QuickTake:

Also check out the Springfield art walk .or go to a VHS night at the Art House.

Happy Thursday, Lookout readers! Is your flowiest outfit ready for primetime?

Let’s get this recommendation out of the way: If you suspect it is at all your vibe, or adjacent to your vibe, you should go to the Oregon Country Fair. I’ve been waiting all year for mid-July to roll around for this year’s woodland escape. Yes, tickets are pricey, and, yes, your mileage for dusty woods walks may vary. Regardless, I’m pro-attendance, even for any Country Fair curmudgeons, if only to be a part of one of the biggest weekends for our corner of the world. 

But if you’re not heading to Veneta, there’s still plenty for you to get to in Eugene and Springfield. Let’s get into it: 

Ken-David Masur conducting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony during the 2024 Oregon Bach Festival. Credit: Athena Delene

Coda for the Oregon Bach Festival 

It’s finale time for the Oregon Bach Festival. Like with last week’s Bach Festival item, it’s not as easy to provide when/where/how-much for so many events under one umbrella, so you can find more specific ticket and venue information at each concert’s information page.

Here are the concerts from today through the festival’s end that still have tickets available: 

‘Clue: The Musical’ at the Hult Center

Have you ever been stuck in your seat watching a musical, actors singing and dancing their way to a predetermined finale, and thought that you might have a better ending in mind? 

You’ll have a chance to weigh in on the whodunit solution as the touring production of “Clue: The Musical” stops in Eugene this week: There are 216 different possible solutions to the board game-inspired musical, as determined by audience members selecting cards determining the suspect, scene and murder weapon. The actors have to be ready onstage for each possible ending. 

  • When: Opens 8 p.m. Friday, July 10, and continues with two shows Saturday and two shows Sunday.
  • Where: Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center in Eugene
  • How much: Tickets are available online starting at $34.

‘Jerusalem’ at Very Little Theatre

British playwright Jez Butterworth’s “Jerusalem,” about a hard-partying eccentric who lives in a caravan in the woods facing eviction in the days leading up to a county fair, is being performed and produced by local upstart theater company Capital T Theatre.

If you’re at all into stage plays, check this one out: “Jerusalem” is known as a knockout, with The Telegraph’s theater critic calling it “the greatest British play of the century.”

  • When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, July 10-11 and July 17-18.
  • Where: The Very Little Theatre, 2350 Hilyard St., Eugene. 
  • How much: Tickets are available online for $25.

‘Brigadoon’ at The Shedd Institute

While its parody, “Schmigadoon,” has hopped from Apple TV hidden gem to award-winning Broadway show, the original — the 1947 musical “Brigadoon” — will be performed this week at The Shedd Institute. The musical, about two tourists who land in a magical Scottish village, is a well-loved classic and “as much a morality play as a light-hearted entertainment,” per The Shedd Institute’s description. 

  • When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, July 10-11 and July 17-18, and 3 p.m. Sundays, July 12 and July 19.
  • Where: The Shedd Institute, 868 High St., Eugene
  • How much: Tickets start at $29, and are available online or by calling the ticket office at 541-434-7000.
Stickers created by United Farm Workers to be placed on displays and food products during boycotts and food protests are on display at Springfield History Museum days before reopening with a Farm Labor Exhibit. Credit: Brooke Taché / Lookout Eugene-Springfield

Springfield 2nd Friday Art Walk

The highlights of this month’s guided tour showcasing Springfield’s arts and culture include a new museum exhibit on farm labor in the Willamette Valley at the Springfield History Museum, Niki Richman’s vintage art with added, painted typography and geometric paintings on shaped wood at Oakshire Commons, and teacher Scott Crowell’s “Art is Academic” exhibit in the City Hall Gallery.

  • When: 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 10
  • Where: Participating venues around downtown Springfield. A map of each venue is available on the Emerald Art Center website.
  • How much: Free

What’s playing at the movies

Special screenings

Three highlights from the Art House’s upcoming programming:

Tickets are almost sold out for the “Trail Running Film Festival,” a screening of seven different short films about the trail-running lifestyle this Sunday, July 12. Bonus: A portion of all proceeds will benefit the Willamette High School cross-country team. 

The biggest movie dork I knew in college could never ever stop talking about how good “Body Heat” is, which meant, of course, I never watched it, out of spite. (College was a weird time, right?) From this Friday, July 10, to next Thursday, July 16, I’ll have the chance to watch the 1981 neo-noir on the big screen to make that call on my own.

“Found Footage Night — Part 1,” a collaboration between Eugene filmmaker Thor Slaughter’s Cowdog Productions and secondhand store Epic Seconds, will see Slaughter “blasting through an assortment of VHS oddities, curious, commercials and music videos all played through an assortment of VCR’s center stage in our main auditorium” next Wednesday, July 15. Fun! God, I love physical media.

Box office

I was not the biggest fan of “Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde’s 2022 tradwife/incel speculative fiction tale. Which is why I’m pleasantly surprised to see widespread praise for her newest directing-starring fare: “The Invite,” an intriguing dinner party comedy about one couple (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) who propositions another couple (Seth Rogen and Wilde) for group sex. It’s an adaptation of a 2020 Spanish comedy, which began life as a stage play before its writer rewrote it for the screen.

Playing at Metro Cinemas and Cinemark Eugene Springfield.

You thought your family reunion was bad? Look no further than “Evil Dead Burn,” which sees a grieving widow cooped up with her dead husband’s family, only for them to — of course — be turned into the rabid, murderous “deadites” that plague the protagonists of the “Evil Dead” franchise. 

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

If you like weird comedies, please, please, go see “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” about a Midwestern woman whose fiancé actually uses their longshot “celebrity sex pass” agreement; this sets her on a journey to go to Los Angeles to attempt for a rendezvous with Jon Hamm, who is played by Jon Hamm. It’s directed by David Wain, one half of the absurd genius behind “Wet Hot American Summer,” and co-written by Wain and “Wet Hot” star Ken Marino.

Playing at Metro Cinemas.

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.