Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 02

Dad and I left my hometown of Medford, Oregon at 7:30 this morning. Eleven and a half hours and 640 miles later we arrived at our first night's destination, Wendover, Utah.
One of the most exciting parts of the whole day was when we were skirting along the brush, dry landscape of the Oregon/Nevada border and came across a large amount of wild burros. They were lovely, and unmistakable proof that Nevada has wild ass.
The Nevada desert was absolutely beautiful, and virtually desolate. There were several times along the road that I thought to myself, a) no wonder the government hides aliens out here, and b) this would be the saddest place to live on earth. In fact, upon passing by one town, Dad exclaimed, "What's this placed called? Depressedville?" Right then we drove by a sign that said Welcome to Devil's Gate.
After settling into our hotel here in Wendover, I gained two brand new experiences. The first was seeing my first cockroach, which Dad caught and brought to the front desk to inform them of their pest problem. I suppose, as I am only 1/8 of a mile into Utah I can count that as my first wildlife sighting in this state. The second new experience was gambling in a casino. Dad and I walked about a block to get back over the state line into Nevada and went to the Nugget where Dad played about four minutes of craps earning him six dollars, and I played about two minutes at the slot machine promptly loosing one of the six dollars Dad had earned. Needless to say, we were fine with returning to the hotel after that.

Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 01

Tomorrow, life as I know it will be over.
I am leaving Oregon! Leaving lovely Rogue Valley where I grew up, and leaving the home state of my beloved city, Portland, where I spent the last four years completing my undergraduate degree and soaking in enormous amounts of great Oregon theatre. Yes, I am leaving all of it behind to get my Masters of Fine Arts in acting at the reputable Ohio University. For the next three years I will live, dare I say it...in the Midwest.
First, though, I have to get there.
My father and I will be spending the next five days squeezed tightly in my little GMC pick-up truck which is currently piled high with all my stuff. Oh boy.
Shopping for road food with Dad today was definitely the most amusing part of the afternoon. He got Doritos, I got Soy Crisps. He got Dr. Pepper, I got Hanson's root beer. He got a box of cookies, I got a bunch of Odwalla bars. He got cheese and crackers, I got hummus and carrots. About the only thing we'll be sharing is fruit. It should be an interesting ride. We did make sure to get a bottle of organic red wine and a cork screw.
He's also made sure to remind me that he wants to stop at every "Welcome To..." sign, and also the "Leaving Oregon" sign. I sat quietly for a while and then told him I could not express my excitement in words.
I'll keep updating the blog. So feel free to tune in! Ohio or bust!

The Bullet Round

I'm back in Portland now, but it's very temporary. I'll only be here nine more days, and then I'll be off on my big grad school road trip. As I will be traveling to theatre school, I feel that it counts as a 'Heather Goes to the Theatre" adventure. So I am planning to blog the details.
Tonight I saw The Bullet Round by The David Mamet School for Boys. No, it's not an actual school for boys. It's a theatre company who is "dedicated to producing work that challenges conventional playwrighting." I strongly suggest checking it out.
The Bullet Round, written by Steven Drukman and directed by Megan Kate Ward, was very engaging. I thought that relationship development among the characters was one of its strongest assets.
It's playing through the 23rd at Theater! Theatre! So if you can, check it out.

Don Quixote at OSF

It's been a couple weeks since I have blogged, and I am excusing that behavior by saying that after JAW I needed a little relaxation. Believe me, though, I am still buzzing with the joy of that experience.
Anyway, the break is over and I am back where I should be, recalling my most recent theatre encounter behind the safety of my little white Mac. My most recent theatre encounter, by the way, was Don Quixote a la Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As I am down here in Southern Oregon visiting my parents, I felt it would be a shame not to dedicate one evening to the theatre.
And what an evening it was! The show is really fun! One of my favorite elements was the multi-media. Specifically the puppets! I really enjoyed seeing the horses, donkeys, sheep, geese, owls, vultures and doves come to life! The design element of using so many found objects to create the props was also really cool. I was fond of the usage of bicycle parts and potato bags among other things. It was so fun and funny. I really enjoyed watching Josiah Phillips as Sancho Panza. It was a great way to come out of hiding and go back to the theatre.

JAW 2009: I play rough!

Today is the last day of JAW a Playwrights Festival at Portland Center Stage (PCS), and everything seems to be winding down. Thank you everyone who came to see me in the three short plays I was in at the festival. I felt really good about how they all went, and the audience seemed to enjoy the shows a lot. I imagine that's mostly due to the brilliant young playwrights who wrote the shows; Robyn Pritzker who wrote Open the Box, Alec Chase who wrote Fleeced, and Emily Schad who wrote Mental Ugly.
I was very happy to see so many people at PCS yesterday seeing JAW. It's wonderful that so many people in Portland are interested in seeing new work! And what new work to see! The mainstage shows have been brilliant so far. Yesterday afternoon was Futura by Jordan Harrison, quite a treat for anyone into typefaces, and yesterday evening was Middletown by Will Eno. What I love about Middletown is that while it's very funny, it kind of sneaks up on you. Both last night and in our preliminary table readings at the beiginning of the festival, I felt like I should spontaneously burst into tears at some points of the play and laugh hysterically at others. Both Futura and Middletown were so evocative!
Well the festival is not over yet, so if you can make it I highly suggest the shows today. At 4:00 is Kick by Ivy Knight and On The Nature of Dust by Stephanie Timm. At 8:00 is Ovum by Malcom Stumpf and 99 Ways to Fuck a Swan by Kimberly Rosenstock. Both are FREE, so come!

JAW 2009: First Day, Big Weekend!

Alright, everyone, tomorrow is the big day, the big weekend at JAW begins!
This week has been exhausting, but really fun. The whole JAW crew managed to take a break from rehearsal on Wednesday to all go to the beach. We had a wonderful time. Thanks, Kelsey Tyler, for BBQ-ing all those hamburgers and hot-dogs!
All our toils over the past week have put together brilliant performances of six brand new full length plays, and six wonderful, new short plays which will serve as curtain raisers. Tomorrow the weekend kicks off at 4:00 with Freefall by Daniel Felder and Birds of a Feather by Marc Acito. Then, later in the evening at 8:00, Open the Box by Robyn Pritzker (a short play that I am performing in) and Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West by Naomi Iizuka are performing.
Please come! The shows are free and I would love to share my first experience performing at Portland Center Stage (PCS) with all of you!

JAW 2009: Rehearsing

For several days now I have been hard at work at Portland Center Stage (PCS) contributing to JAW a Playwrights Festival by rehearsing for the Promising Playwrights series. This series is made up of six separate short plays written by six talented young playwrights. They will be performed before each main stage show this weekend.
There are a bunch of really great shows this weekend, and I hope you can make all of them. If you're only coming to a few, however, the plays that I am performing at the beginning of are Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West by Naomi Iizuka at 8:00pm on Friday, Futura by Jordan Harrison at 4:00 pm on Saturday, and Middletown by Will Eno at 8:00pm on Saturday.
Looking forward to seeing you there!