A gang of tuxedo’ed young men were rambunctiously and cheerfully hanging out late this afternoon in Chautauqua Square –  displacing the usual scruffy panhandling denizens.

Groomsmen hanging out on the Chautauqua Square

While walking by, I complimented them on their “upgraded” look.  One apparently felt obligated to panhandle and asked if he could bum a cigarette.  They all happily lined up for me to take their photo!

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I love this time of the year in the Chanticleer Inn bed and breakfast garden.

Rhodies in the north part of the bed and breakfast garden

The “rhodies”, dogwood, lupine, Japanese irises, and poppies are all blooming!
Late spring in this bed and breakfast garden doesn’t last long, but it does make lasting memories.

Pink Dogwood in the Front Yard

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by Pierre Corneille, adapted by Tony Kushner  at the Center Square Theatre

Award winning playwright Tony Kushner creates “The Illusion”  lush layers of illusion in this tale of a father seeking the help of a magician in his search for his long-banished son. Based loosely on L’Illusion Comique written by Pierre Corneille in 1636, the play is filled with conjured visions, unlikely transformations and unexpected twists of time and fate.

For performance days and more details go to SOU theater department

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The 2004 winner of Tony’s triple crown of Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. Avenue Q is a coming-of-age comedy where the real world defines the facts of life. Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers move over as eleven wacky puppets and three humans enact this zany, all too real, insightful extravaganza. Intended for mature audiences.

For performance days and more details go to SOU theater department

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Old Willy’s Birthday

Dear William,

Happy birthday!

From your admirers at the Chanticleer Inn: Ellen Kristel, Desiree, and Chelsea

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Ellis Paul
Singer/Songwriter

Ellis Paul plays live music Ashland Oregon

Ellis Paul plays live music Ashland Oregon, he could be the most mainstream-friendly folk songwriter to emerge from Boston since Tom Rush. He has won an unprecedented 14 Boston Music Awards, sung at Fenway Park for the Red Sox, The Boston Garden for the Celtics and even had the mayor of Boston, Thomas M. Menino, proclaim it “Ellis Paul Day in Boston” on July 9th, 2010 when Ellis celebrated his 20th year in making music.

Ellis’ worldwide audience has grown from several high profile song placements and hundreds of thousands of YouTube video plays. His songs are heard in various commercials, documentaries, TV shows such as “Ed” and MTV’s “Real World”; and in the soundtracks of blockbuster films.

Paul’s sixteenth CD, “The Day After Everything Changed”, was released in 2010 by Black Wolf Records. Rather than work with a record label, Paul invited fans to help finance the recording by offering donors various premiums determined by the level of donation. Although Paul wasn’t sure what to expect when the United States economy collapsed, the fan-funding initiative resulted in more than $100,000 being collected – more, according to Paul, – than any label had ever spent on him.Recorded in Nashville with a guest appearance by Kristian Bush that includes a duet on the track, “Paper Dolls”, Paul says the fan support inspired him to make “the best record I could”. One reviewer wrote: “This is such a tuneful, beautifully drawn set of songs played and sung with authority that it reminds you how much we need storytellers back in pop music—storytellers with empathy, fine eyes and an understanding that even though we live in a soulless, indifferent world our music doesn’t have to reflect our culture.”

Movie director Peter Farrelly, of the Farrelly Brothers, praises Ellis Paul as “a national treasure”. Ellis’ songs have appeared in the soundtracks for three Farrelly Bothers movies, “Me Myself & Irene” with Jim Carey, “Shallow Hal” with Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow, and in February 2011, the Farrelly Brothers latest project, “Hall Pass” starring Owen Wilson and Alyssa Milano showcases 9 musical tracks off of Ellis’ “The Day After Everything Changed” as the score of this hit movie. This is Ellis’ third Hollywood blockbuster credit.

