Hi all. As president of the Clackamas Repertory Theatre in Oregon City, OR., I was privilaged to help in a small way to launch and publicize Ray Bradbury's latest dramatic effort, a remake of "The Illustrated Man." I've posted a snyopsis earlier.

The play, a one-man show featuring Portland actor Tobias Andersen, was performed 12 times in at Clackamas Community College's new $6 theatre (http://www2.clackamas.edu/crt/)

It then moved to Ventura, California, for the all-city Ray Bradbury convention. Here is a report of that endeavor.

Here is some info regarding our recent trip to Ventura. As you know we took the latest CRT show, The Illustrated Man, to the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, CA. This was the center piece for a special Ray Bradbury festival which ran from Thursday, Oct. 25th through Sunday the 28th. There were six performances of the show.

Chris Whitten and I were brought to Ventura to remount the production. Chris went down on Sunday and I joined him on Tuesday. As you know lights and sound are integral to the entire show, and very demanding. There are over 120 individual cues for both lights and sound. The Rubicon Theatre is smaller and less sophisticated than our space, and, as a result, presented some unique technical challenges which Chris solved very nicely.

The theatre is a major player in the area bringing in many big name actors and directors for a season which runs nearly 12 months. They provided us with excellent support.

The show opened on Thursday night to an almost full house, but the most exciting thing for me was having Ray Bradbury in attendance. The show received a standing ovation, but more importantly Mr. Bradbury loved the show. He thanked both Tobias Andersen and me, saying that it was one of the most wonderful evenings of his life, and that we really got it, the interpretation of his material, right. He also mentioned that he would love to see it go to New York. It was one of those wonderful evenings where you wish you could live forever.

Tobias is old friends with Bradbury, having done the original stage version of Fahrenheit 451 in, I think, 1977. They have been collaborating on this show for nearly 10 years. Some of the material Bradbury rewrote specifically for this production.

Clackamas Repertoire Theatre, Clackamas Community College and Oregon City were acknowledged and we all received an extended ovation. I hardly noticed the smoke in the air.

David Smith-English
Clackamas Repertoire Theatre
Artistic Director

David, it sure was a fine performance!