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.

Lauren Yee’s ‘Mother Russia’ at Profile: Comedy, culture, questions for U.S., too

Yee's undercurrent of humor cushions deeper questions about communism, capitalism, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the ways we live our lives.

Two solo shows with heart, humor & sting

In review: Damaris Webb goes camping in "Precipice: re-membering, forgetting, and claiming home"; comic actor Chris Grace cuts to racial realities in "Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johannson."

A brilliant ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ at Portland Playhouse (even with its NEA grant pulled)

As its grant goes on the chopping block, August Wilson's American classic gets a transcendent performance in a tale of people wrestling with profound human questions.

‘The Brothers Size’: Heartbreak, erasure, resilience and connection

Tarell Alvin McCraney's poetical play at Portland Center Stage embodies memories of prison and mystical characters from the Yoruba traditions of West Africa.

Fertile Ground: ‘Who’s Who’ across the decades

In Marshall Welch's promising play from Rogue Pack, two girls "meet" through notes left 70 years ago in a library copy of "Who's Who."

‘Julius Caesar’ & ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’: Ashland reinvents the classics

With a women and nonbinary cast for "Caesar" and an "Earnest" transported to the Malay Peninsula, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival gives a fresh face to familiar tales.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival strikes gold with a pair of plays about Black life

James Ijames' "Fat Ham" and August Wilson's "Jitney" kick off the Ashland festival's 90th season along with "Julius Caesar" and "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Center Stage’s searing ‘Virginia Woolf’: Why now?

Edward Albee's 1960s masterwork of two toxic marriages gets a bold and skillful new performance. Sixty years later, does its evening of drink and destruction still sting?

Review: Third Rail’s potent ‘A Case for the Existence of God’

Actors Isaac Lamb and Charles Grant shine in Samuel D. Butler's empathetic drama about two men struggling to discover answers to life's big questions.

‘Notes from the Field’: A play for today

Portland Playhouse's sterling production of Anna Deavere Smith's play about the school-to-prison pipeline meets the nation's political and cultural moment.

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.