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

Renee Hewitt

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Renee Hewitt
Renee Hewitt

Camelot Theatre Company’s musical “Jekyll & Hyde” opens this week and features exquisite choreography by Renee Hewitt. An exceptional actress, dancer and singer, Hewitt has played numerous iconic roles throughout her career. We met in the Excalibur Room at the Camelot.

EH: Why have you spent your life in theater?

RH: It’s my passion. That’s the only way I can explain it. If I were to have to live without it, I don’t know what I would do. It’s how I express my soul; it’s how I express the deepest parts of me. I’m finding out now, that not only can I do that by being on stage, I can actually do that through choreography. I’m more anxious, more nervous, and more excited about this opening than I am when I’m a performer.

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Comedy

Moonlighting 2013

For several years, ACT’s Moonlighting Series has been inviting local playwrights to submit their best work for staged readings. The seven short plays on deck are:

 

  • “The Last Dodo and the Last Wooly Mammoth,” by Dori Appel, in which a pre-historic couple faces a cruel reality.
  • “Albert Einstein’s Brain,” by Ron Burch, explores of the dangers of online bidding.
  • “Motherhood” by Archie Koenig, examines the effects of GMO on our children.
  • “Here to Serve You,” by Barbara Lindsay, takes a farcical look at airport security.
  • “Tigers in the Entry,” by Diane Nichols, explores the power interior designers have over their clients.
  • “Doggies,” by Bob Valine, finds a couple howling in the bedroom.
  • “Invisible,” by Lyda Woods, discovers a fetid way to escape middle age.
Moonlighting 2013
Moonlighting 2013

 

Interview

Daniel Stephens

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Daniel Stepphens
Daniel Stepphens

Daniel Stephens plays Poole in “Jekyll and Hyde,” the provocative musical opening June 21 at Camelot Theatre in Talent. A freelance choreographer and teacher, Stephens is equipped with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and a master’s in dance. Until 1997, he spent nine seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as a dancer, choreographer and actor. Stephens has performed in 10 shows at Camelot.

EH: What is the difference in performing in the old Camelot Theatre building versus the new facility?

DS: I think the main difference is that you don’t have to go outside the building to get to the other side of the stage. One winter, we did “Brigadoon” and I was running between scenes, in the snow, in soft shoes and a kilt.

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Interview

Dennis Smith

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Dennis Smith
Dennis Smith

Theatre Arts professor emeritus Dennis Smith has directed more than 30 plays during his 28-year career at Southern Oregon University. Currently he is directing Tony Kushner’s “The Illusion,” based loosely on the play “L’Illusion Comique” by the 17th-century playwright Pierre Corneille. It’s the story of a father who enlists a magician to search for his long-lost son. The play is filled with visions, transformations, time shifts and twists of fate. I visited with Smith at his office in the Theatre Arts Department one afternoon.

EH: Tell me about the qualities of the adaptation.

DS: The style is very contemporary. Tony Kushner has made the characters very accessible, highly articulate and in tune with our contemporary ears.

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Interview

Chris Sackett

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Chris Sackett
Chris Sackett

Southern Oregon University Theatre Arts Professor Chris Sackett is directing “Avenue Q,” a Tony Award-winning musical that opens Thursday, May 16, at SOU’s Center Stage Theatre. Sackett and I walked to the Stevenson Union on the SOU campus to discuss “Avenue Q.”

CS: It’s smart; it’s fun. It’s rife with political satire and irony; that’s part of the attraction of the play. The humor at times is extremely biting; sometimes it is coarse; but it all holds together pretty well. Overall, it’s really smart how they’ve taken this irreverent approach to a deep reverence for the human condition, and how we might pragmatically have a greater scope of tolerance for our fellows.

EH: What’s the message of “Avenue Q”?

CS: Get over self-pity; quit thinking about yourself, and get engaged with life.

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Interview

Michael J. Hume

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Michael J. Hume
Michael J. Hume

Michael J. Hume, along with Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner, wrote “Dogpark: The Musical” now playing at Oregon Cabaret Theatre. The trio has written other musicals, including “Holmes and Watson Save the Empire,” which Hume directed. He is currently in rehearsal for “The Heart of Robin Hood” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We chatted one afternoon about the process of writing musicals with friends.

MH: It was like “Singing in the Rain.” Malcolm would be on the piano; we could just sit there writing songs and creating riffs. Then I’d come home and write, and we’d send computer stuff back and forth.

EH: It’s nice that you can collaborate; writing alone can be daunting.

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Interview

Richard Heller

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Richard Heller
Richard Heller

Richard Heller is the Artistic Director of Theatre Convivio, the new community theater hosted by Ashland’s Bellview Grange. The first production of Theatre Convivio will be “The Fantasticks” to be produced this August. Richard and I sat down to talk at Noble Coffee in Ashland one sunny afternoon.

EH: What is the job of an artistic director?

RH: A good leader brings people in who can do a really good job and lets them do their work. As the sea is the ruler of a thousand streams, because it lies beneath them, the artistic director has to hold space for the community, be a consistent and calming presence, weave the various elements together, and work cohesively and collaboratively with others, being a guiding influence, never a dominating influence.

There is a hierarchical structure to theater. On the creative side, a play’s director has a vision about a certain work and wants to bring that to the stage. The artistic director of a company has to make the choices of plays so that they bring a consistent message about what the company is about.

As Artistic Director of Theatre Convivio, I want to choose projects that emphasize humanness, transformation and the actor-audience relationship. It means touching the hearts and souls of the actors and the audience so that everyone is transformed through the magic of theater. It’s a beautiful collaborative work.

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