After seeing Robin Downward’s extraordinary performance as Sherlock Holmes in Oregon Cabaret Theatre’s “Holmes & Watson Save the Empire,” I decided to check in with Downward and learn a little about his acting technique. We met at his own Randall Theatre in Medford as he was preparing for the opening of “Scots on the Rocks.” After a tour of the theater, we settled in his spacious and comfortable office.
EH: What is your vision for the Randall Theatre?
RD: The community of Medford needs a good, solid, community-based theater that serves the community through its outreach, not just within its doors. There is theater here; it’s just not accessible to the general public. One of my ideas is called “exterior theater,” theater that happens outside, in the parks or out in the streets. Theater has the opportunity to change people’s lives for the better, but it’s not going to do it if all that is happening is within the walls and the confines of the theater. It has to go into the community to be effective.
Robin Downward, a gifted actor and theatrical entrepreneur, is currently planning SHREIK-TOBERFEST 2010, his big-themed theatrical Halloween event to happen in downtown Medford during late October. Robin’s year-round project is the establishment of the community based Randall Theatre Company, whose mission has expanded to include art therapy programs. When we met at the Higher Education Center at Rogue Community College, Robin gave me an update on SHREIK-TOBERFEST 2010.
RD: It’s sort of a traditional walk-through type haunted house with a lot more theatrics to it and a lot more lighting, sound, and plot-line. It’s this inter-active creepy experience with iconic October characters. The interactive experience expands the boundaries of the theater crowd. The audience is subjected to theater through these events, even though they don’t know it. If I can sneak theater in somehow and entertain people, then my job has been done.
Ashland Theatre 