EW! A Blog: Suzi

Eugene Arts Collective: Interview with Braxton Nagle

Suzi Steffen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:46:25 -0700

The Eugene Arts Collective Facebook page

So in this piece last week, I promised to post my interview with the recently formed Eugene Arts Collective's founder, Braxton Nagle (you can also pop over to Nagle's Cigar Box Nation page and his Etsy page).

Here, a day or so late, is the interview! Short but sweet. By the way, the Arts Collective's FB page says artists need to hurry up to reserve a spot in the collective as the space is filling quickly.

Q&A with Braxton Nagle

How did the idea come about, Braxton?

I'm working with the owner of Fenario, Brent Rosskopf, who's helping a lot. I thought it would be a good idea for an arts-related co-op of some sort Basically. I was really inspired after watching OPB or something, which was doing this piece on Portland’s awesome arts co-op (Editor's note: We're trying to track this down; Barry Johnson, formerly of the The Oregonian, suggests Blackfish Gallery, and I've got other Portland art critic/writer friends working on it too), huge, like 50 different fine artists, craftspepople, all under one roof with their workshops.

It’s just something that I really wanted to do. I’m in a unique situation. The landlord (Kent Anderson) has given us a break on the rent, so that’s the only way I’m going to be able to pull this off. I need to basically cover utilities, which is still kind of a lot, but definitely doable.

Tell me more about the details. How many artists, how much would it cost per artist?

We have room for about 13 people. Basically, for $225 a month, you get a 10x15 foot space, a wall space. The artist would keep all profit, we would take no percentage, and if they wanted to use the gallery to paint in, that’s part of the deal.

So people can make art in their space?

Yes, within reason! Something low-impact, fine arts painter or photographer, that would be OK; obviously, we wouldn’t be able to support a blacksmith or something like that.

Plans for the entire space include workshops, I've heard. What else?

We just want to cover our utilities first [and] then start creating more of a community space. Our vision is to spread the arts through downtown. We’re dead-center; we’ve got a great space here. We want to have workshops and events. It’s really an open way for anybody to come in with some kind of creative idea and just do it here.

Who has responded to you?
On the Facebook, a lot of local people, we’re up to 105 people. (Editor's note: That was last Wednesday; the group has 218 fans as I write this entry on Monday.)

I’ve talked to Marc Time, who’s doing the Eugene Storefront Art Project, he’s going to start having meetings here, and I’ve offered him some window space here. I’d really like to get ... we all share a similar vision here, so it would be nice to kind of consolidate a little bit.

We’re up to about 5 people who want the space. They haven’t physically handed over any money yet; there's still a show up. This is the last show; [Fenario] closes at the end of the month.

How are you feeling about the idea of the Arts Collective?

I have some good folks who are supporting me, they're real creative and intelligent; we’re real excited at this point. We're trying to get a core group of people and figure out how to move forward.

What are the hours you’ll be open?

At this point, I don’t know. I’m going to keep the framing; we’ll still be doing giclée printing out of here. Brent, the owner, will stay on and do his printing; I’ll do my framing and cigar box guitars. And I’ll be managing the collective.

Should artists contact you on Facebook?

Yes, or they can call the gallery; we will keep same phone number. (Editor's note: That number is 541-393-3333, and Nagle's email addy is BNagle5 at gmail dot com.)

"How Facebook was Founded"

Suzi Steffen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:08:45 -0800

Read this.
And feel free to comment here or at Business Insider.

Whoa.

Eugene Opera's FAUST: Images and Video

Suzi Steffen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:30:18 -0800

A few images from Cliff Coles of the Eugene Opera in rehearsal for Friday and Sunday's Faust. (More info at the Opera's website.)

Mephistopheles (Steven Gallop) and Martha (Bereniece Jones)

More photos on the Opera's blog!

Videos after the jump.

Theater Review: THE FOUR OF US at the Lord Leebrick Theatre

Suzi Steffen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:33:03 -0800

Note: This review will appear in the 3/11 Eugene Weekly.

Benjamin (Patrick Driscoll) and David (Jacob Smith) in the Lord Leebrick's The Four of Us. Photo courtesy Lord Leebrick Theatre

Friendship, Hateship, Jealousy, Writing
Love, meet success in The Four of Us

By Suzi Steffen

First of all, get over the Teddy bear.

Director Craig Willis mentioned the stuffed animal in pre-show publicity several times, and OK, it’s practically a third character in one vivid scene of Itamar Moses’ The Four of Us at the Lord Leebrick Theatre.

