Darleen Ortega

Darleen Ortega has been a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals since 2003 and is the first woman of color and the only Latina to serve in that capacity.  She has been writing about theater and films as an “opinionated judge” for many years out of pure love for both.

Review: Lauren Yee’s ‘Samsara’ at Profile is not to be missed

Playful and richly unsettling, Yee's drama about surrogacy and impending parenthood and a kind of colonialism is a gift in the best and most complicated ways.

‘Twelfth Night’: High comedy & big ideas

Review: Shakespeare's mind-bending comedy at Portland Center Stage ripples with laughter as the play explores fascinating facets of love, identity, friendship, and human nature.

‘The Event!’ – Artists Rep unveils a mystery

Review: In its first full production in its home space since 2019, the company creates a cluster of intriguing small-town Oregon characters in a story that doesn't cohere.

Review: A razor-sharp ‘Sweeney Todd’

Portland Center Stage mounts a compellingly sung version of Stephen Sondheim's penny-dreadful tale of meat pies, murder, and revenge on the mean streets of Victorian London.

Review: The new Native Theater Project gets a strong start with ‘Diné Nishłį’

The premiere of Blossom Johnson's "Diné Nishłį (I Am A Sacred Being) or, A Boarding School Play" gets the new theater company off and running in its quest to tell Native stories onstage.

‘Reggie Hoops’: It’s much more than basketball

Profile Theatre's world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz' play wrestles fascinatingly with questions of family, professional striving, identity, and the meanings of love.

Ashland on the big stage: light yet bright

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's outdoor-theater "Jane Eyre" and "Much Ado About Nothing" don't plumb all the depths, but both succeed as sparkling entertainment.

Ashland’s ‘Lizard Boy,’ ‘Virgins to Villains’

Review: Robin Goodrin Nordli's trek through a lifetime of playing Shakespeare's women and Justin Huertas' superhero musical about a guy with scaly green skin light up the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's intimate Thomas Theatre.

‘Clyde’s’: Imperfect people striving for a perfect sandwich

Review: In Portland Center Stage's heart-filled production of Lynn Nottage's truck-stop diner comedy/drama, ex-inmates in the kitchen aspire to a better meal and a better life.

Seeing America in a hazy orange tone

Review: Profile Theatre's premiere of christopher oscar peña's "our orange sky" tells an immigrant story steeped in ambition, family discord, and pursuit of the American Dream.

A fresh ‘Coriolanus’: Shakespeare for today

Review: Portland Center Stage's riveting production translates the politics and conflicts of ancient Rome to the harsh and shifting power plays of the contemporary world.

At Portland Playhouse, a vibrant and ‘Passing Strange’ coming-of-age tale

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.

Ashland sinks its teeth into ‘Macbeth’

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.

In Ashland, a pair of winners at OSF

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.

Theater review: ‘Nassim’ tantalizes as it grapples with the spaces beyond words

Nassim Soleimanpour's play, written by a native Farsi speaker, deals with the difficulties of understanding a different language and invites chance into the game with a new, unrehearsed actor in each performance.

Review: A splendid ‘Quixote Nuevo’ at Portland Center Stage

Octavio Solis's contemporary spin on "Don Quixote" reimagines the wise man/mad man hero in a tale that tumbles brightly and searingly across the Mexican/Texan border.

Review: ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’

Heidi Schreck's bracing play at Portland Center Stage dives smartly and entertainingly into the serious issues of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. Constitution.

Dracula: The women fight back

Review: In Kate Hamill's toothsome update "Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really" at Portland Center Stage, the tables are deliciously turned.

Review: An ‘awe/struck’ tale of danger

Profile's world premiere of christopher oscar peña's story of a young woman's perilous arrival in the United States defies expectations.

‘Matilda’ and the culture of joy

Portland Playhouse's musical-theater version of the Roald Dahl children's novel is enchanting for audiences of all ages.

A ‘Hair’ with its heart on its sleeve

Center Stage's revival of the 1968 musical of youthful protest and rebellion reclaims the anger, joy, and love for a new era of cultural and political divisiveness and disarray.

Cinderella story: Once more, with spirit

Broadway Rose's production of the Rodgers + Hammerstein musical adds a light touch of depth to some scintillating singing and knockout costumes.

Four good shows rise above the crises at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

"Rent," "Romeo and Juliet," "Twelfth Night" and "The Three Musketeers" provide distinctive takes on classical and contemporary theater.

A ‘Midsummer’ to dream about

Review: Portland Center Stage's fresh take on Shakespeare's comedy is a nimble, playful, genderfluid, and not at all didactic delight.

The musical miracle of ‘Choir Boy’

Portland Center Stage's deeply moving, don't-miss production slices through song to the soul of values and life.

Hell is auditioning at a certain age

Sharon Maroney's new musical "Audition From Hell" at Broadway Rose takes a breezy but pointed trip into the perils and pitfalls of backstage life.

A double road trip across America

Center Stage's premiere of Lauren Yee's time-tripping "Young Americans" follows three people into the heart and soul of the immigrant experience.

Review: ‘Welcome to Arroyo’s’

Hip hop and graffiti drive the action in Profile's production of Kristoffer Diaz's play about Puerto Rican identity in New York's gentrifying Lower East Side.

What I Learned in Paris (and America)

Portland Playhouse's joyously entertaining production of Pearl Cleage's play offers a feast of great performances by Black artists.

Portland Center Stage playfully investigates gender in ‘Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson’

In a modern twist on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters, Ashley Song is energetic as Holmes and Kimberly Chatterjee's Watson embodies many aspects of female experience.