Presented by St Claire Productions
Friday, May 3, 2013 at 8pm
Tickets: $18/advance, $20/door, $10/teens 12–17,
children under 12 are free with paying adult.
Unitarian Fellowship, 4th and C Streets, Ashland

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The Unfortunates is a world premiere, created by Jon Beavers, Ramiz Monsef, Ian Merrigan, and Casey Hurt; additional material by Kristoffer Diaz.  Directed by Shana Cooper.

A review by Angela Allen

The Unfortunates: Edgy or over the Edge?
Full disclosure: I love edgy theater. Not that OSF doesn’t do Neil Simon or August Wilson up right, or even Shakespeare in period dress, but I prefer the small-theater, risk-prone productions.
So The Unfortunates, playing at the newly named Thomas Theatre, wasn’t a huge stretch for me, but it could be for many. (As one playgoer, who prides himself on enthusiasm for works by Chekhov, Strindberg, et al, said, “the whole thing was entirely unfortunate – the music, the acting, the play.”)

To be sure, the play is anything but linear, pretty darn plot-less (minus a love story between Big Joe and armless prostitute Rae), and fluid about time. So, if you prefer a story spooling out logically to an avalanche of metaphors about suffering, this play  will impress you as barely cohesive, experimental as hell, and moodier than most.

And here’s the deal that contributes to that feeling: The Unfortunates is a collaborative effort among a number of actors-turned-playwrights-turned-musicians, all of whom play large parts in the play, and all of whom are fabulous actors and musicians (if not playwrights).

The play/musical is mercifully 90 minutes short, without intermission. It begins in a prison camp, travels to a New Orleans-style bar and flirts with the underworld.

The piece brushes with war, the plague, hell in all versions, and misfortune of all stripes – including armlessness and addictions. Its characters are bigger-than-life comic-book versions, from the bar “madame” to onetime bar-owner King Jesse, to dazed and bedazzled Big Joe with his over-sized craps-throwing hands, to pitiful songbird Rae whose wings are clipped. Everyone endures a miserable life, but without the trajectory or development of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.

Still, if I wasn’t wild about the show, I liked the music. You’ll hear strains of the blues, rap, rock and spirituals, including good old Amazing Grace and St. James Infirmary, with which the play begins and ends.  (Keep in mind the song’s first line is, “It was down in Old Joe’s barroom” and the play might make some sense.)
I doubt The Unfortunates will go to Broadway or to off-Broadway, but I admire OSF for taking risks and producing such a wild and woolly ensemble piece.

– Angela Allen is a Portland-based journalist, photographer and poet, who drinks in as many plays as she can when visiting Ashland and staying at the Chanticleer.

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Ashland New Plays Festival, Quietus

A new play Quietus by Richard Manley, read/performed on Monday April 15, ’13, Unitarian Church 87 4th St. Ashland.

From perspectives of three characters: a medical researcher, an entrepreneur, and a bio-ethicist, the play explores the ability, and ramifications therein, to keep a body functioning after brain death.

Ashland New Plays Festival tickets are $15 for general admission. Call 541 488‑7995, or purchase tickets at Paddington Station or the Music Coop.  For more information go to their website.

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NW Dance Project

This young Portland-based company has become a critics’ favorite with its fresh, adventurous approach to modern dance, mixing free-wheeling innovation and classical technique.

Under the visionary leadership of Sarah Slipper, NWDP specializes in bold new work by the most exciting young choreographers in the world. In the words of Dance International Magazine, they are “changing the way dance is created.”

13 April 2013 at 7:30 PM

Presented by: Craterian Performances

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Sue Springer on the Ashland Plaza

While walking about downtown, I decided to check out how the new plaza project was progressing.  Lucky me!  Sue Springer was in the middle of setting the tile into the grout on  the side of a bench.  One side (not shown) already had all the tile, held up by blue tape and the other side was ready for grout.  I told Sue the blue tape was fetching and should consider keeping it there.  She agreed.  An wonderful artist with a good sense of humor too.

We’re lucky to have her design on the Ashland Plaza.

For more information about Sue Springer, visit her website

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