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This week’s arts and culture calendar includes a comedy at the Very Little Theatre, a book sale to benefit a volunteer-run library, a Portland indie band revisiting its debut album and more.
Happy end-of-August, Lookout readers! I have a busy week for you in the arts and culture space. If you’re down, you’ll be seeing a play premiere, going on an artistic tour of the Whiteaker, buying oodles of books and getting some free ice cream in addition to a historic tour.
Let’s get into it:
‘The Shark Is Broken’ at Very Little Theatre
Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” is remembered as the first blockbuster, a buzzy theater-packing summer phenomenon that redefined what people were looking for at the movies.
But it was also, to put it kindly, a trainwreck — thanks to a frequently malfunctioning animatronic shark, the problems of filming a movie on the ocean and a festering feud between actors Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.
That drama is comedy in “The Shark Is Broken,” a play co-written by Shaw’s son about the mess behind the scenes. Eugene’s very own Very Little Theatre is performing the play to open its season, starting this week.
- When: It opens with a pay-what-you-can preview at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 13. Performances are scheduled at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays.
- Where: The Very Little Theatre, 2350 Hilyard St., Eugene
- How much: Tickets are available online: $22 for adults and $16 for students. The pay-what-you-can preview price is a minimum of $1, before a $3 service fee.
Whiteaker Last Friday ArtWalk
Eighteen different stores and artists’ spaces in the Whiteaker neighborhood will open their doors for this weekend’s Whiteaker Last Friday ArtWalk, with stops at Whiteaker Tattoo Collective, Whiteaker Printmakers, Wildling Collaborative Arts, Clay Space and more.
The evening is anchored by “Whiteaker Stories” at The Hybrid Gallery, a night of “poetry, love stories, music, comedy, magic, and history” centered on the neighborhood.
- When: 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28
- Where: Participating venues across the Whiteaker neighborhood
- How much: Free, but “Whiteaker Stories” is $10 to $15.
AsheFest at Caffè Pacori
How soon can you get your hands on a pink wig? You’ll need one for the lookalike contest at the first-ever AsheFest, a one-day music festival and birthday celebration for local influencer Ashe the Vibe Rater, who rates the vibes at different Eugene locales.
The day will have live music from local acts, including orchestral folk group Baroque Betty and the “three-piece rock-adjacent” band Dogs by Desgn, food and drinks from Only Yolking, The Divine Cupcake and Viking Brewing. Fun! I have an early prediction that the vibes will be 5/5.
- When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29
- Where: Caffè Pacori, 255 Wallis St., Suite No. 3, Eugene
- How much: Free
Used book sale to benefit volunteer library
Book lovers know the challenge well: popping into a store or sale, wanting to grab maybe one or two titles and instead shelling out money for 10 new tomes. But at a used book sale this weekend to benefit the River Road Santa Clara Volunteer Library, you’ll be able to walk away with a bag full of books for just $20 on Sunday.
It’s a fundraiser for the volunteer library, which my colleague Lilly St. Angelo wrote about back in June.
- When: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-30
- Where: Irving Grange, 1011 Irvington Drive, Eugene
- How much: Free to attend, but (of course) bring money for books.
Folk band Horse Feathers at the Art House
Are you down for some indie chamber folk musicians looking back at music they wrote two decades ago? Portland indie folk band Horse Feathers is playing in Eugene on the heels of a deluxe reissue of their 2006 debut album, “Words Are Dead.”
Per the event description over at the Art House, the concert will see the band’s current line-up “faithfully recreate the mood of the original release with taut dynamics and sensitive arrangements.”
- When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29
- Where: The Art House, 492 E. 13th Ave., Eugene
- How much: Tickets are available online for $30
WOW Hall historic tour (with ice cream)
Wow! Can you believe we have a historic music venue as cool as the WOW Hall in Eugene? The building celebrated 50 years as a music venue last year, but its history stretches back long before that, to its 1932 construction as the Woodmen of the World Lodge.
