Photos by Bruce Tom

Or, a Lesson in the Serious Business of Buffoonery

By Erin Brindley, Nordo Artistic Director

After more than two years of watching Kate Kraay develop her iconic Queen of Hearts, Erin wanted to share what an honor it was to collaborate with this master of comedy, and wrote the following blog post. But before we released it, Kate needed to miss a weekend and Erin stepped into her very big shoes. (Not literally. The costume shoes were too small.) Read what Erin had to say before she went on stage to cover her role. 'I just played Kate. She had already made all the best choices'.

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It’s not the triumph in her bellowing, near orgasmic “Off With Her Head!” that makes Kate Kraay’s Queen of Hearts particularly special.  Nor the lick-your-lips delight with which she implores the White Rabbit to skip the part about a verdict and move directly to the sentencing phase of Alice’s trial.

If you’re looking closely (and it’s almost impossible not to,) it’s the fleeting moments of confusion that drift across her face that make Kate’s Queen an exquisite work of art. She’s a cross between Donald Trump and King Lear; desperate for respect with an ever more tenuous grasp on reality.

The difference between Kate’s Queen and these titans of narcissism is that she is hysterically funny. Every look, intonation, and gesture is that of a comedy craftsperson at the height of her power. 

Kate has performed The Queen of Hearts since October 28th 2021. She originated the role with Nordo’s 2021 Curiouser and Curiouser where she played both the Queen, and the White Knight, and then resumed performances on April 2nd 2022.  She is the only actor in the cast who has appeared in all 70 performances to date.* And still each time I watch her I see something new. She hits her marks perfectly, every time, and makes every flick of her fingernail funny. Laugh out loud funny. “How did she do that?” funny.       

Acting is a hard profession, and in many ways a young person’s game. Working with Kate, the rare seasoned performer who has spent decades honing her craft like Japanese steel, has taught me so much as a director. In the hands of a great actor, a cartoon-ish villain can become a masterclass in the balletic mastery of clowning.

I have truly treasured every moment of working with her, and her performance is, in a word, unmissable. 

Kate Kraay is the Queen of Hearts in Nordo’s Down the Rabbit Hole, playing in the Knife Room through November.

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KATE KRAAY Q&A

Get to Know the Queen of Hearts, actor Kate Kraay!

What is your pre-show ritual?

At around 2pm on a show day, I start putting my hair in foam rollers. It makes the most perfect cascading locks for Her Majesty, without having to scorch my hair with a hot iron. If I have time, I do a vocal warm-up at home, and if I'm rushed I have one I sing along to in the car. It's a great sight! Me in my rollers warming up with a singing straw for all the tourists on the waterfront to gape at.

 What is your favorite course from Down the Rabbit Hole?

Quack quack! It's all about that duck confit for me! View the menu of Down the Rabbit Hole. 

 What moment comes alive for you, night after night?

Everything with QoH is about specificity. She is hyper aware of maintaining control every second. Because of that, there is an aliveness that comes naturally in this role that I revel in, so the show is full of these moments. Many of them are with the White Rabbit, who actually runs the show, so there is a constant power play between us. One moment is when he corrects me during the trial, in front of everyone, which sends me into an identity crisis, another is at the end of Maneater, when I have also briefly let go, but when WR grabs my thighs, I come back to myself with furious indignation. It's always a joy to play a Bad Bitch.

 What other projects are you involved in?

For any performers reading this, I would love for them to join me at the end of August in a workshop with my mentor, international director and teacher David Glass. He is a pioneer of devised work, and I'm thrilled to be hosting him, along with Umo Ensemble, Base Experimental Arts and West of Lenin Theatre. Here is the link to the Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/1FTARvqk6

 I will also be working with the David Glass Ensemble, performing in The Brides this winter, in Europe. I’m pretty stoked about that.

Written by Wine Curator and Host Tom Hajduk

To explain how I choose bottles and what I most love about showing people wine, I’m not going to talk about wine. At first.

