While the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is best known for its commitment to the Bard, its stages have long featured a wide range of playwrights. One writer, in particular, stands out as OSF’s most produced after Shakespeare: August Wilson. This season, OSF’s 90th, Kevin Kenerly returns to Wilson’s world in “Jitney,” playing on the Angus Bowmer Theatre stage through July 20.
Daniel Molina: My college professor and classical theater mentor, Lawrence Ballard, was the first person to tell me about Ashland. He said, ‘Any actor who is serious about classical work knows Ashland is the place to be.’”
Curtain Call: After university studies in Indiana and Colorado, and pursuing his career playing with several orchestras, Jerry Su returned to Southern Oregon in 2022 to audition for the second E-flat clarinet position with the Rogue Valley Symphony — and got the job.
Curtain Call: Alysia Beltran will begin her third season with OSF later this year, and you can see her now as one of the lead actors in “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.
Curtain Call: Popular orchestra conductor Martin Majkut has added another gig to his already busy schedule. Majkut, the music director of the Rogue Valley Symphony and the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York, has been appointed the new music director of the Oregon Coast Music Association’s festival orchestra.
Curtain Call: What happens when love and murder collide in a musical comedy? Prepare for a killer combination of charm, wit, and mischief. “A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder” opens Jan. 24 at Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland and runs through March 30.
Curtain Call: You might want to rethink offering the classic theater sendoff “Break a leg!” to Ryon Lane, who currently is playing Capt. Georg von Trapp at Talent’s Camelot Theatre. It might be a little too close to home for a guy who broke his neck in 2008. In true theatrical tradition, Lane made a stunning comeback — recovering not only to act again but to run the New York City Marathon just two years later in under three hours.
Curtain Call: Abigail Mace is the artistic director and conductor of Jefferson Baroque Orchestra, a position she assumed last March. Jefferson Baroque’s upcoming concerts will be December performances of Handel’s “Messiah,” a beloved holiday tradition.
Curtain Call: Amirah David was 8 years old when she landed her first professional gig in “The Magic Stone, the Musical” at Actors’ Theatre in Talent, later rebranded as Camelot Theatre. Thirty years later she’s back on the Camelot stage as Maria in “The Sound of Music.” The iconic musical opens Nov. 20 and will run through Dec. 31.
Curtain Call: Terry Longshore’s “Full Circle: Turtle Wisdom” will bring artist Betty LaDuke’s vibrant “Turtle Wisdom” series to life through the resonant sounds of a gong orchestra on Nov. 8 at ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum. Performers will include Terry Longshore, the SOU Percussion Ensemble and students of Longshore’s SOU Honors College course, Making Music.
For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Oregon women’s basketball team is through to the second round of the NAIA National Tournament. In Friday night’s 86-52 first-round win over UC Merced at Lithia Motors Pavilion, the Raiders made it look routine. The task gets taller, literally and figuratively, in Saturday’s 5 p.m. second-round matchup against No. 7 seed Wayland Baptist (Texas).
Oregon’s second-highest court affirmed Wednesday that the voter-approved gun control law Measure 114 is constitutional, potentially clearing the way for the law to take effect after being on hold for years because of a Harney County judge’s ruling.
The 12 wineries along the Bear Creek Wine Trail are teaming up to bring their best wines to the table for attendees of the inaugural Bear Creek Wine Trail Festival, with a chance to enjoy the scenic views and backdrop of Naumes Suncrest Winery in Talent.
Brilliantly acted and staged at the intimate Richard L. Hay Center at the Grizzly Peak Winery, Rogue Theater Company’s production of “Doubt,” as director John Sipes writes of the play, “serves as a cautionary tale, reminding us to be wary of the narrowness of moral certainty and encouraging us to embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty we so often face.”
Three guinea pigs had been left in Lithia Park, Ashland Community Service Officer Denise Aguilera was told when she was called to respond. The guinea pigs were left in a carrier “with a sign indicating ‘Free for the taking,’” Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara said in an email Wednesday.
Herbert Rothschild: Some Lenten sustenance: Currently, nearly 3.5 million Afghan children are suffering acute malnutrition. And on March 1, Netanyahu sentenced the Gazans to starvation.
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