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Stage presence.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Lord Leebrick - the alliterative name conjures up a Shakespearean character and rolls off the tongue like the beginning of one of the Bard's sonnets. Or maybe a line - 10 lords a leaping! - from the "Twelve Days of Christmas."

But can the tiny Eugene performance company make the jump from quirky, intimate 94-seat community theater company to larger, more mainstream downtown-saving catalyst?

"It's a big leap," said Riley Grannan, managing director of the Eugene Ballet Company, which is in the midst of battling financial problems. Grannan, though, like most all of Eugene's artistic community, is pulling for the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company, with its modest $275,000 annual budget and only two paid full-time staff members.

A regular theater-goer, Grannan sees the "remarkable opportunity" Lord Leebrick has stepped into. "I'm delighted that another performing arts organization can create a spark downtown," he said.

The 17-year-old nonprofit theater company, which has leased a 1920s-era garage at 540 Charnelton St. since 1994, bought two buildings 10 days ago on West Broadway for $1,050,000 - that now house the Tango Center and other ventures - from Eugene landlords Tom Connor and Don Woolley. The purchase was made with money from two longtime Lord Leebrick supporters. One is Eugene philanthropist Rosaria Haugland, who loaned the theater $350,000, repayable in two years' time, according to a mortgage deed filed with...

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