This week’s crossword: storied ursines. Solve it directly in the article or download a PDF to print. Next week’s crossword: “Cabaret 2025.” More crosswords under the Culture menu.
Review: This year’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” playing at the CTP and directed by Tommy Statler, is original, imaginative and lighter than last year’s production of the same. The story of the miserly curmudgeon who finds redemption in the meaning of Christmas keeps with the spirit of the season.
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.
The Israeli Chamber Project, a New York-based music ensemble, came to Ashland for the first time Wednesday, Dec. 4, to give a recital in Southern Oregon University’s Music Recital Hall presented by Chamber Music Concerts, now in its 41st season.
Sage on Stage: Jessica Sage, artistic director of the Rogue Theater Company, emphasizes the importance of collaboration among all the people involved in a performance. It’s the foundation of a strong, successful production.
This week’s crossword: 5 plays from Camelot Theatre’s 2025 season. Solve it directly in the article or download a PDF to print. Next week’s crossword: “Grin and Bear It #01.” More crosswords under the Culture menu.
Santa flipped the switch officially launching Ashland’s holiday season Friday evening, shortly after anchoring a parade along East Main Street from the library to the Plaza, accompanied by merry bands of bicyclists, stilt walkers, dancers, marching band members and a feisty troupe of devoted reindeer.
More than 200 people turned out Thursday for the ninth Community Peace Meal and Thanksgiving Celebration at the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland, according to organizers Jason and Vanessa Houk of Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, which does the Peace Meal every Thursday and Friday in Lithia Park near the bandshell at 3:30 p.m., rain or shine.
Last March the Ashland Community Food Bank saw a 140% spike in demand. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, benefits were reduced and many COVID protection programs such as eviction protection ended. Now, it takes about 60,000 pounds of food every month to feed those directly “shopping” at the food bank, but also to restock little satellite pantries around Ashland, such as at the library and at the Ashland Senior Center.
This week’s crossword: selected course titles from OLLI’s Winter 2025 catalog. Solve it directly in the article or download a PDF to print. Next week’s crossword: “Camelot 2025 #01.” More crosswords under the Culture menu.
Gov. Tina Kotek called a special legislative session Thursday to come up with $218 million to pay outstanding balances from the 2024 wildfire season. Lawmakers voted 25-2 in the Senate and 42-2 in the House to pay that bill by sending $191.5 million to the state forestry department and $26.6 million to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
Millions of western monarch butterflies once visited Oregon and other Western states each spring to drink flower nectar, pollinate plants and lay their eggs after wintering in forests in coastal California. But today just a couple hundred thousand make the journey. To help curb their decline, a federal wildlife nonprofit has granted nearly $760,000 to improve the monarch’s habitat.
Relocations: “I don’t think there are any other artists (besides Richard Serra) who worked with the level of ambition, exactness and vision to create something on such a magnificent scale that changes human experience.” — Sarah Roberts, head of painting and sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Obituary: Ruth Bell Alexander, 80, a pioneering women’s health advocate, writer, and community leader, died Dec. 4 in Ashland. In 2005, Ruth Alexander was elected to the Ashland School Board, where she served two terms as a vocal advocate for equitable education and student engagement. She organized the whole town into a one-week television hiatus called “No TV Week” in the early 1990s.
Mt. Ashland Ski Area’s first new chairlift in more than three decades will open this weekend. The Lithia Chair will open at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, giving skiers and snowboarders greater access to easy and intermediate slopes, according to a release issued Tuesday from the nonprofit ski area.
Review: This year’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” playing at the CTP and directed by Tommy Statler, is original, imaginative and lighter than last year’s production of the same. The story of the miserly curmudgeon who finds redemption in the meaning of Christmas keeps with the spirit of the season.
(It’s free)