Life

The ups and downs of arts and entertainment mark 2002.

RON COWAN

Statesman Journal

December 29, 2002

The newsmakers in 2002 for the Life section captured the flow of life in a changing but still familiar community, from the incessant turnover in arts administrators to the survival of drive-ins and small-town theaters to the refurbishing of a landmark Salem theater and a new conductor for the Oregon Symphony to a “Big Fat” movie hit and valiant efforts to build a Salem nightlife scene.

Here are stories that drew readers and defined the scene in the Mid-Willamette Valley in the past year...

Pentacle debuts ‘Metropolis’

Salem’s Pentacle Theatre is not known for taking chances when it stages a musical, but it did something different in 2002.

Director Randy Bowser convinced the theater to stage its first musical not previously on Broadway with the Joseph Brooks/Dusty Miller show “Metropolis,” based on the legendary Fritz Lang silent film about a workers’ uprising in a repressive, futuristic society.

Bowser, who also did (performed) the music (with Frank Fullerton on guitars), collaborated with Brooks on a new version of the production that Brooks hopes to take to New York. The resulting production sold out all performances, including an added show. The production had the biggest cast and budget in Pentacle history.

1. Elsinore Theatre undergoes major renovation.

2. Small-town movie theaters enjoy a revival.

3. Frank Lloyd Wright house opens at The Oregon Garden.

4. Major turnover hits local arts groups.

5. Carlos Kalmar becomes director of the Oregon Symphony.

6. Salem struggles to develop a thriving nightlife scene.