Southern Boy Turns Titan

LCC’s Haimbach debuts with Bridegroom at Blowing Rock

“Coming out of the first interview I called my partner and said, ‘Start packing!’” new LCC Theater Director Brian Haimbach says. In a discussion that was heavily peppered with descriptors like “smooth,” “easy” and “meant to be,” it is obvious that Haimbach is happy in his new home with the Titans.  Stepping into the shoes of local legends Ed Raggazio and Patrick Torelle, Haimbach has a big job ahead of him, and one that he seems to be relishing.  Continue reading 

Swinging from the Altar

Tarzan: The Musical to open at the New Hope Center

A 1912 piece of pulp fiction by Edgar Rice Burroughs leaves a British baby on the shores of West Africa, growing up securely in the arms of a gorilla, swinging through the jungle and finally landing at the feet of a beautiful young lady, Jane. The original story spawned over 20 sequels. Disney revamped the adventures for a film in 1999 and again for a stage musical in 2004. Nine years later, Tarzan lands at the New Hope Center for the first Pacific Northwest production. Continue reading 

Talking to Strangers

Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress talks Chris Rock and 30 Rock

Before Hannibal Buress started doing stand-up comedy at 19 in Chicago, he wanted to be the “black Howard Stern.” Since then he’s written for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and has appeared on Louie, Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live! In 2012, he released his first Comedy Central special “Animal Furnace,” and now he’s working on his new web series Talking to Strangers, in which he interviews musicians like The Root’s Questlove. Just don’t ask him when it premieres, because, well, he has no idea.  Continue reading 

Cirque Du Eugene!

If you didn’t catch Cirque Du Soleil when they came through town last year, there’s no need to fret. Local promoter Fusion Friendly is presenting the next best thing at Cozmic on Saturday: Cirque Du Eugene! For the third year running, this amalgamated variety show — which features various carnival-esque gymnastic acts performed by Bounce Gymnastics — will take the stage and boggle some minds. Continue reading 

A night of spuds and  schtick at Tsunami

The Actors’ Table of Eugene (T.A.T.E.) is showcasing some of the best comedy for women … and potatoes. This installment of Eugene’s eclectic readers’ theater will feature some sort of spud in every offering. Local actresses will read from their favorite comic pieces, and so long as there’s a potato involved, it’s no-holds-barred on the material. Continue reading 

She’s Got You

Actors Cabaret would like to introduce you to Patsy Cline

“There’s just no one who can touch her. Hell, I hang on every line,” Jimmy Buffet once sang of Patsy Cline. She is so much more than the first female country singer to headline her own tour, to perform at Carnegie Hall and to truly break down barriers of gender in country music. She is more than a tragic legend of young talent, villainous prompters and a cheating husband. She is a voice so strong and soulful you begin to wonder why you ever bothered listening to anyone else try to sing. Continue reading 

Science vs. Religion

How the World Began explores the Earth’s origins in rural Kansas

When you inherit the wind, hold onto your hat: You never know where you might end up. Or do you? I’m speaking, of course, about the 1955 play Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and dramatizing the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence Darrow in a Tennessee court case that questioned whether evolution could be taught in public schools up against the supreme word of God. Continue reading 

Not the Nerd Table

The dapper literary humorist and comedian reflects on writing, the biology of laughter and high school

Mustachioed Renaissance man John Hodgman has accomplished pretty much everything a nerd-dandy could ever want: doling out advice for McSweeney’s, serving as humor editor for The New York Times Magazine, contributing to This American Life, appearing on The Daily Show, Battlestar Gallactica and Community, and writing a trilogy of deliciously fictional almanacs. Now, he takes on stand-up comedy, or his own esoteric, foppish version of it. Continue reading