osf | Dangerous Common Sense

“The Way the Mountain Moved” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

By Galen|2018-09-26T09:16:04-07:00September 25, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Way the Mountain Moved by Idris Goodwin directed by May Adrales Julian Remulla, Maddy Flemming, Sara Bruner, Al Espinosa. Photo by Jenny Graham. This American Revolutions OSF commissioned play earns a star for its attempt at dealing with a complex subject and another for the quality of the acting; there's nothing given for any actual quality of the play. The Way's major faults are glaring: The theme of Bad, Insensitive Interlopers taking over the Native American/wild lands is hammered home without redeeming subtlety. The play is embarrassingly unedited. There are several decent [...]

0

“The Book of Will” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

By Galen|2018-09-09T06:34:03-07:00September 9, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Book of Will by Lauren M. Gunderson directed by Christopher Liam Moore "Masturbation is loads of fun," sing Romanovsky and Phillips, and the Book of Will is loads of fun. It's a truly enjoyable evening for theater aficionados and Shakespeare cognoscente. Excellent fun. Self-indulgent, self-centered, masturbatory theater fun. The "play" is a cover to allow extremely fine actors to deliver some of the best lines of Shakespeare, one after another, from productions unrelated except that they share an author. Kate Hurster, David Kelly, Kevin Kenerly, Jeffrey King. Photo by Jenny Graham. The Book of [...]

1

Snow in Midsummer

By Galen|2018-09-07T19:55:21-07:00September 7, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Snow in Midsummer By Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig Based on the Play The Injustice to Dou Yi That Moved Heaven and Earth by Guan Hanqing Directed by Justin Audibert Snow in Midsummer may be the best production of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival season. It certainly is the best production most likely to be overlooked by old-chestnut-seeking, casual theater goers. One reason Snow is a candidate for audience neglect is that it's a new play that hasn't been vetted by Broadway. Another reason is that the publicity for Snow makes it sound intellectual and good-for-you. You learn that [...]

0

Oklahoma!

By Galen|2018-07-15T09:56:21-07:00July 15, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Oklahoma Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the Play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original Dances by Agnes de Mille Directed by Bill Rauch Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been workshopping and mulling over this production of Oklahoma for five years, according to cast member Barzin Akhavan (playing Ali Hakim) when he spoke at a coffee in April. OSF's dream was to create an Oklahoma! with non-standard gender roles throughout the territory. Will Parker (Jordan Barbour) is hot for Ado Andy (Jonathan Luke Stevens) and Curly (a definitely [...]

1

Henry V

By Galen|2018-03-05T20:02:55-08:00March 5, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Henry V Ensemble as Chorus. Photo by Jenny Graham. by William Shakespeare directed by Rosa Joshi Daniel José Molina (Henry V) and other cast members deliver many truly spectacular moments -- especially in Act II -- which make this Henry a must see. Unfortunately, Director Rosa Joshi's choices diminish the impact of the play itself and leaves the audience to appreciate master-class acting set in a confusion of activity. I think the audience is supposed to [endlessly] appreciate the turmoil and indiscriminate horrors of the machine of war. Toward that end, actors push [...]

1

Sense and Sensibility

By Galen|2018-03-04T18:35:29-08:00March 3, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Sense and Sensibility Ensemble. Photo by Jenny Graham. by Jane Austen adapted by Kate Hamill directed by Hana S. Sharif This "updated adaption" is, in fact, a completely uninspired snoozefest of outdated manners humor unworthy of the acting talent and craft workers it wastes. We went into the performance expecting that S&S would be a frothy comedy. But, maybe our expectations were raised too high by the thought that it had been adapted to be more modern. But, whatever. It was not amusing enough to create a bubble of happiness, much less froth. If [...]

1

Destiny of Desire

By Galen|2018-03-03T20:23:03-08:00March 3, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Destiny of Desire by Karen Zacarías directed by José Luis Valenzuela Destiny of Desire is an evening of a schlocky, cheesy, unbelievable, perfectly-executed, spectacularly entertaining, brilliantly-written live telenovela. Before I write my 1000 words of "Oh my God, I loved it, here's why...", a picture: Vilma Silva, Ella Saldana North, Esperanza America. Photo by Jenny Graham. The photo is truly worth more than 1000 words of descriptive praise. (Click on it to see it full size.) But, here goes... Director José Luis Valenzuela has directed Destiny at four theaters -- everywhere it's been produced (or [...]

3

Othello

By Galen|2018-03-03T19:01:35-08:00February 25, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Othello by William Shakespeare directed by Bill Rauch I know I have seen Othello before, at least a couple of times. But, I never experienced this deliberate, painful story with believable Evil, blinded goodness, and flawed purity. Other Othellos were classic SHAKESPEARE. This was 2018 artistry. I left the theater wondering if Othello's tragedy is personal or is the real sadness that racism, dislike of foreigners, faux-Christian superiority and male dominance has changed so little in 400+ years? Othello (Chris Butler) is certainly flawed and succumbs too completely to Iago's (Danforth Comins) suggestions of marital infidelity. [...]

0

Henry IV, Part 2

By Galen|2017-08-27T09:58:12-07:00August 22, 2017|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Henry IV, Part 2 By William Shakespeare Directed by Carl Cofield Daniel Jose Molina as Prince Hal. Photo by OSF/Jenny Graham. This production is unique in my Ashland experience. Not in a good way. At all. The Festival is allowing an actor to go onstage who does not know his lines and cannot read them from the script he's holding on a clipboard. It is bizarrely unbelievable that this nationally-known repertory theater has hired an actor for a single role which he cannot do. And, they have left him in the role, [...]

0

UniSon

By Galen|2017-04-25T13:08:59-07:00April 25, 2017|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Steven Sapp (Poet), Asia Mark (Apprentice) photo from OSF UniSon A new musical by UNIVERSES Inspired by August Wilson's Poetry In association with Constanza Romero WORLD PREMIERE UniSon is a brief, brilliant, shotgun wedding between poetry and drama, lubricated into position with just the right amount, and right style, of original music. UNIVERSES and collaborators pulled off a transformation. Wilson's original poetry, supplemented by UNIVERSES verses, are used as the dialogue in a coherent, sensible, sensitive narrative. No longer just words, even vivid words, the views and observations in poems are given context [...]

0