See/Hear

It’s a mere three months post-interview, and a month after I thought I’d have it up on the blog, but at long last, the Very Little Theatre interview!

Back in the day when it was so cold that I had to keep my jacket on in the green room during the interview, VLT past president Karen Scheeland and VLT board member (and publicity director) Scott Barkhurst gave me an interview and tour of the VLT’s building. Details from that to come later (though hopefully sooner than three months — Scott, feel free to poke me about that).

The VLT, 24th & Hilyard (interior and exterior)

That building, by the way, has been around since 1950. Of course, that was 21 years into the so-far 79-year run of the VLT, so even the building is a bit of a newcomer. There are rumblings and mutterings about how to improve the building (dead spots on the stage have led to some miking, for instance, and the less said about the electrical system, the better — though the lighting designers do a superb job) or whether to construct a new building — but nothing, as far as I know, is yet decided.

1978's The Chalk Garden, with Karen Scheeland [then Karen Biggs] and Gerda Brown

Karen Scheeland became a member of the all-volunteer organization in 1969 after playing a role in 1968’s Devil’s Advocate.

1996's It Runs in the Family, with Stan Boyd, Achilles Massahos, Scott Barkhurst, and Ron Hart
Scott Barkhurst was a music student at the UO when he played the flute in the VLT orchestra in 1967. Later, he helped with lights and eventually, he says, “turned into a VLT person,” becoming a member in 1973. They spoke with me in late March.

Scheeland recently turned in a performance as Vi in Memory of Water, which closed June 21, and Barkhurst played the tailor (among other roles) in April’s On the Razzle; both remain active in all kinds of ways every VLT season. (This year’s season closes out with Truman Capote’s Glass Harp, opening Aug. 1, directed by recent VLT president Suzanne Shapiro*.)

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