Tag Archives: Rogue Theater Company

Discovering the truth can be quite exciting

October 14, 2019 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Rogue Theater Company Artistic Director Jessica Sage is in rehearsal for the company’s next production: Marsha Norman’s “’Night Mother.” The Pulitzer-prize winning play, directed by Caroline Shaffer, opens in Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Theater Nov. 1. Sage plays Mama, and Andrea Hochkeppel plays her daughter, Jessie. We all met one morning at the Rogue Valley Roasting Company.

EH: What attracts you to this play?

JS: There are so few plays for women by women that are this magnificent.

CS: The play is fundamentally about a relationship between a mother and a daughter, and it’s a complicated relationship.

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Interview

Acting is mining oneself

March 4, 2019 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Eileen DeSandre and Cil Stengel are playing in “Fragments,” by Jessica Sage, opening March 8 at the Rogue Theater in the Bellview Grange. DeSandre and Stengel are veterans of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where DeSandre performed for 16 years. Stengel is a founding member of the improvisational group The Hamazons. We met at the Rogue Valley Roasting Co.

EH: How do actors train for theater?

ED: There are different kinds of training and different approaches.

EH: How do actors come together to create a play?

ED: You have to get your ego out of the way and be in service to the muse, the playwright, the story, your fellow actors, the ensemble, your character.

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Interview

Talking about the meaning of “Fragments”

February 18, 2019 Evalyn Hansen Leave a comment

Jessica Sage is the artistic director of the new Rogue Theater Company, which will open March 8 with her play “Fragments,” directed by Liisa Ivary, at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.

Sage and Ivary have enjoyed long and successful careers in the theater — acting, directing and teaching.

“Fragments” tells a story about women who are confronting their dictated roles in society. I visited with Sage and Ivary at the Rogue Valley Roasting Company in Ashland.

JS: The plays that interest me most are character- and text-driven. I’m interested in the dynamics of relationships and the way people interact with one another.

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