NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Nov. 27.
PORT ANGELES — “The Game’s Afoot, or Holmes for the Holidays” is the Port Angeles Community Players’ comedy thriller running this weekend through next Sunday, Dec. 6.
In it, the Broadway star William Gillette (Pete Christensen) invites his friends and associates to his place for Christmas Eve. All is lively until the bunch of drama queens and kings become entangled in a murder mystery and Gillette, who’s famous for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage, must assume the role in reality.
Curtain time is 7:30 tonight, Saturday and Tuesday night, while matinees are at 2 p.m. this and next Sunday at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd. Tickets are $14 in advance for adults and $7 for students at Odyssey Bookshop, 114 W. Front St., though Tuesdays are discount night: general admission tickets are sold at the door — until they run out — for $7.
For information, visit PACommunityPlayers.com or phone 360-452-6651.
Arts festival
SEQUIM — The North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival Show and Sale will be open for its final day Saturday at the Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St.
That’s the annual Small Business Saturday, so visitors can find not only the art show but also a special Fiber Arts Market of wearable art, housewares, yarn, fleece and fuzzy items.
The artist-entrepreneurs and home-based business people behind these creations will set up too, as part of Sequim’s Hometown Holidays event, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Admission is free at the Museum & Arts Center, while more details can be found at FiberArtsFestival.org.
Free art demo
PORT TOWNSEND — Oil painter Kathy Francis will give a demonstration at the Northwind Arts Center, 701 Water St., from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, while her artwork is on display at Northwind’s Artist Showcase Gallery.
“Someone once said, ‘If you can paint light, you can paint everything under the sun.’ This has become my goal, to capture light,” Francis writes.
She does her small studies on location outdoors, then makes larger paintings from the ones she deems good.
In Sunday’s demonstration, the artist will discuss her outdoor equipment and strategies for coping with the weather.
For details about this program and others at the center, see Northwindarts.org or phone 360-379-1086.
‘Finish a Project’
SEQUIM — Free “Finish a Project By Christmas” workshops are set for next Friday, Dec. 4, at A Dropped Stitch, the yarn shop at 136 S. Second Ave.
Nationally certified knitting instructor and co-owner Nora Polizzi will offer learn-to-knit sessions, while spinner and felting instructor Lauralee De Luca will show visitors how to make felted holiday ornaments, and everyone is invited to drop in from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
For information, phone the shop at 360-683-1410.
Shi Shi poetry
ANACORTES — “The River with One Bank,” a new CD of poet Robert Sund reading his verse inspired by a three-year summer residence at Shi Shi Beach, is available now.
The digitally remastered recording celebrates the addition of Shi Shi to Olympic National Park, while including several poems not published in Sund’s posthumous collection “Poems from Ish River Country.”
“It stands as one of the most moving poetic invocations of a wild landscape in the poetry of the Pacific Northwest,” writes Tim McNulty, the Sequim poet and author of Olympic National Park: A Natural History and other books.
To order a CD, send a check for $12 per copy — or $10 each for multiple copies — plus $3 for shipping for up to six CDs, to Robert Sund Poet’s House, P.O. Box 1567, Anacortes, WA 98221.
CDs are also available online for payment via PayPal at www.robertsund.org/main.cfm.
Dickens in Victoria
VICTORIA — The Belfry Theatre is presenting Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” through Dec. 20, with evening performances Tuesdays through Saturdays and matinees on weekends.
The production’s cast includes Tom McBeath as Ebenezer Scrooge, Anton Lipovetsky as Bob Cratchit, Amanda Lisman as Belle, and Celine Stubel as Mrs. Cratchit, all at the Belfry, 1291 Gladstone Ave. in Victoria’s Fernwood neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown.
Tickets range from $24 to $49 and are subject to change depending on demand. For details, see www.belfry.bc.ca or phone
250-385-6815, and for information about the Black Ball Ferry Line between Port Angeles and Victoria, visit www.Cohoferry.com or phone 360-457-4491.
Letters contest
OLYMPIA — The nationwide Letters about Literature contest is on, and young people in fourth through 12th grades are invited to take part.
In this event, kids write letters to their favorite authors, living or dead, and explain how a particular book by the author changed their view of the world or themselves.
Entrants can write about works of fiction, nonfiction or poetry, but not about music lyrics. Entries in Spanish are welcome and will be translated for the Washington state judges.
Letter writers compete at three levels: Level 1 for fourth- through sixth-graders; Level 2 for seventh- and eighth-graders and Level 3 for ninth through 12th grades. Entrants must be at least 9 years old.
This year’s contest has two deadlines. All Level 3 entries must be postmarked by next Friday, Dec. 4, while entrants in Levels 1 and 2 have until Jan. 11 to postmark their letters.
Entry coupons and guidelines can be found at www.sos.wa.gov/library/lal. Completed forms should be stapled to the last page of the letter and mailed to: Letters About Literature Contest, Competition Level (indicate Level 1, 2 or 3), c/o C. Gourley, Project Manager, 81 Oliver St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18705.
More information about the contest is also available from the Washington State Library’s Crystal Lentz at (360) 704-5275 or crystal.lentz@sos.wa.gov.
Washington state’s winners will be announced in April; a ceremony to honor the champions, runners-up and honorable mentions will be held at the Capitol in Olympia later in the spring.
State judges select each level’s top letter writers, who receive $125 cash awards and advance to the national competition, which has a $1,000 prize.
