“Semper Femina,” the title of British folk artist Laura Marling’s latest album, means “always woman” in Latin. Marling is a prolific songwriter. In recent years, she’s explored themes of introversion and anxiety in her work. In an interview with Clash Music, Marling said that her new album is “me looking specifically at women and feeling great empathy towards them, and by proxy, towards myself.” 

This new venture takes a slightly different path than her fifth release, 2015’s “Short Movie.” “Semper Femina” explores womanhood in its complexities and various social intersections. Drawing on a lusher framework than “Short Movie,” Marling enlisted producer Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes, John Legend and Fiona Apple) to add a different touch to her instrumentation. While “Short Movie” found Marling moving from her London folk sounds to a more distorted, electric guitar-driven aesthetic, “Femina” is a melding of both this discordance and the comfort her earlier music provides.

Much unlike Marling’s previous works, “Femina” is closer in content and feeling to albums like Joni Mitchell’s “Blue.” The two women are kindred spirits in a way: They both explore womanhood and the yearning that comes with being a modern woman in their music. “Blue” was released in 1971, but “Semper Femina” still explores many of the same aspects of womanhood including love and sexism.

Marling’s sound in “Femina” has taken on a slight swing feel, and her vocals are rich and soaring like Mitchell’s. In “Nouel,” Marling sings the words “semper femina” and her inflection and tone are reminiscent of “Case of You,” Mitchell’s most heartfelt ballad. “Soothing,” the opening track on “Femina” is dark like Mitchell’s “This Flight Tonight.” There are many parallels between the albums’ sounds, making it an enriching experience to listen to them back to back.

In “Wild Once,” Marling sings, “They put my hands in water / Told me I’m a god / I might be someone’s daughter / Might be somewhat odd.” This song is reminiscent of Mitchell’s adventure-seeking track “All I Want,” which opens with the lyrics: “I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling / Looking for something, what can it be?”

This is not to say that Marling’s album does not stand well on its own, though. “Femina” reflects the current political and social moment in a way that “Blue” can’t. Both albums share the ideas that to be a woman in this world is to be continually searching for a place of your own, for love, for autonomy, but Marling’s effort feels less restricted by time.

Marling’s music has taken the sense of discovery that was Mitchell’s niche in “Blue” and made it accessible for another generation of women. Similar to how Mitchell was a pioneering woman in music, with her collaborations with jazz artists like Charles Mingus, Marling is also redefining what it means to be a modern female musician. She recently wrote the score for a play in London about two feuding queens and recorded a podcast series called “Reversal of the Muse: An Exploration of the Femininity in Creativity” about women in the arts. These contributions to the art world make Marling an important voice in general, not just an important feminine one.

“Semper Femina” is a wonderful and rich search for meaning in womanhood. By exploring the many facets of love and identity, Marling is making a statement that womanhood is not defined by any one thing. Like her Canadian predecessor does in “Blue,” “Semper Femina” is Marling asking the world, “Do you take me as I am?”

If the answer is no, then the world is surely missing out.

Watch the lyric video for “Wild Fire” below:

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Russian Through Theater is not your average language course. Instead of sitting in a classroom conjugating verbs, students create a play based on a selected work of Russian literature. Throughout winter term, students learn about different authors, create a full-length play and rehearse in Russian. All of this work culminates in two performances at the end of winter term. This year’s final product will be performed this weekend in Global Scholars Hall.

This year’s production is an “adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation,” according to theatre major Christopher Shiroma. He plays Romeo in the class’ adaptation of Aleksandr Pushkin’s Shakespeare-influenced short story, “The Lady Peasant.” Past plays have included “Eugene Oregin,” a spoof of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” and “Queen of Spades” based on his novella of the same name.

The majority of this year’s play, “The Lady Peasant,” is performed in Russian. Though the language may be a deterrent for those who don’t know it, the vaudevillian nature of the show will make the characters’ actions clear, according to Itay Vagner, a cast member who plays Mercutio.

