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Theater: Theater: Dance: Gardening:
Laughing
in the Face of Death Eudora can't figure out why she's always the first to arrive at dinner. "You're just an early bird," says her friend Mary, who obviously suffers from some sort of dementia. She keeps insisting that she is going to walk to the beach, even though it's 60 miles away. Frank has a crush on Lil, but she's "done with all that." Small details are important in Dinner at the Old Folks Home, an original one-act by local playwright Steve Mandell showing at the Very Little Theatre. Mandell says he got his inspiration for this play after spending a lot of time visiting his mother in a retirement home and interacting with the people there. "As people get older, they become who they are and more," he says. So it's no surprise that the personalities of the characters in "Dinner" are extreme. Bessie (Darlene Moyer) loves to gamble and is not afraid to ask for what she wants. On "Cowboy Day," she comes equipped with a gun, flask and sparkly cowboy hat. Eudora (Eileen Peterson) is wide-eyed, whiny and confused. Frank (Bob Loudon) is a charming gentleman. Mandell says a central theme is the "mystery of time" and wanted to show how it moves slowly in a retirement home. For example, Eudora has only lived there for three weeks, but it seems like it's been years. Her son visits often, but she feels like she never sees him. Another theme Mandell addresses in the play is the lack of interaction between the elderly residents and the young staff of a retirement home. It's evident that the staff and the residents don't understand or appreciate each other, as though an invisible wall separates them. That changes in the end with sincere effort. It's impossible not to laugh at the quirky personalities of these characters, and all of the actors are convincing in their roles, funny and poignant at the same time. "I feel I'm done with life and my body just keeps on living," says Eudora. When Alan (George Glasser), the young server, asks Eudora where everyone has gone, she tells him they have gone to bed. "But it's early," Alan says. "No, it's very late," Eudora says. She seems to be talking about more than just the time of day. Dinner at the Old Folks Home is playing May 12-15 on the VLT's Stage Left. Log on to www.thevlt.comor call 344-7751 for more information.
See
Kafka Parables Instead of working with a pre-existing script, Director John Schmor gave his students the challenge of devising or creating their own show. The result is Kafka Parables: an original piece written by theater students and faculty members at UO. Based on several different Kafka texts, the show is a completely unique, collaborative effort. "It's a piece of theater that has never been seen before and will never be seen again," Schmor said. "The focus of the show itself is "the life that Kafka lived in Prague and the loneliness and alienation that comes with that life." Though Kafka Parables is based on Franz Kafka's writing, it's not a play but instead, a series of parables that relate to each other tangentially. The plot is not linear and requires individual interpretation. "We are asking the audience to imagine with us," said Schmor, who believes that their interpretation of Kafka will "surprise" people who have only read his work. Kafka's best-known work is the dark novel, The Metamorphosis, but the Kafka Parables plays on his dark humor as well. At the May 19-22 performances, audiences can donate to the Noah Smith Fund as they leave the theater after the show. The fund was created to help offset the rehabilitation costs for former UO student and Robinson Theatre performer, Noah Smith. Two years ago, Smith was in a car accident and sustained serious injuries doctors said would leave him a paraplegic for the rest of his life. However, Smith defied their diagnosis and is currently learning to walk again with extensive therapy. Showings of Kafka Parables are May 13, 14, 19, 20-22, 27 and 28 at the UO's Robinson Theatre. Log on to http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~theatre/ or call 346-1978 for tickets.
Crucible
for Creativity The LCC Dance Department presents its spring faculty concert May 14, 15, 16, featuring works by Bonnie Simoa, Cheryl Lemmer and Kim Vetter. The evening promises a strong offering.
Lead dance faculty Simoa seems excited to cultivate an atmosphere of creativity and learning at Lane. She has brought innovative programs to the department, such as Emily Conrad's "continuum" dance. These new ideas attract novice movers to the art form and help more experienced dancers find a fresh, creative pulse. On a recent visit to the school, Simoa introduced me to one of her students, a body-builder who's been looking to technique classes to improve his posing and grace. And lo, he has discovered he really likes to dance. This is right where a school like Lane should be: making movement accessible for more people from a wider variety of backgrounds. After all, choreographers Paul Taylor and Bill T. Jones both played football. As a role model, Simoa is a lovely mover in her own right, arguably the strongest modern technician in town. Watching her dance is a little like putting a frame around a windstorm. Her movement vocabulary is restrained, often subtly undulating in a spinal twist that seems centered, complete. An insulated twisting and folding marks her choreographic style, which seems to contain the furies. Simoa's stage presence is at once intense and sincere. In the line-up at the faculty concert, Simoa offers the group work "Mercury," which plays with that fractal structure so common in nature, the spiral, as well as a new solo, "Blue Dress Dance No. 2." Also featured in the performance, Kim Vetter's "genesis" collaborates with composer Charles Lawrence Gran. Also on the bill, pianist Jim Greenwood performs in "Kim, Jim, Gymnopedies, 1,2,3," a solo by Vetter set to Satie's "3 Gymnopedies." Cheryl Lemmer partners with students to present "In a Heart's Breath." Performances are at 8 pm in the Performance Hall, on the LCC main campus. With tickets priced at only $8 and $10, it won't set you back a whole lotta cheddar.
