Tag Archives: Cabaret

Interview

Backstage at the Cabaret with Kerri Lea Robbins

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Kerri Robbins
Kerri Robbins

Designer Kerri Lea Robbins has costumed more than 60 productions for the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.

Starting in the 1980s, armed with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts from Southern Oregon University and a master’s degree in costume design from New York University, Robbins spent 10 years creating props and soft goods for numerous Broadway shows.

She then taught costume design and makeup at SOU before joining Craig Hudson and the design team at OCT. Robbins created the astonishing costumes for its current production, “The Wizard of Panto-Land.” We met at Starbucks next to SOU.

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Interview

Bob Jackson Miner

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Bob Jackson Miner
Bob Jackson Miner

Bob Jackson Miner plays Avram Cohen in “RAGS” now playing at the Camelot Theatre in Talent. Perhaps you saw his remarkable performances in “1776”, “Shenandoah”, and/or “Gigi”? A native of El Paso, Texas, Bob studied Music and Theater at the University of Texas while performing progressive country music in nightclubs. He came to Ashland to perform with the Oregon Cabaret Theatre and stayed. One morning, at his spacious music/video studio in Ashland, we talked about the actor, the audience, and the wonderful ride of theater.

BJM: From the moment we start, the audience is absolutely actively part of the artistic experience in theater. It is a relationship established between the artists on stage and the viewers in the audience. Their emotional input is actually the wave we ride. We can stir up the emotional wave, and we can ride it; but we do not own it. The audience owns it every bit as much as we do. Once they’re in, they’re like a cast member in the sense of what we co-create. It’s different every night because every audience is different.

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Interview

Alexandra Blouin and Christopher Bange: “Red, White, and Tuna”

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Alexandra Blouin
Alexandra Blouin
Christopher Bange
Christopher Bange

Alexandra Blouin and Christopher Bange are the entire cast of “Red, White, and Tuna” now playing at the Oregon Cabaret Theater. She is luscious and lanky; he is solid with sad and mischievous eyes. They are “dating”. We got together at Pangea over steaming bowls of soup.

EH: How would you describe “Red, White and Tuna”?

CB: It follows the story of about twenty characters on a day in the life of the small town of Tuna, Texas. It’s definitely a fictional place, but completely real, because the gentlemen who wrote it are from a small town in Texas and are essentially doing their friends and family. They’ve made a thirty-some-odd year career with the “Tunas”. This is the third in a series of four. There’s “Greater Tuna”, and “Tuna Christmas”, then “Red, White and Tuna”, and now, “Tuna Does Vegas”. It’s not only a wonderful franchise, but they are touring it at the same time. They wrote it and perform it.

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Interview

Tami Marston and Mark Turnbull

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Tami Marston and Mark Turnbull
Tami Marston and Mark Turnbull

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

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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

John Stadelman

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John Stadelman’s hilarious performance as the obsequious yet self-important Vice Principal Douglas Panch in the “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is truly unique. I was curious as to how he prepared for the role.

John sings with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers. He performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for six seasons. He has directed theater up and down the West Coast, at Ashland High School and the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.

A Stanford graduate, John graduated from law school at the University of Southern California before pursuing a career in film and theater. John is also a landscape designer; the name of his company is Green Man Gardens.

We met in the Oregon Cabaret Theatre’s elegant restaurant section on a weekday afternoon.

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Interview

DaRon Lamar Williams

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DaRon Lamar Williams
DaRon Lamar Williams

At 29, DaRon Lamar Williams has found success in show business. He’s played in theater Off Broadway, toured nationally with “Jesus Christ Superstar” and performed with Michael Jackson on video.

In Oregon Cabaret Theatre’s “The 25th Anniversary of the Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Williams plays Comfort Counselor Mitch Mahoney, who delivers hugs and juice boxes to the losers. We got together at Starbucks on Main Street one afternoon.

EH: Were you always interested in theater?

DW: I grew up watching “The Wiz.” As a little 4-year-old, I learned all the choreography and all the dialogue. I would cast kids from my grandma’s day care, and we would do it in the garage. I would make my grandma and her friends come to watch. Everyday it was a different scene from “The Wiz” or a dance number or something. I knew even then that, in some shape or form, I’d be doing this the rest of my life. I used community theater and community bands as my creative outlet. Then I decided to move to New York.

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