Based on “Romeo and Juliet,” but with a different ending, “The Lady Peasant” is a romantic-comedy spin on Pushkin and Shakespeare’s works. Director and course instructor Julia Nemirovskaya wrote a custom script for the play based on Pushkin’s story of the same name.  

“Since Pushkin despised having bad endings in plays, as such in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ he decided to make all of his comedies have happy endings as a kind of a twist of luck and fate,” Vagner said.

Nemirovskaya developed the play with the cast throughout the rehearsal process. Shiroma, who is used to doing a read-through on the first day of rehearsals, said that there was no script on day one. “It moved in real time,” he said.

Now that the cast is moving closer to the performance date, the rehearsal process is getting faster. “Now we have a lot of speed. We have to keep that momentum up and keep that energy. Every practice is essential,” said Shiroma.

Despite the heavy emphasis on practice, it isn’t the only important aspect of the course for those involved. Since the script was written in real time, each actor was able to add a personal touch to the show as their characters began to resemble themselves. “I feel like I can very easily identify with the role,” Shiroma said about playing Romeo.

In addition to acting, every actor has other responsibilities when it comes to putting on the show. Vagner is on the PR team for the play and other cast members such as Shiroma are playing guitar or doing something else musical in the show. Other theatrical duties include making costumes and building sets.

These additional projects made the cast fast friends — they often got together on weekends to have cookies or play games. A few of the cast members were hesitant about joining the class, but decided to stay after one or two rehearsals.

Cast members such as Vagner and Shiroma relate to their characters because of this process, but also because of how intense making the show has been in general. “It’s an essential kind of closeness that needs to be built,” Shiroma said.

Vagner, an Israeli international student, didn’t speak Russian before attending the class. Throughout the process, fellow cast members such as Katya Rogers and Ksenia Gordeeva, a Russian Studies graduate student, have helped him with his Russian dialect.

“You get exposure to a Russian cultural thing,” said Shiroma. “The director has made an effort to instill as many moments of, ‘This is our culture!’ here.”

“The Lady Peasant” has two showings in room 123 at Global Scholars Hall this weekend on Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Editor’s note: Stacy Yurishcheva, who plays Juliet in the play, is an employee of the Emerald. She did not contribute to the article.

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The debut album by Minnesotan indie-pop group Hippo Campus, “Landmark,” is a gift to those who have followed the band since its art school beginning, but it’s also a generous offering to those who might not know the four-piece’s jangly, post-Vampire Weekend sound.

Whatever camp you fall into, “Landmark” balances growth and stagnation. The band plays with a longer format on this album compared to previous EPs. Not only does this allow for more exploration in post-production, but it also allows the band to experiment with time. 

While earlier releases such as 2015’s “Bashful Creatures” had short, tightly crafted indie-pop bops, “Landmark” meanders, taking its time to reveal itself fully. Opening track “Sunlight Veins” plays with synth and vocal effects over Jake Luppen’s voice for more than a minute, easing listeners into the band’s longest release yet.

This sense of time makes “Landmark” an album that looks forward because of the way it looks back. The band’s members are in their college years, but they find themselves looking back at their high school career in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with a sense of inspiration and growth. “Landmark” is named after the building in downtown Saint Paul where they attended high school.

This seems to satiate two types of fans: those who grew up with them at house shows in the Twin Cities scene and those who found out about them through performances at large festivals or TV shows like “Conan.” Much of the album’s press coverage has focused on this aspect. 

Lyrically, Hippo Campus finds a way to play with youth and memory while also critiquing those very concepts. Hippo Campus doesn’t necessarily look back through rose-colored glasses, but rather, through shards of memories. These shards are what propel an otherwise long album forward.

Luppen takes a look at youth in “Way It Goes,” the album’s second track. He sings “You put your records on/Exclusively the old Pavement ones/A ’90s soul with Doc Martens on/A step, a step away from crying.” These lyrics layered over Whistler Allen’s bouncing drums create a sense of space where the listener can flourish.

In “Way It Goes,” Luppen is making fun of his generation, but there’s also a tinge of refusal to change. Hippo Campus is deliberate in this critique and doesn’t shy away from addressing a somewhat brutal truth in the song.

Other songs on the album, such as “Poems” and the syrupy-slow “Vacation” stress similar ideas but don’t approach them so harshly. “With all that fell in our laps/You’d think that peace would come and find us/I struggle to see a point of searching for the walls beside us,” Luppen croons. It seems as if he’s almost sorry for himself. 

Despite all the nostalgia and memory that “Landmark” deals with, it’s not completely sad nor celebratory. While it celebrates youth, it does not shy away from addressing the problems with overwhelming reminiscence. “Landmark” seems to ask, what’s so wrong with living in the gray area?” With this album, Hippo Campus have found the perfect way to stay comfortable while jumping into the unknown. 

Watch and listen to Hippo Campus’s “Way it Goes” here:

If you’re a fan of indie-pop (and alt-country) check out this Q&A with Evan Stephens Hall from the band Pinegrove — also written by Emerald writer, Sararosa Davies.

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On Friday night, about 20 people piled into a house on Alder Street for an intimate performance with Evan Stephens Hall of the up-and-coming alt-country band Pinegrove. Hall is the lead singer and songwriter behind the Montclair, New Jersey, based band.

The audience sat on the floor singing along as Hall sang songs about everything from toast to the spirituality of vowels. He ended the set on Cardinal’s closing track, “New Friends,” with voices ringing throughout the room. The singer answered questions from the audience and talked about his affinity for “tiny art” and short songs throughout the set, making the night feel more like an intimate conversation than a concert.

Pinegrove’s Run for Cover Records debut, Cardinal, topped end of the year lists at Pitchfork and other music news outlets. With its meld of emo, alt-country and even pop characteristics, the band has found a unique voice that appeals to a wide range of listeners from all over the country.

The Emerald spoke with Hall following his performance.

Emerald: You talked about liking short art during your set tonight.

Evan Stephens Hall: Tiny art!

E: I like that specific wording. What is it about tiny art, that smallness, that draws you in?

ESH: I think it’s a rigorously editorial approach because I think that making art in the first place involves imposing a frame on something. All of these connections already exist; we are just isolating them. And the more potent you can make that observation, the harder it lands typically. So when we see something that is short that is really, really moving, it tends to be more memorable than anything else.

And I don’t think this has much to do with the trend right now of speed and scrolling through your newsfeed or whatever. It’s something slightly different. It’s more valuing the essence of what art is like.

E: I get that. I totally get that. Even in journalism we talk about writing more than you need to and then cutting, cutting, cutting. I think that’s a big idea.

ESH: I want to suggest too that maybe these are words to live by because the things that are positive in your life should be emphasized. The things that are negative, we should be editing them out. The people that you hang out with, they don’t treat you well? Don’t hang out with them anymore. You have a job that you feel you have nightmares about? Find something else if you can.

E: On that note then, do you think your music is more introspective or something outward, the opposite? Or do you think it finds a balance somewhere in between?

ESH: You know it might be a lot on the plate, but it tries to do both. It starts introspectively, but the editing process has to do with how I expect it to be received. I think there are a lot of authors that anticipate the criticism within their works, especially David Foster Wallace. He’s the king of neurosis. It’s like, ‘Yeah, I know you’re going to call me on being self-conscious, but I’m going to be way more self-conscious than the person that thinks I’m self-conscious.’ I think I maybe took a cue from that, trying to anticipate the criticisms.

This is all a weird way to say that there is an external thrust, there’s a gesture towards an imagined listenership. Now that I know that people are listening I want to be talking about things that matter to me and things that might help somebody.

E: On that note of gaining listenership and an audience, what do you want to come from this next year for you? As a musician, as a person, as an artist, what do you want now that you have an established listenership? What do you want to do next?

ESH: I’ve always wanted to do this, so it’s really strange to get what you want. I don’t know. I look forward to moving out of my parents’ house. I want to establish a space of my own that’s very productive and fertile for me. I want to keep traveling and learn the basics of camping and figuring out how to do that on my own. I want to write the best music I can.