Imagine you walk into an art gallery. It is your first time in this gallery.

Once you enter, you walk around and find some paintings, sketches, and sculptures that catch your eye. Some, if not all, are from well-known artists you have heard of. You are drawn to these works. You stand in front of them for quite a while. They are engaging and exhilarating.  When you return home, you tell others about what you saw and what you loved.

You visit this gallery again and again. It never leaves you unsatisfied.  You walk up to the same five works of art each time, spend time in front of them, and leave.

But, in this same museum, there are unexplored wings and passages. Imagine getting lost down a hallway and then coming upon a work of art you never knew existed: you have not heard of the artist, nor have you ever seen anything like this. You are awestruck.

In this museum, there is a curator who shows up only on occasion, and who is known for bringing guests to view something they have never seen before, never considered. 

I’m that curator. My job is to bring you to the uncommon works of art, which, in this case, are amazing bottles of wine.

My choices about what to pour for Sip and Savor tastings are always guided by the idea that we should try something new, something different, something amazing that you will not forget. We taste wines that you will not find at the grocery store or even at a superbly-stocked restaurant’s wine cellar. 

That means that when we are together, we are tasting bottles that most people simply do not get a chance to taste. And this leads to a wonderful, uncommon flavor experience.

-Tom

Sip & Savor tickets on sale now

Seating is limited for this special event and are available now on our ticketing website.

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If you’ve seen a production at Nordo, chances are you’ve noticed (and maybe even tasted) some of our legendary signature cocktails. Each one carefuly designed with taste, style, and even colors to compliment the food you’re eating and the show you’re watching on stage. But did you know there’s a story behind each one? Jaq has been our Bar Manager and cocktail crafter since 2017 and you might be surprised how much thought goes into every aspect of these delightfully delicious drinks. We’ve asked Jaq to give a little more detail behind the thought process on the 4 cocktails crafted exclusively for Down the Rabbit Hole.

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Jaq, Bar Manager for Nordo

Building a cocktail menu is like any creative endeavor, in that one starts with a thousand possibilities and then distills them down to their most poignant form. Naturally this can be overwhelming, but choosing a structure helps. For this menu, rather than riffing on a theme in the production at large, I gave each character a cocktail based around their unique attributes. In some cases this is aesthetic, a nod to the color palette of their costume. In others, it draws on the actor’s interpretation of their role, be that dry or aggressive or whimsical. Often it overlaps, allowing a rare opportunity to both indulge my theatrical design background and experiment with the minutiae of flavor profiles. In this lies the joy of designing for Café Nordo: no other bar marries the art of cocktailing with Art as we know it like we do here. -Jaq

PARTY CRASHER

A drink for Alice, the uninvited, the unwelcome, but ultimately the life of the party. It began as a spin on the Naked & Famous, a classic mezcal cocktail, but the recent Chartreuse shortage meant reworking it with different ingredients, namely Strega (an Italian digestif that translates to “Witch”), while keeping it the teal color of our Alice’s tulle sleeves.

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Better Than Croquet

To be honest, this started as a joke about rabbit food. I wanted to do a white Negroni with barrel aged gin from the aptly-named Rabbit Hole Distillery, but with celery bitters and a carrot garnish. It was a golden child drink that came together in a couple tries, and then our White Rabbit himself named it. To quote Bo, “the White Rabbit would absolutely think his cocktail is better than the entire sport.”

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Short Sharp Shock

The Queen of Hearts’ drink was inspired in part by the menu at New York’s Amor y Amargo, a cocktail bar that emphasizes sustainability by forgoing any perishable ingredients, hence no citrus juice. To add acidity, I used Bittermen’s Orange Cream Citrate to create a fruity riff on the French 76, with a spicy pepper kick as an homage to our pepper tart appetizer. Bonus: the lemon peel and raspberry garnish looks like a tiny guillotine blade and severed head.