But since it’s not a writer, the bear can’t focus on its work to the exclusion of its friends, the way young novelist Benjamin (Patrick Driscoll) can; and it can’t attempt to be happy for its friend’s success in the midst of feeling jealous, as David (Jacob Smith) ends up trying to do after Benjamin’s rocket ride to novelist superstardom.

Read more after the jump!

Theater Reviews: Oregon Shakespeare Festival's WELL and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Suzi Steffen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:46:50 -0800

Lisa (Terri McMahon) tries to explain the status of her play to the audience. Photo by Jenny Graham

A Quasi-Hit and a Miss
Two more openers at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival
by Suzi Steffen and Anna Grace

Sometimes, It’s Hard to Get Well
by Suzi Steffen

“It’s not even a first draft!” huffed a 60-something man in a cowboy hat as we filed out of the 95-minute New Theatre production of Lisa Kron’s Well. “MAYBE there's enough material for one or two one-acts! With lots of drafts!”

To my other side, a middle-aged woman said to her friend, “Wasn’t that wonderful? Wasn’t that moving? Tears were streaming down my cheeks.”

Ann (Dee Maaske) finds herself onstage as "an example" in her daughter's play. Photo by David Cooper

All righty, then. What is Well? Is the Tony-award-winning play a solo performance piece (with a few other actors) as Lisa (originally played by the playwright; at OSF, played by Terri McMahon) and her mother (Dee Maaske) discuss? Is it about her life, her mother’s life, sickness in the form of many allergies, integration in a formerly white neighborhood, Lisa’s selective memory, her mother’s ability to charm her friends and make her insane? Maybe. Certainly it concerns the bonds that tie Lisa to her mother and the shorthand she’s conceived in her N.Y. life for describing her childhood home in East Lansing, Mich. “I got well,” she says, explaining that she also suffered from allergies but was somehow able to move on.

Any now-coastal folk who have moved from the Midwest or urbanites who left the concerns of their parents and grandparents behind will recognize the shifting, and rather shifty, way Lisa describes her mother and her mother’s house. The set, by Richard L. Hay, beautifully presents a cluttered but extremely organized living room, complete with the mother’s recliner and well-organized files about her work to integrate the neighborhood when Lisa was little.

Lisa’s frustration and anger with her mother’s inability to get better, her blithe statements about getting in touch with her body through yoga and her fear of her mother’s vulnerability, make the piece uncomfortably real, as do the moments when inhabitants of the allergy clinic talk about being tired of being sick and wanting to get better, but not having that chance.

Alarmingly, characters make the same analogy about health and sickness — people who are healthy imagine sickness as something laid on top of their health — that Lisa’s mother makes about her white self imagining what it’s like to be black. Much of the play interrogates the playwright’s memory, and some of that interrogation works wonders. But the final scene, in which Lisa reads a note that supposedly will reveal some of the true nature of her mother, doesn’t work at all Both McMahon, who’s otherwise decent in the role, and the script (the note/speech is less than insighful) fall flat, leaving the ending surprisingly dull after a fabulous, energetic beginning and an engaging middle portion. Who’s the play's intended audience, I wonder, especially after hearing the post-show comments. I suspect that daughters of any adult age may find this play moving. Well deals with huge issues, in too short a time, and it’s a mostly one-woman show without the woman who premiered it a few years ago. But it's chewy, touching on challenging relationships and how we decide we've grown up.

More Charm School, Please
By Anna Grace

The Jane Austen bandwagon has been full to overflowing within these last few years with poorly wrought sequels, modern interpretations and even vampires. While Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan’s streamlined stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice saves us from the gross imaginings of some of those efforts, it lacks the charm and richness that make the book so satisfying.

The pace is dizzying, skimming through the story by hitting on mere snippets of its most important scenes. The quick succession of action and characters made it necessary for audience members to be familiar with the plot; it would have been difficult to understand the story if they didn’t.

Elizabeth Bennet (Kate Hurster) rejects Mr. Darcy's (Elijah Alexander) proposal.
Photo by David Cooper

But as someone intimately familiar with the book, I found the breakneck speed of this play lacking. The play feels less like the wonderful, charcter-driven romance and more like a conglomeration of the book’s greatest lines.

Despite this atmosphere of extreme haste, the romantic scenes are swoon-worthy, due largely to Elijah Alexander’s soulfully conflicted Mr. Darcy. Alexander’s presence seems able to slow time as action swirls around him and the audience watch him fall in love with Elizabeth (Kate Hurster.) Of the other characters I can only say they didn’t have enough time, the worst case being Mark Murphey as Mr. Bennet, who was only allowed to walk on stage, deliver a famous line and exit thereafter.