E: You’ve been doing a lot of these house shows recently. Do you prefer this type of environment where you get to interact with the audience and ask these questions and have these conversations or do you like having some distance? What do you prefer?

ESH: They’re different. I really appreciate the support that my band members give me. There’s a certain consistency to that. This one is way more seat-of-the-pants, which I like. I like being able to be more talkative because there’s not an explicit set time. Part of this is about opening up and kind of performing vulnerability. That’s not really something that I can do that well with the band. As a six person group, we just don’t seem vulnerable because we’re a crew that’s pretty deep. That’s not really a priority of ours, exactly. But we’re doing different things and I love them both.

E: To end on a positive note, to ‘edit out’ and get rid of the negative things, what was your favorite moment of last year for you? Or favorite milestone that you’ve reached.

ESH: It’s been such a year. Like I said this is something that I’ve always wanted to do. That it’s a professionally viable option for me is just amazing and I’m grateful for it every day. Even though it’s hard to open myself up so regularly, I need to figure out how to find time and to protect myself. But I also feel like this is the thing I have and am best-suited to give in this resistance, in this revolution. I do what I can and this is the best outlet for me. It’s felt really good to be able to connect with people who feel really fervent about making the world a better place. It’s been great to meet people through this.

Watch Pinegrove’s Tiny Desk Concert on NPR below: 

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Galentine’s Day is a fictional holiday turned real-life celebration of female friendship. Created by Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, it has turned into a cultural phenomenon that women celebrate together the day before Valentine’s Day. 

In Parks and Rec, Knope celebrates Galentine’s Day by bringing her gal pals to brunch. She gives each of them hand-knitted flower pens, a portrait made out of the crushed cans of their “favorite diet soda” and a letter detailing her favorite things about them.

This sweet display of friendship has taken off and now women are having their own celebrations outside of the fictional context of the show. With the hullabaloo of midterms, not everyone can celebrate Galentine’s exactly as Leslie Knope does, but there’s still plenty students can do to celebrate their female friends.

Whether cooking together or going out, brunch is always a good way to celebrate. Write some notes to your friends, stock up on pancakes and spend Feb. 13 with the gals in your life.

Off the Waffle, in both Eugene and Portland, is hosting Galentine’s Day events where $1 of every Galentine’s waffle special sold will benefit Womenspace, a nonprofit that works to educate about domestic violence and abuse. Womenspace is an organization that many staff members at Off the Waffle have been involved with, according to Callie Johnson, the community manager at the downtown location.

“When you think about the fact that every nine seconds, one woman in the U.S. is a victim of intimate partner violence, it makes sense to throw our support behind an organization that is so committed to advocating for, empowering and protecting those affected by that statistic,” Johnson said.

Not only will Off the Waffle have a waffle special for the day, but it will also have mimosas and a photobooth in the lobby. Omer Orian, co-owner of the waffle joint, said they expect about 100 people show up.

“Hopefully this Galentine’s will be a start of a tradition for many families and friends, where that kind of celebration of the women in their lives becomes a regular thing,” Johnson said. She also said that they plan to hold the event again next year due to the strong response they have received.

The Parks and Recreation-based holiday is becoming more than just a cultural reference. It’s now a cultural touchstone for women to celebrate each other. Whether that means all-out Knope-style celebration or a day in with friends, Galentine’s Day is here to stay. 

As Leslie Knope says of Galentine’s Day, “It’s only the best day of the year.”

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University Theatre’s most recent production, Aphra Behn’s Emperor of the Moon, was a fresh and wonderful take on Restoration-era theatre from the 1600s. Due to its use of Early Modern English, Restoration theatre has a reputation for being difficult to comprehend. This version of Emperor was a great melding of classical theatre and modern techniques like Avant Garde theatre from the 1960s.

Audience members were greeted by the cast flitting about the black box Hope Theater on Saturday night as quiet EDM music was played over the loudspeakers. The actors created this commotion in their period-specific costumes and provided a jarring but fun introduction to the play’s whimsical aesthetic.

