Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
In “Baskerville,” Ken Ludwig’s hilarious pastiche of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” the game is afoot in a fast-paced, supremely satisfying and entertaining production at Oregon Cabaret Theatre that defies the limits of time and stage space. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s third novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, bringing the investigator back to life and into print in 1901. The n
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
A pop and rock musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale "The Snow Queen" is a coming-of-age story about a young girl on a journey of self-discovery in a magical, wintry landscape. When her best friend Kai falls under the Snow Queen's magic spell, Gerda must follow him to the witch's frozen palace. Along the way, she battles witches, encounters fantastical characters and flies through the frozen air on a steampunk odyssey. With book and lyrics by Rick Lombardo and Kirste
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Unforgettable music by Irving Berlin highlights this story of Annie Oakley, aka "Little Miss Sure Shot," in Dorothy Fields' and Herbert Fields' 1947 Broadway hit "Annie Get Your Gun." This blend of American folklore, romance, show business and the American West follows famed sharpshooter Oakley and her exploits with Buffalo Bill and his celebrated Wild West show. Berlin's classics “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” &#
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Camelot Theatre’s production of “The Fantasticks” is “a classic fairy-tale-style musical,” says Artistic Director Roy Von Raines Jr. "It’s a nice, quaint, sweet, sweet, comedic, romantic story told using a classic approach by a wonderful director.” "The Fantasticks," directed by Brianna Gowland, is an adaptation of Broadway’s longest-running musical. The love story features the hit songs "Try to Remember," "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and "They W
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Good and evil battle each other in the soul of every person — and so it goes in “Jekyll & Hyde,” a musical horror-drama loosely based on the novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Randall Theatre will present this tale of two men — a doctor and a madman — that features a score of hits by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 6 at the communi
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Before Agnes Evans leaves her childhood home after the death of her family in a car crash, she finds a Dungeons & Dragons module that belonged to her dead sister — a geeky high-school student named Tilly — and stumbles into the imaginary world of discovery and action-packed adventure that was Tilly's refuge. What follows is playwright Qui Nguyen's "high-octane dramatic comedy filled with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres and '90s pop culture that offers heart-pounding homage to t
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
“Himself and Nora,” a musical drama by Broadway composer and lyricist Jonathan Brielle, begins with the death of James Joyce, one of Ireland’s most influential and celebrated writers. The play spans from 1941 to 1903, working backward in time to Joyce’s youth and the beginning of his love affair with Nora Barnacle, an uneducated chambermaid from Galway. “Everything that is noble and exalted and deep and true and moving in what I write comes, I believe, from you
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Get ready for the perfect storm when Randall Theatre opens its 2018 season of stage productions with a downpour of unforgettable songs from the movie musical "Singin' in the Rain." The story follows song and dance team Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont as the film production company they work for makes the difficult transition from silent films to "talkies." Lockwood and Lamont were a hot item in silent movies but, behind the scenes, things aren't always as they appear on the big screen. Meanwhile, L
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
“Singin’ in the Rain” is a big, ambitious musical, spectacularly performed on the sacristy risers of the Randall Theatre Company’s Jacksonville Stage. One of the biggest movie musical hits in history, “Singin’ in the Rain” was released in 1952 and starred Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor. It’s a romantic comedy that spoofs the American film industry in its 1920s transition from silent movies to talkies. “Singin&
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
“Annie Get Your Gun” is a big, classic musical with a full-on ensemble in boots and buckskins. The 1946 Broadway hit, updated in the 1999 revival, opened last week at Camelot Theatre in Talent. Annie Oakley meets up with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Cincinnati and falls in love with Frank Butler, a handsome ladies man and champion sharpshooter. Annie’s the deadeye, though, and when she and Frank face off in a shooting match, she takes the prize money. Annie joins
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
