Performing Arts: Page 47

To Be a Fool

Eugene theater mavens bring new resident company to Springfield’s Wildish Theater

Theater

In the 1970s, The New Mime Circus Theater Ensemble was one of Eugene’s several cooperative community projects. Today, the company has been resurrected in a new form by co-founders Judith “Sparky” Roberts and fellow performer Joe Cronin. Fools Haven, a nonprofit, launched its inaugural performance with a Shakespeare showcase at Springfield’s Wildish Community Theater in December 2014, and has since staged several showcases and other works at the Eugene Public Library, the Very Little Theatre and other public venues. Continue reading →

To Bee or Not to Bee

Funny is the word in Cottage Theatre’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Theater
The cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Cottage Theatre

What if you could peer into the hearts and minds of the participants of a middle-school spelling bee, just to see what makes them tick? What’s motivating them? What performance rituals do they employ to correctly spell words like autochthonous or eudaemonic? Cottage Theatre’s new production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee answers these questions and more in a winning production directed by Mark VanBeever.  Continue reading →

Parade of Portlanders

Rose City performers descend on Eugene

Performing Arts

Once upon a time, it seemed as though music, like the Willamette, flowed mainly to the north: Eugene bands worked hard to play Portland, but the favor wasn’t always returned, especially in the classical and jazz arenas. More and more, though, we’re seeing Portland performers recognizing the value of the Eugene market and, accordingly, this winter and spring brings a parade of Portlanders here to perform additional, even exclusive concerts. Continue reading →

Written in the Stars

OCT’s Silent Sky tells story of little-known female astronomer

Performing Arts
OCT’s Silent Sky director Elizabeth Helman

Like a lot of people, Corvallis-based theater director and educator Elizabeth Helman watched Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos series on Netflix. “I just happened to see a tiny little biography,” Helman tells EW, “a 10-minute segment of the Cosmos series and it had this mini-biography about Henrietta Leavitt.” Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an American astronomer at the turn of the 20th century. Continue reading →