Monthly art walks, community theater performances and a kinetic skulpture race highlight weekend events on the North Olympic Peninsula.
• The Port Angeles Community Players will continue its production of “Almost, Maine” with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Tuesdays and matinee performances at 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 13 at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd. in Port Angeles.
Tickets are $18 each and $9 for students; unsold tickets to Tuesday night performances will be sold for $9 each at the door. Tickets are available at www.pa communityplayers.org or at the box office 30 minutes before each performance.
The play, written by John Cariani and co-directed by Barbara Frederick and Ken Winters, features a cast of local actors ranging in ages from their teens to their 60s.
The play, set in a remote, mythical town in northern Maine, takes the form of a series of vignettes each exploring the joys, and challenges, of falling in and out of love.
• Key City Public Theatre will stage “Wild Man of the Wynoochee” with shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and matinee performances at 1:30 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 27 at the theater, 419 Washington St. in Port Townsend.
The Oct. 13 matinee will feature an American Sign Language interpretive performance.
Tickets range from $5 to $59 per person and are available at keycitypublictheatre.org/wildman.
The show brings the story of John Tornow to the stage. Tornow, sometimes referred to as the Wild Man of the Pacific Northwest, was accused of killing two teenage boys in the Wynoochee Valley in Grays Harbor County.
Tornow was killed in a gun battle during spring 1913 after a two-year manhunt.
The libretto explores the themes of love, loss, survival and wildness.
Key City Public Theatre’s 2024-2025 Main Stage season also includes David A. Natale’s “Bake to Alaska” Dec. 5-29, Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” Feb. 20 through March 16 and Ana Maria Campoy’s “Carmelita” April 14 through May 11.
• The 2024 Pacific Northwest Fiber Arts Expo is set for 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. today, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The expo, which coincides with Sequim’s 19th North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival, provides an opportunity for all ages to learn heritage craft skills and connect with those passionate about fiber arts.
Hands-on activities, appropriate for all ages, are scheduled all day Saturday, including tatting, French spool knitting and projects to make and take.
A loom will be available for everyone to try their hand at weaving and the Strait Knitters Club will be on hand Saturday with a table to assist attendees with questions and share information about their group.
Attendees also may be interested in the final showing of the Fiber Arts Exhibit from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at Studio Bob, 118½ E. Front St. in Port Angeles.
For more information, email info@pnwfiberx.com or visit www.pnwfiberx.com.
• First Friday Art Walk will celebrate autumn with an orange-themed art walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at various venues in downtown Sequim. Maps for the self-guided tour are available at www.sequimartwalk.com.
Special events in October include:
Sequim Museum and Arts, 544 N. Sequim Ave., will host an opening reception for “Sublime Marvel – Splendor, Enterprise, & Awe” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and another from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The fiber arts exhibit will be on display through Nov. 30.
The Blue Whole Gallery, 129 W. Washington St., will host a reception for a new exhibit, “Bright and Beautiful,” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.
The exhibit, which will be on display in the gallery throughout October, features the works of new gallery members Terri Biondolino, Jeff Considine, Laura Moore, Nancy Peet, Shayna Robnett and Randy Tierney.
The Sequim Arts Commission will host a reception for its new exhibit, “To Move, Focus on Movement or Motion,” from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Karen Kuznek-Reese Gallery at the Sequim Civic Center, 152 W. Cedar St.
The exhibit, composed of 16 pieces by 12 artists, creates visual movement by depicting motion, leading observers from one section to another or by making the artwork itself move as a part of the viewing experience.
The exhibit will be on on display through Jan. 21.
The A. Milligan Art Studio and Gallery, 520 N. Sequim Ave., features the work of Suzan Noyes and gallery owner Anne Milligan in the main gallery
Noyes enjoys painting natural subjects such as trees, foliage, florals, landscapes and seascapes.
Pacific Mist Books, 122 W. Washington St., will host Clay Vermulm, a horror author, book editor and creative podcaster. Copies of Vermulm’s debut novella, “Crevasse,” his short story collection, “Blue Rare,” and two collections of short stories edited by Vermulm will be available for sale at the bookstore.
For more information, including adding a venue or an artist to the listing, call Renne Emiko Brock at 360-460-3023 or email renneemiko@gmail.com.
• Music on the Strait will present Bach’s Goldberg Variations tonight at 7 at the Donna M. Morris Auditorium at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.
Choose-Your-Price tickets are available for the chamber music concert, starting at $5, for most remaining seats at www.musiconthe strait.com.
• The second Safety Fair is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the Guy Cole Center at Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave., Sequim.
The annual fair, co-sponsored by CERT, the city of Sequim and Clallam County Fire District 3, is designed to increase public awareness of the many local services dedicated to enhancing public safety.
The fair will feature displays of fire trucks and equipment used by Clallam County Fire District 3, police cars and boats, Life Flight helicopter and fire extinguisher demonstrations as well as indoor displays and handout materials about service organizations at work within the community.
Activities include safety presentations, kids’ activities and homesteading displays.