This weekend, you’ll have the opportunity to pop in and appreciate some of that history for yourself during The WOW Hall Unlocked, where volunteers will give a tour focusing on the building’s “inspiring and quirky in almost equal measure” history and architecture, hand out free Alden’s Organic ice cream and offer discounted prices on venue merchandise.
- When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29
- Where: The WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave., Eugene
- How much: Free
Sleepbomb performs “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” at John Henry’s
Have you, after watching the seminal silent 1920 German Expressionist horror “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” thought that it needed a healthy dose of psychedelic, dreamy post-rock shoegaze music?
Then you should head over to John Henry’s Sunday evening to see the San Francisco band Sleepbomb — which focuses on full original “cinematic doom film scores” to accompany screenings — take on the tale of the sinister Dr. Caligari.
- When: Sunday, Aug. 30: Doors open at 8 p.m.; show starts at 9 p.m.
- Where: John Henry’s, 881 Willamette St., Eugene
- How much: Tickets are available online for $17.50, but will increase to $20 before fees on the day of the show.
Box office
After an animated lifetime spent in futile pursuit of the Road Runner, one must imagine Wile E. Coyote happy. But wait, what about all of that exploding equipment over the years from the Acme Corp?
“Coyote vs. Acme,” adapted from a 1990 satirical New Yorker article in a fictional court case against Acme, sees Wile E. taking on the mail-order company in court with the help of his lawyers (Will Forte, Lana Condor). This movie actually making it to the box office is a news story: It was finished in 2023 and shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery for a $30 million tax write-off and later revived via a sale last year to the animation focused distributor-financer Ketchup Entertainment.
Playing at Cinemark Eugene Springfield.
I can tell you firsthand that some Florida backcountry roads feel like they stretch on forever. So I was delighted to see the trailer for “It Ends,” directed by a recent Florida State University graduate, about a group of friends who head out for a late-night drive only to find that the road they’re on simply does not end.
The prospect of an endless, “hangout horror” where young adults have to figure out what their lives look like in the absence of an expected, promised path … in an age where student debt feels like an abstract weight and homeownership a bygone possibility, well, one has to wonder when we all got on this long, long, long road.
Playing at Metro Cinemas.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR “The Dog Stars“: The spoiler website doesthedogdie.com compiles a number of triggering plot elements in media so people who might not want to see, say, a dog die can avoid a particular story. The advisory isn’t up yet for the film adaptation of “The Dog Stars,” a Ridley Scott-directed post-apocalyptic action movie about a man (Jacob Elordi) and his dog that hits local screens this week, but it is for the original book. Do with that information what you will. (I really try to avoid spoilers in this roundup, but I can’t watch a dog-centered movie trailer and not wonder.)
Playing at Metro Cinemas, Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene Springfield.
Special screenings
OK, stay with me here: a “Mad Max” popularity-capitalizing rip-off, but the post-apocalyptic society is centered around a hyperviolent sport rather than water scarcity. That’s “The Blood of Heroes,” also released under the name “Salute of the Jugger,” a 1989 Rutger Hauer vehicle playing at the Art House. Want to know more about the sport jugger, which apparently, real people were inspired to play? A Portland-based jugger team is going to be at the Sunday, Aug. 30, screening, if you’d like to salute to the juggers. Playing at the Art House from Saturday to Tuesday, Aug. 29 to Sept. 3.
For a distinctly more family-friendly screening, this week’s “Dive-in” movie at Splash at Lively Park is “The Lion King” (the original 1994 version), which will be playing on the outdoor sun deck with open access to the indoor pool during the screening. Admission is the typical pricing for Splash (for Springfield residents, that’s $4 for toddlers, $7 for youth, seniors and students/military, $8 for adults), with no additional fee to watch the movie. That starts at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28.
It’s sold out, but the 100th anniversary screening of Buster Keaton’s “The General” is this weekend in Cottage Grove, where the silent classic was filmed in 1926. That screening will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, at Cottage Theatre; contact the theater’s box office at (541) 942-8001 if you want to be added to the waiting list in case a spot opens up.
That’s what I have for you this week, Lookout readers! 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.
