Summary of 2017 Theatre Eddys at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, AshlandThe following is my final rank-order of the ten plays I saw this year in Ashland at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I was lucky enough to see all but one of the 2017 season’s offerings.The list starts with what I consider the best show of the year, that one being among many good ones. I include … [Read more...] about “Summary of 2017 Theatre Eddys at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland”
Ashland
“Hannah and the Dread Gazebo”: Day 9, Play 11, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
Hannah and the Dread GazeboJiehae ParkOregon Shakespeare Festival“This is a story about a wish.” But does this story really have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Should it? Must it? Or is this a story where we simply accept and enjoy that there is something about a stone in a bottle, about a tiger and a bear, about magpies and garlic, and about a … [Read more...] about “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo”: Day 9, Play 11, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
“Henry IV, Parts One and Two”: Day 8, Plays 9 & 10, OSF Ashland 2017
Henry IV: Parts One and TwoWilliam ShakespeareOregon Shakespeare FestivalOregon Shakespeare Festival this season offers the rare opportunity to see what one might call William Shakespeare’s ‘Falstaff Triad.’ Along with The Merry Wives of Windsor, the third in the so-called Falstaff sequence, Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two document parallel journeys of the … [Read more...] about “Henry IV, Parts One and Two”: Day 8, Plays 9 & 10, OSF Ashland 2017
“The Drowsy Chaperone”: Day 7, Play 8, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
The Drowsy ChaperoneLisa Lambert & Greg Morrison (Music & Lyrics); Bob Martin & Don McKellar (Book)Oregon Cabaret TheatreFrom the still-dark stage, we hear a squeaky, dramatic, and overly protracted sigh, followed by “I hate theatre.” But when the lights finally come up on a rather mousy, nervous-looking man in bow tie and sweater, we soon learn this Man … [Read more...] about “The Drowsy Chaperone”: Day 7, Play 8, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
“Shakespeare in Love”: Day 6, Play 7, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
Shakespeare in LoveAdapted for the Stage by Lee Hall, Based on the Screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom StoppardOregon Shakespeare Festival“Shall I compare … compare … compare thee … to a mourner’s play?”As a cast of Elizabethan characters of all shapes, sizes, and classes hover over his every word (with many looks of disbelief and disapproval of the lines he is currently … [Read more...] about “Shakespeare in Love”: Day 6, Play 7, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”
Disney’s Beauty and the BeastAlan Menken (Music); Howard Ashman & Tim Rice (Lyrics);Linda Woolverton (Book)Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe first time I saw Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on the big screen as an animated film, I immediately pictured the opening number “Belle” as made for the big stage. As the song’s angelic-looking namesake roams aimlessly nose in a book … [Read more...] about “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”
“UniSon”: Day 4, Play 5, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
UniSonUNIVERSES (Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, William Ruiz — aka Ninja)Oregon Shakespeare Festival“If there is such a thing as public art and private art,Then the poems are private. They mark the landscape.…They are a record of private moments.…I count them as gifts.”After creating the ten, decade-by-decade plays chronicling African-American history of the twentieth … [Read more...] about “UniSon”: Day 4, Play 5, Theatre Eddys at OSF Ashland 2017
“Julius Caesar”: Day 3, Play 4, TheatreEddys at OSF Ashland 2017
Julius CaesarWilliam ShakespeareOregon Shakespeare FestivalFor anyone wondering how an electorate can switch in such a short time from electing an Obama to choosing a Trump, a re-visit of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar may send chills up the spine, especially as now being brilliantly directed by Shana Cooper at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In the opening scene, a … [Read more...] about “Julius Caesar”: Day 3, Play 4, TheatreEddys at OSF Ashland 2017
“Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles”: Day 2, Play 2 TheatreEddys at OSF Ashland 2017
Mojada: A Medea in Los AngelesLuis AlfaroOregon Shakespeare FestivalAnyone even vaguely familiar with Euripides’ ancient, Greek play, Medea, walks into a play entitled Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles with some apprehension and an assumption that the ending is not going to be happy, that there will be blood shed. When the Spanish word “mojada” (Spanish for “wetback”) begins … [Read more...] about “Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles”: Day 2, Play 2 TheatreEddys at OSF Ashland 2017
