Char Hersh

January 6, 2010 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Char Hersh coordinates the volunteers in the Festival’s Welcome Center, the information office on the corner of Main and Pioneer streets. Admittedly a “Shakespeare junky,” Char is a retired nurse who also teaches Tai Chi. We visited one afternoon in her home overlooking Ashland and the hills beyond.

EH: How do you like coordinating volunteers?

CH: It’s allowed me to meet the most marvelous people. It’s very much like nursing. You’re scheduling people, you’re taking care of people, you’re listening to people, you’re trying to make sure people are enjoying what they are doing. It’s teaching. You’re making sure people know what they are doing, because if they don’t, they’re not comfortable. We all want to be engaged and to know what we’re doing is meaningful. I love doing it. And of course it’s supporting the Festival.

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Interview

Katie Falk

December 23, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Katie Falk, plays Belle and the covetous Laundress in “A Christmas Carol” now at Oregon Stage Works. She began her acting career as a child under the direction of her mother, Dianne Warner. Since then, Katie has grown into an accomplished actress, singer, and vocal coach. She’s played numerous roles at Camelot Theatre, including Lily in “Carnival”. We got together one sunny afternoon at Starbucks next to Southern Oregon University.

EH: Have you thought of doing opera?

KF: I did for many years. But I wanted to move, and I wanted to be expressive. In opera you get to be incredibly expressive, but it’s literally almost entirely from your voice, like a violin. There expression doesn’t come from body movement, and that was something I wanted to do. It’s just a different kind of art. So, I decided I wanted to do musical theater.

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Interview

Tami Marston and Mark Turnbull

November 25, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Tami Marston and Mark Turnbull share the musical direction of Truman Capote’s “Holiday Memories,” now playing at Oregon Cabaret Theatre. Tami and Mark perform in the show, as well. Mark is cast as Guitarist. He strolls through the stage action playing and singing his original music. Tami plays Woman, a series of memorable characters who enter and exit bringing color and humor to the various vignettes throughout the play. We got together over tea on one snowy afternoon.

EH: How many characters do you play?

TM: I play eight roles from age 1to 104 (in eight wigs), including Mrs. Ha-Ha, the saloon singer, with the Christmas bar song.

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Interview

Brandy Carson

November 18, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

In “Holiday Memories,” Truman Capote portrays Sook, his aunt and childhood “friend,” as a warm-hearted, eccentric woman who taught him life lessons in a delightful way and found joy in the simplicity of life.

Now at Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Sook is played by Brandy Carson, warm-hearted and perhaps slightly eccentric herself. After studying speech and drama in college, she landed in Los Angeles with a vacuum cleaner, a cast iron skillet and a Siamese cat named Marco Polo. “I thought I had packed,” Carson said.

After 20 years of doing theater and television, Carson came to Ashland. She has appeared at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and numerous other venues in the Rogue Valley.

Brandy and I chatted with Cabaret Artistic Director Jim Giancarlo after viewing the spectacular vaulted attic set for “Holiday Memories.” We discussed the qualities that make the play so appealing.

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Interview

Orion Bradshaw

November 11, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

“I’m a local and proud of it,” Orion Bradshaw said as he sipped his powerhouse smoothie on the porch of Rogue Valley Roasting Company. A graduate of Ashland High School and a graduate of Southern Oregon University, class of 20O7, Bradshaw, with his bachelor’s of fine arts degree in theatre arts, “did an internship right out of school” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Since then he has been continuously employed.

EH: What does an OSF intern do?

OB: An internship is essentially an unpaid position. It’s a learning experience; you get academic credits through the school. You experience the rehearsal process and then you are in a show or two. It opens your eyes to the repertory theater experience.

The interns take on one or two understudy roles, attend performances,and take notes (so that they learn how to effectively shadow someone else). It’s really important to be keyed-in and keep up with your work, because there is such a great domino effect. When one person goes out, there is a potential for five actors to be switched around.

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Interview

Brad Whitmore

November 4, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Brad Whitmore has been with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 11 seasons. I had seen his performances as Schnabel and May in “Paradise Lost.” Neither character resembled the youthful man that I met over coffee at Bloomsbury Books. Brad will be back next season.

EH: What roles are you going to play?

BW: I will be playing several supporting roles in “Hamlet” and Reverend Tooker in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” I’ve played many supporting roles over the last 11 seasons, and perhaps carved out a niche in terms of my ability to play multiple roles very distinctly and unrecognizably in shows.

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Interview

Judith-Marie Bergan

October 28, 2009 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Judith-Marie Bergan is back for another season. Last year she performed in Oscar Wilde’s “A Woman of No Importance” at Yale, then she was directed by Libby Appel in Tennessee Williams’ “Glass Menagerie” in North Carolina. Judith is delighted that Bill Rauch has invited her back for OSF’s 75th season. We met at Starbucks next to the Southern Oregon University campus.

EH: How long have you been with OSF?

JMB: I’ve been here for 10 years, but there were a couple of years where I did other things: the Guthrie Theater, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Old Globe. But I just love it here. I just vastly respect this company — the range, the fact that they are always reaching to better the theater, to find new things and new projects. I think it is certainly the best regional theater you could work for.

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