NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Pandemic not stopping Elgin Opera House production
By DICK MASON
La Grande Observer
HOW TO WATCH
Filming of “High School Musical Jr.” will continue for about
another month, after which production work will be com-
pleted. The Elgin Opera House production will be shown
online from April 24 to May 2.
All showings will be at 7:30 p.m. except for May 2, which
will start at 4:30 p.m. Information on purchasing tickets is
available at elginoperahouse.com/box-office.
Terry Hale, executive artistic director for the Elgin Opera
House, said those watching should not be late because
viewers will not be able to rewind or pause the show.
“It will start and run just like a live show at the Opera House,”
he said.
ELGIN — Putting on a
musical during the COVID-
19 pandemic is a tricky and
painstaking process.
Terry Hale, executive
artistic director for the Elgin
Opera House, knows this
firsthand. Hale is directing
a film version of Disney’s
popular “High School Musi-
cal Jr.” with a 70-member
cast, the vast majority of
whom are high school
students.
“It is one of the most chal-
lenging things I have ever
done,” Hale said.
It is also something he
believes he had to do because
of how youths have had to
stay home so much during
the pandemic.
“We wanted to get
them out from behind their
screens,” said Hale of the
production, which Friends of
the Opera House is putting
on.
People will be able to
purchase tickets to watch
“High School Musical Jr.”
online. The film will be
designed to replicate the
experience of watching a
theater production at the
Elgin Opera House.
One of the trickiest
parts of the filming process
involves conforming to social
distancing rules. Six groups
of actors are having their
Alex Wittwer/La Grande Observer
Director Terry Hale looks back through the empty audience seats on March 19, 2021, while
cast members warm up on stage for a rehearsal of the Elgin Opera House’s upcoming produc-
tion of “High School Musical Jr.” The opera house is filming the performance in segments, as
opposed to performing live, due to the pandemic.
scenes recorded at the Elgin
Opera House over about
a two-month period. The
video recordings will then be
spliced together, so in many
instances cast members will
appear to be performing on
stage together even though
they were never in the same
place at the same time.
“It really is a puzzle,” Hale
said.
“High School Musical Jr.”
— the movie version came
out in 2006 — is an upbeat
and witty look at students
dealing with issues of love,
friends and family at ficti-
tious East High School.
“I wanted to have some-
thing fun and light after
the rough year we have had
because of COVID-19 and
the political turmoil,” Hale
said
The cast for the produc-
tion consists of actors from
Union, Wallowa, Baker and
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny and
warmer
Mostly sunny and
warm
Partly sunny
Turning cloudy
54° 31°
70° 45°
59° 29°
72° 38°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
70° 39°
63° 36°
63° 43°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
73° 39°
67° 41°
67° 44°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
50/33
47/29
58/30
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
53/35
Lewiston
56/30
60/28
Astoria
51/35
Pullman
Yakima 60/30
55/30
54/32
Portland
Hermiston
56/35
The Dalles 59/29
Salem
Corvallis
56/33
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
49/25
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
57/32
58/29
50/28
Ontario
55/27
Caldwell
Burns
51°
36°
61°
37°
80° (1994) 12° (1954)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
56/31
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
67/36
0.01"
0.12"
0.83"
1.20"
0.48"
3.07"
WINDS (in mph)
53/27
51/20
Trace
0.30"
1.34"
3.32"
4.84"
3.85"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 45/24
56/32
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
54/31
60/33
49°
34°
58°
37°
80° (2004) 18° (1954)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
54/30
Aberdeen
49/29
56/33
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
53/36
Today
Wed.
SW 6-12
W 6-12
NE 3-6
WSW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
58/22
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:39 a.m.
7:21 p.m.
10:14 p.m.
7:56 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Apr 4
Apr 11
Apr 19
Apr 26
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 95° in Borrego Springs, Calif. Low 6° in Champion, Mich.
Umatilla counties, plus Walla
Walla County in Washington.
Many of the actors, almost
all age 18 and younger, have
not been together at filming
sessions because of social
distancing rules.
“The cast will never be
together at one time for the
production,” Hale said. “It is
the first time I have directed
a production in which the full
cast can’t come together.”
Cast members are meet-
ing in small groups for
rehearsals before coming to
the Elgin Opera House for
filming sessions.
“They are all doing such
a tremendous job. I am so
proud of them,” Hale said.
Hale also said he is receiv-
ing a big boost from his
directing staff — assistant
director Caitlin Marshall,
choreographer Abigail Hale,
music and sound director
Becky Chelson, costumer
Maureen O’Brien, stage
manager Shelby Kealiher,
cheer coach Jessica Dear-
inger, scene artists Beth
Wasley and Tess Cahill, and
Brent Clapp, who is manag-
ing the filming and editing
process.
“Our staff is incredible,”
Hale said.
This is the first time
almost all of the cast and
many of the staff have been
involved in a film produc-
tion. Actors moving from
stage productions to film
must learn that they have to
be more subtle because they
no longer must speak loud
enough for everyone in the
theater to hear them, Hale
said. He noted everyone has
a microphone on during the
filming process, so speaking
too loudly can cause record-
ing issues.
