2008 Fall Arts Strand

2008 Fall Term

Arts Strand

What's Up with Willamette STAGE Company?

Thursday, Oct. 2, 9:30
Since the discussions in "The Birth of Willamette Stage Company" (ALL, January 8), Oregon's newest professional theater company has completed its first season of five plays. If this had been an electronic start-up, much attention would be given to the status of the fledgling company. Was the season a success? By what measures? Is the company on a path to fulfill its vision of a professional theater group? Can the talent be found to support the goals? What are the biggest obstacles? What plays have been chosen for the coming season, and how will they continue the momentum? With this in mind, but without any of the corporate-style formality, Artistic Director Robert Hirsh will report on the State of the Company.
Host: Glenn Theodore

Bus Tour to the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1:00 - 5:00
The Hallie Ford Museum of Art, located in Salem near the Capital, supports both the liberal arts curriculum of Willamette University and the intellectual and cultural resources of our region. A tour, The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon, which features historic and contemporary regalia, will give us a rare glimpse of the beauty, history, and meaning of regalia in tribal life and thought. We will also view the permanent collection displays. The bus departs from the Church parking lot at 1 PM and will return at approximately 5 PM. Limit: first 25 to register. The cost of the tour is $27 per person which includes the cost of the bus and admission at the museum.
Host: Lois Courtney

Concert Preview at LaSells-Stewart Center

Monday, Oct. 13, 1:30 - 3:30
Marlan Carlson, Chair of OSU Music Department and holder of the Endowed Chair for University Orchestras, will offer us a "hands-on" presentation of the unique percussion and rhythmic components of the forthcoming concert "Viva Hispania." The demonstration will feature five members of the percussion section, although the concert will use an orchestra of 75. There will be time for discussion, education and questions. We will meet at the Austin Auditorium of the LaSells-Stewart Center, on stage where the violins sit, in front of the percussion section.
Host: Brookes Spencer

A Life in Stories and Stories of Life

Thursday, Oct. 16, 9:30
Geronimo Tagatac's life began in California working in migrant camps with other Filipinos; the stories told there made an indelible mark. He has been a student, a dancer, a veteran of Vietnam, and wandered around the world before he married and had a daughter. He retired from government work in Salem and now gives readings and workshops on the art of the short story. He has created from these varied experiences a collection of stories called, The Weight of the Sun. - These are tales about farm laborers, kitchen workers, bureaucrats, body builders, soldiers, and students some of which he will share with us. As he says, "some of these fictional characters are broke, some homeless, and some just plain lost."
Host: Lois Courtney

Prancing Lavender Bunnies and the Dark Side of Cinema

Thursday, Oct. 23, 9:30
Paul Turner is the owner, operator, camera repairman, ticket taker, and promoter for the Darkside Cinema, -Corvallis' only independent movie theater. Always entertaining, Paul will share irreverent stories about running an alternative, locally owned, independent movie theater in a small Oregon town, appreciations of fiercely loyal patrons, rants about the peculiar business of dealing with movie studios, his favorite genre/films, and more.
Host: Glenn Theodore

Behind the Scenes of an Advanced Theater Complex

Thursday, Oct. 30, 4:00
By now, many in the area have attended events at the new Corvallis High School, but very few have had the privilege of seeing, up-close-and-personal, the state-of-the-art elements in this elaborate theater complex. (How did they make Ariel fly? ….or Prospero disappear? …or lightning and thunder so real, the house shook?) Elizabeth Wyatt, Manager of District Theaters, will conduct a backstage tour of the Mainstage Theater and the intimate Black Box studio. Students trained in the arts will be on hand to demonstrate many of the lighting, sound, and other theatrical features that rival anything between Portland and Ashland; features that are available to support the most demanding touring productions, or give a professional touch to student shows created locally. Meet in the cafeteria area on the east side of the High School, with parking entry on 11th Street just off Buchanan.
Host: Glenn Theodore

Travel Sketchbooks with Ken O'Connell

Thursday, Nov. 6, 9:30
Ken O'Connell, UO Professor Emeritus of Digital Art, has completed over 46 sketchbook journals from his travels. Ken uses sketches and watercolors from his travels to fill up his sketchbooks and his vivid memory. He will show work from recent trips teaching adults who traveled with him to Italy and the Oregon Coast. If you wish to join in, bring some paper or an old or new sketchbook. Otherwise, simply enjoy the demonstration and reminders of his travels.
Host: Lois Courtney

A Parable and the Creative Life

Thursday, Nov. 13, 9:30
Peg Mayo is a local writer, retired social worker, and hospice volunteer. She exults in the time, freedom, and energy to live a creative life. She lives modestly in the Coast Range forest beside the headwaters of the Yaquina River. "A good man," the Shy Guy and a pair of extraordinary "dawgs" are satisfying companions. She's adding to her list of sixteen books and doing storytelling. She will read one of her parables, The Dirty Little Girl, and discuss the creative process.
Host: Erika Schoell

Music in the Twentieth Century: New Directions

Thursday, Nov. 20, 9:30
David Eiseman, OSU Professor Emeritus of Music. The turn into the 1900s through the following few decades denoted change and new directions of all sorts: expressionism, impressionism, primitivism, nationalism, along with other isms. Through compelling excepts from the works of Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg, we will come to appreciate expressionism as an intensification of late romanticism emotionally and technically at this time of social and intellectual unrest before and after WW I. (In winter and spring terms we will consider the other isms.)
Host: Brookes Spencer

Mark Twain, His Wit and Wisdom

Thursday, Dec. 4, 9:30
It's true. Reports of Mark Twain's demise have been greatly exaggerated. At least you'll think that when Kirby Brumfield, retired TV actor and weather reporter, dons a bushy wig, enhances his mustache, and climbs into a snowy white suit. As Captain Marvel used to say, "Shazam," and we are suddenly in the presence of Mark Twain as he extols us with his tall tales, Huckleberry Finn, and his own brand of dry wit.
Host: Lois Courtney

The Transcendentalists

Thursday, Dec. 11, 9:30
David M. Robinson is the holder of the Oregon Professorship of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at OSU. He is the author of Emerson and the Conduct of Life (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993); and Natural Life: Thoreau's Worldly Transcendentalism (Cornell Univ. Press, 2004). He will speak on Emerson, Thoreau and the New England Transcendentalists, describing a movement that began in the 1830s and embodied new ideas in literature, religion, politics, and the natural world.
Host: Brookes Spencer