Nearly a hundred years ago, Vashon Island faced a reckoning in the wake of a global pandemic. Many could no longer afford to live here and moved back to the mainland. To lure new residents, the editor of the Vashon paper, P. Monroe Smock (by way of P.T. Barnum), took to the Seattle airwaves to make a bold case for his island home. For over an hour, P. Monroe waxed poetic on all things Vashon, offering gifts to his audience and introducing local singers and musicians to punctuate his rosy oratory with song. He was the original “voice” of Vashon, and the show was a massive hit, inspiring hundreds of enthusiastic responses; it took weeks to re-print them all in the paper.

This October, Jeff Hoyt, the island’s modern-day “Voice” of Vashon, will perform P. Monroe Smock’s original script and bring this audacious 1926 radio show to the VCA stage. Special guests will offer perspective on the era alongside images of the people and places that inspired Smock’s exuberant boosterism. A rotating cast of your favorite Vashon performers will sing songs from the original program augmented with more contemporary takes on island life. No two shows will be alike!

And yes, there will also be gifts.

Kat Eggleston

Alchemy

Bruce Haulman