When Cascades Theatrical Company launched its first season, Jimmy Carter was still in office. Now, on the brink of its 37th season, CTC recently hosted its 12th Annual Sneak Peek Gala, presenting scenes from each of the theater’s upcoming productions. And, full disclosure: I acted in one of the scenes and directed another, so it […]
Theater
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The Bard is Back
Shakespeare returns to Drake Park
Each year Central Oregon is seeing more and more adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare, with this summer’s traveling production of Macbeth and August’s fourth annual Shakespeare in the Park from Northwest Classical Theater Company. Under the guidance of Executive Director Grant Turner, this year NWCTC is taking on A Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare’s […]
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Really Good Luck
Comedienne April Richardson comes to Bend
April Richardson is damned funny. She has been bitingly funny on Chelsea Lately, matched wits with the best on @Midnight, and has the delightful podcast, Go Bayside, which focuses on her watching an episode of “Saved By The Bell” every week with comedians like Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, the dearly departed Harris Wittels, Moshe […]
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Toil and Trouble
Turning a cure into a blessing
The lore around Macbeth is long and storied, dark and stormy. Supposedly cursed, even speaking the name Macbeth inside of a theater is considered as much bad luck as a walking under a ladder. That is why, when inside of a theater, Macbeth is often is referred to as The Scottish Play (or Mackers if […]
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They Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touched Me
Rocky Horror time warps Bend back to 1975
I’ve been a member of The Rocky Horror Picture Show fan club since 1988. I was eight years old when I found the VHS at a video store in Paradise, California, with those big, inviting lips beckoning me to take them home and discover what weird and possibly sensuous pleasures they had to share. All […]
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Rome in Two Hours
A funny thing is happening at CTC
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is packed with jokes. From each character name to every motivation, Forum‘s script and music is designed specifically as a joke delivery system. There is even one hiding in its title: Back in the day, vaudeville comedians would often begin a joke or a story […]
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Graveyard
The Cemetery Club brings life, death and humor together
One of Ivan Menchell’s three Broadway credits, The Cemetery Club first opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1990—and three years later jumped to the big screen in a middling film starring Ellen Burstyn, Diane Ladd, and Olympia Dukakis. Here, at 2nd Street Theater, it has recycled back to the stage, with the main characters […]
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Our Picks 6/4-6/10
friday 5 Beard & Mustache Contest COMPETION—The second year of this annual event, as well as the first of Deschutes back alley parties. Expect some summer beers, a barbecue, and dancing to the Boxcar Stringband. With five categories—full beard, moustache, partial beard, freestyle, and the beer stache foam competition—there is something for everyone, as long […]
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
True West presents sibling tension with dynamic acting
In 1980, Sam Shepard debuted True West in San Francisco. Although probably not apparent to him at the time, this was the sweet spot of his career: A year earlier, he had won the Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child, a stage production that catapulted the young playwright into fame; and, in 1983, three years after […]
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The Grand Seduction
Venus in Fur heats up CTC’s Black Box
The Roman goddess Venus mostly focused on love, beauty, and sex, depending on how various artists employed her. For Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote Venus in Fur in 1870, she spawned generations of S&M, from his novel about obsession and mockery, all the way through 50 Shades of Gray. Somewhere in-between is Venus in Fur—an […]