All posts by Evalyn Hansen

I'm a theater buff. I am passionate about theater. I see as many plays as I can as often as I can. I go to lectures, previews, prefaces, backstage tours, dramatic readings, dress rehearsals, post matinee discussions, talks in the park and an occasional cast party. If I'm not there, I would like to be. I have my BA in dramatic arts from UC Berkeley, my MA from San Francisco State and I'm currently studying directing at Southern Oregon University. I volunteer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and recently I understudied a walk-on part in "Trip to Bountiful" at Oregon Stage Works.
Interview

Ashland High students learn the magic in storytelling

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Betsy Bishop
Betsy Bishop

Betsy Bishop is the theater director and producer behind Ashland High School’s outstanding theatrical productions. Plays are produced in collaboration with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which provides directors and technical assistance.

Bishop spent her early years as a professional actress. She earned a master’s degree in education from Southern Oregon University and began a long teaching career. Now, as a mother of three grown children, she continues, as a full-time teacher, to mastermind this remarkable theater program. I met with Bishop one Saturday morning on the ASH theater stage.

EH: How did your partnership with OSF begin?

BB: When I was asked to teach theater, I had small children, and I had to be home at night. You can’t have a theater program without having shows. I told the kids, “I’m going to teach the classes, but we have to think of a way that other people can do the nighttime work.” My student, Matt Smith, went down to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and talked to Pat Patton (former OSF associate artistic director) and Pat Patton said, “Of course we’ll help the high school.” And that was the beginning of the partnership. Continue reading Ashland High students learn the magic in storytelling →

Interview

Musical staging of ‘Chess’ coming to Ashland in the fall

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Livia Genise
Livia Genise

Livia Genise, former artistic director of Talent’s Camelot Theatre Company, is now directing the musical “Chess” for Ashland Contemporary Theatre. It opens in September.

Genise, a veteran actor of Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater and Hollywood, first came to Ashland in the 1980s. She raised her children and earned a degree in music from Southern Oregon University before she took on the directorship of Camelot Theatre.

During her 10-year tenure at Camelot, Genise fostered the enormous growth of the organization and mentored a generation of young theater artists.

EH: Tell me about “Chess.” Continue reading Musical staging of ‘Chess’ coming to Ashland in the fall →

Interview

Oregon Cabaret Theatre AD says storytelling entertains, educates, edifies

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Valerie Rachelle
Valerie Rachelle

Valerie Rachelle is now in her second year as artistic director of the Oregon Cabaret Theatre. Her husband, Rick Robinson, the managing director of OCT, is also a playwright and film director. Rachelle, who received her MA in directing from the University of California at Irvine, also enjoys a successful freelance career as a director and choreographer. Rachelle and Robinson bought OCT in 2014. One afternoon, I met Rachelle in the Cabaret Theatre.

EH: How did you get involved in theater?

VR: I started dancing when I was 3, and singing soon after that. My very first professional production was when I was 7. I was in “Annie” with a theater company at the Hult Center in Eugene. I was with the Eugene Ballet. I was a ballerina and a singer. My parents were professional magicians.

EH: Magicians?

VR: That’s what they did for a living, they jumped out of boxes. I toured the world with them. We lived in Japan for a while, and worked at a resort on Okinawa Island. I grew up on the road and on the stage from a very young age. Continue reading Oregon Cabaret Theatre AD says storytelling entertains, educates, edifies →

Interview

Majkut works to inspire symphony musicians

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Martin Majkut
Martin Majkut

Martin Majkut has served as music director of the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra since 2010. Under his leadership, the orchestra has grown to more than 80 musicians and the Symphony’s educational offerings have significantly expanded to include four different programs. We sat down to chat after a rehearsal late one afternoon.

EH: When did you get interested in music?

MM: I started playing piano when I was just shy of 6. I had many other interests, and my parents never forced me to practice. But I did well. After eighth grade, I went to the conservatory; they took me into both piano and conducting classes.

I started studying conducting when I was 14. You learn a lot of repertoire that way, but I did not fully comprehend what conducting entails until much later. After the conservatory, I went to the university, and concentrated on conducting. It became my life. Continue reading Majkut works to inspire symphony musicians →

Interview

‘Red’ dives deep into Rothko’s color fields

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Peter Alzado
Peter Alzado

Peter Alzado co-directs and stars in Ashland Contemporary Theatre’s production of John Logan’s “Red,” playing March 26 through April 3 at the Ashland Community Center. Alzado (who served as artistic director of Ashland’s Oregon Stage Works for seven years and Talent’s Actors’ Theatre for another seven) is a brilliant actor. I saw “Red” on opening night. Alzado as Mark Rothko, the abstract expressionist painter, and Reece Bredl, as his assistant and artistic foil, deliver a dynamic two-man tour-de-force.

EH: I saw you in “Portlandia.”

PA: I think more people saw what I did in “Portlandia” than saw all of the work that I did here for 15 or 16 years.

EH: Tell me about “RED.”

PA: Rothko and his assistant are involved in working on the Seagram murals. As they work on them, there is an uncovering of secrets and also an uncovering of Rothko’s art and its relationship to the world. It is all about the work. Continue reading ‘Red’ dives deep into Rothko’s color fields →

Interview

Brava! director says opera is alive and well

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Martin Majkut
Martin Majkut

Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra Music Director Martin Majkut is currently conducting Brava! Opera Theater’s production of “Orpheus and Eurydice,” to be performed March 3-6 at the Camelot Theatre in Talent. We met after a rehearsal one afternoon to discuss the challenge of opera.

MM: From a technical point of view, opera is a challenge for a conductor. The challenge is tracking everyone’s movement and making sure that they are in sync together. In opera, you have the orchestra: they’re in their seats. Then you have the singers and the chorus: all in movement, and they don’t hear the orchestra very well.

When you stand on the stage, and the orchestra is down in the pit, you sometimes hear very little. Say: you run up some stairs, you’re breathing heavily, you hear some sounds from a distance, and you’re basically singing more or less to a vacuum. You don’t get that beautiful symphonic support that the audience gets. So you really rely on the conductor to cue you, to lead you. Continue reading Brava! director says opera is alive and well →

Interview

SOU stages Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’

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Jim Edmonson
Jim Edmonson

James Edmondson is directing Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” at Southern Oregon University opening this Friday, Feb. 26. The play is based on the witch trials that took place in Salem, Mass., in 1692. This is the centennial of Arthur Miller’s birth. Many productions of his plays are being produced internationally.

James Edmondson has been an actor and director with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1972, where he performed 60 roles including the title roles in “Richard II” and “King Lear.” He directed 30 productions for OSF, most recently, “Rabbit Hole,” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Edmondson has directed and acted for the American Conservatory Theatre and numerous other nationally known theaters.

I saw an early run-through of “The Crucible” and the production promises to be a compelling night of theater. I met with Edmondson in the Theatre Arts building on the SOU campus to discuss the play. Continue reading SOU stages Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ →