Theatre West of Lincoln City, Oregon   

Bruce Jackson, Jr. has worked in the entertainment business for nearly 50 years. He has been a member of the professional designers union, United Scenic Artists, since 1967. He worked in Denver, CO from 1966 until he moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1982. His career while in Colorado included being Resident Designer for Bonfils Theatre, a top level community theatre and a stint as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Loretto Heights College in Denver, CO and the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO teaching theatrical design and technology.. Upon moving to Seattle, WA in 1982, he took on the role of Resident Designer for the Village Theatre in Issaquah, WA. That position covered approximately three years. His career then turned to one of free-lance design for a number of venues such as Seattle Children's Theatre, Tacoma Actors Guild, ACT Theatre, Renton Civic Theatre and Bellevue Civic Theatre as well as designing sets, lighting and costumes for several educational institutions around Washington, notable Bellevue Community College, Bellevue School District's Youth Theatre and the Wenatchee School District. Another long going relationship in light and scenic design was with Music Theatre of Wenatchee, an organization that has enjoyed 50 years of quality production for the citizens of the Wenatchee Valley.     Bruce is pleased to be working with Theatre West. He has found, in Theatre West, a group of talented and dedicated theatre enthusiasts. His involvement has been an ongoing pleasure and he is pleased to be able to contribute.  Bruce designed and built the set of The Pearl presented summer of 2012. He is designing the set of The Fox on the Fairway to be presented summer of 2013.

Jane E. Kleinman died peacefully at home Jan. 13, 2013, in Lincoln City from cancer. She was born July 15, 1947, in Shaker Heights, OH, to Helen and Manuel Kleinman. Jane taught Theatre Arts for 30 years at Ransom Everglades in Coconut Grove, FL. She was a member of the Lincoln City Kiwanis Club for many years. She enjoyed home decorating, theatre, needlepoint, singing, and going to movies. Jane was seen on Lincoln County stages in Theatre West and Porthole Players productions. In her 30-year career as a teacher of Theatre Arts, Jane helped many students develop their interests and talents, with many becoming professional actors. Jane was an extremely gifted actress, singer, director, set designer and mentor. Her role as Aldonza in Porthole Players’ 1999 production of “Man of La Mancha” was one of the greatest highlights of her career. She loved animals. After retiring from teaching and moving to the Oregon coast, Jane recognized a need for in-home pet care and doggie day care. In 2003, she pioneered the first doggie day care in Lincoln City and successfully ran that business until December 2012. Jane is survived by her brothers, Bob Kleinman (Leslie) and Jimmy Kleinman (Lynn) and four nieces and nephews. Her parents preceded her in death. Memorial contributions to the American Cancer Society and the National ASPCA are suggested.

Marj Nylund 1934 - 2012 The curtain came down on the life of beloved Theatre West actor and director, Marj Nylund on Sunday, September 9, 2012.  She will be sorely missed. Marj’s last performance was in “Moon Over Buffalo” by Ken Ludwig. She last directed Opal’s Million Dollar Duck” by John Patrick. Marj had hoped to be cast in “The Whales of August” by David Berry as the blind, older sister, but was unable to audition due to her health.

Of Marj & Magic by Matt Blakeman

For me, the best part of playing on stage is the element that makes theatre so distinctly human. I can't say it happens every time, quite the contrary. It happens only occasionally and, when it happens, it is fleeting.  Every now and then, though, there is an intoxicating moment. Like an improbable, wavering and iridescent bubble; a tentative & fragile moment of magic.

With my friend Marj Nylund passing this week, I wondered about the moments she might have had. She and I were in several productions at Theatre West and I always enjoyed the times we worked together. Marj was a serious and dedicated player. Whether she was directing a show (she must have done that a dozen times), playing the lead, or a making the most of a bit part, Marj was a consummate professional. She prided herself in always knowing her lines (verbatim, of course) and always made clear that her standards were high and unyielding. When you needed someone to deliver a solid, unwavering performance, Ms. Nylund was your gal.

Two of Marj's many roles stand out as favorites for me. In the late 90's she played the elegant widow of an English diplomat in Alan Bennet's absurd comedy "Habeas Corpus". She was so beautiful and polished in the role that I can still picture her character's slightly haughty manner and hear her perfectly measured diction. The illusion was the ideal juxtaposition to a character whose name was Lady Rumpers and who, as the play unfolds, the audience discovers is a woman with a past. Marj's light and poised performance gave the piece all the wit and irony it deserved. I will always see her standing in the stage light, a vision of thoroughly coiffed, softly chiffoned, English bourgeois pretentiousness. To use a phrase that might make Lady Rumpers gasp: She nailed it!

I also have a soft spot for Marj's portrayal of Ethel Thayer in the modern classic "On Golden Pond" by Ernest Thompson. As always, Marj mastered the mechanics of the part quickly and played Ethel with a tender mixture of stoicism, nostalgia and largely unacknowledged fear.   "Ethel" was for Marj that rare gift that comes to most players only once or twice: the perfect part at the perfect time. An opportunity to use one's own experience to cull, confine and attempt to reveal that transcendent moment. How resonant Ethel's words seemed conveyed through Marj's purposeful and prepared choices. The great thing about theatre is that it cannot happen without collaboration.  Even when an author performs a single character play it has at least three souls: the player, the character and the audience.   In an endeavor that manifestly requires collaboration, it is not surprising that magic can occur.   Then again, neither is it surprising that  it so rarely does.  Marj was always game to play her part and let the moments happen where they may.

Barbara Pease Weber has been acting in the Philadelphia theater community on and off for the past 35 years. She has had the privilege of portraying all sorts of wonderful characters throughout the decades including Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Mama in I Remember Mama, Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and most recently, Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt, A Parable. She met her husband John in 1976 when they were both 18 and performing in a play. In the late 1990s after taking some years off from acting to get married and raise their two daughters, Barbara and John were cast in a Philly production of Moon Over the Brewery. Author Bruce Graham came the opening night performance. After meeting Bruce at the opening night party, John began to pester Barbara to write a play. He reasoned that if Bruce Graham could write a play, so too could Barbara. John would not let up on his firm notion that Barbara should somehow concoct a story and write a play. In an effort to quiet John's relentless pestering, Barbara sat down at their computer and began to write. Since then, with enormous thanks to John's sixth sense, persistence, pestering and unwavering support, Barbara has written six comedy plays, four of which, Delval Divas, HOGWASH!, Seniors of the Sahara and A Crock of Schnitzel, are published by Baker's Plays in New York and have been performed in theaters and schools all over the country and internationally. Barbara's two new comedies are The Witch in 204, a sequel to her hugely successful Seniors of the Sahara, which premiered at The Old Academy in Philadelphia in September 2011 and The Pearl, which Barbara and John are thrilled will premiere at Theatre West in Lincoln City, Oregon over the summer of 2012. John still has some wild and crazy notions now and again. But, Barbara now pays a lot closer attention since some of his wild ideas are not so all so crazy after all.