The game’s story is based on the Orson Scott Card (author sci-fi novels such as Ender’s Game) novel Empire, and bridges the gap between it and it’s sequel, Hidden Empire. Written by Peter David (author of works such as Star Trek: The Rift and The Amazing Spiderman #266, 278, 289, and 525), the game revolves around Jason Flemming and his new girlfriend Claire, who get separated by a secretive militia known as the “Progressive Restoration”, which Jason later finds out is trying to take over the United States. Over the course of the game, the player must rescue Claire, and stop their sinister scheme.

In the next few weeks, the shows at our two wonderful local theaters are Rain: The Beatles Experience and Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. And before I give you the information about these upcoming shows, I’d like to apologize to the approximately two people who follow my mini theater column for missing the opportunity to review Dreamgirls while it was at the Paramount earlier this month. It was an amazing production and I hope all theater geeks got to see it, but it’s now a past opportunity, so let’s look ahead for now!

First off, at the 5th Avenue Theater, a locally produced production of On the Town has been playing for the past week and will be continuing its run until May 2, so you still have a few weeks to check it out! The director and choreographer team that are bringing us this production were also behind the local productions of West Side Story and Cabaret in past theater seasons. The production is part of the “Seattle Celebrates Bernstein” festival that many major Seattle arts organizations have participated in. Leonard Bernstein is the genius composer behind the Broadway musicals Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story, among others.

On the Town is based on an idea conceived by Jerome Robbins, and the storyline is about three sailors who are on leave for 24 hours in New York City, determined to have as much fun as possible in that time. Need I say any more? Obviously this plot is bound to be a good time, so you may want to check out this show. All information about the production and tickets is available here at the 5th Avenue Theater’s site.

Over the Paramount Theater, Rain: The Beatles Experience will be doing an extremely brief, four show run on the May 7-9 weekend. (For anyone familiar with musical show schedules and wondering why it’s four shows and not five, it’s because there will be no Sunday evening show. The May 9th matinee will be the final show in Seattle.)

Rain is a tribute to the Beatles and all their music, although I would not call it a jukebox musical – or even a Broadway musical. It’s more of a tribute band performance, as the show is really just a concert of Beatles songs performed by people dressing, acting, and talking like the actual Beatles. I can’t vouch for how good the production or the cast may be, although critics have said that they are a wonderful portrayal of the Beatles and “the next best thing” to the real Beatles (via reviews at www.raintribute.com and the Paramount theater website). I don’t know. I have trouble believing any imitation could be quite as good, but if you’re interested in going to see the show, be my guest. All information about Rain, and opportunities for tickets (this was originally an “add-on” show that you had to buy a season package to attend, but individual tickets are now available) are here.

STG logo taken from BroadwayWorld.com.

Today is Hitler’s birthday, it’s also the anniversary of the Columbine travesty, it also is a day for high school kids to skip school and smoke marijuana. The latter has many origins, from the code number that police used to identify someone in possession of weed to the most popular time of day to get high. No matter where it started, Nova teachers and the students who showed up today noticed a severe lack of their peers. In one of my classes more than half of the twenty eight students were nowhere to be found. This does not mean all of them were out celebrating, but they couldn’t all have been sick or had a dentist appointment. Having never smoked pot, I cannot talk from that experience; I’ve never even seen anyone smoke it. I can, however express opinions that have not been influenced by such an experience.

To me it all comes down as a matter of priority, what does someone care about most and what is he or she willing to do to reach that something. Some people value their education over family, or friends over education and some people value getting high. It doesn’t really matter to where getting high comes into your priority list but it must be pretty close to the top if you are deciding to skip school in order to do it. This might seem severe to a lot of people, “it’s only for one day you might say, so it’s not that big of a deal.” To the people who would respond this way I would ask this: is it really for one day? It’s really hard for me to believe that someone who smokes pot on 4/20 doesn’t touch it for the other 364 days of the year. I think that if someone is willing to skip school to get high, they are probably smoking pot at other times, whether at parties or just hanging out with friends. Marijuana should not interfere with your education. Being educated, whether through schooling or experience is much more important to me than making weird observations and giggling a lot or whatever it is you do when you’re high.

