Jim Edmondson, who is directing the “The Cyrano Project” at Southern Oregon University, is an associate artist at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he has been an actor and director for 38 seasons. We met one afternoon in the Center Square Theatre at Southern Oregon University.
EH: When did you discover that you wanted to do theater?
JE: It was about the time I was a junior in high school, as so many people do. I had always been a pretty imaginative kid. It just was clearly where I was happiest. We hear a lot of people say, “I found my tribe,” but I really did. They laughed at the same things I did; they accepted everybody. It seemed a good match.
Actor, director and associate professor Jackie Apodaca directed Jose Rivera’s “Marisol,” which is playing this week at Southern Oregon University’s Center Stage Theatre. The production’s sensational staging, ensemble acting and stage movement blend bizarre and beautiful elements to create a compelling theatrical experience. Jackie and I met over breakfast at Greenleaf Restaurant in Ashland.
EH: What is unique about the theater experience?
JA: It is the live experience of it. Everyone is experiencing the exact same moment and will have the shared experience. There is something exciting about that fleeting and momentary experience. And you experience it as the actor, as the director, as the stage manager, as the run-crew, and as the audience. The experience is so close and intimate between the audience and the performers in that way.
Whereas in film, everyone experienced something, and then someone took it away, changed everything about it, and brought it back and showed you what it was. Film seems more intimate in that you see the actor’s face close up, but it has gone through so many processes before you got to see it. Did you really get to see what they did? Probably not.
I worked with filmmakers when I taught in the Film and Media Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I loved that, but film is completely the medium of the director and the editor. We would change the actor’s performance in the editing room. And we would talk about how we could make them seem to be doing different things. There is so much that can be controlled outside of the actor and outside of the moment. In post-production, the moment is gone and completely changed.
Scott Kaiser is directing a new adaptation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” by former Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Libby Appel. It opens Nov. 8 at Southern Oregon University’s Center Stage Theatre in Ashland. Kaiser is director of company development at OSF.
EH: How is acting in a Chekhov play different from acting in other plays?
SK: The two playwrights who are most revered by actors are Shakespeare and Chekhov. The reason is that they are so rewarding.
Everything you pour into Shakespeare, as an actor, as a director, as a designer, you get back. That is not something you can say about every playwright.
Most actors will tell you that they will travel anywhere and take any pay in order to work on Chekhov or Shakespeare. On a fundamental level they understand human nature so deeply that the roles are bottomless as you start to explore them.
The major difference between Shakespeare and Chekhov is that Shakespeare is much more forthcoming on the page about what the character is thinking or feeling. The characters often say exactly what is on their minds, and they often say exactly what they are pursuing in terms of objectives, what their interests are, and what their passions are. Shakespeare’s characters can be very articulate about what’s going on in their minds and their hearts. Chekhov’s characters, in contrast, sublimate all of that. Often Chekhov’s characters don’t talk about what they’re feeling or what they’re thinking; they may have a conversation about the trees outside while love is slipping away. Chekhov is subtle and fragile and understated. They are both rewarding in their own way.
Dennis Smith, Theatre Arts professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University, is the director of “Lucky Stiff,” a hilarious musical comedy currently playing on campus. Smith and I chatted in his small shared office at SOU.
DS: I’m semi-retired now. I was in charge of the Performance Program for about 26 years. When I was hired in 1985, we had about 45 Theatre Arts majors. Now we’ve got in the neighborhood of 250.
We are still in the same building that was designed for 60 students. The faculty has more than doubled, and the student body has quadrupled. Classes are taught in hallways. They will use restrooms as rehearsal space. We’re busting at the seams.
EH: What does a degree in theater prepare you for?
DS: If you graduate in theater, and you don’t make it in theater, you should probably go into the Diplomatic Corps. One thing that theater does teach you is how to work cooperatively.
Southern Oregon University Theatre Arts graduate, Danielle Kelly, is now performing with the Paul Schmeling Trio Monday nights at Martino’s, as well as acting in film and theater. One afternoon, we mulled over the nature of performance, jazz and theater while lunching on Martino’s minestrone.
DK: I’m feeling creatively fulfilled. I feel really fortunate to be in a band that gigs quite often and has a solid, steady show. It’s incredibly special. I’ve decided against moving to a bigger city for the moment. Ashland has something very special because you can do whatever you want.
EH: How is working in music, especially jazz, different than working in theater?
DK: Musicians and actors are the same sort of species, but it is very different. Music is so immediate; a song is a shorter story; the process is a lot quicker. When you get to performance, people can come and listen, then tune in and out of the music, be really captured by a song or get up and dance to it. It takes a little more attention to take in a theater performance. A play is a lot bigger production.
With theater, the rehearsal is more intensive and scripted and planned. The structure of what you do is different. Theater takes rehearsals every night. You start from the script, and, “what’s my body going to do?” And, “where am I going to go when I say this line? How do I say it when?” Stopping and pausing for the audience here, and collaborating and playing off other people. It’s a lot more involved.
“Alice Through the Looking Glass,” directed by Chris Sackett, opens Feb. 11 at Southern Oregon University’s Center Square Theatre. Tara Watkins plays Alice. Sackett, Watkins and I met in the SOU Theatre Arts Department one afternoon to discuss the production of the new adaptation by SOU alumnus Craig Jessen.
EH: Is “Alice Through the Looking Glass” done in modern times?
CS: It’s done in “dream time.” Lewis Carroll, Charles Dodgson (his real name), was writing during Victoria’s time. We have roughly moved up the time of our real world to Edwardian, but once we get through the Looking Glass, it’s dream time. It’s not specific to a given time.
EH: What do you have in store for us visually?
CS: In Looking Glass world, we go through a variety of environments. We’re in the small space, it’s intimate, and Looking Glass space is going all the way to the walls. A basic conceit of the story is, “Let’s pretend. Let’s expand our horizons.” We are going to be doing some experimental approaches to establishing environment.
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.
Ashland Theatre 