We've got issues.
With 20 songs and the precedent of a 1983 film starring Steve Martin and Bill Murray, Little Shop of Horrors isn’t the easiest musical to pull off. But Red Cane Theater, home of the Phoinix Players, succeeds in telling the story of the Venus flytrap from Hell on Skid Row. Continue reading
We hear that the Oregon Country Fair new movement arts program will feature performances and workshops on a dedicated stage, the spiffy new Dance Pavilion, during the weekend (July 10-12) of the OCF. Look for Salseros Dance Company, the Connexus dance collective, Track Town Swing Club, Danceability and more. A full schedule is available at oregoncountryfair.org. Continue reading
Comedian, author and actress Jen Kirkman is known for appearing on Chelsea Handler’s talk show Chelsea Lately and for being one of the first comedians to sign up for Drunk History. In 2013, Kirkman released the New York Times bestselling memoir, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids. Continue reading
First, the bad news: Cottage Theatre’s excellent production of David Auburn’s Pulitzer-winning drama Proof ends its run this weekend, so you’ll have to scramble to get tickets. The good news, then, is that, should you land seats, you will be treated to one of the finest local productions of the year. Directed with a sure hand by Alan Beck and featuring a small cast of talented local actors, this production achieves an almost perfect balance of emotional resonance and technical finesse. The play is so engaging and moving, so rich and dynamic, it feels like a dream. Continue reading
In the canon of musical comedies, it doesn’t get much better than How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Playing this weekend at The Shedd, this hilarious 1961 musical slyly satirizes the midcentury corporate American workplace, as its hero, J. Pierrepont Finch, a humble window washer, ascends the rungs of the corporate ladder by not really doing anything. Continue reading
When performer Nancy Hopps first tackled the one-woman show Raw Canvas in 2001, her life was in a radically different place than it is today. “I had just come through cancer, relationship changes,” Hopps recalls. “I was a busy, active parent to a teenage daughter. Coming back to the play now, I realize even more that the character’s weighing her own passions and artistic fulfillment against societal and familial expectations.” Continue reading
The Very Little Theatre’s current main stage production Superior Donuts, directed by Stanley Coleman, is a work of both comedic and dramatic realism, like a buddy film with a twist of gut-wrenching social commentary. The interwoven genres at work here are not too surprising, as it comes from playwright Tracy Letts, who’s most famous work August: Osage County deals with the dark underbelly of Americana as a dramedy. Continue reading
This month’s dance kicks off with #instaballet at the First Friday ArtWalk. “Watch Eugene Ballet Company dancers make a ballet!”#instaballet co-founder Suzanne Haag writes. “Audience members get to suggest steps (feel free to get inventive and a little crazy) to create a ballet to be performed at 8 pm.” Catch it 5 to 8 pm Friday, June 5, at 771 Willamette (between 7th and 8th); come and go as you please. More info at instaballet.org; free. Continue reading
The drums beat, heavy and slow at first, then picking up speed like a heartbeat. The rhythm pushes for answers, for ancestry. Dontrell cannot escape the dreams calling him to this quest — dreams of a forebearer who leapt to his death from a slave ship during the Middle Passage. But Dontrell has a scholarship to maintain, a family to deal with and he can’t swim. Making his way into the middle of the Atlantic feels as hopeless as any hero’s journey. Faith, fate and family will all step in to shuffle his chances of success. Continue reading
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