Author: Rachael Carnes

The fall dance season kicks off during First Friday ArtWalk with Lane Arts Council’s Fiesta Cultural

Dance
Local dancer Campbell Clark nabs a national title

The fall dance season kicks off during First Friday ArtWalk with Lane Arts Council’s Fiesta Cultural salsa dance party 5:30 to 8 pm Friday, Sept. 4, at Kesey Square; free.  Also during First Friday: “Come to the last #instaballet of the season!” co-founder Suzanne Haag suggests. “This is your last chance until 2016 to help Eugene Ballet Company dancers make a ballet with audience input.” Catch #instaballet 5:30 to 8 pm in The Studio at the Hult Center; free.   Continue reading →

Vaudeville at the Shedd

Revival of musical Whoopee! is zany good fun

Theater
Stephanie Hawkins (left), Jim Ballard, Kaitlyn Sage and Trevor Eichhorn in Whoopee! at the Shedd

Set in 1928 Arizona, The Shedd’s revival of Whoopee! is populated by rootin’ tootin’ cowboys, rich tourists and the occasional hypochondriac. Based on the 1923 play The Nervous Wreck, this goofball musical comedy by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson was made famous by both the Ziegfield Broadway production of 1928 and the 1930 Eddie Cantor film.  In the vaudeville era, shows like Whoopee! cobbled together already popular tunes with a loose plot, peppering zany narratives with plenty of jazz standards and daffy jokes. And it’s still a winning combination.  Continue reading →

A Woof in the Park

EW’s canine reporters sniff out Lane County’s dog parks

Culture

Lane County dog owners have plenty of off-leash dog park options when it comes to letting their pooches run free.  And who better to explore our many dog park choices than my trusty canine interns: Huckleberry, a teddy bear-Ewok hybrid from the shelter, and Togo, an Alaskan husky with legs like stilts. In the long shadow of Woodward and Bernstein, we three set off to investigate just what makes each local dog park special for our four-footed friends:   Continue reading →

We hear that the Oregon Country Fair new movement arts program will feature performances and workshops on a dedicated stage

Dance

We hear that the Oregon Country Fair new movement arts program will feature performances and workshops on a dedicated stage, the spiffy new Dance Pavilion, during the weekend (July 10-12) of the OCF. Look for Salseros Dance Company, the Connexus dance collective, Track Town Swing Club, Danceability and more. A full schedule is available at oregoncountryfair.org.  Continue reading →

The Kids Are Alright

Childcare options at the Fair

Culture

“Childcare has been a part of the Oregon Country Fair for 37 years,” co-coordinator Johnny Whiddon says. “Parents need a break, kids need a break. We try to provide a Fair experience, tailored to the little guys.”  Children who are potty-trained, up to age 12 or 13, can come to one of two childcare locations for two hours at a time, to enjoy live music, face painting, entertainment, acrobatics, arts and crafts, quiet activities like board games and chess and good ol’ story time.  Continue reading →

Diamond in the Ruff

Outgoing general manager Charlie Ruff reflects on the past, present and future of OCF

Culture
Charlie Ruff

“The thing I love most about the Fair,” says Charlie Ruff, Oregon Country Fair’s outgoing general manager “is that, at its best, as a community, people can come and be themselves — they can express themselves in an environment as free from judgment as you’ll find.”  Ruff steps down later this summer after 12 years on staff, the last seven of which he served as GM. He will remain, for the time being, a Fair volunteer. Ruff's replacement is Tom Gannon, a longtime Seattle resident who recently relocated to the area. Continue reading →

A Benevolent Brotherhood of Man

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at The Shedd

Theater
Dylan Stasack and Stephanie Hawkins in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

In the canon of musical comedies, it doesn’t get much better than How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  Playing this weekend at The Shedd, this hilarious 1961 musical slyly satirizes the midcentury corporate American workplace, as its hero, J. Pierrepont Finch, a humble window washer, ascends the rungs of the corporate ladder by not really doing anything.  Continue reading →

We’ll Always Have Paris

VLT’s Raw Canvas tackles issues of motherhood and the artistic life

Theater
Nancy Hopps in Raw Canvas. Photo by Thom Schumacher.

When performer Nancy Hopps first tackled the one-woman show Raw Canvas in 2001, her life was in a radically different place than it is today.  “I had just come through cancer, relationship changes,” Hopps recalls. “I was a busy, active parent to a teenage daughter. Coming back to the play now, I realize even more that the character’s weighing her own passions and artistic fulfillment against societal and familial expectations.”   Continue reading →

This month’s dance kicks off with #instaballet

Dance
‘Francia’ in Bricolage Cirkus

This month’s dance kicks off with #instaballet at the First Friday ArtWalk. “Watch Eugene Ballet Company dancers make a ballet!”#instaballet co-founder Suzanne Haag writes. “Audience members get to suggest steps (feel free to get inventive and a little crazy) to create a ballet to be performed at 8 pm.” Catch it 5 to 8 pm Friday, June 5, at 771 Willamette (between 7th and 8th); come and go as you please. More info at instaballet.org; free.  Continue reading →