The set, an empty ballroom occasionally enlivened by a few chairs or a piano bench, and the beautiful costumes were not enough to hold the production together. I did not find myself delighted by Austen’s wit and social satire, nor did I enter her world; in this production, I was merely reminded of it.

The Road to Annie: The Essay Version

Suzi Steffen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:08:30 -0800

Annie (Asa Clevenger) and Grace Farrell (Courtney Volta) sing "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." Photo by Suzi Steffen

Sometimes, traditional journalism isn't enough. Or even close to enough.

I stuck to a fairly traditional style for the #theroadtoAnnie article, which was kind of short in any case, but I missed the emotions.

Someone said to me this morning, “I thought, ‘You were there for how long, for this?’” He flicked the paper. Um, yeah. Ouch.

That’s right, I couldn’t do anyone’s journey justice in that length. Still, I wish I’d done better. Here was one of my first attempts, edited today.

Things I Have Contemplated During #theroadtoAnnie:
An Essay

If you’re in my age group, especially but not exclusively if you’re a woman in my age group, you likely know all of the songs to the musical Annie, whether in Broadway or movie form. You probably thought “Hard-Knock Life” was such a funny song when you were a kid, and, especially if you had red hair, you thought that one day, you would play the lead role.

But I learned otherwise during the months of attending Annie rehearsal. I learned otherwise about Annie, and I learned other things as well. I was reminded that journalists have emotions and that the stories we do change us, that those stories can call up our past; that children and young adults have skills and talents and deep discussions and homework, that they need and enjoy talking with mentors who aren’t their parents, that they sing Michael Jackson and M.C. Hammer (not kidding) and Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber when they’re horsing around offstage; that the adult mentors who help those kids have a calling and a commitment that goes far beyond sentiment.

Photo of Corridor School performance by Todd Cooper

Some of my thoughts (after the jump, if you're coming from the front page of the blog):

The Road to Annie: How to Find All of the Posts

Suzi Steffen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:07:29 -0800

Hi there, Annie fans! If you'd like to find all of the posts, click here, and you'll see them in reverse order (most recent first).

The essay (is now up here), and more about Tim Wilcox, Sarah Beth Byrum, Jackie Stollar, Eularee Smith and a few of the parent volunteers, will be up later, as will a longer video or two.

In the meantime, just a few images from tonight, 3/3 dress/tech Cast B. I was greeted by Eularee Smith, who said, "You just can't stay away, can you? You have to find out what the next disaster is! Well, it's Sarah Beth. She has the curse of Annie! She's sick! No lights!" But, good news, Jaya may be back this weekend! Also good news, tomorrow morning I am SO tracking down a decent photo of Taylor Da---- and putting it up here ...

Ami, backstage

Grace and Grace!

Molly (Maggie) and Ms. Hannigan (Sadie)

Ms. Hannigan (Sadie) does the happy dance of cold mush

Theater Preview: Interview with University of Oregon Theatre's Theresa May, Director of BURNING VISION

Suzi Steffen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:47:34 -0800

Barbie Wu as Tokyo Rose. All photos by Ariel Ogden

On Wednesday afternoon, I called Theresa May, who directed the UO Theatre’s recently opened Burning Vision (and whom I interviewed extensively for last year’s story on the EcoDrama Festival). The play, by a playwright of the Dene Nation in Canada, got a very pleased review from Alan Beck in The Register-Guard and a far less charmed review by our Rick Levin.

May’s interest in ecofeminism, ecological drama and a grounded, arts-based ecology resonate with me (I wrote my art history master’s thesis on ecofeminism in the art of Ana Mendieta). She talked with me about everything from finding this play to figuring out how to direct an actor who’s essentially one of the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Japan. May believes that though Burning Vision has been produced several times in Canada, this is the first time it’s playing in the U.S.

Tell me about picking this play. How’d you find it?

I’ve known about it for a number of years. It was written in 2001. I knew of [Burning Vision playwright] Marie Clements’ work, and because I teach in the area of eco-criticism, an area that reflects enviro issues, I came across it when I was looking for readings for a course called Art, Culture and Nature. We did read it in the class.

I just thought Burning Vision was such a rich exploration of the environment and environmental justice issues. That was probably four or five years ago.

Much, much more after the jump!