayers (White), Heather R. Christopher (Pink), Heather Cantrell (Nice Guy Eddie), Jenifer Rifenbery (Blonde))

(From left: Tim Samland (Holdaway), Christian Doyle (Mr. Orange))

Meet The Whites

KATE AYERS (White - female cast) is one of those "trained" theatre types who actually knows the mechanics behind what they are doing rather than just faking it like the rest of us. She has toured extensively throughout the Midwest performing in educational theatre programs in schools and museums and was the Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Children’s Theatre, Inc,. 
Directing credits include Anything Goes, Ebenezer, The Odyssey, Our Town, You Can’t Take It With You, The Tempest, Dark of the Moon, Macbeth, Love’s Labours Lost, and Midsummer Nights Dream. 
On stage, she has portrayed everyone from Peter Pan to Puck. Kate studied at the Goodman Theatre School, and graduated from Columbia, the Playback School at Vassar. She has her Masters in Applied Sociology (more smartness). Kate ran the theatre program at the Indiana Women’s Prison for the 10 years, and currently teaches at SPSCC. She also runs the Daytime Theater Program for Olympia Family Theatre and works for SOS at Capital Playhouse. (That is a lot of running - Girl stays FIT)  
Kate is a Russian History Buff which just further proves how much smarter she is than the rest of us. Interested in Sentence Reform (prison. She has nothing against predicates - as far as we know although we have never seen her hang out with one). She is a fan of small dogs and weed (the garden-pulling type. What were YOU thinking??) and has a little side business which has her organizing people's closets, garages and storage units filled with heist booty.

BRIAN HATCHER (Mr.White - male cast) began his journey on the stage back in the ... mid-west (shit, he almost told you where he was from).  He was wandering the halls when he came across a notice of auditions for a school production of “Frankenstein Slept Here”. Portraying the role of Igor, Brian had his first true experience at what it means to solicit audience reactions. He fell in love with the sound of laughter.

As a young man, Brian left his home state of Colo . . . ummm . .  to ventured out, and into, the greater world, where he roamed the exotic territories of Utah, Idaho, Montana, and finally landed in Seatt . . um . . .uh . . .somewhere in . . Washington. 

In 2000, Brian met the man who would later become his husband, Scott Douglas. Both of them became disenchanted by the fallacy of S . . . that town . . ., and chose to embark on a new path by venturing the place they live now in 2003. 

Through these last few years Brian has been seen on stage with not only Harlequin Production, but Animal Fire, Theater Artists Olympia, and even a show with the Saint Martin’s theater program. Late last year, Animal Fire Theater Company was graciously handed to Brian and his husband Scott, and a great friend Kate Arvin. The are joining forces with local director Jenny Greenlee, to produce William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”.

Keep an eye out for a joint production with TAO and Animal Fire, as Brian will be directing “American Roulette” – a play focused on the issues surrounding the tragic impact of a shooting in a high school. Until then, Brian says, “Enjoy the Show!!”

Meet The Boss

photo credit: Michael Christopher

Dana Galagan - Jo Cabot (female cast)

Dana was last seen onstage at Tacoma Little Theatre in CALIFORNIA SUITE as Millie and Beth.  Other roles include a bunch of boring women in your typical theatre fare.

Dana is employed at her family’s business, Vino Aquino, (Tacoma’s only family owned Winery) in inside sales and marketing.  Vino Aquino was recently voted Tacoma’s Best Winery by readers of the Tacoma Weekly.

Dana has loved the idea of acting ever since she played “Mary” at the age of 5 in a friend’s Sunday school Nativity Pageant and felt compelled to consider how weary Mary would be after traveling so far on a donkey. What would her facial expression be?  Her posture?  How could she maintain her beatific glow when the world had put such enormous pressure on her?  (A question that would be asked repeatedly in women’s magazines through the 30’s 40’s and 50’s). 

Dana had a subsequent theatrical hiatus that would last many years but that didn't stop her from performing in an unlikely series of events - namely singing like a man. First was in high school when she competed against two boys in an Elvis Presley sing-alike contest and WON and then later when KISW radio featured her on the air as a likely contender to replace Bon Scott as lead singer for AC/DC and had her sing “Highway to Hell” for the entire Pacific Northwest.

This is not Dana’s first time as a dog.  During her teens, she met up with a group of unusual misfits who called themselves “The Dogs.” They enjoyed Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, and shocking strangers with their bizarre antics, but were themselves quite harmless. She was not only made an honorary “Dogette”, but was given the moniker “Baby Ice Dog” as she was the youngest in the group.

The character that Dana plays in Reservoir Dogs, Jo Cabot, may be a hard core killer, but Dana herself has never killed a man.  Although – in her 20’s, after an argument with her roommate who just happened to be a former boyfriend, she watched as her parakeet perched on his finger and chirped happily just before the roommate dove into a large plate of fish and chips.  During their visit the parakeet had pooped on his finger without his knowledge and the bird poop somehow ended up on his mustache.  She watched in fascination, trying to figure how to best tell him he was wearing bird poop when suddenly he licked his mustache and ate the bird poop.  Horrified, she quickly weighed the pros and cons of either letting him know, or letting it go.  She chose the latter, and the ex-boyfriend/roommate did die – 30 years later.  Although she questions the real cause of death, she chooses not to believe he died because she let him eat the bird poop, but we may never know.

photo credit: Kate Paterno-Lick

Tim Shute - Joe Cabot (male cast)
Tim has been seen on South Sound stages as a hostage, an asshole Naval Lieutenant Colonel and a very famous British detective. 
He would tell you more about himself but then he would have to kill you.

Behind the scenes photo: Men's rehearsal

(From left: Christian Doyle (Mr. Orange), Michael Christopher (Mr. Blonde), Gabriel McClelland (Nice Guy Eddie), Tim Shute (Joe), Ryan Hendrickson (Mr. Blue), Chris Rocco (Mr. Brown)

Behind the scenes: Gents learn some fight choreography

Not only are we lucky enough to have the talented Christian Doyle as our Mr. Orange, but he's also our fight choreographer! Here he is with our Mr. White (Brian Hatcher) and Mr. Pink (Brian Jansen) giving them some Dog fightin' moves. 

This is serious business.

Eh, maybe not.

And now a word from our Director . . .

So why Reservoir Dogs?

I have always loved words. Quentin Tarantino is one of modern American cinema’s greatest wordsmiths. I love the movie, but more than the cinematic reality of the thing it is it's bones that compel me. As iconic as the performances of Keitel, Roth, Buscemi et al have become, strip it all away and you have one hell of a script. In many ways Dogs is a perfect fit for theater, it needs quite a bit of adapting that is true, but much of the action happens in the wings, and what we are left with are these very human characters and the  connections and consequences of their (sometimes very inhumane) actions.  It's a very intimate story.

Why two productions?

When originally TAO decided to do Reservoir Dogs it was met with a huge wave of excitement, but at the same time, there was a current of disappointment. No roles for women.  As a female director I am often called on the carpet for my choices of scripts. I was a bookish child, even as a young girl I was more drawn to Hugo and Dumas than Jane Austin. I can not explain it, it's just how it is.  My difficulty is that not many plays written for women fit into my personal esthetic. I was having a conversation about that exact thing when it hit me, why not do it with women? That would be very interesting.

Once the possibility entered my mind I could not shake the excitement at the prospect, the opportunity for women to play characters such as these and play them straight, no kitsch, no clowning, no apologies, is a rare one. And now here we are, in the midst of rehearsals and it’s the best of both worlds.

~pug Bujeaud