The summer isn’t quite here yet, and spring will be gone before you know it. There are still great spring shows happening all around town. Here’s a rundown to prime you for the rest of the season.
Majestic Theatre
Sunday, April 27 – Reader’s Theatre: Conversations Before and After We Bare Our Soul features one-act plays from some talented local writers, including John Byrne, a local theater stalwart. His entry, Father’s Weekend, features a man visiting his son at college who comes face-to-face with a strange sculpture that strongly resembles his own dad. Shows are at 3 and 7 p.m.; tickets are $6 for students and seniors, $8 for general admission.
Friday, May 2 – Halie Loren will play a show featuring her infectious brand of jazz and classics. The Alaskan-born crooner moved to Eugene just before high school and started recording not long after. She recently toured Canada and Japan and is promoting her most recent album, Simply Love, released this past September. Tickets are $18 to $25 and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 3 – Aventuras de Don Quixote and El Niño Diego are bilingual plays in Spanish and English being performed by the Milagro Theatre. They are a group making Latino-themed theater and art for the West Coast that’s been around for nearly 30 years. Aventuras is a play based on the classic Cervantes tale Don Quixote, the classic dreamer, while El Niño Diego is a play about the life of artist Diego Rivera. Aventuras de Don Quixote starts at 2:30 p.m. and El Niño Diego starts at 5:30 p.m.; tickets for either play are $8 for adults, $5 for children, students, veterans, seniors and Majestic members.
Friday, May 9 to Sunday, May 25 – Gypsy is a Broadway classic about show business, moms, vaudeville, America, and singing. I normally don’t go for this kind of thing, but Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics are reason enough to get anyone out of bed. Tickets are $12 to $18 in advance and $14 to $20 at the door. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. on May 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24, with matinees at 2:30 p.m. on May 11, 18, and 25. That makes this perfect for Mother’s Day (May 11, of course you didn’t forget though…), and on the evening of May 10 there’s also a gala package that includes dinner at Luc’s and VIP access and seating, $125 per person and $225 for couples.
Whiteside Theatre
Saturday, May 10 – The classic Judith Viorst kids’ book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day gets a stage treatment. Two Beans Productions, part of Theatreworks USA, puts on the show. Theatreworks is a national youth and family theater initiative that’s been around for over 50 years. The book is one of those perfect encapsulations of when you wake up and just can’t catch a break. This is aimed at kids but still resonates with adults… or maybe just me. There are two shows on Saturday, May 10, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Saturday, May 24 – Portland jazz musician Tim DuRoche gives a talk called “Jazz and Community Building,” part of the Oregon Humanities Conversation Project. DuRoche is a musician, civic ecologist, author, journalist, and radio host who will speak about jazz as a “democratic artform” which we can use to make our communities stronger. Tickets are $2.
The La Sells Stewart Center
Monday, April 21 – Travis Good of MAKE will be giving a talk about the DIY movement entitled “A Community of Makers: Inventing, Hacking, and Fabricating on the DIY Campus.” Good is an OSU alum and being a contributing editor to MAKE Magazine pretty much makes him a god in the DIY/hacking/crafting scene, one which is very much alive and on the rise in Corvallis. The talk is in the Construction and Engineering Hall of La Sells and starts at 5 p.m.
Friday, May 2 – The Shedd Institute’s resident jazz band, The Emerald City Jazz Kings, will be playing a show highlighting Spanish influences in jazz music, called “Besame Mucho.” The show includes songs by Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Carmen Miranda, and Desi Arnaz, as well as others. The show is in the Austin Auditorium of La Sells. Tickets are $22 for adults and 11 for children.
The Arts Center
Thursday, April 17 to Saturday, May 24 – The Arts Center features an exhibit by painters Leah Wilson and Carol Chapel called Structure of Nature. The show features paintings depicting “our evolving relationship with our local environment and ecosystems,” according to Wilson’s artist statement. The paintings are beautiful nature-themed statements and questions that should appeal to the Oregonian in all of us.
This is all just a taste of the great shows and exhibitions going on for the rest of the spring before school lets out and we all slow down for a low-key summer.
By Ygal Kaufman
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