DramaWatch: Black theater and Black joy, in ripples and waves
Marty Hughley
October 28, 2022
In a season of shows about Black life in America, the captivating “the ripple, the wave” carries the conversation home.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shaking the Tree searches for the baddest femme fatale of all time. Plus “Without Rule of Law,” audience behavior and more.
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.
Eleanor O’Brien talks about how the new-works festival has sparked her sex-positive shows. Plus the festival’s Week 2 and the “Anastasia” tour.
Portland plunges into its festival of new works, and “other” theater from “Gatsby” to “Gloria” lights the lights.
Playwright Lauren Yee returns to Oregon stages with a Center Stage/Artists Rep collaboration; “Thurgood” and “Hedwig” get ready to roll.
How to keep yourself and others safe in the theater (we’re in this thing together!). Plus an Agatha Christie, Profile’s “Gloria,” Milagro on Lorca.
The multiple Tony-winning musical, in Portland through Sunday, is ‘a small wonder.’ Plus: Poirot at Lakewood, CoHo walks with fire, Fuse postpones.
Sure, there’s plenty of Dickens in December. But on Oregon stages, it’s Conor McPherson season, too.
Remembering Philip Cuomo, Stephen Sondheim, and Dave Frishberg. Plus: A “Curious” reopening, Christmas Carols everywhere.
Portland’s LGBTQ theater ensemble gets a new home, a new season, and a new way of thinking about how it does business.
This week at the theater: Chewing over the issues in Portland Playhouse’s prism on race and language; “Mean Girls” and 600 Highwaymen hit town; last chances & more.
Imago’s Jerry Mouawad talks about the Covid-era fear factor in Conor McPherson’s tense and anxious stage version of “The Birds.” Plus: Stage openings & closings.
Themes echo and recur in Portland Playhouse’s “Barbecue,” Artists Rep’s “The Chinese Lady,” and “The Weir” in Astoria.
Also in a busy week: A “Barbecue” at Portland Playhouse, “The Chinese Lady” at Artists Rep, a “Peep” from The Reformers and a “Lonely Vampire” from Imago, “Danse Macabre” returns, plus plays onscreen.
Vanessa Severo talks about “becoming” the famed Mexican artist; Martha Washington bakes again.
As the stage world begins to bustle, Marty Hughley rides herd on the scene, from Shakespeare to Bojangles.
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