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Books: Theater: Theater:
Awards,
Fairs, Readings Book Notes (Nov. 24 — Dec. 31): The 2004 book award season is over. Congratulations to all winners and short-list nominees. 2004 Oregon Book Award winners include Henry Hughes, poetry, Men Holding Eggs; Tracy Daugherty, novel, Axeman's Jazz; Scott Nadelson, short fiction, Saving Stanley; Ellen Morris Bishop, nonfiction, In Search of Ancient Oregon; Karen Karbo, creative nonfiction, The Stuff of Life; Shelly Lipkin, Louanne Moldovan and Sherry Lamoreaux, drama, Vitriol and Violets; Michelle McCann, children's literarture, Luba; and Susanna Vance, young adult literature, Deep. …The 2004 National Book Award winners include Lily Tuck, fiction, The News from Paraguay; Kevin Boyle, nonfiction, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age; and Jean Valentine, poetry, Door in the Mountain. …Britain's 2004 Man Booker Prize for fiction is Alan Hollighurst's The Line of Beauty; short-listed were David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas; Colm Toibin's The Master; Gerard Woodward's I'll Go to Bed at Noon; Sarah Hall's The Electric Michelangelo; and Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit. …2004 National Jewish Book Award went to Corvallis's Marjorie Sandor for Portrait of My Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime. …Calyx's annual poetry award went to Eugene's Deborah Narin-Wells for "Eurydice Speaks from the Basement." …The 2004 War Poetry Contest first place went to Eugene's Robert Hill Long for "Gulf War News Sign-Off, With Video Tricks." …Portland's Wild Arts Festival Book Fair, annual benefit for Audubon Society of Portland, includes local and regional authors Jane Kirkpatrick, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Michael Pyle, Roland Smith, Andy Kerr, William Sullivan, Steve Terrill, James D. Keyser from 5-9:30pm Nov. 26; 10 am-8 pm Nov. 27; 10 am-4 pm Nov. 28 at DoubleTree Hotel, Lloyd Center. …Marisela Rizik (Of Forgotten Times) reads at 7 pm on Dec. 1 at UO Bookstore. …Bill and Ted Merrill (River Runts) read at 7 pm, Dec. 2 in Tsunami Books. …Maura Conlon-McIvor (FBI Girl) reads at 7:30 pm Dec. 3 at Eugene Pubic Library. …Rebecca Solnit (Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities) speaks at 7:30 pm on Dec. 2 in Alumni Lounge, Gerlinger Hall, UO campus. …Carola Dunn reads at 7 pm Dec. 2 in Barnes & Noble. …Bob Welch reads at 1 pm Dec. 4 in Barnes & Noble. …Authors and Artists Fair from 7-10 pm Dec. 4 in Eugene Public Library includes writers Lois Barton, Joe Blakely, Tom Cantwell, Jane Capron, Lynette Chiang, James Cloutier, Bean Comrada, Alan Contreras, Kurt Cyprus, John Dashney, Carola Dunn, Cai Emmons, Rachel Foster, Molly Gloss, Scott and Tiffany Haugen, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, David Imus, Kristen Ingram, Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant, Jim Kesey, Lauren Kessler, Jane Kirkpatrick, Alaine Knighton, Robert Kono, Jessica Maxwell, Jerry Oltion, Ed Rondo, Margriet Ruurs, Alan Siporin, Jesse Springer, Nedra Sterry, William Sullivan, Dean Van Leuven, Maryana Vollstedt, Bob Welch, Leslie What, Kate Wilhelm, Robert Young. …Powell's Books will buy used books from 11 am-6 pm Dec. 4—Dec. 7 at Ramada Inn, 225 Coburg Rd. …Carola Dunn and Shirley Tallman sign books at 3 pm Dec. 5 at B Dalton, Gateway Mall. …Guy Fielding (Let Go and Live in the Now) speaks at 7:30 pm Dec. 7 at Unity of the Valley Church, 3912 Dillard Rd., Eugene. …Charlotte and Harriet Childress (Clueless at the Top) will sign books at 5:30 pm on Dec. 9 in Tsunami Books. …New books by local authors include The Angle of Sharpest Ascending by poet Ingrid Wendt, On the Way to Water by poet Scott Lubbock, and Plague and Fire by UO historian James Mohr. Buy local!
A
Storm of the Soul In a production that embraces Shakespeare's darkest themes and shines a spotlight on Tempest's most fundamental questions, Director John Schmor has worked magic by bending Shakespeare's last work around the stages of alchemical transmutation as he leads the audience in a search for our own "ultimate wisdom."
