By DeAnn Rossetti
Who says you can’t take it with you? Mercer Island’s Grand Haven Mansion — a Georgian/Federalist delight built in 1934, then barged across Lake Washington from Seattle’s Madison Park to East Mercer Way in 1945 — is available for moving again.
The 7,500-square-foot mansion must leave its three-acre waterfront lot to make way for a larger home. Kirkland’s Curtis Gelotte Architects already has designed the 17,000-square-foot replacement. Proposed price: $29 million.
Garageniks make music you can dance to
They consider themselves the unofficial “benefit band” of Mercer Island, and the Garageniks, Island residents Bill Bailey, Michael Levin along with Mercer Island Jungian analyst Kimborough Besheer and Scott Brogan, like to play danceable tunes from the ’50s, through the’ 90s.
“Anytime someone hires us, we ask that the money that would normally go to the band go to a charity of our choice, such as Seattle Emergency Housing, Childhaven, Youth Theatre Northwest and Mercer Island Youth and Family Services,” Levin said.
The Garageniks started six years ago, when Levin was putting together a band to play at his wife’s 50th birthday party. “All of us are former high school or college band people,” Levin said. “We discovered that people don’t have rock and roll bands at their parties unless they are having big `decade’ parties. In the last year we’ve played a 40th, 50th and 60th birthday party.”
Last week, the Garageniks held a charity dance at the VFW Hall for Youth Theatre Northwest, where they hoped to pull in about $5,000 for the organization. “Here’s the great thing about this band: It’s comprised of wonderful musicians, so all I have to do is e-mail them a music file and they can play it,” Levin said.
The Garageniks play eight to 12 gigs a year, mainly because they all have day jobs as lawyers, marketing professionals, tech gurus and psychologists. “It’s hard getting the guys together with various vacation schedules and family commitments,” Levin said. The Garageniks can be reached at michael@idealogik.com , or at bill@furybailey.com
Jennifer Kay Sherman in `Communicating Doors’
No one could ever accuse Mercer Island High School senior Jennifer Kay Sherman of being afraid to take a risk. She’s played a British prostitute in the play “No Sex Please, We’re British;” a chain-smoking alcoholic lawyer in Neil Simon’s “Rumors;” and is currently playing a spoiled rich countess who gets killed off in “Communicating Doors” at the Next Step Theater.
Sherman’s family moved to Mercer Island from Texas when she was 18 months old. She was bitten by the acting bug in the third grade. While she was enrolled at Islander Middle School, she was in every play they produced.
She took classes at Taproot Theater, Seattle Children’s Theater, Jet City Improv and Bellevue Community College Continuing Education. It was while attending the latter that Sherman met Rachel Rutherford, who was her teacher at BCC and is the director of “Communicating Doors.”
“Communicating Doors” by Alan Ayckbourn opens at Seattle Center’s Theater 4, on the fourth floor of Center House, March 3-12. Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for students and seniors. For more information, contact Next Step Theater Group at 206-325-6500, or visit www.nextsteptheater.com
King County Journal columnist Carole Beers contributed to this article.
