Fun Things To Do in The Medford Area

Last weekend my wife and I sampled a couple of local stage offerings. And I can recommend each.

On Friday the 16th, we attended Animal Crackers at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's the time of year when us locals can get discounted deals, so we took the opportunity to take the 20 minute drive to attend the theater that attracts people from around the world. The theater was, of course, beautiful. It seats about 1000 people and I don't think there's a bad seat in the house. That said, we decided to get front row seats and it was worth the few extra dollars.

Animal Crackers, for those of you who do not know, is the name of an old Marx Brothers movie from the 1920's. This play was adapted from that movie. If you enjoy slapstick, very clever one-liners, and terrific acting, you'll enjoy this show. Frankly, the talents of the cast amazed me: It was a very physical, fast-moving show that involved comedy improv, singing, dancing, technical feats and shear physical effort. There were several spots in the play where the cast had to (or chose to) improvise, and those deviations from script were some of the funniest parts; there's something special about seeing the cast lose their composure and laugh until they cry!  It was belly-laugh funny, and a great night out.  More information here.

The next night we attended The Complete Works of William Shakespeare at the Randall Theatre in Medford.  As with many Randall productions, the first few nights are "pay what you want," making the tickets even more affordable than their usual affordable price.  The premise of this play is that every single one of Shakespeare's plays can be covered in a single two-hour production. It is, as they acknowledge, irreverent and a bit bawdy in places, but for me it was again an evening of laughter. Unlike the OSF, the Randall is an intimate theater seating about 60; you can shake hands and speak with the cast after the show. This is their second season, and the quality has stepped up a notch in terms of both the actors and the facility. (The theatre has gotten some upgrades thanks to grants from the Medford Urban Renewal Agency.) True to advertisement, the play did indeed touch on every single one of the Works, even those that, well, don't often get produced. The most time was spent on a few plays. Again, impressively delivered by the cast of three actors (with the occasional conscript from the audience) and accompanied by some comic commentary.  I spent much of the time laughing and also recommend this play. More information here.

It's great to live in an area that has more things to do than there is time to do them, but I'd recommend "doing" both of these plays!