LCC theater produces acts of generosity.

Byline: Bob Welch The Register-Guard

When Lane Community College's Student Production Association puts on "The Cherry Orchard" tonight and Friday night, there will be more than a little bit of life imitating art.

Just as the Ranevsky family fears losing its beloved orchard to the ax, so, too, have LCC theater folks feared losing their program to the budget ax, which has chopped with considerable vigor in recent years. Most of the theater faculty, for example, is gone.

But Lane's Student Production Association, vowing to stem a total clear-cut, has stepped up to find ways to keep the program alive. They've found volunteers to teach, taken on more responsibilities themselves - sets and costumes are made entirely by students - and simply done without in a lot of cases to save money.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that over the last two weekends, the association - rather than charge full price - charged half-price if patrons brought three cans of food for FOOD for Lane County. In short, it cost them half their potential take.

But here's the one that really gets you: Despite their budget woes, all of the proceeds from Friday's 8 p.m. production of Anton Chekhov's play will go to a cast member, Dylan Skye Kennedy, who was injured in a bicycle accident over the summer.

Kennedy, a 21-year-old sophomore from Medford who was cast last spring as Peter Trofimov in the play, was turning from Willamette Street to 40th Avenue on July 4 when he hit a bump in the sidewalk and spilled. He broke both wrists, his elbow and collarbone. And didn't have insurance.

Thus far, medical bills have totaled nearly $13,000, which got Matt Keating, president/director of the student association, thinking. Why not help him out?

The association voted overwhelmingly to donate the proceeds to Kennedy, who, though still having a plate and six screws in his shoulder, will play Trofimov, "the eternal student," in the production.

Kennedy, voted the association's "best actor" last year, was stunned at the news. "It's incredible," he says. "At first I was reluctant to agree to this because I know how much the association needs the money. But if it was someone else, I guess I'd want to do the same."

"We're pretty much a tight-knit group of friends," says Keating. "The idea is that we take care of our own."

Beyond the proceeds from Friday's production at the LCC Performance Hall's main stage, the association established the Dylan Kennedy Benefit Fund at Selco Credit Union for people wanting to help.

"There are definitely parallels between the play and what's going on here," says Keating. "In the play, the characters live in their own personal bubbles without really seeing the big picture of helping their neighbors. Ironically, it's Dylan's character, Peter, who returns from the university to tell them they need to work, need to help each other."

But the student association seems pretty needy itself, I reminded Keating. "Our faculty chair once reminded us that what we're doing here is life. You're learning about life by the characters you play, and that's an invaluable lesson. It makes me smile to think we're doing something special."

Tonight's production is half-off ($5) for students, seniors and staff. Tickets are $10 for Friday's benefit event.

A quick tip of the hat - and itch of the forearm - to the more than a dozen folks who sent poison oak remedies after my Tuesday column.

The supposed fixes included an over-the-counter soap, Zanfel; Domeboro powder, which mixes into a paste; Fels Naptha soap, which I now remember from my boyhood days; a cream known as Tecnu; and a liquid substance called Oral Ivy, which, says the reader, can be taken before exposure and will prevent a reaction to poison oak.

Then, of course, there were a few home remedies, including tea bags, canola oil and one that sounded so bad I'd prefer nonstop itching.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at [e-mail].