Seattle

Performing Arts

Seattle has a lively theater scene, with flourishing mainstream and experimental troupes. The city's best-known theater company is the Intiman Theatre, which staged the area premiere of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Angels in America. A Contemporary Theatre, housed in Queen Anne Hall, an elegant historic facility with three contrasting performance spaces, displays the talents of local actors and, occasionally, big-name guest stars. Seattle Repertory Theatre, the city's oldest, is known for its lavish, high-quality productions. Alternative theater groups include the Empty Space Theatre, Printer's Devil Theatre, and A Theatre Under the Influence. Seattle is also known for its annual three-week Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival. Improvisation can be seen regularly at Theatre-Sports, and the Comedy Underground is the city's major comedy club.

The Seattle Symphony, which performs at Benaroya Concert Hall, has distinguished itself under the direction of Gerard Schwartz, who has been its musical director since 1984. Seattle also supports the only chamber orchestra in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Orchestra, which performs works for small ensembles written between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The Seattle Opera stages full-scale productions of five operas every year, including a summertime performance of the Ring cycle by Richard Wagner. The Pacific Northwest Ballet, which performs at Seattle's Opera House, is the region's premier ballet troupe. Seattle is also home to the Allegro Dance Festival, a dance ensemble that focuses on ethnic dance and new works by area choreographers.

The home of the "grunge rock" of the early 1990s, Seattle has a lively popular music scene that encompasses jazz, rock, and "world beat" as well as Latin, Celtic, and other types of ethnic music, reflecting the growing diversity and cultural sophistication of its population. Popular music is performed at numerous venues throughout Seattle, including the area's many cafes and pubs.

In addition to the standard complement of modern multiplex movie theaters, Seattle has a good selection of art houses that show foreign films and revivals, and the Seattle International Film Festival entertains movie buffs annually for three weeks in late May and June.