Bard to the bone: A Star (Wars) is born
Carmen Burbridge
February 17, 2021
Ian Doescher has built a mini-empire of modern pop tales retold Shakespeare style. May ye Force be withe hym.
For stories published before 2018, visit our archive site.
Ian Doescher has built a mini-empire of modern pop tales retold Shakespeare style. May ye Force be withe hym.
Covid changed the game for the new-performance festival. But going virtual was a renaissance, not a retreat.
Fertile Ground 2021: Sue Mach’s “Madonna of the Cat” fills in the 16-year gap in Shakespeare’s “Winter’s Tale.”
Veteran Portland actor Tobias Andersen remembers talking with Plummer about how to play Prospero.
Fertile Ground 2021: In “Livin’ in the Light,” opera singer Onry seeks a space for a Black man to breathe.
Fertile Ground 2021: An overlooked character from “A Christmas Carol” gets his close-up in “Fezziwig’s Fortune.”
Fertile Ground 2021: “The November Project,” which takes place in a bathroom, has roots in a life-turning crisis.
Fertile Ground: Mark LaPierre and Ian Anderson-Priddy’s zombie comic-book musical will make your pulse rush. If you have one.
Fertile Ground 2021: Joni Whitworth and Hannah Piper Burns find the mythic amid the reality of Covid-19.
Fertile Ground 2021: Lisa Collins’ “Be Careful What You Ask For” delves into a Portland killing and issues of race.
Fertile Ground 2021: Don Wilson Glenn and Damaris Webb take a spin through the first First Lady’s kitchen.
A baking show and an augmented reality game at the Fertile Ground festival mix viewing with performing.
Portland’s annual festival of new works, running Jan. 28-Feb. 7, has become a garden of virtual theater.
The veteran broadcaster and writer brings her podcast “Stage & Studio” to ArtsWatch starting Feb. 23.
As the pandemic shuts down in-person shows, director Patrick Nims blazes a trail in live video theater.
Many events are canceled or scaled back for 2021, as gathering in crowds remains unlikely, but it’s not all bad news.
Artists Rep and The Actors Conservatory join to create a new teaching and performing dynamic.
Portland Playhouse closes 2020 with an epic virtual theater festival. We talk with the people who created it.
Coaster Theatre will present, virtually, the Dickens classic as radio theater set during the Great Depression.
Portland’s Latinx theater and playwright Maya Malan-Gonzalez give “A Christmas Carol” a virtual update.
Portland Center Stage’s associate artistic director: “We are making something new and we are making it very, very fast.”
Starting small but thinking big, Stumptown Stages has made itself a leader in equity and diversity.
The nation cringes from the brinksmanship of election denial. Isn’t there a show about that?
Portland Center Stage’s online ‘Love in the Time of Piñatas’ hits the cultural and theatrical sweet spot.
Portland theaters, shut off from the stage, find a future from the past: radio theater, updated for the digital age.
In his final days, designer and artist Tim Stapleton hosted a free flow of friends. Now, his final artwork is on view.
The Portland actor-writer moves briskly into his tale of Black Americans and the violence they face.
Portland police killed Quanice Hayes. His grandmother’s film gives back his voice and 8 other police victims’.
At Broadway Rose, a musical romantic comedy is streaming – and the stars sign on for the long run.
Yamhill County calendar: A “season like no other” on campus, plus a watercolor show and film festival preview.
Director Patrick Walsh is bringing a filmed production of a Greek tragedy to prisons across Oregon.
The well-loved Portland designer, writer, visual artist, and actor dies from the effects of ALS.
ArtsWatch Weekly: In a pandemic era first, Triangle opens a show indoors. Plus: Art in the Pearl, virtually.
An online play based on a backstage novel about life, love, and revenge in the theater scratches an itch in Covid-19 time.
Technology challenges an online drama club, but the tradeoff is lessons in creativity and self-reliance.
“Aberdeen,” Matt Sheehy’s musical memoir of grief and rebirth, is livestreaming this weekend.
Profile Theatre’s audio play follows a globe-trotting pangolin as it spreads viral-like havoc across nine scenes.
Kids in Newport’s Online Summer Drama Club will learn all about theater — and put on a play — via computer.
PAMTA musical-theater awards go virtual with joy and poignance. The winners, and moments to remember.
As theaters go dark, actors’ tales on “The Actor’s Nightmare” of real-life stage disasters seem a perfect antidote.
The Portland actor and architect steps up to a bigger stage: The race to become the city’s next mayor.
The Tony-winning Oregon and Broadway producer looks to streaming and music in a new joint venture.
Sue Neuer of Cannon Beach finds casting a play in the current climate has its challenges.
Voices from the front: Philanthropist Ronni Lacroute says COVID-19 is forcing arts groups to think in new ways.
Covid-19-inflected arts news: Literary Arts, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, BodyVox, The Old Church, more.
How are big arts groups handling the pandemic? Portland Center Stage’s Cynthia Fuhrman takes it step by step.
With stages shut down, the work’s stopped cold. Performing artists wonder: Can the fire be relighted?
As theaters go dim, playwright Rachael Carnes tries video-conference plays – and leaves a light on for good luck.
Unit Souzou live-streams with “The Constant State of Otherness.” Plus: what isn’t happening in theater.
Fertile Ground, the final look back: scratching an “Itch,” diving into one-acts and other rabbit holes.
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