Eugene weekly., August 31, 2017, Page 11, Image 11

The Conforth sisters’ theatrical reign at The Shedd be-
gan in 2013, when all three of them were cast in a produc-
tion of The Music Man. Since then, the young women have
been in a slew of Shedd performances as individuals, but
as a group, they were also cast in last year’s Annie Get Your
Gun and this year’s Gypsy.
Along with spending hours upon hours rehearsing to-
gether, in the theater and at home, the Conforths also
homeschool together. Surprisingly, though, the sisters say
all the intense time spent together is a benefit, not a burden.
“It’s great,” oldest sister, Cyra, says. “I think we’re
closer as siblings than a lot of people are.”
Amanda also enjoys that her daughters work together in
Shedd productions. She says it encourages collaboration.
“When you’re in a production and you have to come
home and work on your lines and work on your vocals,
you’re doing it by yourself,” Amanda says. “But they’re
not doing it by themselves. So they can play vocally, they
can take ideas from each other, ask questions.”
Cyra has plans to move to California to pursue acting
and Kenady has dreams of one day being on Broadway —
youngest sister, Campbell, is too young to stress out about
any of that yet — but in the meantime, the sisters have
thrived in the local scene.
Performing in Shedd productions led Cyra and Kenady
to get involved with The Shedd’s Musical Theatre Training
Academy (MTTA).
MTTA itself, much like the Conforth family, is built on
a basis of collaboration and teamwork. It’s led by director
Vicki Brabham, who has been involved with The Shedd
off-and-on over the past 20 years.
“Right now we do two programs per year,” Brabham
says. MTTA is open to students in grades 9 through 12 and
has a 10-week winter program that runs for a few hours
every Saturday morning, so as to not interfere with school
schedules, and a three-week summer program that func-
tions more intensely and “more like a day camp,” she says.
MTTA teaches the building blocks of musical theater,
Brabham says. The program builds acting, singing and
dancing skills with the use of older, classic repertoire
sometimes from as far back as the 1930s.
This summer, the program focused on mid-century
Broadway, which included a selection of pieces from mu-
sicals such as My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof.
“As enamored as high school students can be with con-
temporary musical theater, let’s show them what the influ-
ences were that acted upon people who write contempo-
rary,” Brabham says.
Brabham says she knew the Conforth sisters would
make a great addition to the program.
“I first saw them as performers in Shedd productions
and then just kind of inquired if they would be interested,”
she says. “I knew it would be another commitment for
them, but I felt that it was a mutually beneficial relation-
ship — that I had something to offer them as well as their
talent giving back to our program, and not just talent for
the sake of at show time.”
She says of the trio, “They’re great models for the other
ensemble members for how hard they work and how re-
spectful and professional they are.”
Although the Conforths are involved in other theatrical
endeavors — voice lessons, dance lessons (middle sister
Kenady actually teaches five dance classes a week) — the
trio still found the MTTA program rewarding on top of
their already busy schedules.
Both Cyra and Kenady say a big part of their apprecia-
tion for the program was working with people their own
age who are just as passionate as they are.
“It’s awesome to be in a situation where you’re with a
whole bunch of people your own age who are so talented
and also love the same thing that you love,” Kenady says,
“because we live in a small town where not a lot of people
do theatre, so it’s good to be surrounded by people who
love the same thing you do.”
MTTA as a program is pretty unique too, Brabham says.
“In certain ways it does stand alone,” she says. “Cer-
tainly the type of material or the repertoire is not an attempt
to do the flashy new musicals.”
Brabham adds that the program is also unique in the
way it brings high schoolers from different backgrounds
into an arena where they can collaborate.
“That stretches them to work alongside other people
who are very talented as well, and then they see that there’s
a bigger world out there than their one place, where they
might be the star — very well could be,” she says.
Brabham puts extra effort in attempting to recruit young
people from various high schools, as well as home school-
ers, reaching out to various theater directors in the Eugene-
Springfield area. “I try to get two students from every
school in the Eugene and Springfield districts,” she says.
