Aunt Dottie brings improv, music and love to Renton

Aunt Dottie loves Renton.

The character sings about the city (and restaurant La Hacienda) in Michele Greenwood Bettinger's show "Aunt Dottie's Sing-Along Cabaret."

"Aunt Dottie believes that Renton is the center of the universe," said Bettinger, a Renton native. "I just think it's a great place to live and a great place to raise a family."

Each of her performances is different, drawing about 25 songs from a list of about 60 to sing at random and per audience request.

"I love the anything-can-happen nature of improv," she said. "It's pretty much anything goes."

Audience members are encouraged but never forced to participate, though spectators from ages 2 to 92 are often drawn into the performance.

Her next show is at the Renton Civic Theater Saturday and Sunday.

The show tells the story of Aunt Dottie, who grew up traveling with her mom in the circus before performing on cruise ships. When her husband is no longer fit for life on a boat, she makes Renton her home.

Bettinger sings classic pop and rock music from the '30s to '80s eras.

Raised in modern-day Newcastle and graduating from Hazen High School, Bettinger always considered Renton her home.

She moved to Orlando, Fla., to help open Disney's MGM studios, where she performed character-based improvisational comedy.

Aunt Dottie "is very much like a character I would have created for Disney," she said.

She moved back to the Seattle area with her family in 1996, and 2001 purchased a home in Fairwood. She has an 8-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son.

Working at Wizards of the Coast in human resources, she missed performing. The show debuted in October 2008.

"It was time to just do this show I've been thinking about so long," she said.

Sing along with Dottie:

Aunt Dottie's Sing-Along Cabaret is 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Renton Civic Theater, 507 S. Third St., Renton. The Box office number is 425-226-5529. For more information, rentoncivictheater.org or auntdottiesings.blogspot.com

Contact Renton Reporter Staff Writer Celeste Gracey at cgracey@rentonreporter.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5052.

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