DramaWatch: Re-seeding Fertile Ground
February 10, 2023
The Portland new-works festival is at a crossroads, seeking to ensure its future. Plus: a new/old face at Center Stage, hip-hop from Profile, “Mad” teens and more.
The Portland new-works festival is at a crossroads, seeking to ensure its future. Plus: a new/old face at Center Stage, hip-hop from Profile, “Mad” teens and more.
PETE’s “The Americans” is as contradictory as the nation itself. Plus Pearl Cleage, the Temptations, Tammy Wynette, giant beavers, Ronald Reagan and AIDS, Lava Alapai and more.
Generations and cultures clash on court and off at Artists Rep, plus Broadway Rose’s Steven Schwartz hybrid revue/musical and The Theatre Company’s video theater stream
Kate Hamill’s updated detective tale opens at Center Stage; plus “The Americans,” an all-too-pertinent “Cabaret,” and taco-loving dragons.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, beset by pandemic and environmental troubles, slashes leadership and other jobs – and Artistic Director Nataki Garrett adds more duties.
Artists Rep’s premiere of Kareem Fahmy’s “American Fast” does a fast break on sport, faith, and culture. Plus: Sondheim for a new generation.
Kristina Wong’s “Sweatshop Overlord” is a sharp and heartwarming look behind the politics of Covid. Plus: The Shakespeare Festival’s big gift.
Profile’s “King of the Yees” takes an imaginative trip through split cultural identities. Plus “Jagged Little Pill,” openings, closings.
“King of the Yees” and “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” headline a week that also includes black comedy, a “Blink,” and a “Zooman.”
In a season of shows about Black life in America, the captivating “the ripple, the wave” carries the conversation home.
Shades of time and meaning in the Broadway “Mockingbird” tour; Dav Pilkey’s musical dogs; Milagro’s Day of the Dead dance; Chad Deity’s smashing slamdown and more.
Darius Pierce and Brooke Totman dive brilliantly into the nervous laughter of Christopher Durang’s dyspeptic comedy at 21ten Theatre.
Scott Palmer returns to Bag & Baggage with the “Hamlet” riff “The Last White Man”; ripples & waves from Artists Rep and Center Stage; Richard Thomas in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
In a busy theater week, Artists Rep’s “Hombres” nears the end of a sparkling run and promising productions pop up all over town.
Portland Playhouse opens a comedy set at a funeral in a Black church. But does the play move beyond sitcom platitudes?
As dance presenters Walter Jaffe and Paul King move into their 25th season of running White Bird, the elite company they founded, they prepare to pass the torch.
When lead actor Richie Stone in Broadway Rose’s musical “The Evolution of Mann” is sidelined by Covid, director Isaac Lamb takes the stage for opening night.
New artistic director Jeanette Harrison brings a commitment to a diversity of voices to Portland’s second largest theater company.
CoHo Clown Festival gets down with some feisty physical comedy; “The Hombres” land at Artists Rep; “tick, tick” heads for its final boom; the enduring wit of Louise Brooks.
PICA’s experimental extravaganza hits the boards again. Plus openings, from sci-fi to farce to ghosts, pajamas, book clubs, stony hearts, midsummer dreams and a mushroom hunt.
“When theater becomes just about plays, only fans of plays come. We’re going to bring a variety-show mentality and challenge forms. And we’re going to be trying to incubate new forms.”
Celebrating the Oregon Children’s Theatre leader’s life; “tick, tick … BOOM!” blows the lid off the season at Portland Center Stage; Ashland openings; more.
A revival of a sharp and probing solo drama shows another side from “The Princess Bride.” Also: comedy improv, Hammerstein vs. Hart, more.
Holly Griffith takes the artistic reins at Portland’s Irish theater company; an outdoor “Tempest,” an indoor “Holy Days,” party with the Bar[d], singing “Newsies,” and a Quixote for today.
