May ushers in a shift in seasons (hopefully!) and the opportunity to shift perspectives. Jason N. Le offers, for the last time, a selection of not-to-be-missed art occasions and events.
In Oregon last year, “inappropriateness for children” maintained its top spot in book challenges. For the first time, it tied with another concern: that the book’s content was LGBTQ.
BodyVox’s collaboration with Imani Winds is a whimsical and visual spectacle that delighted fans, but missed synergistic opportunities amid the fun.
Other bookish events include readings from and release of Write Around Portland’s 62nd anthology, readings by Oregon Literary Fellows, and an opportunity to stargaze in Bend.
A busy bloom of storybook ballets, world premieres, film festivals and experimental dance is highlighted by a festival featuring the work of women choreographers.
From the destruction of a fire sparked by hatred, musician Jennifer Wright and fabric artist Bonnie Meltzer weave a new beginning of collaboration and hope.
Esperanza Spalding, Acosia Red Elk, and Nataki Garrett win major arts awards; Red Star is the latest Bonnie Bronson fellow; Timberline Lodge art survives fire; May 3 is a discount day.
The Portland poet, actor and playwright, whose “From a Hole in the Ground” has just opened in a co-production from Corrib and Alberta House, is “interested in breaking the rules of reality.”
With their caricatured grins and exaggerated growls and grimaces, Murton’s works defy the notion that serious art needs to be … well, serious. Get ready to smile.
In Southern Oregon’s remote Applegate Valley, community organizers find that the love for a region can outweigh political, economic, and religious divisions.
The YouTube series examines the stories of minor – but consequential – characters through a progressive and feminist lens.
The acclaimed high school dance company surprises and delights with a packed program of original choreography performed with energy, versatility, and joy.
Two legendary vocal groups united at The Reser for a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
Stew’s rock musical about a young Black musician’s flight to find his own way gets a rollicking, heartfelt production in a space that feels made for it.
Beautiful people play tennis beautifully in the latest film from Luca Guadagnino.
Famed performance artist Annie Sprinkle and her collaborator Beth Stephens were in residence at the college in early April. Their work, ‘The Forest as Lover,’ is in the college’s EAR (Experimental Art Research) Forest through the end of June.
For nearly 60 years, the non-profit program has been offering residential music and arts summer camps where youth can further their artistic interests while forging lifelong friendships.
Portland Center Stage opens an updated “translation” of Shakespeare’s tragedy of political and moral downfall. Plus: A multi-show triumph of women; Irish myth and more.
The classical group’s spring season of free pop-up and full-length shows gets out of the concert halls and into book stores, cafes, churches, and other places where people gather.
As the Oregon Shakespeare Festival emerges from pandemic woes, the Scottish play and “Born with Teeth” shine brightly with smart design, pared-down staging and top-flight acting.
PDX Playwrights and LineStorm Playwrights help Oregon writers get their scripts onstage at the just-concluded annual festival of new works – and beyond.
“Honey in the Horn,” a coming-of-age tale that shows how environmental settings mold human ideas and actions, won the literary distinction, but detractors said it was too critical of Oregon and its people.
Celebrate a slightly belated April Fools’ Day with a fittingly foolish crossword puzzle.
![Dancers performed physically demanding duets and trios as they connected and disconnected throughout Rafael Bonachela's "ab[intra]." Photo: Pedro Greig.](https://i0.wp.com/www.orartswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ab_intra_210605_205_hires_byPedroGreig-1-1.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1)
The Australian dance company closed White Bird’s season with a bold performance, as the powerful and confident dancers brilliantly executed Rafael Bonachela’s technically demanding choreography.
Portland Playhouse opens a rock musical by Stew, a musical “9 to 5,” Carol Triffle’s absurdist comedy scales a peak, Shaking the Tree’s grim fairy tale, “Extraordinary People” at Fertile Ground.
Every singer in Oregon, voices raised for spring.
Plus: Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” Anthony Mann’s “The Tin Star” on Blu-ray, and a few 4/20 highlights.
Also: Freddie Vilches Meneses with Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Nancy Ives and Giancarlo Castro D’Addona and Sylvan Talavera with Portland Youth Philharmonic. Also also: bands, bands, bands, and more bands.
At the clifftop museum overlooking the Columbia Gorge, two new exhibitions follow the river’s flow for 300 miles to create art of the land, water, and Northwest cultures.
The intimate solo shows “Smote This” and “Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender” dive compellingly into soulful matters – and they run at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival only into May.
Central Oregon Mastersingers and Bach Cantata Choir prepare for tour; Oregon Repertory Singers premieres Hazzard’s “Finding Light”; Choral Arts Ensemble performs Sydney Guillaume, Brian Holmes, Dawn Sonntag, Tomáš Svoboda, Patrick Vu.
Portland’s longest running dance company celebrates their 48th season at their annual performance, as artistic director Steve Gonzales marks his 25th year leading the nationally recognized high school dance program.
The award from the National Endowment for the Humanites will help the Bend museum revitalize its permanent collection dedicated to Indigenous peoples of the region.
Audience members get involved in a semi-improvisational show that sets the tone for the Ray Theater in Oregon State University’s new $75 million performing arts center.
The show leads into Linfield’s May 10 Camas Festival, which honors the cultural significance of plants and landscapes important to Northwest Indigenous peoples.
Some of Portland’s finest classical musicians warm up for a new season of free and accessible small-scale concerts with a “Thursdays @ 3” broadcast on All Classical Radio.
The 10th cohort of Alembic Resident Artists presented their new experimental dance pieces to a sold out crowd of fans, friends, and family at Performance Works NW.
The Portland artist’s paintings are steeped in American pop-cultural images and deal satirically with race relations. Plus: Hannah Krafcik’s “Gender Deconstruction”; Portland arts tax due.
“We might not be interested in war, but war will be interested in us”: An expansive Los Angeles exhibit on propaganda and art during World War I has parallels to the war-torn world of today.
The show at the North View Gallery at PCC Sylvania plays with notions of art and the everyday with some cockroaches thrown in for good measure.
How to decide what to see? There’s more than one way to approach the overwhelming bounty of Oregon’s annual celebration of new stage works.
The university swings open the doors of its new $75 million PRAx arts and performance hall and kicks off a creative space for students, artists, and the surrounding community.
Kirsten Dunst is exceptional in Alex Garland’s emphatically non-partisan vision of a war-torn future America.
Ready for the sprint? Portland’s foremost festival of new works returns with 65 projects over 10 days April 12-21. Plus: Carol Triffle goes Neanderthal at Imago, NYC kudos for PDX, more.
As Portland’s sprawling 10-day festival of new performance prepares to hit the stage running, the creators of half a dozen fresh shows talk about what they’re doing and why.
The brilliantly brittle comic author of “Beyond Therapy” and “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” who has died at 75, left a lasting mark on Oregon’s theater scene beginning in the 1980s.
The premiere of Dani Rowe’s chorus girl love story joins works by choreographers Ben Stevenson and Yue Yin for a diverse night of classical ballet and modern and theatrical dance.
Other winners during Monday’s Literary Arts event included Waka T. Brown for young adult literature and poet Daniela Naomi Molnar.
Only an expert can solve a problem. (23. March 29, 2024, at Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon, Laurie Anderson was as provocative, brilliant, inspiring, whimsical and stylish as ever.)
The contemporary dance company presented the world premiere of works by three internationally recognized guest choreographers, each of whom explored the theme of secrets in distinctly different ways.
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