Huge
and Blue Desirée Nelson lives in nice old house in Cottage Grove's historic neighborhood. She was tending a pretty, curb-side bed of lettuce and peas when I dropped by in April, but we soon got down to business. Desirée was recently introduced to me as a delphinium enthusiast. Specifically, she grows a magnificent seed strain named English Delphiniums, the result of painstaking selection by British amateur gardeners. My mother grew delphiniums when I was a child, and I was suddenly engulfed with nostalgia and curiosity.
So we walked into the back garden, where Desirée showed me some light green, bushy plants growing about a foot and a half high in a sunny corner. "These are my deep purple delphiniums," she said. "They'll grow 3 feet above this fence." That fence is 6 feet tall. "The Book Mine folks gave me 10 plants (from Log House Nursery) as a gift when I was married," Desirée said. "I managed to kill them all by mulching over the crowns." The plants she currently grows came from seed she ordered direct from the Delphinium Society in England. "I taught myself to grow exhibition quality flower spikes," Desirée told me, " but I don't do flower shows. I grow them because it's exciting. It works!" Then she gave me a quote from the Delphinium Society: "If you give delphiniums what they want you will be well rewarded." Rewarded, that is, with plants 8-10 feet high, with densely packed flowers extending over the top 3 or 4 feet of each spike. Early, mid and late-season plants provide weeks of bloom, and with proper care they bloom again in fall. Flowers come in every shade of blue, as well as pink and white. Some are bi-colored, and all have "eyes" that may be a contrasting color. Show-quality delphiniums are not low-maintenance plants. Desirée feeds hers an all purpose, high nitrogen organic fertilizer in February when the shoots appear, and when they begin to make flower buds she feeds them again, with a fertilizer higher in phosphorous and potassium. In between, she gradually "thins" the shoots, ultimately leaving three or four of the sturdiest shoots for a smallish plant, five to seven for an older one. Anything leafy that grows to 8 feet or more in a few months needs lots of water. Good drainage is essential, but for best results the soil should never dry out. Desirée uses a water efficient system of leaky hoses placed under the mulch. If you are thinking that a stem 8-10 feet tall, even a stout one, needs staking, you'd better believe it. Ring stakes were already in place when I visited, and will be raised or replaced as the plants grow. Stems are secured just below the lowest buds. Desirée has a number of sturdy 4-foot ring stakes that work, she says, for 50 percent of her plants. For stems too fat to go in the rings, she uses tall plastic covered stakes — and when she runs out she fills in with whatever she can find. That's a lot of stakes: the relatively small number of plants she grows produce hundreds of flower spikes in a season. Many spikes are given away, particularly as wedding gifts but also casually, to neighbors and passers by. Admirers are stunned when she asks, "Would you like one?" Plants should be out of the wind, for obvious reasons, in locations where they'll get five or six hours of sun a day. They don't mind cold, and perform best with a cold winter dormancy. The vigor of these plants is very impressive. Not only are they taller than my mother's Pacific Giants, they live longer: about 10 years, according to Desirée. So when delphinium shoots fail to appear in spring, what's going on? Desirée says it's slugs: "If you don't see shoots in February, the slugs are getting them." She baits year round with Sluggo, but is particularly attentive when the shoots are just emerging. Seeds may be obtained directly from The Delphinium Society, "Summerfield," Church Road, Biddestone, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 7DP, UK for the modest price ($15 cash) of a membership. "One packet is plenty," says Desirée. You will also receive detailed instructions on growing English delphiniums. Alternatively, look for 4-inch plants locally. Log House Plants, the wholesale nursery in Cottage Grove, introduced English Delphiniums to the Pacific Northwest and grows them from English seed. Cultural information is posted on their website. They now also grow a "dwarf" strain of English Delphinium, named New Heights, that grow to 3 or 4 feet. May is the perfect month for setting out delphinium plants. Don't forget the slug bait. Rachel Foster of Eugene is a garden consultant and author of All About Gardens, a selection of past Eugene EW columns. She can be reached at rfoster@efn.org
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