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Folie a Deux

This one is a nod to a drink on our tea-centric menu from the first DTRH run, but adapted (perhaps optimistically) for a summertime palate. Named for a psychiatric term meaning “madness shared by two,” it’s the quintessential Hatter and Hare tea party cocktail. The oyster shell tincture is made in-house with Taylor Shellfish kumamotos as a reference to their Walrus and the Carpenter duet (Carroll’s poem set to original music by our beloved Annastasia Workman).

Down the Rabbit Hole is now playing in Nordo’s Knife Room in Pioneer Square. TICKETS >>

July 30th at Waterfall Park

Dear Friends of Nordo,

Many of you have been our loyal members, some since our inception in 2009. You’ve seen us transform from a devil-may-care upstart in the back of a chocolate factory, to a respected Seattle arts institution with two venues, to a company dedicated to surviving the gravest era theaters have faced in memory. We survived by relying on our creativity and grit…two of the most fundamental characteristics of Nordo.

I would say this year looks very different, but the truth is no two years at Nordo have ever looked the same. What is joyful and unique about Nordo is the perpetual pushing of boundaries. We know things could always be more beautiful, more transporting, more surprising, and we stay in relentless pursuit of wonder.

This year we are dedicated to re-imagining what Nordo can be. Sustainability in all of its meanings is our charge. We are looking to change our model to address the following questions:

1. How do we create a model that includes a sustainable quality of life for artists and staff? Nordo has always prided ourselves on paying better than most arts orgs of our size (and bigger.) However, we can no longer pretend that pay is reasonable in a city with costs rising as quickly as Seattle’s. We must find a way to pay our incredibly talented team enough to stay here, with us, as their needs and families grow.

1. What part can we play in rebuilding our city? How can we anchor Nordo with a year-round sustainable presence of the highest quality experience? For a city with a reputation for arts innovation there is no homegrown permanent immersive experience. Can Nordo be this, only more delicious?

1. How can we better sustain our community? How do we continue to expand our partnerships with local growers and makers to keep shrinking our footprint on the planet, and introduce our audiences to their gifts?

As usual, we’ve got big ideas. I mean really, really big ideas. Seeds are starting to be planted, but they need much more time in the ground before they sprout. This summer we hope you will help us make it rain.

On July 30 we will kick off a month of giving with our Waterfall Dinner, with opportunities to add our signature auction experiences to your ticket. We will also make our big announcements about what the future holds, launching a campaign to raise the first $70,000 towards the future of Nordo. The campaign will run through the end of the summer, with a huge blow-out BBQ on August 27 to celebrate the future. Fancy fundraiser first, boot stomping bash for supporters of all levels later.

-Erin

GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE WATERFALL DINNER & BID ON ITEMS HERE

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Artistic Director Erin Brindley Spills the T about the Adorable Peach.

The first question is always “Is that her real name?”

Really, what’s a real name? Don’t the ones we give ourselves count as real names these days?

But I know what they mean.

Did Opal’s mom and dad name her Opal Peachey?

Yes. Yes, they did.

And like her namesake she has sparkled from the moment her bike punk vibe entered our circus tent and across our radar as she, fresh out of Cornish, took the helm of Circus Contraption’s final show in the role of…Stage Manager.

Opal was organized, professional, and serious which belied her infectiously charming, deeply dimpled baby face.

She was, by far, the youngest among us but already powerful.

As Circus Contraption ended and Nordo was born, Terry, Nordo’s co-founder and resident playwright, was so captured by Opal’s gorgeous (and deeply peculiar) spirit that he wrote a role for her in our first post-circus project, an avante garde pop-up restaurant.

And he never stopped writing for her, as she transformed before our eyes from a tattooed punk in ladybug bike helmet, so nervous to talk to us her hands trembled, to a bonafide chanteuse moonlighting as a host at The Pink Door.

