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Oregon Contemporary Theatre artistic director Craig Willis recalls hearing a reading of a new play, Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea, at a 2013 showcase for the National New Play Network (NNPN) he attended in San Diego. “Clearly, this play inspired the most reaction that weekend,” Willis says. “You could tell that there was a special voice behind it.” Continue reading
Nearly every situational comedy in the history of television — Three’s Company being the purest and most salient example — can trace its ancestry to Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, which in turn divined its easy, effervescent form from the classical Aristotelian unities of action, time and place. Continue reading
How is it the board game Clue has so captured our imaginations? One would never consider creating a film out of Chutes and Ladders, and I can feel my eye start to twitch just thinking about what Monopoly: The Musical might look like. But a dramatization of Clue? We’re so there. The who-done-it game has inspired stage and screen adaptations, and Actor’s Cabaret of Eugene’s current production focuses the energy on the 1993 musical for dinner theater fare. Continue reading
The apocalypse has come, and it’s the work of men. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, after three Mad Max movies that saw the world getting progressively darker (even as the third movie went to a strangely playful place that felt more Goonies than Road Warrior). It’s unclear when, exactly, Fury Road takes place in the Mad Max timeline, but it doesn’t matter. The world is in ruins, and Max (Tom Hardy) is (still) just trying to survive in what’s left of it. Continue reading
Austin singer-songwriter Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves, wants to scratch all of your respective itches. Drawing from myriad sounds that prove difficult to solidly place a finger on, he dwells in a dusty sonic landscape somewhere between Two Gallants and M. Ward. However, Graves has never needed the aid of a Zooey Deschanel to lure out or take the blame for his pop sensibility. Continue reading
The May 26 show at WOW Hall is a bit of a rare bird as far as Eugene goes: The lineup features two badass acts, both women. Over the phone, I mention to singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis how unusual this is, to have a show here with nary a beard gracing the stage. “I’ve always tried to be fair with picking openers,” Lewis says. “It’s just cool to have all females on the bill.” Continue reading
The meteoric rise of Glass Animals was unexpected, especially for frontman Dave Bayley. In fact, the success of the indie-electro rock band feels much like a dream. Bayley produced many of the band’s early original recordings in his bedroom in Oxford, England. He tells EW that he never expected anyone to hear his music, adding that he was at first “too shy” to sing over his instrumentation. Continue reading
The Eagles are one of the most commercially successful bands in U.S. history, penning such classic rock staples as “Hotel California” and “Take It Easy.” But these days, The Eagles are equally well known for drawing The Dude’s ire in the Coen Brothers’ cult classic, The Big Lebowski. The Eagles are equal parts rock band and running punch line, symbolizing for many all that was bland and watered down about ’70s-era pop rock. And just why are The Eagles so divisive? Continue reading
Some of the most vibrant young voices in jazz and show music belong to women, and three of the most intriguing rising vocalists are coming to town in the next couple weeks. Continue reading
Film has a long and fairly distinguished history of satirizing the insidious allure of televised celebrity — Being There, King of Comedy and To Die For come immediately to mind — and yet few films to date have captured the way our newly acquired addiction to selfies and social media is elevating narcissism to a collective pathology. Continue reading