By Randi Bjornstad

A-Squared Productions — named for partners and co-founders Anice Thigpen and Andrea Halliday — opens its 2021 season of nine outdoor artistic performances called Hope on the Butte on June 26, featuring the Elsewhere Ensemble, which consists of a string quartet and an actor. The series runs through Oct. 16.

Several things about Hope on the Butte will be unusual: It takes place high on a hill off Fox Hollow Road southeast of Eugene; the winding gravel road up through the woods ends at Thigpen and Halliday’s house, where the back yard slopes upward to form a natural amphitheater; and, concertgoers bring their own seating (blankets for the hillside or chairs for those who need the support of a flatter surface) as well as snacks and drinks to enjoy during the performance.

Like almost everything else during the past year of pandemic, this project was a hold-your-breath situation until recently, dependent on the success of controlling Covid-19 locally via social distancing, mask wearing, and increased numbers of vaccinations.

“It seems nothing is ever a quite a straight line with us,” Thigpen said. “Our original idea was to do a show this summer called Birds Flying Through, which would have involved poetry, song, and dance, but then of course those plans were dashed by Covid.”

Even when it looked as if the situation might improve significantly by this summer, “That particular production depends on dancers and vocalists who are very closely linked as they perform, and we decided it was too unpredictable, so that will happen in September 2022.”

The alternative was a series of smaller concerts featuring a variety of performers and types of performance, Thigpen said. As a musician, composer, and librettist, she wrote a chamber opera, The Woman of Salt, that had its world premiere in Eugene four years ago, almost to the day.

“I’m close to a lot of artists because of The Woman of Salt, and so many performers absolutely lost their identities and had the rug completely pulled out from under them in terms of work and plans by the pandemic,” she said. “So we conceived of this idea of Hope on the Butte, in a way a love letter from us to artists and their audiences.

“We really missed live performance during the past year and more, and I can’t count the number of performers who said they didn’t know what they were going to do,” she said. “It was such a hardship for so many, and this seemed like a way we could support them and help bring live performance back.”

Once in the planning stages — “and of course the vaccination situation has made everything possible,” Thigpen said — A-Squared enlisted cellist Kathryn Brunhaver, who also will be lead performer in Hope on the Butte‘s second concert, to act as program manager.

The number of ticketholders for the series will be capped at 45 in the outdoors, following social distancing and other state pandemic guidelines. Should the weather not cooperate, “We may have to come indoors, and we can probably squeeze in 50 people there, but in that case it may be necessary to wear masks,” Thigpen said.

In fact, the final production of the series, on Oct. 16 and featuring tenor Brian Haimbach, will be indoors, she said.

None of Thigpen’s own compositions will be performed in Hope on the Butte — “I was too lazy to get anything ready,” she said wryly — but she is working on a “pandemic piece” for the future, which draws largely on the experiences of some of her own relatives who experienced serious illness and artistic loss.

And in a perverse way, the pandemic also helped her regain her own artistic vision. After the emotion of The Woman of Salt, which included strong autobiographical elements, “I didn’t know how to keep writing music,” Thigpen said. “But because of all the loss and hardship experienced by so many people during this time, I found that I could do it.”

That also was the genesis of the series title, Hope on the Butte.

“So many people are feeling that we are just coming back from edge of the abyss,” she said. “And hope is something that everyone desperately needs now in their lives. So it seemed like the right title for this time.”

Concert Series: Hope on the Butte

Time and location: 32111 Fox Hollow Road, Eugene (map available on website; see below)

Performances:

  • June 26 (7 p.m.) — Elsewhere Ensemble; music, stories, poetry, and theater
  • July 10 (6 p.m.) — Kathryn Brunhaver and Grant Mack; cello and piano
  • July 24 (6 p.m. ) — Erika Rauer and Eduardo Moreira, vocal and piano
  • Aug. 7 (6 p.m.) — Victoria Calderone Moreira and Eduardo Moreira; flute and piano
  • Aug. 21 (6 p.m.) — Laura Wayte and Nathalie Fortin; vocal and piano
  • Sept. 4 (5 p.m.) — Terra Nova Trio; chamber music ensemble (Sandy Holder, Mike Curtis, Annalisa Morton)
  • Sept. 18 (4 p.m.) — Kimberlee Uwate; cello
  • Oct. 2 (4 p.m.) — Delgani String Quartet; string quartet (Jannie Wei, Wyatt True, Kimberlee Uwate, Eric Alterman)
  • Oct. 16 (4 p.m.) — Brian Haimbach (director, writer, performer)

Tickets and Information: Sliding scale $0 to $40; proceeds benefit local nonprofit organizations, available at https://www.asquaredarts.com/hope-on-the-butte