For more information, call Cindy Zechenelly at 360-504-2531.
• The First Saturday Art Walk is set for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at various venues in downtown Port Townsend, including Gallery-9, the Port Townsend Gallery and the Jeanette Best Gallery.
Gallery-9, 1012 Water St., will feature felted hats and other fiber arts by April Bederman and Lisa Dawson’s mixed media abstract paintings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Bederman is interested in functional art. She grew up in a home of makers and appreciates hand-made functional beauty.
Bederman was introduced to felting while working in Alaska and uses it to make hats.
Dawson took her first art lesson at the Long Beach Museum of Art in Southern California at age 4, and her passion for art still can be found in experimentation, blending various mediums and techniques and not following any rules or principles for creating art.
After struggling to capture true-to-life landscapes and portraits on canvas, Dawson discovered abstract painting and has not looked back.
Bederman’s fiber arts and Dawson’s abstract paintings will be on exhibit from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays throughout October.
For more information, visit www.gallery-9.com.
The Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., will feature “Showcase 2024” and “Elemental” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The recently updated Showcase exhibit features the work of local artists in a broad range of media, including mosaics, abstract oil paintings, Gyotaku prints, etchings, acrylics and photography.
The gallery is calling for artists to highlight in next year’s “Showcase 2025” exhibit; more details are available at www.northwindart.org/pages/exhibit-with-us.
“Elemental” is an exhibition of works by Port Townsend painter Jeanne Toal and Whidbey Island sculptor Jan Hoy.
It opens Thursday and will be on display through Nov. 18.
The Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., will host a reception for October’s featured artists, Melissa Bixby and Maegan Sale Kennedy, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Kennedy began to work in pen and ink while attaining a bachelor of fine arts degree in photojournalism.
After moving to Port Townsend in 2013, Kennedy began to devote more time to her art adding color into her black-and-white ink drawings and, over time, incorporating watercolors, colored pencils, acrylics and chalk.
Kennedy often uses bright colors and intricate textures to draw viewers into her work, and some of her drawings have taken as long as three months to complete.
Born and raised in Soldotna, Alaska, Bixby has a deep connection to the ocean from the rugged beaches and tidal pools of places like China Poot Bay, Cook Inlet and Seward. After earning a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the University of Idaho, Bixby reconnected with the ocean in Port Townsend. She uses dynamic colors and forms to capture the essence of the undersea world in a way that is both simplified and striking.
The artwork of Bixby and Kennedy will be featured from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at the Port Townsend Gallery.
For more information, call the gallery at 360-379-8110 or visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.
• The 40th Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race will be held Saturday and Sunday.
There will be a meet and greet at The Old Whiskey Mill, 1038 Water St., at 6 p.m. today. Racers can register at this event or online.
Saturday activities will start with an art parade and kontest, starting at US Bank at 11 a.m. and proceeding down Water Street to the American Legion Hall, 209 Monroe St. Entry forms are at https://ptkineticrace.org/art-kontest-and-parade.
Saturday’s leg of the race will start about 1 p.m., with racers going through a short circuit before entering the water at the ramp by the salmon club. They will make their way by water to Union Wharf and back.
The Rosehips Kween Koronation Ball will be Saturday at 8 p.m. at the American Legion Hall. The cost is $10 per person at the side door entrance on Water Street. The ball is ages 21 and older.
On Sunday, activities will begin by the American Legion Hall at 10 a.m. Morning events include race team pageantry, where teams will have an opportunity to show off their kostumes on stage.
The race will start about 1 p.m. and generally lasts for a few hours, organizers said.
The race will head uptown before heading down to the sand course at Fort Worden, then to a mud course at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Starting back toward town, racers will ride down San Juan Avenue, through Uptown via Walker Street, to Lawrence Street, then down Monroe Street to the finish line by the American Legion Hall.
For a detailed map of the route, go to https://ptkinetic race.org/racers-page.
For a complete schedule of events, see https:// ptkineticrace.org
• Rattlesnail will perform from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday for the monthly Port Townsend Community Dance at Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona St., Port Townsend. Carol Piening of Olympia will call contra dances. Admission is $10 per person or $20 per family.
• Harold Tobin will present “Fossil Cascadia Megathrust: Lessons from the Olympic Mountains” at 4 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church, 1202 Lawrence St., Port Townsend.
Tobin will discuss his research into a fossil megathrust fault under the Olympic Mountains at a meeting of the Quimper Geological Society.
Tobin is a professor of seismology and geohazards for the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington and is the director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
The meeting will not include a streaming option.
For more information, visit www.quimpergeology.org.
• Movies at Olympic Theatre Arts will screen“Little Shop of Horrors” at 7 p.m. Saturday at 414 N. Sequim Ave.
The 1986 comedy follows the misadventures of a nerdy florist searching for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant that demands to be fed.
Doors will open at 6:15 p.m. for trivia and prizes.
Future films in the series include “Chicago,” Nov. 7, and “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Nov. 30.
Tickets are $10 per person and are available by calling the box office at 360-683-7326 or by visiting www.olympictheatrearts.org.
