WORLD CLASS DANCE
TONI PIMBLE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
EUGENE BALLET COMPANY @HULT CENTER
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Carmina
Burana
Bravo!
E W ’ S G U I D E TO T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S
WRITTEN IN
THE STARS
THE GREAT GATSBY
OCT’s Silent Sky tells story of little-known
female astronomer
L
ike a lot of people, Corvallis-
based theater director and
educator Elizabeth Helman
watched Neil deGrasse
Tyson’s Cosmos series on
APR 9–10
FEB 13–14
MAY 14 ONE SHOW!
PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL
BEGINS FEBRUARY 18–28, 2016
100+ Events | A Dozen Venues | pdxjazz.com
Brian Blade and Fellowship
OCT’S SILENT
SKY DIRECTOR
ELIZABETH
HELMAN
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.
When Craig Willis, artistic
director of Oregon Contemporary
Theatre, gave Helman some scripts
to consider directing, Silent Sky,
Lauren Gunderson’s 2011 play
about Leavitt, caught Helman’s
attention.
Helman continues: “Months later I read the script and I went, ‘Wait a minut e! That
sounds really familiar.’” She says it feels as though her decision to direct the play was
written in the stars.
“It’s a very sweet biographical story,” Helman says, noting that Leavitt made some
significant discoveries while working at Harvard — chiefly the relation between the
luminosity and the period of Cepheid variable stars that later lead to the development of
the Hubble telescope.
Perhaps that’s all too science-y for you — Helman says it’s even a bit too much for
her.
“I’ve always been interested in astronomy and science,” Helman jokes. “I’m horrible
at science and I’m terrible at math, but I find it really fascinating.”
“I just enjoyed the way the story was told,” Helman says of Silent Sky. “It’s warm and
it’s funny and comic and also true. It gets at a lot of issues about women in science,
women in academia, issues of gender, issues of sexism. A lot of that still resonates today.
A lot has changed but a lot of those old gender biases still exist,” she says.
“The story is really human,” Helman adds. “The characters are very real and they’re
funny and they’re flawed.”
Silent Sky runs Feb. 26 through March 19 at Oregon Contemporary Theatre. —
William Kennedy
EVERYbody has DanceAbility
DanceAbility Class for Youth and Adults
January 11 – March 14, 2016
Mondays: Youth 4-5pm • Adult 5-6pm
www.danceability.com • 541-357-4982
Creative dance class for people of all abilities & disabilities
Ravi Coltrane
Dianne Reeves | Chano Domínguez | Kenny Barron | Pat Martino
Spanish Harlem Orchestra | Orrin Evans | Geri Allen | Joe Lovano
Jimmy Greene | John Scofield | George Cables | Azar Lawrence
Sonny Fortune | Alicia Olatuja | Nicole Glover | Gary Peacock
Sullivan Fortner | Reggie Workman | Jimmy Cobb | Gary Bartz
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18
January 21, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
Hilarious comedy THE NERD
The Kathy and Mo Show:
directed by Shelly Davey Dax
PARALLEL LIVES
AUDITIONS for THE NERD
February 8 & 9 at 6:30pm
by Mo Gaffney & Kathy Najimy
Feb. 18-20, 25-27 • 7:30pm • $12 - Rated R
directed by Peg Major
Starring Miriam Major and Nikki Pagniano
SHOW DATES for THE NERD
April 28, 29, 30, May 5, 6, 7 at 8pm
513 E Main Street, Cottage Grove, OR
541-946-7252 • www.opalcentercg.org