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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2004)
BRAVO! WINTER/SPRING 2004 VERY LITTLE THEATRE The Very Little Theatre presents The Lion in Winter by James Goldman Reva Kaufman, director Jan. 9-11*, 15-18*, 22-25* 30-31 * Sunday Matinees Tickets: $12 Students $9 on Thursdays Box office open 2:00-5:30 Wed.-Sat., 2350 Hilyard St. www.TheVLT.com 344-7751 AUDITIONS CABARET The award-winning musical by John Kander & Fred Ebb Directed by Michael Watkins Sat., Jan. 10 • Noon Sun., Jan. 11 • 6 p.m. 2350 Hilyard St. Roles for men and women of all ages (18+); prepare a short song, be prepared to dance. ALL ROLES AVAILABLE! For more information, call 686-1177 most conventional theater standards, yet editing O’Neill’s writing is difficult. “He repeats things, but always in a different context,” says Boyd. He tried to make edits, yet found it nearly impossible. Knowing Cantero had been a master of working with O’Neill’s words, Boyd took a leap of faith. He wrote to Nick Tsacrios, Cantero’s surviving partner, asking if there existed a script with Cantero’s cuts. What Boyd received back from Tsacrios was not only a finely edited script, but also notes with blocking and light cues, all neatly typed. “It was such a score,” says Boyd, not intending any pun. The lyrical Moon opens Jan. 28 and runs through Feb. 15. lso in January, Lord Leebrick Theatre Company opens Far Away. Caryl Churchill’s (Top Girls, Cloud 9) 50-minute one act work explores the topic of ethnic cleansing and questions humankind’s relationship to the planet. Directed by John Schmor (Ship of Fools for UT, Romeo and Juliet for LLTC), Far Away stars Elena Stylos as Young Joan, Barbara Embree as Harper, Bruce McArthur as Todd, and Kim Bates as Older Joan to create an exhilarating journey that takes the audience through a tale woven with metaphor. “The title works on many levels” says LLTC Artistic Director Craig Willis. Is it long ago and far away that such things occurred? Or is it so far away geo- graphically we don’t need to worry about it? Willis says the show speaks not just to the A 22 JANUARY 8, 2004 eradication of ethnic groups, but explores any hate, whether it’s toward the Axis of Evil or from those opposed to gay marriage. The play doesn’t raise the issue of hate murder directly, but is composed of parable and allegory. “What theater can do beauti- fully,” says Willis, “is prompt discussion, thought and question.” Schmor had proposed the play last year to LLTC AD Corey Pearlstein, who had previously directed Cloud 9 at the space. He gave it the go ahead. Willis says it’s one of the best chosen works of the season. Unlike Churchill's Top Girls, which was nicely produced by UT several years ago, but whose second act is much weaker than the first, and Cloud 9, whose production has its challenges, Far Away is a “tightly woven script with a more developed plot,” he says, despite its 50- minute duration. Far Away opens Jan. 7 and continues through Jan 24. UO professor Linda Kintz will moderate a talk-back after the Sunday, Jan. 11 matinee. Michelle Morain & Tony DeBruno star in WRT’s A Moon for the Misbegotten. — 75th SEASON — Boyd had met Jose Cantero, the foremost interpreter of O’Neill. “He could get rights to what no one else could, even though he wasn’t American, but Panamanian,” says Boyd. Something about Cantero and his connection with O’Neill impressed O’Neill’s widow, Carlotta, however, and she gave him rights. “We became good friends; we just clicked,” says Boyd. And when Boyd came to Eugene and formed WRT, Cantero was slated to direct the opening production. Not Moon, “because he was loyal to another actress who’d played Josie,” Boyd says, but another chosen work. Sadly, Cantero passed away before that promise was realized. And Moon, to which Boyd had already procured rights, was revived on Broadway, thereby freezing those rights. To be directing and producing Moon this season, says Boyd, puts him into an “emo- tional place.” But here comes the magic. The script of Moon is long, too long by lso on the not-so-distant horizon is a tremendous undertaking: Actors Cabaret collaborates with LCC in presenting The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, directed by Joe Zingo. Running just one weekend, Feb. 27-29 at LCC’s main campus, the production will include up to 40 area actors. The play chronicles the 1998 Wyoming murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shephard, a gay man who was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyo. His body was discovered the next day, and he died several days later. Playwright Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half in the aftermath of the beating and dur- ing the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. They conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town; some of whom were directly connect- ed to the case. Kaufman and Tectonic Theater members have constructed a deeply moving theatrical experience from these interviews and their own experiences. Time magazine called The Laramie Project “One of the 10 best plays of 2000”; and it was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. ACE founders Jim Roberts and Joe Zingo say, “It is our goal with The Laramie Project to involve more than 40 of the best actors in the Eugene/Springfield area to commit to the concept that what happened in Laramie, Wyo., will never happen here.” ew A