MTTA’s eventual goal is to become a destination camp
for young people outside of the Eugene area. “Thanks to
people like the Conforths,” she says, “it’s starting to feel
like it’s a destination camp.”
But, Brabham stresses, one of the most important parts
of MTTA is that it shows young adults in the area that they
can find valuable artistic experiences in their own town.
“I would like students to know that they don’t have to
leave the area to get a quality musical theater experience,”
she says. “Often when they think about being pushed to the
next level, they want to go to Interlochen [Center for the
Arts in Michigan] or an arts program in a big city like L.A.
or New York. But maybe what they’re ready for is right
here in their backyard.” ■
Theater lost one of its greatest playwrights this year
when Sam Shepard died in July at the age of 73. Shepard’s
uncompromising work — giving voice to an aggrieved,
brutalized masculinity driven inward until it implodes
in moments of raw vulnerability and unappeasable
loss — has left an indelible mark on American theater,
and his 1979 off-Broadway play, the Pulitzer-winning
Buried Child , will be mounted April 6-28 at Oregon
Contemporary Theatre under the direction of Joseph Gilg.
One of Shepard’s most powerful and moving plays, it's a
fitting tribute to a legendary talent.
It’s not surprising, in this nightmare Age of Trump,
that someone is trotting out a work by Bertolt Brecht, one
of several writers who escaped Nazi Germany to land in
the U.S., where he did most of his best writing. The UO’s
University Theatre produces Brecht’s greatest play, Mother
Courage , March 2-17. Other productions of a distinctly
political and timely nature include Frost/Nixon at Very
Little Theatre (Aug. 10-25) as well as The Crucible , the
late Arthur Miller’s historicized fable about the evils of
McCarthyism, running June 8-24 at Cottage Theatre.
Cut to those world premieres. OCT is bringing us
Andrea Stolowitz’ Successful Strategies Feb. 23-March
11. Stolowitz, a Portland playwright, sets her contemporary
version of the 18th-century Pierre de Marivaux farce of the
same name in a Willamette Valley vineyard.
Meanwhile, Cottage Theatre is one of six community
theaters nationwide selected to take part in the American
Association of Community Theatre’s 2018 NewPlayFest,
which premieres new work in multiple venues around
the country. CT will be running Alabama playwright Joe
Musso’s Treehouse Aug. 10-26; it’s a drama that grows
out of a line from Shakespeare, “To be or not to be.”
Sadly, that’s it for new work in the coming season.
Yes, Very Little Theatre is doing another Little Shop of
Horrors (June 1-23) for you Audrey II fans out there. More
substantial material comes to VLT with Matthew Lopez’
The Whipping Man (Jan. 19-Feb. 3), which looks weirdly
pertinent to today’s political climate: It’s the tale of a Jewish
Confederate soldier who returns home after the Civil War to
be greeted by two former family slaves, raised as Jews.
Actors Cabaret, Eugene’s little dinner/musical
community theatre that could, offers its usual light musical
fare; our favorites might be the Queen jukebox musical We
Will Rock You , June 29-July 28, and Reefer Madness ,
Oct. 26-Nov. 3.
Finally, for the holiday season, it seems that A Christmas
Carol has finally lost its horrifying cachet. (As recently as
2015 you could see five different December productions
here in town.)
Instead, Radio Redux, which does live portrayals of
classic radio comedy and drama, will stage an abbreviated
version of The Shop Around the Corner (whose story
was turned into the movie You’ve Got Mail) as part of its
Christmas program, which also includes music and story
telling (Dec. 8-10).
Cottage Theatre is doing Seussical (Dec. 1-23). VLT’s
December show will be The Christmas Foundling
(Dec. 1-10), about miners in the Sierra raising a baby boy;
Actors Cabaret will mount Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat Nov. 17-Dec. 16; The Shedd’s
feel-good December show will be Singin’ in The Rain ,
Dec. 1-17; and OCT has no holiday show scheduled. ■
CYRA
CONFORTH
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 31, 2017
11