Prospero (Leon Johnson) was the Duke of Milan until his conniving brother Antonio (Steven Wehmeier) took over the throne while Prospero neglected his rule and immersed himself in study. Through the mercy of one of the duke's counselors, Gonzalo, they find themselves stranded on an island instead of dead at sea. There Prospero possesses magic powerful enough to control the wind, weather and tides through the enslavement of a spirit named Ariel who he freed from the island's previous, evil ruler, a sorceress named Sycorax. The play opens as the King of Naples, Alonso (Richard Leinaweaver), and his court are "shipwrecked" on the shores of that very same island in a magical storm that Prospero has commanded Ariel to create. Through the course of the play, Prospero's desire for vengeance and revenge are transformed to forgiveness and mercy. By choosing alchemy as the theme around which to wrap the performance, Schmor has made a foray into presenting perhaps the most complex struggle that the characters undergo, a personal transformation of one kind or another. Everything in the play serves to reinforce and underline the way in which the characters change throughout the 90-minute performance. Even the set itself has multiple planes in both the vertical and horizontal. Lighting, sound and costumes all help create a certain disorientation allowing the viewer to suspend disbelief and wonder as the characters move in and around a world full of shimmering magic, mysterious sounds and invisible beings. Schmor's decision to have two of the actors, Kimberly Bates and Christopher Hirsh, play dual roles — Miranda/Ariel and Ferdinand/Caliban respectively — is an ingenious twist that adds a malevolent cruelty to Prospero's role and highlights, literally, the dualities within the play itself. As Miranda and Ariel, Bates is incredible — morphing from young girl to spirit with ease and playing each role wonderfully and distinctly. Hirsh is also excellent, easily transforming from Alonso's son, the beautiful prince Ferdinand, to the disfigured half-man, half-beast, Caliban. It's a treat to see Eugene's local troubador, David Stuart Bull, breezily perform the role of the good Gonzalo as if it were written for him and Johnson captures the subtleties of Prospero's conflicted character well. Leinaweaver portrays Alonso as a king with compassion and plays his final act of contrition well, while Wehmeier manages to embody one of Tempest's unresolved issues — Antonio's lack of remorse even in the face of his brother's forgiveness. Possibly one of this year's best plays for its incredible use of allegory and parable combined with excellent acting, set, lighting, music and costumes.
Country
Classic The production Always … Patsy Cline, is like attending a live honky-tonk country concert, not a theater, according to show directors. With 27 songs in two hours, including Cline's classic hits "Crazy" and "Walkin After Midnight," the musical tracks the singer's tumultuous career.
Produced by Eugene's Willamette Repertory Theatre, "Always … Patsy Cline" will open at the Hult Center Wednesday, Nov. 24. The musical's narrative, based on a true story, is told through the perspective of Louise, a friend and correspondent to Cline. Louise interweaves pieces of their letters between songs performed by a live five-piece band, providing insight into both Cline's life and music career. "The narrative spans the earliest part of Cline's career to her death in a plane crash," said director Norm Johnson. "To follow someone who was a real historical figure is a compelling challenge." Johnson, an associate theater professor at Ithaca College in New York, believes that the musical will seduce audiences into believing that they are at a Patsy Cline concert 40 years ago with powerful performances by Louise (played by Emily Gilbert) and Cline (played by Grammy award winner Shandra Sinnamon). Cline, aka Virginia Patterson Hensely, was born in 1932 in Virginia. A natural entertainer as a child, Cline received her big break at 25 years old. She won a television talent program in 1957 with the hit "Walkin' After Midnight," ultimately sealing a record deal. Cline toured city bars and concert halls, playing at the Mecca of country music — the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville — in 1958, and becoming the number one female recording artist in the early 1960s. She had her share of misfortune though, surviving both an abusive husband and a disfiguring car accident. Although Cline died in an airplane crash in 1963 in Tennessee, her music continued to enjoy posthumous success. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973. Scotty Perey, the music director, said that he was always attracted to the type of music that Cline produced. "The honky-tonk, old-time country thing was one of my main bag of tricks," or one of his first musical styles, he said when he was learning to improvise. A member of the local band, The Sugar Beets, and the winner of Eugene Weekly's Best Male Musician for 2004, Perey has assembled an all-star band that will feature a fiddle, piano, bass guitar and a pedal steel guitar — a traditional flat guitar that was a "Nashville staple." Always … Patsy Cline will run Nov. 24 through Dec. 12 at the Hult Center Soreng Theater. Tickets can be purchased through the Hult Center at 682-5000.
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