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.
Paul Mason Barnes is the director of “Our Town,” now playing at Southern Oregon University with Oregon Shakespeare Festival veteran James Edmondson as the Stage Manager. The production runs through Nov. 24 at SOU’s Center Stage Theatre. A nationally known theater director, Barnes has a website (paulbarnesdirector.com) that contains stunning production photos with insightful reflections on each production. We met at Noble Coffee in Ashland.
EH: It seems that your directing talents are very much in demand.
PB: I’m fortunate that I work pretty steadily, and that’s great. It’s a collaborative field. Directors are always the persons on whose shoulders things ultimately rest; but you’re only as good as your team, and I’ve been fortunate to work with really good people, a lot of them many times.
Southern Oregon University’s production of “The White Fugue” is devised and directed by James Donlon, a member of the Theatre Arts faculty. Donlon is an internationally celebrated theater artist and teacher of physical theater. We met in his office on the SOU campus.
EH: What attracts you to the field of mime?
JD: As a mime, your purpose is to transform time and space with only your body. Mime is a poetic form to condense and economize themes into an essential place, and to put commentary on it. It can be silent, or it can be verbal. Language becomes a gesture, maybe just sounds, gibberish or vocal effects. In today’s American culture, people don’t really understand the world of mime. The term “mime” is usually the butt of jokes, such as “the birthday mime” or “Let’s kill the mime.”
Matthew Reynolds is the director of drama and dance at the Crater Renaissance Academy of Arts and Sciences in Central Point. In 2010, Reynolds’ students wrote an original play about life in Central Point that they performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The Crater High School students have again been invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2014. The group is raising funds for the trip. I chatted with Reynolds over lunch at La Casa del Pueblo in Ashland.
EH: Why are some people passionate about theater?
MR: I think it is the passion towards humanity, that desire to see humanity. For those of us who get on stage, why do we go on stage in this dark space with others whom we don’t know? It’s seeing us as healers of society, motivators of society, as we move forward and tell our collective stories.
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.
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.
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.
Ashland Theatre 