Theater

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Vin Shambry: Peeling the ‘Pass Over’ onion

Antoinette Nwandu's play, a co-production of Corrib Theatre and Historic Alberta House, holds a fascinating conversation between Black American life and "Waiting for Godot."

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Portland Center Stage at the Armory Portland Oregon

North County Recreation District: From a pool to plays, Nehalem’s hub serves coastal community

Based in a school designed by A.E. Doyle, the 30-year-old NCRD is home to concerts, lectures, an art gallery, and soon, a new $16.4 million aquatics center.

Review: Don Horn’s ‘Gospel’ leap of faith

With "J.C.: Gospel According to an Angel," the founder of Triangle Productions! and composer Michael Allen Harrison turn biblical debates into a transcendent new musical.

Remembering theater and music artist Ernie Lijoi

The multi-talented actor, playwright, composer, singer, lyricist, and recording artist, who came to Portland from New York City, leaves a host of memories and fine work.

Ashland youths experience theater as a creative act

In the heart of Oregon Shakespeare country, Empowered Arts Ensemble participants study before the performance how to connect on stage — and collaborate on their own play.

DramaWatch: Michael Allen Harrison, composing a new musical, lives by his father’s advice to ‘love what you do’

The prolific composer thrives on his packed schedule, which includes rehearsing for "JC: Gospel According to an Angel," a new musical at Triangle Productions. Plus: Other openings, still running, and theater news.

Remember Sowelu? The experimental ensemble is back with three new plays

Bobby Bermea: After several years of shifting to award-winning independent films, the ensemble returns to the theater stage with a short run of one-act plays.

Dylan Hankins’ ‘Faena’ at PETE: A bull, a matador, and button-pushing comedy

The short-run play, performed in Spanish with English interpretation, challenges convention, its author says: “I like pushing buttons. I like being kind of wrong and perverted.”

Review: Lauren Yee’s ‘Samsara’ at Profile is not to be missed

Playful and richly unsettling, Yee's drama about surrogacy and impending parenthood and a kind of colonialism is a gift in the best and most complicated ways.

‘Mrs. Harrison’: Movable mosaic of a showdown in an upscale bathroom

Review: R. Eric Thomas's densely stitched two-hander play at Portland Center Stage raises a complex tapestry of questions about race, friendship, and storytelling.

Bobby Bermea: Talking babies and surrogates and ‘Samsara’ with Lauren Yee

The prolific playwright, whose drama about an American couple and a surrogate mother in India is playing at Profile Theatre, talks about big dreams and "the prickly, messy places where cultures collide."

DramaWatch: Performers from two thought-provoking plays talk about their characters.

Audiences and actors alike have the chance to engage with the issues presented in “American Son” and “Samsara.” Plus: Openings, mid-run shows, coming up, theater news.

Breathtaking performances, lush set make Imago’s ‘Streetcar’ a stunning experience

Review: Jerry Mouawad is the maestro behind this tragic but artistically magical reimagining of Tennessee Williams's great American drama "A Streetcar Named Desire."

‘Kimberly Akimbo’: A quick-aging teen’s musical dash through time

The Broadway hit, the touching and often funny tale of a girl whose body ages rapidly far beyond her years, settles into Portland's Keller Auditorium for an eight-show run.

DramaWatch: In January, theaters explore intricate shades of gray

Imago’s "A Streetcar Named Desire," the touring musical "Kimberly Akimbo," and Portland Center Stage’s "Mrs. Harrison" all defy oversimplification.

‘Krapp’s Last Tape’: Beckett’s solitary journey back and ahead in time

Review: Bruce Burkhartsmeier delivers a masterful performance at the intimate 21ten Theatre of Samuel Beckett's 1958 one-act tale of loneliness and regret (with flashes of wit).

Style is the star of Lakewood Theatre’s ‘The Maltese Falcon’

Review: Delicious set, sound and costume designs bring a film noir vibe to the stage in this U.S. premiere theatrical production.

Bobby Bermea: Bruce meets Beckett

An aging man meets himself, 30 and 40 years earlier: Actor Bruce Burkhartsmeier and his telltale tape recorder take on the challenge and regrets of Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape."

2024 in Review: A few of my favorite (theatrical) things

Oregon theaters offered us an abundance of blissful, moving and mind-altering moments in 2024, and DramaWatch columnist and reviewer Linda Ferguson remembers her favorites.

DramaWatch: In with the new

The 2024 theater year is ending, but there’s plenty to anticipate in 2025 – and a little left in '24.

‘Hard Boiled Eggnog’: Who offed Santa?

Noel meets Noir in Bag & Baggage’s new family friendly holiday play.

Review:  ‘ZooZoo’ blinks, hops, slinks and sings with fresh delights

Imago Theatre’s co-artistic directors Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad, who have been creating anthropomorphic animals since 1979, have hatched a charming new trio of baby birds for this year’s production.

Remembering Darcy White, talented music director and stellar cabaret figure

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.

Christmas spirits: Playing with the supernatural in ‘Fezziwig’s Fortune’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

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.

The long stretch of comedy, from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ to ‘Waiting for Godot’

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 Actors Conservatory: Hale and hearty and going on 40

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.

Happy theater holidays on the Oregon Coast

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."

Stage & Studio: Sarah Jane Hardy on Northwest Children’s Theater

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."

DramaWatch: A season brimming with hope and light

Setting the stage for gratitude: As December dawns, “Black Nativity,” “Fezziwig’s Fortune,” and “Veronica, In Bed” all acknowledge adversity while offering inspiration.

‘Twelfth Night’: High comedy & big ideas

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.