Performing Arts: Page 66

Women on the Verge

UO Opera Ensemble’s “A Tale of Two Women looks at the lives of American women

Performing Arts
Austin and Katherine Curtis in Trouble In Tahiti

Divas and prima donnas rule the opera stage. But in real life, not so much, no matter what happens with Hillary in 2016. On Feb. 8 and 9, the University of Oregon Opera Ensemble presents “A Tale of Two Women: The Old Maid and the Thief and Trouble in Tahiti,” a pair of delightful American one-act operas that explore — sometimes hilariously, ultimately poignantly — the psychology of mid-20th-century women and their roles in a changing America. Continue reading →

Love and Language

The Very Little Theatre presents The Language Archive

Theater

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say. I have never understood anything you are trying to say,” says George, the protagonist of The Language Archive. Can you love language but have no words for love? George is a passionate linguist but a passive spouse. He cannot express his love for Mary. She, in turn, hides odd little poems about her unhappiness and then denies ever writing them, such as, “Husband or throw pillow? Wife or hot-water bottle? Marriage or an old cardigan? Love or explaining how to use the remote control?” Continue reading →

Undead WYMPROV!

Comedy

“The four of us are kind of like sisters,” Vicki Silvers tells me over coffee pre-snowstorm at Noisette Pastry Kitchen, with her other “sister” Debbie Martin in tow. She’s speaking of the four women who make up WYMPROV!, a pioneering comedy improv group whose legacy in Eugene dates back more than two decades to its “Debut and Farewell” show at Agate Hall. Martin nods, adding that the foursome is supportive of each other on stage and off, getting together for frequent dinners and continuing “to get together and play.” Continue reading →

Caveman Lives, Learns

VLT presents quiet sci-fi thriller The Man From Earth

Theater
Dave Smith, Lauren Mason, Tiffany Rockwell, David Mort and Jennifer Sellers

John Oldman is either a “caveman, a liar or a nut.” A tenure-track professor quite suddenly announces his departure from the university where he has comfortably taught for 10 years. His fellow professors insist on the ritual of cheese, crackers and a proper going away, only to have their party ruined when John works up the courage to tell them the truth. He is 14,000 years old. He never ages, never dies and has been adrift in the world since the late Paleolithic age, learning about himself as the world comes to understand its own history. Continue reading →

A Green Hero’s Journey

Actors Cabaret delights with Shrek! The Musical

Theater
Alex Holmes and Mark VanBeever.

If you’d been living in a swamp since you were seven, you might not be too concerned with personal hygiene either. Still, while he’s not the handsomest of guys, with his green skin, bulbous nose and trumpeting ears, Shrek has plenty of odoriferous humor and heart, and he’ll need both to save Duloc’s fairy tale creatures, rescue the princess and cope with his new sentimental feelings of … love?  Continue reading →