Winter officially turns to spring this weekend, as musicians, artists and storytellers of many stripes will share their work with audiences on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Among the highlights on the arts and entertainment landscape:
• The Out Loud Story Slam, open to tellers of true personal tales, will return this evening to the Olympic Theatre Arts gathering hall, 414 N. Sequim Ave., Sequim. Admission is $10 — for tellers and listeners — to the 7 p.m. slam, while more information is found at olympictheatrearts.org under the Shows menu. The venue no longer requires proof of vaccination; masks are optional.
• The Sweater Weather Stringband brings dance music and Irish tunes to the New Moon Craft Tavern, 130 S. Lincoln St., Port Angeles, tonight. Traditional and original songs will flow from 8:30 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. at the 21-and-older venue.
• The Very Short Film Festival, titled “Good Things Come in Small Packages,” is streaming free from noon today through noon Sunday. The Peninsula College Drama Department presents this fest featuring improv and devised theater, shot live in a studio and edited to feature the finest dramatic and comedic moments, according to drama professor Lara Starcevich. To access the films, go to https://bit.ly/3IwEdKv. More information is available via laras@pencol.edu or 360-417-6478.
• Ranger and the Re-Arrangers will play hot club jazz this evening at Chimacum’s Finnriver Farm & Cidery. The ensemble plans to take the stage from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the venue, 124 Center Road; a $5 cover charge goes into effect half an hour before the music begins. Since mandates for masking and proof of vaccination have been lifted, Finnriver is no longer requiring those protocols.
• “Some Mornings: Paintings by Meg Kaczyk from poems by Linda M. Robertson” is the new exhibition at the Northwind Art Grover Gallery, 236 Taylor St., Port Townsend.
This show, a reflection on loss and comfort, pairs Robertson’s poetic expression with Kaczyk’s abstract oil paintings. These works aren’t illustrations, Kaczyk said; instead, they further the poems as “a wordless felt experience.”
Northwind Art invites the public to meet and greet the artists during a reception from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday at the gallery; then comes a Zoom artists’ talk at 7 p.m. next Wednesday. Robertson will also give a poetry reading at 3 p.m. April 2.
For details about it all, visit www.NorthwindArt.org.
• Billy B and the Brenamigos, a band mixing up Beatles songs, Billy Brennan’s originals and other rock ’n’ roll music, will make its debut at the Keg & I this Saturday.
Brennan, along with local friends Frank Espy, Cristian “Chile” Rioz, James Brennan and Matthew Miner, are set to play from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the bar, 1291 Chimacum Road, Chimacum.
• “Swing into Spring” is the theme of the dance coming Saturday evening to Finnriver Farm & Cidery, 124 Center Road, Chimacum. The Jonathan Doyle Quartet will step up from 6 p.m. till 8 p.m.; like most Finnriver musical events, there’s a $5 cover at the door starting 30 minutes before the band gets going.
• Countercurrent, a Celtic-Americana duo of Alex Sturbaum and Brian Lindsay, will dish out its music from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Finnriver Farm & Cidery in Chimacum.
• “The Outsider,” a comedy presented by the Ludlow Village Players, has its last three performances this weekend. This story of Ned Newley, a political candidate who is fearful of public speaking and doesn’t really want to be governor, takes the stage at 7 p.m. tonight and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Bay Club, 120 Spinnaker Place, Port Ludlow.
“Outsider” tickets are $17 at brownpapertickets.com and at the Bay Club, while information awaits at ludlowvillageplayers.org.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsula dailynews.com.
