A Ghostly Comedy Classic
Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit is haunted at VLT
Whatever your particular feelings might be about the reality or unreality of ghosts, you must admit: A ghost is a fantastic literary device. To the … Continue reading
Performing Arts: Page 30
Kafka-esque belly laughs
Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s The Understudy is an absurdist winner
Theresa Rebeck’s one-act play The Understudy, which opened Jan. 18 for a three-week run at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, appears on the surface to offer a … Continue reading
A Step Forward
New work by Eugene playwright explores tensions between Palestinians and Israelis
In a world of constant political tension and polarized opinions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Martin Cohen’s new play Checkpoint seeks to bridge the gap of … Continue reading
A Feast for the Senses
Broadway production of The Lion King brings something new to Disney’s animated classic
I have a confession: I never really liked The Lion King. As a child of the ’90s and subsequently Disney’s Renaissance period, I was obsessed … Continue reading
Street Fightin’ Men
Left-wing radio show and podcast comes to Eugene
“Power that isn’t really justified by the will of the governed should be dismantled,” Noam Chomsky says, defining anarchism as a political philosophy. I pose … Continue reading
Hear Me Roar
Catching up with The Lion King’s Michael Curry
If you’ve seen the Broadway musical The Lion King, then you know that its puppets and masks are some of the most beautiful and complex … Continue reading
Puncturing Pretensions
Eugene Opera’s HMS Pinafore sets social satire to spiffy music
As 2018 mercifully closes, there’s so much wrong in our country that a significant portion of the music and theater being created today seems to … Continue reading
All the World’s a (Kids’) Stage
Local children’s theaters are creating ‘cultural ninjas’
I often feel like I live in my car. Hundreds of miles in a dusty sedan littered with granola-bar wrappers and the sweaty water bottles … Continue reading
Staging the Holidays
A little something for everyone in this year’s offering of Christmas productions by local theaters
The sheer intimacy and immediacy of theater lends itself splendidly to the holidays. It’s as though, facing the stage, we are basking as one in … Continue reading
Ghosts From The Past
Enjoy Christmas music you haven’t actually heard to death
It’s December and, these days, that means omnipresent standard holiday tunes have already crossed the threshold between inspirational nostalgia and annoying oversaturation. So it’s a … Continue reading