Eugene Weekly

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 →

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 →

“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 →

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 →

“What a twist of fate!” Storm Kennedy exclaims, as she prepares her role in Love, Loss, and What I Wore, a play by sisters Delia and Nora Ephron, based off the book by Ilene Beckerman. Continue reading →

Near Amazon and 19th is a theater that seats 1,000 people — it is the second largest theater in Eugene. Its cavernous room glows warmly from the theater lights hitting the sea of red velvet seats. The elegant curve of the stage leads the eye to a custom-welded circular light piece, twinkling as it hangs above four candy-colored carousel horses — the quartet is hand-carved and painted, and worth $60,000. The theater director and his leading cast gather in the aisle, chattering about the opening night of their production, Carousel, on Feb. 21. Continue reading →

About halfway through the first act of Student Productions Associations’ staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at LCC’s Blue Door Theatre, I happened upon an idea so absurd it brought on a viciously improper fit of giggles: Imagine adapting one of John Cassavettes’ movies — say, Faces or A Woman Under the Influence — for the stage, and then casting it with nothing but 8-year-old actors. It’s a chilling proposition. Continue reading →