July 06. 2022
Page 11
Rhythms of Cultures
s ports
Blazers Select Sharpe
with No. 7 Pick
Photo by Jenny Graham/Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Reina Guthrie and Donna Simone Johnson give a comic book edge to
‘Revenge Song: A Vampire Cowboys Creation,’ one of five new productions
now playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.
Continued from Page 9
“Revenge Song: A Vampire Cowboys
Creation” may be encountering a bit of
rough water in finding its audience. Set
on the venerated outdoor stage, the Al-
len Elizabethan Theatre, it is about as
far from traditional as anything OSF
has staged, which is exactly its object.
It is the work of Qui Nguyen (who
wrote “Vietgone,” which charmed OSF
audiences in 2016), Robert Ross Park-
er (who directed and wrote the lyrics
with Nguyen), and Shane Rettig (who
wrote the music). All are collaborators
in Vampire Cowboys, a self-styled geek
theater company whose aesthetic has
been to create and produce new work
based in action/adventure and dark
comedy with a comic book edge.
This musical fits within that aesthetic.
It takes the story of Julie d’Aubigny--an
actual woman from 17-century France
who transgressed gender boundaries,
had affairs with both men and women,
was a practiced sword fighter and fa-
mous opera singer, and broke rules of all
kinds—and turns it into a raunchy, ac-
tion and comic-book-humor fest. Most
of the story here is based on what is ac-
tually said to be true about d’Aubigny,
but the language and aesthetic is more
openly profane and current than a tradi-
tional period drama would be, the better
to capture and celebrate how shocking
d’Aubigny was in her day.
OSF’s typical audiences aren’t neces-
sarily prepared for this level of irrever-
ence, judging from some of the reaction
the show has gotten. But it will delight
those who can relax and receive the show
on its own terms; it’s not making a case
for anything but rather aims to be playful
in the way a lot of comic-book art aims to
be—wild, violent, profane, and pushing
boundaries for the sake of doing so. The
cast and crew are all the way in, and audi-
ences willing to go with them will enjoy
the ride. “Revenge Song” plays on the
Allen Elizabethan stage through Oct. 14.
“Unseen” is the work of playwright
Mona Mansour, and is enjoying its West
Coast premiere under the direction of
Evrin Odcikin. It’s an intimate drama
about global concerns, centered on an
American conflict photographer, Mia;
her Turkish former lover, Derya; and her
mother, Jane, who travels to Derya’s Is-
tanbul apartment after Mia is found un-
conscious but otherwise unharmed at the
site of a massacre in Syria where she’d
been shooting photographs. In the play,
Mia serves as an exemplar of the con-
flicted morality of the citizens of West-
ern superpowers; Mia makes her living
from documenting the pain of others in
war zones whose suffering is often ei-
ther inflamed or neglected by those very
powers.
Is Mia doing good or an exploiter
herself? Both? How is she impacted by
the suffering she witnesses? How is she
implicated? These questions animate the
story, though I can’t say their resolu-
tion is wholly satisfying. In some ways,
Derya (Nora el Samahy) would have
been the more interesting focus, though
a riskier subject for attracting American
audiences. What attracts Derya to Mia
(Helen Sadler), and what sort of rela-
tionship is possible with an apparently
talented but in many ways insufferable
American? We otherwise learn little
about Derya’s story, since in the play
she exists mainly in relationship to Mia.
Meanwhile, Mia’s suffering feels mostly
self-inflicted; the occasional clueless-
ness of her privileged mother (Caroline
Shaffer) feels more honest, even while
Mia would be viewed as more worldly.
The performances are solid, and the
design artists bring us into Mia’s view of
Istanbul and Syria via music and art and
movement; yet the play offers only snip-
pets of the worlds of Mia’s subjects and
of Derya. Perhaps the best way to ap-
proach this play is to allow Mia to func-
tion as a mirror to ourselves as Amer-
icans; what is dissatisfying about her
ought to dissatisfy us about ourselves.
“Unseen” plays in the intimate Thomas
Theater through July 31.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on the Ore-
gon Court of Appeals and the first wom-
an of color to serve in that capacity. Her
movie and theater review column Opin-
ionated Judge appears regularly in The
Portland Observer. Find her review blog
at opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.
Shaedon Sharpe(right) shakes hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after
being selected seventh overall by the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA basket-
ball draft, Thursday, June 23, in New York. (AP photo)
Five-star recruit
never suited up
in college
(AP) — The Portland Trail Blazers se-
lected Shaedon Sharpe with the seventh
pick in the NBA draft on June 23, taking
a chance on a player who never suited up
in college.
Sharpe, 6-foot-6 wing from Canada,
was a five-star recruit who committed to
Kentucky but never played for the Wild-
cats. He intended on redshirting his first
season, but instead decided to declare for
the draft.
“Going from high school to college and
not playing your college season and then
straight to the NBA,” Sharpe said. “It’s
quite the journey but every step of the
way I’ve just fought and had fun with it.”
Coming off a season marked by a
spate of injuries, a new coach, a front-of-
fice shakeup and a roster overhaul, the
Blazers are rebuilding around All-Star
Damian Lillard.
“He’s a great guard himself and he’s
been in this league for some time now, so
I just can’t wait to really learn from him,”
Sharpe said.
There was talk that Portland might
trade the pick.
“I had just worked the phones so dil-
igently, from post-combine on, just tons
of trade discussions, tons of pick-swap
ideas, or swap plus a player ideas, or pick
for a player outright ideas, while continu-
ally evaluating the draft,” Blazers general
manager Joe Cronin said. “As the process
went on, we became more and more en-
amored with pick seven. Most of my trade
discussions became, `You have to wow us
to even think about moving this pick.’”
Cronin said he believes Sharpe could
play right away, but time will tell.
“It was a unique situation with Shae-
don, where he didn’t play college basket-
ball so he wasn’t seen or evaluated nearly
as much as these other guys,” Cronin said.
“But we were lucky enough that we had a
pretty good foundation on him.”
Portland was active ahead of the draft,
acquiring Jerami Grant from the Detroit
Pistons on Wednesday, according to a per-
son with knowledge of the situation. The
person spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because neither
team announced the agreement.
Lillard, who was injured for much of
last season, played with Grant on the
gold medal-winning U.S. team at last
year’s Tokyo Olympics. Grant averaged
19.2 points in 47 games last season with
the Pistons.
Detroit received the 46th pick from
in the draft as part of the trade and se-
lected Ismael Kamagate of France. But
Kamagate was headed to Denver via an-
other deal.
Portland capped the night by selecting
forward Jabari Walker out of Colorado
with the 57th pick. Last year as a sopho-
more, Walker averaged 14.6 points and a
Pac-12 leading 9.4 rebounds per game for
the Buffaloes. He led the conference with
17 double-doubles.
Walker’s father is Samaki Walker, who
was the ninth overall pick in the 1996
draft and played 10 seasons in the NBA.
“He’s a player that’s really intriguing
to us because of his mix of youth, size,
length, shooting, upside,” Cronin said
about Walker. “He was two-year guy at
Colorado and showed some flashes we
thought were really appealing.”
The Blazers finished 27-55 last season,
their worst record since 2005-06. Clear-
ly eying draft position late in the season,
Portland lost 11 games by more than 30
points after the All-Star break, and fin-
ished in 13th in the Western Conference.