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

Kelly Jean Hammond

April 2, 2014 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

In Camelot Theatre’s musical production of “The Producers,” the role of Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Svanson, the stunning Swedish singer/ secretary/ receptionist, is played by Kelly Jean Hammond. The production features a number of stellar performances and a great ensemble cast.

Hammond, a graduate of Ashland High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Notre Dame de Namur University and did some post-graduate studies at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco before returning to Ashland, where she now works as a buyer at Paddington Station by day and performs musical theater at night. We met at Starbucks in downtown Ashland.

Continue reading Kelly Jean Hammond →

Interview

Nathan Monks

March 21, 2014 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

In The Camelot Theatre’s production of “The Producers,” Nathan Monks plays Franz Liebkind, a volatile former Nazi who wrote the “worst play ever written,” “Springtime for Hitler.” A trained actor and singer, Monks is new to Camelot Theatre. We met at Starbucks on Crater Lake Highway in Medford.

NM: I’ve been fortunate enough to be cast in multiple shows for the upcoming year. I’m very excited about that.

EH: What was the audition process like?

NM: We were asked to prepare about a 2-minute monologue and 16 to 32 bars of a song. Then they gave you a slip of paper with just a single musical line on it and the starting pitch. They asked you to sight read it: a little testing of your overall ability to read music.

Continue reading Nathan Monks →

Interview

John Keating and Galen Schloming

March 5, 2014 Evalyn Hansen 1 Comment

John Keating(left) and Galen Schloming, Photo by Judith Pavlick

“Double Trouble,” directed by Jim Giancarlo at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre, features stellar performances by John Keating and Galen Schloming. These young actors play songwriters who are hired to compose music for a Hollywood movie and find themselves confined to a sound studio in a madcap situation. They are invaded by numerous iconic Hollywood characters, also portrayed by Keating and Schloming. One Sunday afternoon, we visited between shows in the balcony of the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.

EH: How many characters do you play?

JK: We both play five characters.

EH: How do you play a woman? How is it different from playing a man?

GS: There is a sensuality that informs the character. The pacing is a little slower and the gestures are a little more fluid. You spend enough time in heels, and it takes you a lot of the way there.

Continue reading John Keating and Galen Schloming →

Interview

Bob Herried

February 19, 2014 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Bob Herried is directing the romantic comedy “The Owl and the Pussycat,” opening March 7 at the Randall Theatre in Medford. I first saw Herried as Marco the Magnificent in “Carnival” at the Camelot Theatre in 2004. Herried is a University of Oregon graduate in theater and business. Born and raised in the Rogue Valley, Herried has been performing and directing for 40 years. We met in his office at Addictions Recovery Center in Medford, where he is a drug and alcohol counselor.

EH: When you cast a play, what do you look for in your actors, and how do you relate to them?

BH: It’s the ability to take direction, the ability to change. A lot of times an actor will come in and read a line, and a week later, read it the same way. Rehearsal is the time to explore, to try different intentions, to play with the language and the character instead of trusting the first instinct: an actor who can adapt and move around with the ability to find the nuances. “The Owl and the Pussycat” is a show that has more nuances than anything that I have seen in a long time because the relationship between these two people is unique. These two are as opposite as can be.

Continue reading Bob Herried →

Comedy

Shorts by Christopher Durang

February 12, 2014 Evalyn Hansen

Durang’s work often deals critically with issues of child abuse, Roman Catholic dogma and culture. While Durang’s use of parody and his criticism of many social institutions might appear overly cynical at times.

Cast members include: Lia Dugal, Mabrie Ormes, Vanessa Hopkins, Jeannine Grizzard, Judith Rosen, Lyda Woods, Jeff Golden, Richard Royce, Rudi Vest, Bradley Zentgraf, & Mike Evans

His plays have been performed nationwide, including on Broadway and Off-Broadway. We will performing, Mrs. Sorken, Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room, Woman Stand-up, Furneral Parlor, Nina in the Morning, Medea and Diversions.

Durang has performed as an actor for both stage and screen. He first came to prominence in his Off-Broadway satirical review Das Lusitania Songspiel, which he performed with friend and fellow Yale alum Sigourney Weaver. Later he co-starred in one of his own plays as Matt in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, as well as Man in the original production of Laughing Wild.

Interview

Dianna Warner

February 5, 2014 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Currently playing at the Randall Theatre Company of Medford is “The Odd Couple: The Female Version,” written by Neil Simon and directed by Dianna Warner. Warner, a talented actor and singer, most recently was featured in the Randall’s “Man of La Mancha.” We met for lunch along with Mike, her husband of 40 years, at the Wild Goose in Ashland.

EH: I’ve enjoyed many of your performances through the years, but you also direct?

DW: I taught for 36 years, and for most of those years, I directed students in high school and middle school. I also directed two plays, “Shakespeare in Hollywood” and “Lend Me a Tenor,” at the Camelot Theatre.

Continue reading Dianna Warner →

Interview

Shirley Patton and Steven Dominguez

January 22, 2014 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Camelot Theatre’s next production features Shirley Patton and Steven Dominguez in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Driving Miss Daisy.” The play explores the growth of a friendship between an elderly white Southern lady, Miss Daisy, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, during the 1960s and ’70s.

Patton came to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at the invitation of Angus Bowmer in 1958. Her career as an OSF actor spanned 30 years. Before coming to Ashland, Dominguez spent 20 years as a professional actor in New York City. One afternoon, the three of us chatted at Boulevard Coffee.

Continue reading Shirley Patton and Steven Dominguez →