The characters Terry has written for Opal to play: a sous chef, a widow driven mad by grief, a jilted lover, a genetic engineer, a Zelda Fitzgerald type, the daughter of Nordo, the ex-wife of Nordo, a Russian spy, an old-west saloon owner, a dream scientist from the future, a ghost-bride-bellhop, the monster that personifies the Fear of Failure, and a little dolly who gets all her hair cut off.

While Opal was putting on a thousand different wigs and serving a hundred different cocktails at Nordo, she was cutting her teeth as a producer and writer in her own right.

She co-wrote, with producer, crooner, and raconteur Mark Siano, three shows that sold out The Triple Door including Bohemia which has plans for a European tour.

And she brought her most ambitious idea to us. A full-blown original musical in Nordo’s signature style, integrating food and drink into the performance, about the Widows of Champagne. It’s a thrillingly feminist story based on the history of the most celebratory of spirits. Opal cast herself not as the star, Veuve Cliquot, but as the “spirit of champagne”, a fizzy, funny, more than meets the eye special guest in Champagne Widow which debuted to sold out houses at Nordo in 2019.

There is, of course, always the behind the scenes. True to when we first met Opal, she has worked seriously and tirelessly beside us to grow Nordo from a weird pop-up to a Seattle institution. Serving wine, doing our social media, and her best behind the scenes role, “Adorable Member Concierge,” she seems to know everyone who has darkened our doorway more than once. Over the pandemic, she and our Sous Chef Christian created her little twin, a big, dimpled baby boy named Hero who just started to walk this week. And she is documenting this singular experience in her brilliant blog, The Artist Mama.

She has believed in the vision of Nordo even when we did not, never flagging in her relentless positivity. And somewhere along the way, she went from being my younger mentee to my colleague.

Isn’t time funny? She seemed so young when we met…her just out of college and me running a company. After working together for the better part of 15 years, the space between us has evaporated. We’ve grown and changed together. Heartbreaks, grief, life, death, birth, and reinvention. The lifespan of Nordo has been a lifetime.

After Bohemias and pandemics and childbirth and so much life, it’s time for Opal Peachey to come home to the Nordo stage. She will play two roles in Down the Rabbit Hole this summer, (two rabbits, as it happens,) doing that thing she does best and surprising us all as The White Rabbit, (June 16-27) and The March Hare (August 11-13).

We welcome back, with great fanfare, founding company member, Adorable Concierge, and Nordo’s Sweetest Gem, Opal Peachey.

GET YOUR TICKETS TO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE TODAY

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The clock is ticking. You know the one. It’s the little time bomb embedded in your cell phone, or if you’ve got some style, a mid-century modern sundial piece hanging above the flatscreen TV. Either way, as you open your door to greet the friendly Fed-Ex delivery person, the clock strikes and you are reminded that… 

Your Room Service Experience is arriving today! 

 You thank them for their services and kick the door shut, trembling with excitement. Don’t try and pry open the box with your fingernails, there is enough time to grab a pocket knife. For goodness sake, don’t get a paper cut.  

 The first thing you’ll see is an envelope marked “Open Immediately”. DO NOT disregard this. The game has already begun. But WHY NOW, you ask? 

 Let us demure…what comes to mind when you think of Room Service? Delicious food and drink, of course! And if you’re looking for the perfect date-night idea,  dessert in particular. You can be sure that your Room Service Experience contains both. This is not the stuff of a supermarket aisle. It has been handmade with love mere days before your friendly FedEx delivery person came a knocking.  

In fact, this dessert and drink combination has been concocted by our chef to pair with the mystery experience inside the box! It may even contain a piece of evidence! This type of sensual storytelling is what Nordo is best known for.  

And so you must, absolutely, open that envelope and read the instructions on how best to preserve your edible delicacies. They will keep for a few more hours (up to 48 in the refrigerator.) The game itself will last forever, with our mystery-boxes you can press stop, rewind, or play again  - that’s the beauty of cinematic Room Service.  

In conclusion, you’ve got plenty of time to throw on a fetching pair of fuzzy slippers and alert your nearest and dearest that Nordo has arrived.