Small-theater stars CoHo, PETE, and Third Rail join forces to beat the real estate game. Plus: Last chance to see Imago’s “Voiceover”; openings & closings.
Jerry Mouawad and Drew Pisarra’s new “Voiceover” dips into dance and sound with an existential twist. Plus the JAW new plays festival, a Stan Foote tribute, openings and closings.
The late Claymation master’s musical-theater adaptation of “The Frog Prince” debuts at Lakewood, Twilight opens the Portland premiere of an E.M. Lewis play, “Hadestown” hits Puddletown.
Portland Shakespeare Project gives a “Play On” twist to a tale of jealousy and redemption. Plus openings, closings, and a farewell to Peter Brook.
PETE’s “Cherry Orchard” is an energizing jolt of the sweetly unexpected. Plus the opening of “Desperate Measures” and last chance for “Bad World” and “The Music Man.”
PETE’s radically slimmed-down “Cherry Orchard” streamlines a classic. Plus Risk/Reward, last chance for “Mr. Madam,” and more.
From Portland’s queen of sex-positive theater, a little bit of love at the OUTwright Festival and on its way to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Isaac Lamb stages his “dream show,” a gathering for Tim Stapleton, a pair of Shakespeare festivals, singing cats, openings, closings & more.
The versatile actor moves into the top seat at The Actors Conservatory. Plus: Wade McCollum’s return, openings, closings.
Imago’s “Julia’s Place” starts with Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” and then stampedes off to an Italian restaurant. Plus openings, closings, and a little improv “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
The dark and twisted Yukio Mishima could be funny, too – and in his kabuki play “Sardine seller,” is. Plus a fresh look at the AIDS era’s “Rent,” the OUTwright Festival and more.
Say hello to Bella, “City Without Altar,” Hand2Mouth, a thin place and a floating bordello. Short runs for “Zandezi,” Shakespeare jokes, and “Shrek Jr.” Last chance for the excellent “The Children.”
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Appropriate” spins the word through all of its many meanings, cultural, racial, and personal. Plus openings and closings.
Corrib Theatre’s play about a guy in a bar is being played by a guy in a bar. Oregon Children’s Theatre takes on Shakespeare and a bus trip with Grandma. Freud and C.S. Lewis get down to it.
How should audience members act and react in the theater? Who gets to decide? As the Oregon Shakespeare Festival reopens, the questions rise anew.
Old pros Mendelson and Alper continue a long onstage partnership in Artists Rep’s “The Children.” Plus: Ashland opens, new seasons, Lost Treasures & more.
In Part 2 of the “Queens Girl” trilogy, Lauren Steele dazzlingly embodies voices out of Africa; “Hamilton” and its hip-hop cousin settle in; “Titus” wraps things up.
Picking up what they began in New York, Clackamas Rep and star Lauren Steele take a stellar tale continental. Plus Forgotten Women, Chick Fight, Taylor Mac & more.
The movie star, who died in Portland on Sunday, performed in four plays with Artists Rep. Also: Getting grisly with “Titus,” comedy & more.
Portland Center Stage opens the masterful “Gem of the Ocean,” “The Queers” lights a Fuse, Milagro’s “Antigone” on the border, more.
Director Jessica Wallenfels and PSU actors dig marvelously into family dynamics and the myriad aspects of negotiating the deaf and hearing worlds.
Shaking the Tree searches for the baddest femme fatale of all time. Plus “Without Rule of Law,” audience behavior and more.
The managing director of the city’s biggest theater company will become vice president of a national arts consulting firm, helping to shape the next generation of leaders.
Corrib’s “Maz & Bricks” deftly juggles formula and function; young actors go lawless; “Thurgood” heads to the finish line.
Lester Purry’s fine solo performance as the first Black member of the Supreme Court finds a fitting tension in the Constitution itself.
Looking at sports and theater and the meanings of rituals, new and old. Plus “The Great Leap,” Portland Panthers and more.
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