At Milagro’s world-premiere political farce and Clackamas Rep’s solo show about loss and lovely things, the audience becomes an eager part of the action. Plus: a month of clowning at CoHo.
An adjacent restaurant fire Aug. 5 poured smoke and soot into the blue-chip gallery, coating everything. Now restorers are beginning to clean 1,500 artworks, and the gallery hopes to reopen in December or January.
As the labor movement faces new challenges, a look at art that reveals the highs and lows of work and its significance in life.
A Labor Day weekend fixture in downtown Portland since 1997, the free festival offers booths for more than 100 artists, plus food, music, demonstrations, and hands-on activities.
As the fall theater season rolls out and the big dogs get ready to bark, the revival of a century-old sci-fi play about humans and human-like robots imagines an unnerving new world.
Cirque’s “Kooza” settles under the Big Top for a lengthy run. A fireside chat with the author of the “Narnia” novels. And Larissa FastHorse gives a bold new twist to the musical “Peter Pan.”
Riswold, known for his groundbreaking work at the ad firm Weiden+Kennedy, also made his mark as a visual artist creating sharply pointed and often deeply comic satiric works deflating notorious autocratic strong men.
As the city puts its parks and arts programs under the same umbrella, it considers replacing the arts tax with a new levy for both. And one of Keller Auditorium’s major tenants comes out staunchly in favor of PSU’s proposed replacement halls.
Portland Center Stage’s JAW festival is off and running. Plus: “Reggie Hoops,” the return of Eliza Doolittle, site-specific plays in a century-old country store, farewell to Sam Mowry.
The beloved Portland actor, known over his 40-plus year career for his distinctive voice and his devotion to family, friends, the stage, and radio theater, leaves a giant legacy.
Richard Hertzberg’s book brings back the fervor and flavor of the political upheavals of a decade that divided the nation – and the handout leaflets that spread the word of cultural dissent.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “Much Ado” leads a bevy of Bards. Plus: Another side of Ashland, a quintet of musicals, Agatha Christie knocks ’em dead, taking new shows for a spin.
The 61st annual Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts brings a feast of art and music to town. Plus: Portland’s 18th Dolly Parton Hoot Night celebrates the pop icon and defies the naysayers.
Here comes summer, and the acting heads outdoors. Plus: Ashland under the stars, Risk/Reward Fest, Deep End’s improv dive, a “Madwoman” at Cygnet, and a 24-hour play-a-thon.
The Broadway tour of the Bob Dylan musical “Girl from the North Country” comes to Portland. Also: Openings in Portland and Ashland; Seattle theaters sing the budget blues.
The musical “The Spitfire Grill” and the comedy “Clyde’s” are cooking in the kitchen. Plus: a Christopher Oscar Peña premiere at Profile; Oregon Children’s Theatre’s call for help; more.
The Beaverton arts center is throwing a free party. Plus: Grants make the cultural world go ’round; new leadership in the Oregon Legislature’s Arts and Culture Caucus.
Lava Alapai’s new comedy “Middletown Mall” features karaoke in the food court. Plus the folk-musical “The Spitfire Grill” and the story of Florence Ballard and The Supremes.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s just-announced 2025 season sounds like old times, with contemporary twists. In Portland, Third Rail hangs out at the mall; “She Persists” a bit longer.
Two longtime stalwarts of the Northwest theater world have died: Oregon actor Cronin, in Eugene; and Portland-born director Dillon, in Seattle.
Fuse’s 14th OUTwright Theatre Festival opens with Mikki Gillette’s backstage comedy. Also: Boom Arts’ “History of Empires,” a spot of Sondheim, a waggish “Go, Dog. Go!”
The ninth annual festival remembers the flood that wiped out the city of Vanport on Memorial Day 1948 and carries the vanished city’s history and vital cultural significance into the present.
The tribal museum, closed since December for upgrades, reopens May 14. Plus: Indigenous artists at High Desert Museum, “Matrilineal Memory” & Cherokee art in Portland.
Joining the sassy orphan and her dancing billionaire on this week’s stages are a medieval “Everyman” update, several worthy mid-run shows, and a pair of catch-’em-quicks-before-they-close.
A welcome Chekhov return. Also this week: Hand2Mouth’s devised “Memento Mori,” ghost stories in Milagro’s “Borderline,” Oregon crashes the Tony and Drama Desk Award parties.
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.
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.
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.
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 award from the National Endowment for the Humanites will help the Bend museum revitalize its permanent collection dedicated to Indigenous peoples of the region.
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.
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.
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.
Our Creative Future, which is shaping the Portland metro area’s public approach to arts policies, will have a Virtual Town Meeting April 9. And the City of Portland shifts its cultural lineup.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival kicks off its ’24 season. Plus: new onstage in Portland, from “Perfect Arrangement” to “Sh-Boom!” to “Frog and Toad” and “Ashland” (the play, not the town).
The gift, which continues the Schnitzer family’s longtime support of Portland State University, will help fund a new home for the School of Art, support PSU’s Schnitzer Art Museum, and provide outdoor art and other enhancements on campus.
A host of clowns and colorful performers prepare a pair of shows to support the international aid group. Plus: Shakespeare north & south, “Yohen,” “Nassim,” Laurie Anderson, “Resurrection,” and more.
News & Notes: Portland’s biggest theater company is one of three nationally to win $1 million grants from the Mellon Foundation. Plus: Center Stage’s new season; new faces at the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival shifts into its ’24 season with “Macbeth” and three other shows. Plus: Openings, last chances, a Steep & Thorny party, a pre-peek at Fertile Ground.
The Oregon Community Foundation and James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation invest $20 million each to boost cultural groups, adding to $11.8 million pledged by the state Legislature.
A $300 million gift of more than 200 artworks jump-starts the Seattle University Museum of Art. Plus: Maryhill Museum season begins, Asian American writers, Andrew Proctor returns, jazz at Milagro, Billie Holiday tribute night.
The 2024 session improves on a dismal ’23 session for the arts, with allocations for several large organizations, less for smaller ones, and an unwelcome surprise for the High Desert Museum.
A busy week onstage also brings “The How and the Why,” a youth devised show from Hand2Mouth, Eleanor Roosevelt, holdovers including “Sanctuary City,” plus “Spear” and other last chances.
As Central Library reopens in downtown Portland, The Library Foundation takes on new leadership. Plus: A new leader for the Parks Foundation; talking Nevelson and Neel at PNCA.
Portland’s festival of new works is back after taking a year off; the Bellevue Arts Museum faces a “dire financial crisis”; the Eugene paper is back in print following an embezzlement.
Shut out in the 2023 legislative session after a Senate walkout stalled action, Oregon arts advocates and legislators are pushing in ’24 for some major state funding.
The stop-motion animation master, who won an Oscar for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” was revered in Portland’s vibrant animation community.
The Portland-based national cultural organization chooses Shyla Spicer to carry its multiple programs forward as its new president and CEO.
Storm damage shuts down the Beaverton arts center’s galleries for repairs; The Judy reopens after its own storm damage; and All Classical’s biggest-ever grant, from the Murdock Trust, helps its move to new downtown Portland headquarters.
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