This fall, the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company launched a new program called “Late Night Speakeasy.” The program is intended to offer a relaxed and casual atmosphere for new and experimental pieces that would not necessarily be shown on the main stage. These performances feature a variety of mediums, such as original dance compositions, mimes, music, monologues and improv — all on the same stage.
“All of these art forms can exist in the same show,” artistic director Corey Pearlstein said.
Pearlstein was quick to clarify that this was not a variety show, but something that compared more to a San Francisco warehouse party. Word of mouth publicity perpetuates the “underground” feeling the Speakeasy invokes, he said.
LLTC plans to continue the Late Night Speakeasy, beginning at 11 p.m., once the theater’s main stage shows have been running for a few weeks. There are no set schedules for the shows and no set ticket prices, though donations will be accepted.
“We want our theater to be more immediate and accessible,” Pearlstein said. “Lord Leebrick is about giving more experimental and original works more time on stage, unfiltered and unburdened.”
Other performances in LLTC’s lineup will include “Deux Femmes: An Evening of One-Woman Plays” by Barratt Walton, a former Eugene resident. This event will be comprised of two progressive plays, “Raw Canvas” and “Price of Admission,” both showing Nov. 8 through 11 and Nov. 15 through 17.
The evening will begin with “Raw Canvas,” a play that follows a Canadian painter in Paris as she decides it is time to go home with her young son. The painter is at a moment in her life when she must make a choice, and she is just beginning to work her life out.
“She is at the crucial point of how to apply the brush strokes to the canvas of life,” actress/director Sparky Roberts said. “It will be very much about an artist’s own progress in life and artwork.”
The evening will continue with “Price of Admission,” starring Roberts, who plays a woman with a checkered past in Los Angeles returning to rural Oregon to open a French restaurant.
“A lot of people will laugh at ‘Price,’” Roberts said. “It will make you think and feel. I think it will be a revelation.”
On the main stage, LLTC has extended performances through Nov. 3 of the Pulitzer Prize finalist and 1999 Tony Award-winning “Side Man,” written by Warren Leight and directed by Mike Fisher. Using flashbacks, this emotionally charged play takes the audience through the family life of the main character, Clifford. The play shows how Clifford deals with his parents. His father has an obsession with jazz music that leaves him oblivious to the family around him. Clifford’s mother struggles with isolation from her husband, unrealized dreams and alcohol abuse. The family becomes strangers that live in one house and split one rent check.
“It’s about where (Clifford) is at, and how he deals with disassociation,” Fisher said. “This is a play best felt. At the Lord Leebrick Theatre, you can really feel up close and can really see what’s going on.”
Adult tickets for “Side Man” are $16 on Friday and Saturday and $12 on Thursday. Adult tickets for “Deux Femmes” on Friday and Saturday are $12 and $8 on Thursday. Student tickets on Thursday nights are always $8. Doors close at 8 p.m. for both shows. Tickets should be purchased at the door by 7:45 p.m.