Tag Archives: Cabaret

Interview

‘The Odd Couple’ stars call play a ‘bro-mantic comedy’

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Rick Robinson and Stephen Kline play Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar in “The Odd Couple” on stage at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre through Sept. 6, 2020. In Neil Simon’s hilarious comedy, mayhem ensues when two friends with opposite personalities move in together. I visited with Robinson and Kline on Zoom.

EH: What’s the significance of laughter?

RR: It is good medicine. I think it’s something that’s missing during this difficult, heavy, weighty time. It’s good for your soul and good for your health.

EH: What’s the chemistry between Felix and Oscar?

RR: It’s sort of a bro-mantic comedy. There’s tumult. And the chemistry between the two characters is as important as in a romantic comedy.

SK: What’s unique about the two men is that they have gone through the same experience of separation, but they have responded in two completely different directions. The Yin and Yang is what helps them help each other with what they’ve been through. Continue reading ‘The Odd Couple’ stars call play a ‘bro-mantic comedy’ →

Interview

Oregon Cabaret Theatre rolls with the punches

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Oregon Cabaret Theatre is opening for theater and dining. I chatted with Artistic Director Valerie Rachelle one recent morning on Zoom.

VR: We are opening July 16. We got the green light from the state of Oregon and the governor’s office, that live theater can happen here. They have guidelines that we are going to follow. Since we have restaurant seating, it’s a lot easier for us to have parties together that can then socially distance from everyone else. I’m so glad that we have our beautiful, lovely, large theater of 6,100 square feet, because we can really distance people. The third row of the audience is now our front row. The patrons are 12 feet in all directions from the stage, and then six feet around each other to separate the parties. The restaurant will be functioning.

We have permission from the state that actors don’t have to wear masks on stage during the show, but we are going to ask that the audience members do wear their masks while the actors are on stage. Continue reading Oregon Cabaret Theatre rolls with the punches →

Interview

Robinson can’t imagine a life doing anything else

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Rick Robinson directs “Dancing at Lughnasa,” now playing at the Collaborative Theatre Project in Medford. Robinson is also managing director of the Oregon Cabaret Theatre. We met at Forage Coffee in Medford to talk about Brian Friel’s Tony Award-winning play.

Rick Robinson: This is a memory play along the lines of Tennessee William’s “Glass Menagerie.” It’s a narrator telling about his childhood, and has that dreamlike feel.

The authenticity of the piece is what drew me to it. There is warmth and humor, and there are these wonderful human beings that collide. The characters feel very real. You really love these human beings. It’s lush, it’s real, and it strikes that nerve that informs us of what it is to be human.

Continue reading Robinson can’t imagine a life doing anything else →

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

Christopher George Patterson

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Christopher George Patterson
Christopher George Patterson

Christopher George Patterson stars in “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” featuring the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller and directed by Jim Giancarlo and choreographed by Giancarlo and Patterson. It’s playing at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre until Aug 31. Patterson and I chatted one afternoon over tea and lemonade at the Standing Stone Brewing Co. in Ashland. This is the first of a two-part interview.

CGP: The interesting thing about “Ain’t Misbehavin'” is that it tells the story through the tapestry of the Harlem Renaissance without digging in too deeply.

EH: What’s your process of choreographing a show?

CGP: I’ll read the script to see what’s supposed to happen. I usually listen to the music over, and over, and over again, and let it talk to me. The music tells you what to do and how to get there through telling the story through the dance. If you know what the story is, all you have to do is fill in the gaps with the steps. It’s almost like playing in an orchestra: The score is there, but you create the dynamics, and that’s what makes people want to engage in watching it.

Continue reading Christopher George Patterson →

Interview

John Keating and Galen Schloming

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

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Interview

Jim Giancarlo

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Jim Giancarlo
Jim Giancarlo

Oregon Cabaret Theatre’s stunning production of “The Wizard of Panto-Land” was written, directed and choreographed by Artistic Director Jim Giancarlo. Based on “The Wizard of Oz,” it glitters with sumptuous scenery, dazzling costumes and extraordinary acting talent. Giancarlo and I visited over coffee in the theater’s posh restaurant overlooking the pop-out storybook stage.

EH: How was this theater formed?

JG: The whole thing started on this production of “Grease” at the Britt Festivals years ago. Paul Barnes was the director, I was the choreographer, Craig Hudson was the set designer. We founded this theater the following year. You look back on it, 28 years later, and it seems a little mythic. But at the time, you just put one foot in front of the other, like everything in life. It’s only in retrospect that you see a pattern or understand the journey, like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” That’s a journey.

Continue reading Jim Giancarlo →