A round screen above the stage displayed an image of the moon. Between every scene, the moon turned to reveal its dark side: clock gears signifying the passage of time. These scene changes provided rest so the audience members could comprehend what had just happened in the fast-paced moments before.

Emperor merged both improvisational moments and audience participation with Shakespearean-style language, but those characteristics complemented one another.

The vibrant comedy was largely driven by characters such as Scaramouche (played by Connor French) and Harlequin (Mackenzie Utz), servants to the boastful and imaginatory Dr. Baliardo (Aimee Hamilton).

Dr. Baliardo believes there’s a civilization on the moon. She won’t let her niece and daughter marry the men whom they choose. With the help of Scaramouche, Harlequin and another servant, the feisty Mosophil (Nicolette Zaretsky), the group plots to convince Dr. Baliardo that the two suitors are from the moon so that the couples can marry.

There’s a wild subplot with Scaramouche and Harlequin both seeking to woo Mosophil, who has no interest in either of the men. This love triangle had many great comedic moments in it, including a sword-turned-dance battle and campy calls for audience participation.

In an attempt to make the play relatable and to highlight the comedic influence of a fast-paced style known as Commedia Dell’arte, some jokes and gimmicks were changed to modern allusions. For instance, there’s mention of the Twilight Saga and hashtags. There were intentional anachronisms here and there, such as red Solo cups in a party scene, but those moments didn’t feel too gimmicky or tacked on.

Despite these modern influences, the timeliness of the costumes and setting was perfect for the show’s origins. The women were dressed in gowns and corsets that had intricate beading and designs, while the men’s costumes featured wigs and velvety, textured fabric.

Director J.K. Rodgers’ vision for the show was specific and well-thought out. Laughter rang throughout the theater as the show progressed to its final moments, providing a comforting and wild world to exist in if only for two hours.

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University Theatre’s second play of the season, The Emperor of the Moon, presents a modern twist on comedy from 1687. Playwright Aphra Behn is known in the theatre world as the female Shakespeare — she wrote in the middle to late 1600s and made a career out of playwriting before many women could write at all.

“She pretty much opened the door for women to make their living as writers,” said J.K. Rodgers, a University of Oregon Ph.D. student and director of The Emperor of the Moon. “She’s at this really interesting cusp of blazing a trail for women in theatre and women in the professional world, in general.”

At that time in history, women were not allowed to share their writing publicly, but Behn earned her living through her plays and fiction. Not only was she a trailblazing playwright, but she was also a spy for the English monarchy during the Dutch war of 1665. She also served time in debtor’s prison when she returned to England without any pay for her service.

Rodgers’ eyes lit up as she spoke about Behn’s play and her own work in theatre, something she’s been involved with since she was in kindergarten. She has since served as a dramaturge and scribe for numerous University Theatre productions, and even though she has been involved with theatre for years, her excitement for producing plays was still apparent.

“I grew up on Hamlet, the Scottish play [Macbeth], Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Rodgers said. “Probably before I hit kindergarten I knew those and then it just kind of continued.”

The Emperor of the Moon, Behn’s final play, is based on a theatre movement called Commedia’ dell’arte, a big influence on the comedy we know today. Emperor is driven by physical comedy, so audience members shouldn’t fret about the language barrier between an older version of English and modern language. Plays from the Restoration-era are also known for their use of improvisation and accessible, grand humor.

The story centers around a man named Dr. Baliardo, his daughter, and his niece. When both women fall in love with men whom Baliardo does not approve of, they decide to convince Baliardo that the men are visitors from the moon. Since know-it-all Baliardo doesn’t like regular earthlings in the first place, he willfully falls for their plot; shenanigans ensue.

Emperor’s plot is farcical, but this rendition of the play is not entirely typical. In many Restoration-era plays, actors use asides as a way of addressing what’s happening in the scene without acknowledging the rest of the characters. A great example of an aside in modern TV comes from NBC’s The Office, when the characters look into the camera.