Hale said the need for
perfection is greater in film
productions.
“Mistakes that are not
obvious in theater come
through on film,” the direc-
tor said.
Cast member Ian Califf
said he is enjoying learning
about cinematic style, but he
will miss performing for a
live audience.
“I get a spark from the
audience,” Califf said.
Travel Oregon providing $2.3M in
grants for projects to spur tourism
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
SALEM — Travel Oregon,
the state’s tourism office,
is providing $2.3 million
in grants to fund projects
across the state to help spur
tourism as Oregon tries to
recover from the COVID-19
pandemic.
Local governments, port
districts, federally recog-
nized tribes, nonprofits and
Oregon-based tour opera-
tors and guides can apply for
up to $100,000 in funding to
support projects focused on
improving infrastructure to
safely welcome back tourists
as the pandemic continues.
The agency will fund
projects that support outdoor
recreation, help guides
and tour companies oper-
ate, enable paid events and
attractions to safely move
forward, and improve busi-
ness districts, including fund-
ing projects that create new
outdoor spaces for visitors.
The application process
will remain open until
Wednesday, March 31. Proj-
ects must be completed by the
end of November.
“The grants that we’re
providing today are going
to aid communities and aid
businesses in being well-posi-
tioned to be able to offer these
great Oregon experiences in a
very safe way,” Travel Oregon
CEO Todd Davidson said.
“That’s what we’re focused
on, making sure folks know
they can travel in Oregon
safely.”
The new initiative comes
after Travel Oregon last month
awarded $913,000 to fund
34 projects across the state
focused on improving visi-
tor experiences during the
pandemic. Among the recip-
ients of that grant money was
Portland’s economic develop-
ment agency, which received
$50,000 to improve the city’s
green loop.
Approximately 87% of
American travelers have plans
to travel in the next six months,
the highest percentage since
the start of the pandemic,
according to a recent study by
market research firm Long-
woods International.
However, Oregon’s tour-
ism industry has been deci-
mated during the pandemic
and it could take years for it to
fully recover.
More than 1 million people
visit Oregon in a typical year,
fueling a $12.8 billion tourism
industry, according to Travel
Oregon.
But visitor spending
throughout the state dropped
by nearly 60% last year as
tourism dried up amid the
pandemic, according to the
agency. Tourism could be
slow to rebound, especially if
international travel remains
limited and large events and
conventions are slow to return.
Oregon’s leisure and hospital-
ity industry has shed 37% of
its jobs during the pandemic,
according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
“We anticipate that we
will probably not see recov-
ery back to 2019 levels until
at least 2024 and it could be
2025,” Davidson said.
While certain parts of the
state saw tourism rebound
last summer as leisure travel
picked up, hotel occupancy
in Portland plummeted from
nearly 75% in 2019 to 34% in
2020, worse than anywhere
else in the state.
The decline in tourism
across the state could have
severe financial implications
for cities and counties.
“The travel and tourism
industry is a primary driver
of Oregon’s economy,” David-
son said.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Proud Boys clash with
anti-fascists in Salem
SALEM — A small group of Proud Boys
and Trump supporters traveled to Oregon’s
Capitol on Sunday, March 28, where they
clashed with a group of about 150 anti-fascist
counterprotesters.
The group of far-right supporters
published flyers in the days leading up to the
rally, saying they were gathering to support
“freedom.”
March 28 was the first time since the Jan.
6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that the two
opposing groups have had a notable confron-
tation in Oregon. Violent protests between
the sides were common during the Trump
administration, as anti-liberal groups would
often travel to cities like Portland and Salem
to engage in the conflicts.
The Proud Boys and similar extremists
have appeared in public much less after
federal law enforcement began bringing
charges against hundreds of people who
participated in the insurrection in Wash-
ington, D.C. At least two Oregonians were
among those facing charges for Jan. 6.
At one point, a large truck quickly sped
through a crowd of the anti-fascist protesters
as they stood in the street. Video showed the
vehicle nearly hitting one person.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
70s
East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,
by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals
postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to
East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Copyright © 2021, EO Media Group
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
Circulation Dept.
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 800-781-3214
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
EastOregonian.com
In the App Store:
80s
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
ADVERTISING
Regional Sales Director (Eastside) EO Media Group:
• Karrine Brogoitti
541-963-3161 • kbrogoitti@eomediagroup.com
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Multimedia Consultants:
Local home
delivery
Savings
(cover price)
$10.75/month
50 percent
541-564-4531 • kschwirse@eastoregonian.com
52 weeks
$135
42 percent
• Audra Workman
26 weeks
$71
39 percent
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
13 weeks
$37
36 percent
Business Office
EZPay
Single copy price:
$1.50 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
• Kelly Schwirse
• Dayle Stinson
541-966-0824 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Renee Struthers
at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Commercial Print Manager: Holly Rouska
541-617-7839 • hrouska@eomediagroup.com