Performing Arts: Page 67

Home is Where the Hate Is

Oregon Contemporary Theatre explores racism and real estate in Clybourne Park

Theater
Hillary Ferguson, Jason Rowe, Jonathan Thompson and Donella-Elizabeth Alston in Clybourne Park

A witty, often biting examination of neighborhood integration, white flight, gentrification and just how far we have not come in the last half century, Clybourne Park is playwright Bruce Norris’ 21st-century response to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, in which a black family plans to move into a white neighborhood. Norris’ play, now at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, takes Hansberry’s tale of balancing assimilation and heritage full circle as white professionals return with grand plans to the neighborhoods their grandparents fled. Continue reading →

Esther the Lionhearted and Twinkle-Toed

Ballet Fantastique’s rock gospel ballet goes biblical

Dance
Ballet Fantastique company dancer Leanne Mizzoni as Esther

A local mother-daughter team is pushing the limits of ballet by finding inspiration in the most unlikely of places. For The Book of Esther, Ballet Fantastique’s Donna Bontrager and her daughter Hannah Bontrager go way, way back — to approximately 486 BC — for the finale of their 2013-2014 season. What better way to end the company’s “New Legends” series than with a story from one of the oldest existing works of literature: The Old Testament? Continue reading →

Into the Wild

ACE vet Mark VanBeever goes happily never after with Into the Woods

Theater
India Potter (left), Beth Milton, Bryana Smith as Cinderella’s stepsisters and stepmother and Alexis Myles (seated) as Cinderella.

A strange species of magical realism pervades Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, a darkly funny musical that mashes up a handful of our most familiar fairy tales into a salty stew of deviant psychology and romantic dissatisfaction. Keeping the outward trappings of the fables intact, Sondheim douses them with the realpolitik of reality. Hence, Cinderella finds her Prince only so-so, Little Red Riding Hood is a snarky brat and Rapunzel, left alone too long in her tower, is a neurotic mess. Continue reading →

Ask Carol Burnett

Comedy
Burnett on the Garry Moore Show

Renowned for her sparkly, good-natured ad-lib ability, entertainer Carol Burnett graciously carved out a new role for women in film and television — one in which they could be funny and smart. Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kirsten Wiig and many others stand on Burnett’s shoulders. Now you can see this laugh-riot giant in real life, as the kids say these days, at the Hult May 7. Continue reading →

The Madness of Memory Lane

VLT director Gerald Walters discusses the challenges of The Other Place

Theater

The human memory is a most wily creature, a Picasso-like construction of images and emotions. And if we manipulate our own memories, to what extent is anything we remember real? Part psychological study, part fast-paced thriller, The Other Place is a play that explores the fascinating study of memory. According to The New York Times, the play is “cunningly constructed entertainment that discloses its nifty twists at intervals that keep us intrigued.”  Continue reading →

Love Is All Around

LCC’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream makes magic

Theater
Michelle Nordella and Robert Newcomer

That Puck! What an imp, what a funnin’ fool. Should any wee hint of the grave or the dour threaten to shank the shambolic ether of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, rest assured that frolicsome Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow, servant to Oberon (King of the Faeries), will hop to and eradicate all frowns with a sly spree of herkimer-jerkimer and utter tomfoolery. Nay, Puck ─ as the sprightly stand-in for Shakespeare’s bumptious side ─ will have none of our earnestness. Life, after all, is but a dream. Continue reading →

Getting Doug with High

Comedy
Doug Benson

If you don’t know who Doug Benson is by now, you very well may not be smoking enough weed. The standup comedian (Gateway Doug), actor (The Greatest Movie Ever Rolled) and podcast veteran (Doug Loves Movies, Getting Doug with High) has made Eugene a regular stop four years running for his 4/21 show at WOW Hall. EW caught up with the green funnyman to talk shop, pot, podcasts and more.   Continue reading →

Moshe Pit

Comedian Moshe Kasher sounds off about life on tour

Comedy
Moshe Kasher

You know him from the internet, his standup comedy and his character “Pig Bottom” on Tubbin’ with Tash on YouTube. He doesn’t shy away from mainstream screens either; Moshe Kasher has also been featured on Chelsea Lately, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and Conan. He is also a writer for the sitcom The New Normal and author of memoir Kasher in the Rye (which is reviewed by William Kennedy in EW’s April 17 issue). Continue reading →

Behind Zoot Suit Riot

Dance
Danielle Tolmie, Mark Tucker, Steve Perry, Reed Souther and Victoria Harvey. Photo by Jon Christopher Meyers

Sarah Ebert may be a newcomer to choreographing for the Eugene Ballet Company, but she hasn’t shied away from the pace. “In modern dance, we take months to let things marinate — we explore, we play. But in ballet, the time limit is interesting. It’s fast, and it works, because the EBC dancers are willing to experiment,” Ebert says.  Continue reading →