Behn’s original production featured 30-50 cast members, but Rodgers combined characters to shrink the cast size to fit the Hope Theater, UO’s black box.

One way that Rodgers is bringing The Emperor of the Moon into the present day is by combining avant-garde theatre movements — like site-specific theatre from the 1960s — with the grandiose nature that Behn’s work is known for. Rodgers wants the Hope Theater to be an environment where the actors and the audience can intermingle.

“With a play like Emperor of the Moon, there is a lot of potential for that blurring of lines,” Rodgers said.

For instance, Behn created a part where the 12 signs of the Zodiac appear — but instead of casting 12 separate parts, Rodgers decided to fill those roles with audience members. Those who worry about being in the spotlight don’t need to fret. Rodgers noted that instead of reciting lines, audience members chosen only need to wave.

Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the Moon runs Feb. 2-4 and the shows begin at 8 p.m. in the Hope Theater on campus. There is also a matinee performance on Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. Tickets are free for students with a UO ID, and general admission tickets are $10 at www.tickets.uoregon.edu. For more information, check out the Theatre Arts department’s website at: www.blogs.uoregon.edu/theatre/.

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Romeo and Juliet, arguably William Shakespeare’s most famous work, is a hard play to successfully produce. It’s not an easy task to stage this play in a genuine and fresh way because of the challenges Shakespeare’s language presents. When done well, it can be transcendent; when not, it can flop.

Springfield-based theatre company Fools Haven knows this all too well. With a one-weekend run at the Wildish Theater, its adaptation of Shakespeare’s infamous work presented moments of both creative clarity and utter confusion.

The show struggled to strike a balance between this sense of clarity and confusion, therefore failing to make the play relevant and fresh. It did not deliver the punch that Shakespeare’s work has the potential to.

With a cast of both amateur and veteran actors (two former Oregon Shakespeare Festival members have roles in the show), this version of Romeo and Juliet also felt uneven and inconsistent in its acting.

It’s hard to tell whether this was a conscious choice or an unintentional misstep by director Judith “Sparky” Roberts, who’s been working in theatre for 40 years.

Local thespians Cloud Pemble and Nichole Trobaugh play Romeo and Juliet, though they overacted their roles through superfluous movement and shouting their monologues.

Moments like Romeo and Juliet’s marriage scene with a multimedia video backdrop did not combine well with the other visuals that stayed true to the play’s time period.

The show, while set in the Restoration-era like most Shakespearean adaptations, featured a multimedia video by University of Oregon graduate Jordyn Roach. It showed Pemble and Trobaugh performing a modern dance piece, set against a jarring, colorful backdrop. This was a stark contrast with the English folk-dancing going on around Romeo and Juliet when they first meet.

Side characters, like the Capulet’s servant Peter (played by Alastair Jaques), brought the most laughs while Juliet’s nurse, played by former OSF actor Maya Thomas, brought specificity and varied acting to a show where all characters sounded and looked the same. Mercutio, played by Jennifer Appleby, also brought some genuine humor to a show that felt dramatically heavy handed. 

The combination of a three-fourths replica of London’s Globe Theater set and the actors’ colorful Renaissance garb made the play’s visual characteristics consistent and pleasant to watch, but not outstanding. The Globe replica did not add any visual splendor or grandeur to the show, but instead provided a simple backdrop for many scenes. 

In addition, Roberts’ choice to have the stagehands be visible while changing sets between scenes felt awkward. With this commotion happening between almost every scene, the three-hour play felt tedious to watch. During these breaks, instrumental arrangements of songs like Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” played and made the transitions overtly cheesy. 

Romeo and Juliet has the potential to be beautiful and nuanced, but this rendition felt like it was trying too hard to be a piece of “theatre.” It was reminiscent of a bunch of adults acting in a high school play. 

Many audience members got up during the show and would come back minutes later, a sign that the show was not holding the audience’s full attention. Great theatre doesn’t care whether you have to go to the bathroom. 

