For stories published before 2019, visit our archive site.
Theater Subcategories
DramaWatch
White, the much-loved pianist and director who made the music sing in theaters across Portland, was also the talent behind Cabaret White, which showcased many of the city’s best singers.
Josie Seid and Sara Jean Accuardi’s “Fezziwig” offers Twilight Theater audiences a chance to explore their own losses and joys, while Stumptown Theater’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” adds vibrant color and toe-tapping music to its adaptation of a film classic.
Triangle Productions’ “Little Shop” and Corrib Theatre’s “Godot” dive into the deeply entwined depths of the comic and the tragic, which in both plays rely on each other.
The Portland professional training school, which began life in 1985 in a former dental office, now draws students from across the nation seeking careers in the theater world.
Theaters in Nehalem, Cannon Beach, and Newport welcome the season (and audiences) with some timely onstage comedy, family-friendly nostalgia, and a live radio-style “Wonderful Life.”
In her newest podcast, Dmae Lo Roberts talks with the youth company’s longtime leader about its bold move downtown, solving puzzles, and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Setting the stage for gratitude: As December dawns, “Black Nativity,” “Fezziwig’s Fortune,” and “Veronica, In Bed” all acknowledge adversity while offering inspiration.
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 company’s first show to be staged in both cities, “G.I. Holiday Jukebox,” opens Dec. 5.
DramaWatch: In addition to a sleigh full of holiday shows, Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” an updated Cinderella story, a comic horror musical, and an unexpected Austen heroine are making their appearances on Oregon stages.
Heading north during the holiday season? Seattle’s theaters are hoisting multiple cups of onstage seasonal cheer (and a couple of spirited shows without the holiday theme).
Since April 2023, the Liberty Theatre’s low-cost program has brought theater, dance – and self-confidence – to North Coast kids.
Artistic director Tim Bond and board member Amy Cuddy talk about what’s in the wings for OSF as the festival seeks to build back from the Covid years and prepares for its 90th season.
Review: Chronicling the friendship between a teen and a librarian, the 21ten Theatre production of the Oregon playwright’s award-winning play glows with humor and emotion.
On her new podcast, Dmae Lo Roberts talks with actor and social justice activist Susi about touring a version of Homer’s epic tale to prisons, church groups, community centers and more.
The Eugene theater’s production of “The Last Yiddish Speaker” gathers actors and audiences closely together for a Rolling World Premiere.
DramaWatch: Early November shows a range from comics and camp to E.M. Lewis’s heartfelt first two-hander, plus a sprinkling of holiday fare.
Review: Annie Baker’s “Infinite Life,” produced by Third Rail at CoHo Theatre, uses silence and sharp dialogue to examine the way people navigate the physical and emotional trauma of pain.
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: The moving musical, which expertly interweaves racial issues past and present, is the first collaboration between Washington County’s Bag&Baggage and Broadway Rose Theatre.
DramaWatch: Bag&Baggage and Broadway Rose are co-producing a concert performance of the new musical “Is You Is,” Shaking the Tree is offering a reading series to help process our communal election angst; Third Rail presents “Infinite Life.”
The former artistic director of Portland’s Artists Rep picks Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” which he directed to acclaim in Portland, as his first show as artistic leader of the flagship Seattle Rep.
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.
Playwright Gillette and director Dean, who’ve developed a close working partnership over the years, dig deep into the story of a trans romance for their newest premiere.
The actor, director and writer, whose professional career spanned almost 60 years, is dead at 87, leaving a brilliant legacy ranging from Hollywood to Portland to Pakistan.
With Lo Steele in the title role and an all-star cast also serving as the onstage orchestra, Portland Playhouse’s magical stage version of a French film is awash with lyrical sights and sounds.
The Broken Planetarium gets ready to unleash “The Greenbrier Ghost.” And like most things ghostly, this fresh work of music, theater, and free expression plays by its own rules.
“Amélie,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and “Sweeney Todd” all take the stage this week. October also brings Artists Rep’s “The Event!,” the concert musical “Is You Is,” “Wicked” and more.
This month’s opening of the 250-seat theater makes the Newberg cultural hub one of the largest in the state, as well as an example of the “everything-for-everyone” center that thrives in smaller Oregon cities.
“Always … Patsy Cline,” a musical about the friendship between the legendary country singer and her biggest fan, is still delighting packed Oregon audiences the fourth time around.
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.
The Hillsboro theater’s dynamic artistic director brings an inclusive vision that embraces new work, community engagement, educational initiatives — and maybe a new campus.
Director Jeanette Harrison’s new Native Theater Project, in an innovative partnership with Hillsboro’s Bag & Baggage Productions, debuts with Blossom Johnson’s “Diné Nishłį (I Am A Sacred Being) or, A Boarding School Play.”
Margie Boulé takes the stage at triangle productions!, reprising her role as the legendary Texas Democrat in a play that offers abundant laughs, a sliver of hope, and a reminder to vote.
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.
As the city’s vaunted theater scene navigates some major shifts, a lively fall lineup ranges from a ribald political farce to a trip to the Taj Mahal, the NW premiere of 2024’s Pulitzer-winning play, a “Jubilee,” a “Funny Girl” and more.
Drama, comedy, and music take center stage at Gallery Theater, Linfield University, Struts & Frets Theatre Company, Gather Repertory, and Pentacle Theatre.
The veteran actor and director talks with Dmae Lo Roberts on her newest Stage & Studio podcast about race in the theater, his fondness for Neil Simon, and the Simon comedy he’s directing for PassinArt.
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.
FastHorse’s return to Portland with her new version of the classic Broadway musical at Keller Auditorium marks a full-circle moment for the ‘Thanksgiving Play’ author.
Portland’s Salt and Sage performs Shakespeare’s historical fiction in repertory with “Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2” through August.
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.”
Clackamas Repertory Theatre mines the lasting appeal of the classic musical, which stays rooted in the Edwardian era yet dances with ease and high humor into the 21st century.
Stage & Studio: In her new podcast, Dmae Lo Roberts talks with director & choreographer Wallenfels about The Hatchery, a project to develop storytelling based in movement and music.
Profile Theatre’s world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz’ play wrestles fascinatingly with questions of family, professional striving, identity, and the meanings of love.
Hail fellows, well met: Until Anonymous Theatre’s one and only performance of “Romeo and Juliet” on Aug. 12, even the actors won’t know who’s in the show until they meet onstage.
Bobby Bermea talks with the Tony-nominated author of “Hell’s Kitchen” about theater, writing, family, deadlines, underdogs, and Diaz’s basketball story opening at Portland’s Profile Theatre.
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.
Broadway Rose Theatre Company’s smart and sharply choreographed “Beautiful” tells the inspiring story of singer and songwriter Carole King’s musical journey.
A rural Oregon grocery store-cum-creative hub provides a source of freshly devised plays — and a showcase for a new way of creating them
Give to our GROW FUND.
