Artists

Hope Wechkin is best known to Seattle audiences for innovative and virtuosic pairings of the voice and violin. A well-known interpreter of contemporary vocal literature, she has premiered many works by Northwest composers and is the soprano soloist with Affinity. In 2006 she performed George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children for Seattle Symphony's Made in America festival, and she has appeared with the Contemporary Opera Lab in Winnipeg, Canada. She has also appeared as a soloist with The Esoterics, the Pacific Chamber Ensemble, the Northwest Chorale, and others. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Washington School of Medicine, Ms. Wechkin has studied with Thomasa Eckert, Marianne Weltmann, and Nancy Zylstra in Seattle, and with Josephine Mongiardo in New York.

Margaret Shafer’s poetry and fiction has appeared in Poetry, Confrontation, Chicago Review, Folio, Poetry Northwest and in numerous other journals and magazines. A collection of her poetry was published by New Rivers Press. For several years she taught creative writing for the Washington State Arts Commission’s Artists-in-the-Schools program. During the summers, she taught writing for gifted students’ programs in Sitka, Alaska and at Fort Worden in Port Townsend. Her teaching experience includes guest lectures on creative thinking for engineering students and in the creative writing program at the University of Washington. Her university education began in Beirut, Lebanon and concluded in Seattle.

Special Projects

CHARISMA

Feb. 22-23, 28, 29-March 1 • 8pm

March 2 • 2pm

ACT Theatre
700 Union Street, Seattle map

$20 / $10 seniors, students, and WCF members

EXTRA PERFORMANCES HAVE BEEN ADDED!

tickets online at www.acttheatre.org or at the door

photo: Steven Miller

Singer, violinist and composer Hope Wechkin premieres a one woman music and theatre piece about a hospital patient who faces down a stream of visitors bearing dour advice, dire predictions, and drastic schemes for healing. With a score influenced by Balkan and classical music, Wechkin delivers a virtuoso performance with simultaneously singing and playing the violin. The evening length work features text and lyrics by Margaret Shafer. The show is directed by Cathy Madden.

Charisma is a comedy laced with a few serious bits. A crystal healer, a diet-obsessed aunt, a Brazilian tapir, and a doctor in love with his own charm are a few of the characters who people this one woman show.

Director

Cathy Madden, Assistant Professor of Drama for the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program and Director of the Alexander Technique Training and Performance Studio is internationally recognized for her ability to use the Alexander Technique to help performers create scintillating performances. She regularly teaches in the U.S., England, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Australia. She is also a director. In collaboration with singer, sculptor and performance artist, Lucia Neare, she has directed Lullaby Carriage, and How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land? Her most recent productions at the University have been The Mill on the Floss, The Portrait The Wind The Chair, The Mischiefmakers, Mother Teresa is Dead, Far Away, Bold Girls, and Two Sisters and a Piano.  Madden has published many articles on the Alexander Technique and performance / communication, is completing a book on the topic, and is a past Chair of Alexander Technique International.

Supporters

Charisma is co-sponsored by Washington Composers Forum, and the University of Washington School of Medicine Palliative Care Program, and is supported by a special projects grant from 4Culture. Creation of this work was made possible in part by an Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) award. Find out more at www.artisttrust.org.