There are plenty of rumors about our school. I’ve heard from other people that they think Nova is a place where we do nothing all day, where we just sit on couches and chill, where we don’t really have to show up if we don’t want to and where we get full credit by doing absolutely nothing. The most common rumor I have heard about our school though, is that we like to smoke pot. In class, outside of class, in the hallways, in the bathrooms and everywhere else, we are rolling joints and taking drags. I get very defensive when I hear people telling me or someone else the rumors they hear, and acting like it’s the truth. I try to tell them that this is not the case and explain to them what I think Nova is really about. However, when less than half of my peers show up to class, I start to question whether or not there might be a little truth to the rumors. Nova kids should know that when they decide to skip on 4/20 they are enforcing the biggest stereotype about our school. Although, the way they that they seem to set their priorities tells me that they don’t really care in the first place, so why even bother bringing it up? Because I think we can all do better. I would like you to know that I don’t care what you do outside of school, just don’t let it get in the way of your education, and if you don’t care about that, think about the dark stain you’re leaving on our community’s reputation.

This just in! Barry Allen, the silver age Flash is back in The Flash#1, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Francis Manapul. The first issue of much-anticipated relaunch of The Flash is finally out. But does it live up to the hype?

Wow. So despite all my skepticism going into this, it ended up being the most entertaining comic I picked up this week. Johns sent us headfirst into the beginning of an enthralling, fast paced story, jam-packed with awesome moments. One of the things I’m most excited for in future issues is the supporting cast. Johns did an amazing job of incorporating and fleshing out the large cast of characters in his last run on The Flash, and I really hope he can match that in this series. Of course, writing is only half the job when it comes to comics. Francis Manapul did both pencils and inks on this book, and all his characters and scenes have an unmatched energetic, kinetic feel to them. The art is made even better by the slightly-but-not-quite faded, washed look that colorist Brian Buccellato brings to the comic. Stunning job, all around. I’ll give this great issue Five out of Five flying steering wheels.

For the second year in a row, I have created and submitted an entry for the Georgetown Super 8 Film festival. I am by no means a professional filmmaker, but I have had fun these past two years, going out into my community and creating a story to share with my friends. The purpose of this event is just that: to showcase amateur films in the lost medium of super 8 without juries or awards to dampen the creative spirit.

Last month I went to go see a play my sister’s teacher from Orca put together, only the big performance was at Rainier Beach High School. It was zombie play called Z and plot line was basically about a bunch of people getting together to form a group. They’re the only surviving people who haven’t been zombified and they’re heading to Safeco field where they’ll be supposedly safe. So it’s about their journey to getting there, some don’t make it either. This is an original play by a teacher, Dante Felder, at Orca Middle School.

I think that the storyline of the play was quite ridiculous though very much enjoyable. It definitely balanced out some humor with the seriousness of it. The set was pretty simple, yet the set pieces that were there seemed to be done very well. The makeup was done unbelievably well, actually, the fake blood was believable enough for a school play as well. The extra body parts close to the audience on the stage was a nice addition too. They had a pretty good selection of music however I didn’t like the music that played when we were getting seated, it kind of made me feel anxious and uncomfortable, but the rest of the music throughout the play and at the end was great.

Then there was the dance numbers, one in the middle and the two at the end. The one in the middle was unexpected and I was surprised how well they knew what they were doing, no one got lost and it was in perfect harmony. The ones at the end were just a lot of fun, and they really looked like they were really into it and having a blast. Something else I was surprised by was the acting. Mainly because they’re middle schoolers, and they don’t always take things seriously. But as I watching them perform, there was actually a lot of talent there, they really gave it their all and were into it, looking like they were having a lot of fun. I could definitely see them acting in the near future. I thought it actually would’ve been a lot of fun to be part of this production of an original play, and if it were still out for the public to see I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes things about zombies or would just have wanted to see something fun.

Help support the Nova/SBOC library by shopping at Barnes and Noble April 11-19 and using the bookfair ID 10187383 at the register. A percentage of your purchase at any Barnes and Noble store or at barnesandnoble.com will be donated to support SBOC and Nova learning. You can also contribute by selecting a title to donate to the library at the register. Get out there and support our library!