QuickTake:

This week’s roundup of things to do in Eugene and Springfield includes the First Friday ArtWalk, the Warehouse District Art Hop, a new play opening at the Very Little Theatre and more.

Happy Thursday, Lookout readers! It’s a beautiful end-of-April. Around this time last year, I was visiting Eugene to interview for this job and fell under the impression it was this gorgeous year-round. The illusion was dispelled during my first Northwest winter, but my love for bopping around when the sun comes out has not.

Let’s get into what your arts and culture calendar should look like this week: 

Art

First Friday ArtWalk

May’s First Friday ArtWalk is anchored by a roots reggae party, with music from De Solution Band and Messenjah Selah in addition to a vinyl listening session for ’70s and ’80s reggae. The ArtWalk also marks the start of May Is Bike Month from the Lane Council of Governments, with giveaways and a traffic garden for children to ride their bicycles through. The giveaways alone are worth the attendance — look at how cute the art is, from Eugene illustrator and muralist Erick Wonderly Varela.

  • When: This Friday, May 1, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
  • Where: At participating venues across downtown Eugene
  • How much: Free

Warehouse District Art Hop

When you’re done art-walking on Friday, grab a bike and go art-hopping on Saturday. The highlights of this month’s tour of west Eugene’s art scene include a concert at Caffe Pacori by Chāo Chao Nào Nào (the Eugene punk band formerly known as Urchin Care) and a noon reopening ceremony for the Eugene Makerspace (which closed after a 2024 fire; you can read this Register-Guard article about its comeback).

  • When: Saturday, May 2. Each participating venue has different hours, but the majority are open by noon.
  • Where: This month’s event includes 14 spots between Chambers Street and Beltline.
  • How much: Free to attend, but bring money for food, art and more.  

Ditch Projects benefit auction

Ditch Projects, a Springfield nonprofit artist-run studio, exhibition and performance space, will have its sixth annual benefit auction Friday evening. A number of striking contemporary pieces are available for auction — including one from Jason Gubbiotti, the geometry-focused artist whose exhibition in Eugene gallery RecRoom recently closed. All proceeds fund Ditch artists, programming and projects.

  • When: Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 1
  • Where: The Ditch Projects building, 303 S. Fifth Ave., #165, Springfield. 
  • How much: Tickets to the benefit auction are $85. Items are available for auction bidding at different price points for minimum bids, from $50 to $1,000.

Performances

‘Keely and Du’

This 1993 play opening at the Very Little Theatre is — as its two lead actresses told me in an interview — unfortunately more relevant than ever. It’s a harrowing story centered on two women, a pregnant rape victim trapped in a basement by a religious fundamentalist terrorist group and an older woman tasked with monitoring her captivity. If you need to sit this play out for any self-care reasons, it’s understandable. But I would recommend seeing these two women navigate each other’s humanity through a thick haze of ideology.

  • When: The play opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1. Performances are scheduled through Sunday, May 17.  
  • Where: Stage Left at the Very Little Theatre, 2350 Hilyard St., Eugene
  • How much: Tickets are available online, starting at $22 for adults and $16 for students.

Cedar Redd: Week 22

So far this year, Eugene musician Cedar Redd has released a new song and video every week to his Instagram followers. (I’ve seen a few in the wild while scrolling — they’re fun!) This showcase concert will catch the audience up to the first 22 weeks of the year’s worth of music.

  • When: 8 p.m. Friday, May 1
  • Where: Art House, 492 E. 13th Ave., Eugene
  • How much: Tickets are available online for $19.

Dolly Parton’s ‘Threads’

Our fingers are crossed that “Eugene Oregon” — country icon Dolly Parton’s 1972 ode to our fair city — will be featured somehow in the Eugene stop of “Threads,” a touring multimedia “symphonic storytelling experience” rearranging Parton’s songs for a symphony concert. Grab your pink, tassel-y outfits and get ready for a night at the symphony. (Parton will not be in attendance, but prerecorded video messages from her will be featured in the performance.)

  • When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1
  • Where: The Silva Concert Hall of the Hult Center, in downtown Eugene 
  • How much: Tickets start at $35.

Movies

Box office

It’s finally time for “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” two decades after the splashy fashion dramedy first brought audiences into the halls of Runway Magazine under the steely rule of Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). It’s iconic. It’s a long-awaited sequel. And seeing all your fashion world friends on the big screen almost makes you happy that we live in a world of never-ending reboots, reimaginings and sequels. (Almost.)

Playing at Metro Cinemas, Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene-Springfield 17.

The new and very Irish horror flick “Hokum” opens this week, starring Adam Scott as a novelist in a remote inn who becomes fixated on stories about a witch haunting the inn. Writer-director Damian McCarthy offered up the equally Irish horror “Oddity” a few years ago, which flew under the radar but was one of my favorite movies of 2024.

Playing at Metro Cinemas, Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene-Springfield 17.

Special screenings

Next week, you can check out “Black Box Diaries” at 5 p.m. on Monday evening on the University of Oregon campus for free. Director Shiori Itō is a Japanese journalist who accused a prominent media executive of rape in 2017, and who wrote a best-selling memoir about the case and later followed up with the film version of the investigation of her own sexual assault. She will be on campus for a question-answer session following the screening.

Then we have the campy, queer “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” about two drag performers and a transgender woman on a cabaret act road trip across the Australian desert. It will show at Art House (with screening from Saturday, May 2 to Thursday, May 7). The run also comes with a Crafter’s Movie Night this Sunday, May 3, if you’d like to get knitting on some pieces inspired by the fabulous desert-faring crew.

Thank you for reading, Lookout members. If my picks aren’t up to your liking, check out our events calendar for more things to do. As always, if there are any events I should include here, or any feedback for this weekly list, drop me a line at annie@lookoutlocal.com.

Annie Aguiar is the Arts and Culture Correspondent. She has reported arts news and features for national and local newsrooms, including at the Seattle Times, the Washington Post and most recently as a reporting fellow for the New York Times’ Culture desk covering arts and entertainment.