In some ways, Fools Haven could have done a better job if there had been an eye towards specificity and newness in the rehearsal process. Romeo and Juliet lacked a sense of unity in the direction and acting, raising the idea that maybe it would be best if the star-crossed lovers never met.

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Despite the rain and thick fog that often blankets the Oregon Coast Range, 79-year-old Lee Yamada spent his day in a grim forest with a rake in hand. With his eyes cast toward the ground and rain dripping down his blue hood, he searched the mossy forest floor for a hidden gem — a mushroom known as the Oregon truffle.

Although Yamada didn’t find any on his first outing, like many others, he plans on foraging again. The North American Truffling Society is a Corvallis-based organization that hosts educational events and monthly forays such as the one Yamada participated in. As the Oregon truffle’s popularity grows, so does the community that surrounds it.

(Will Campbell/Emerald)

Known for their rarity and aromatic variety, Oregon truffles are a culinary delicacy that add complexity to many dishes.

Although they haven’t always held the prestige of their wider-known French and Italian counterparts, an ounce of Oregon truffles costs $30 to $45 at specialty grocers in Eugene.

Oregon truffles are now edging out their European competition for a variety of reasons, a prominent one being the Oregon Truffle Festival, founded by University of Oregon alum Dr. Charles Lefevre 12 years ago.

The Oregon Truffle Festival features a dinner and buffet, a marketplace and other educational events. Lefevre aims to teach everyone from experts to first-timers about what he calls the fruit of the mushroom world.

“When you think of truffles in North America, Oregon is the place that comes to mind,” Lefevre said. “They are really everywhere.”

Since ripe truffles have a strong aroma, a well-trained dog can find them with ease. People without trained dogs use wide rakes to uncover truffles. The latter method tends to be hit-or-miss.

Eric Lyon, a professional truffle forager in Portland, said that the rakes used to commercially harvest truffles often pull up some that aren’t ripe.

On the coastal foray, Austin Carter Browder and his girlfriend were out looking with their newly trained dog, Fenrir.

Browder trained Fenrir by putting truffle oil on a piece of paper and hiding it around their house. Eventually, Browder hid the scented pieces of paper outside. This was their first time foraging for actual truffles.

“Many people are captivated by this sense that it’s like an Easter egg hunt,” Lefevre added. “These treasures in the woods are hidden and you search all over the place for them.”

Stephanie Pearl Kimmel owns Provisions Market Hall, a specialty grocer in Eugene that sells truffles. Kimmel first tried an Oregon truffle in the 1990s. It was harvested by rake rather than with a trained dog’s sense of smell. Her first experience was underwhelming because the truffle was not ripe. Now, Kimmel appreciates the unique mushroom more after tasting a ripe one.

(Will Campbell/Emerald)

“We have so many amazing ingredients here. To add another one, it was like discovering a hidden treasure,” she said.

There are two types of Oregon truffles: black and white. Some people describe an Oregon black truffle’s taste as similar to pineapple. Lefevre describes the Oregon white truffle as something that “you experience in your sinuses.”

Once an edible truffle is found, it can be used in a range of dishes and recipes, some of which will appear at the Oregon Truffle Festival. Tickets for the marketplace and the Joriad, a truffle dog competition, are $15 each.

The Market of Choice on Franklin Boulevard sells most of its truffle products near the cheese section. There are bries and chevres with French black truffles. The store also sells Oregon white truffle oils and salts.

The Oregon Electric Station, a restaurant commonly visited by UO students when parents come to town, has truffle fries on its menu and Little Big Burger does too.

Kimmel uses the elusive mushroom in many ways at her restaurant, Marche. Heat destroys the aroma that a truffle is known for, Kimmel said, so it’s best to use them as accents rather than in actual cooking.

Kimmel will be a featured chef at the truffle festival this weekend. There will be a buffet event at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on campus for ticket holders. Kimmel will also be preparing a prix-fixe menu featuring three courses using truffles.

“I always want to be very connected with where my ingredients are coming from,” Kimmel said. “We are amazingly blessed here with what we have.”