In “Next to Normal,” normal is distinctly not ordinary. And sometimes in the face of severe manic depression, close enough to normal must be enough. It is that hope that concludes “Next to Normal,” a powerful, painful and emotional production, an award-winning musical drama of family dysfunction and love. Manic depressive disorder is scary and even scarier when it appears in someone you love. It’s a chronic disease that is hard to treat in part because the high
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
When a powerful Turkish pasha catches sight of lovely American tourist Constanza, he hatches a sinister scheme to get better acquainted: He has Constanza and her friends, Blondie and Pedrillo, arrested on trumped-up charges of smuggling. Detained in a country not well-known for coddling prisoners and in the custody of an irritable guard, Osmin, the three friends' precarious well-being depends on Pasha Selim's infatuation for Constanza and upon her willingness to meet his desires. Meanwhile, her
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
There's a reason why "The Fantasticks" has become the longest running production of any kind in the history of American theater. Since making its debut in a Greenwich Village playhouse off-Broadway nearly 60 years ago, the show — with its peculiar but endearing characters and offbeat romantic charm — has long been a staple of theaters around the country. That popularity was on full display at Camelot Theatre Friday night as its new production of "The Fantasticks" opened t
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Octavio Solis directs Mary Zimmerman’s “The Arabian Nights” for the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University. It’s a bawdy, lusty play, a labyrinth of stories within stories from one of the oldest cultures in the world. "The Arabian Nights” is Zimmerman’s re-telling of “The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” a compilation of Middle Eastern folk tales recorded in Arabic over the centuries. Shahryar is deceived by his
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Fairy tale meets steam punk in Collaborative Theatre Project’s 2017 production of “The Snow Queen,” a wonderful, not-so-sweet holiday tradition, and a fantastical story of friendships that triumph over adversity. Young Kai, played by Evan Sheets, is entranced by the Snow Queen, a beautifully evil witch played by Rose Passione. With a kiss as cold as winter, the Snow Queen steals Kai’s heart and his senses, and whisks him away to her icy castle at the edge of infinity.
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
Emmeline Pankhurst may be the most important person in your life you’ve never heard of. Leader of the suffragette movement in the early 1900s in England, Pankhurst is the subject of a new one-woman show to premiere at Ashland Contemporary Theatre. Written and performed by ACT artistic director Jeannine Grizzard and directed by Oregon Shakespeare Festival veteran Peggy Rubin, the play encounters Pankhurst in 1913 at a critical moment in the struggle for women’s suffrage. “Pan
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
The leadership of Ashland New Plays Festival digs deep into their many submissions to find a small clutch of plays worthy of exposure. More often than not, they uncover hits instead of misses. I've seen a lot of good plays at ANPF over the last few years, but nothing has been quite as good as Blake Hackler's "What We Were," an astonishing new play about childhood sexual abuse. Hackler is a young man, but he writes women as though he is inside of their very skin. "What We Were" follows three sist
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
After leaving last year’s race due to injury in the first third of the 4,300-mile Trans Am Bike Race, Medford cyclist Tony Lopez flew home to the Rogue Valley last week, this time victorious after completing the 10-state, coast-to-coast trek. He placed 17th out of 114 riders from around the world. A Crater High School graduate and trainer for the Harry & David call center, Lopez, 28, attempted last year’s race but was forced to stop just a few days in due to injury. Training almost nonstop, and
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-12
British playwright Aphra Behn's witty and raunchy comedy "The Rover" follows sisters Florinda and Hellena as they travel to Naples during carnival time in pursuit of romance. The Spanish hold the Italian city, and the masquerading sisters soon find their escapades ensnared with some exiled English cavaliers, a thieving con-woman and a vengeful courtesan. Mistaken identities, jilted lovers and old customs collide as the young women set about their marriage plans. Scholars point to strong feminist
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2018-07-11
Roe v Wade at risk Roe vs Wade, 1973, legalizing abortion, is at risk if Trump replaces Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court before the November election. Fifty years of work went into that bill. Women in poverty and of color would suffer the most; it would be back to coat hangers to abort. Losing Roe vs Wade must not happen, and we must take action. Here’s how: Urge our senators not to move forward with any Supreme Court nominee until after the election. We want all senators to hold that line. I