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: 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.
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.
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.
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.
Profile Theatre’s world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz’ play wrestles fascinatingly with questions of family, professional striving, identity, and the meanings of love.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Review: In Kate Hamill’s toothsome update “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” at Portland Center Stage, the tables are deliciously turned.
Profile’s world premiere of christopher oscar peña’s story of a young woman’s perilous arrival in the United States defies expectations.
Portland Playhouse’s musical-theater version of the Roald Dahl children’s novel is enchanting for audiences of all ages.
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.
Broadway Rose’s production of the Rodgers + Hammerstein musical adds a light touch of depth to some scintillating singing and knockout costumes.
“Rent,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Twelfth Night” and “The Three Musketeers” provide distinctive takes on classical and contemporary theater.
Review: Portland Center Stage’s fresh take on Shakespeare’s comedy is a nimble, playful, genderfluid, and not at all didactic delight.
Portland Center Stage’s deeply moving, don’t-miss production slices through song to the soul of values and life.
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.
Center Stage’s premiere of Lauren Yee’s time-tripping “Young Americans” follows three people into the heart and soul of the immigrant experience.
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.
Portland Playhouse’s joyously entertaining production of Pearl Cleage’s play offers a feast of great performances by Black artists.
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.
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