Kimmel adorns pasta with shredded truffles or infuses desserts with them.

She foraged once with Lefevre and found it very satisfying to cook with a truffle she uncovered on that outing. Lefevre and other people in the foraging community call this curious feeling “catching the mushroom bug.” This passion is a common thread among those involved in the Oregon mushroom world, including scientists.

(Will Campbell/Emerald)

With a striped sweater and tattoos covering his arms, UO biology instructor Roo Vandegrift doesn’t look like a standard biologist. Vandegrift brings students from his mycology courses foraging.

He has yet to find any on his trips, though he’s not discouraged.

“Truffles take a fine touch,” Vandegrift said, noting that truffles aren’t the only edible mushrooms that he and his classes search for.

Yamada and the other foragers had better luck under the gray coastal sky. They found a few mushrooms and two truffles: one edible, one not. Still, they kept raking the ground and encouraging their dogs.

Foraging isn’t the only way they appreciate truffles. Many of those who attended the foray plan on going to the Oregon Truffle Festival intent on trying new truffle-infused foods.

“The genesis of the festival was the idea that we could bring some old world culture to life in Oregon, the celebration of food and these local ingredients that is unique to this place,” Lefevre said. “Oregon truffles are emblematic of all of that.”

The post Trekking for truffles: The rise of the Oregon truffle appeared first on Emerald Media.

Theatre is an art form that has been around for thousands of years with its origins in Ancient Greece. The theatre’s counterpart, film, has had a relatively short history with the first movies being made in the late 1800s. Filmmakers and TV producers have been adapting theatrical works like plays and musicals to fit the big screen as long as the art form has been around.

Stage-to-screen adaptations need to work out a balance between the original integrity of the stage production and the spectrum of choices available in film. Theatre is generally confined to a stage which limits what is physically possible for the setting and actors while film allows for more variables to be manipulated.

Stage-to-screen adaptations have the potential to damage both the movie and original play’s reputation, but they also have the potential to elevate it. Fences by August Wilson and Angels in America by Tony Kushner don’t just function separately as theatre and film, but they make the case for the existence of stage-to-screen adaptations.

Angels in America, a Tony award winning, two-part play about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, was adapted for an HBO miniseries in 2003. It received mixed reviews. While the whole play runs about seven hours and requires two separate visits to the theater, the miniseries is separated into six episodes that run about an hour each.

The screen adaptation may take less time to watch than the actual play, but it is split up so each episode can be consumed at a different rate. This is fundamentally different than the experience of watching theatre. Yet, there are other ways in which the HBO adaptation succeeds in reproducing Angels in a theatrical manner.

In Slate’s oral history of Kushner’s play, New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich says, “It’s one of the very, very few successful film adaptations of a major American play.”

By using household names like Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, along with stage actors like Jeffrey Wright and Justin Kirk, director Mike Nichols found a way to meld the acting styles required of theatre and film. Nichols made a screen adaptation that still carried the dramatic weight of the original production.

Denzel Washington’s adaptation of the Pulitzer prize winning play Fences is a recent adaptation that keeps the physical aesthetic of a play while also succeeding as a movie.

Fences has a relatively simple setting. The only location seen is the backyard of a house. While other locations are discussed, the action happens in the same spot. Washington’s 2016 adaptation of the play also keeps the location simple, rather than choosing to change the play and make it ‘fit the screen.’

The majority of the movie’s action happens in the same backyard that the play features. While there are three or four cutaways to other locations and one montage, they feel purposeful and add to the intensity of the acting.

The film version of Fences also features cinematography focused on the actor’s bodies. The physicality the actors portray in Fences mirrors the grandiose ways in which theatre actors move. A scene where Denzel Washington’s character, Troy Maxson, swings a baseball bat at his son is electric because of the ways the camera focuses on Washington’s arms and their movement.

Both Fences and Angels in America stand out as reasons that stage-to-screen adaptations should exist, even if most adaptations don’t rise to the occasion of the original play.

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