Stage & Studio: Master playwright Philip Kan Gotanda
The veteran playwright, screenwriter, and opera librettist, whose play “Yohen” is about to open in Portland, talks on a new podcast about his career and the rise of Asian-American theater.
The veteran playwright, screenwriter, and opera librettist, whose play “Yohen” is about to open in Portland, talks on a new podcast about his career and the rise of Asian-American theater.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival shifts into its ’24 season with “Macbeth” and three other shows. Plus: Openings, last chances, a Steep & Thorny party, a pre-peek at Fertile Ground.
Octavio Solis’s contemporary spin on “Don Quixote” reimagines the wise man/mad man hero in a tale that tumbles brightly and searingly across the Mexican/Texan border.
A busy week onstage also brings “The How and the Why,” a youth devised show from Hand2Mouth, Eleanor Roosevelt, holdovers including “Sanctuary City,” plus “Spear” and other last chances.
The Oregon playwright’s contemporary twist on Cervantes’ classic tale has tilted at a few shifting windmills of its own on its long journey to Portland Center Stage.
Heidi Schreck’s bracing play at Portland Center Stage dives smartly and entertainingly into the serious issues of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. Constitution.
Portland Center Stage sinks its teeth into “What the Constitution Means to Me”; The Old Church’s “Moon Series” goes musical; Chapel Theatre hosts 10 new works; a Wilde “Earnest” & more.
Boosted by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, “The Hatchery” will help launch new theater works that emphasize music and movement.
Seeds for the career of the acclaimed playwright, whose “What the Constitution Means To Me” opens this week at Portland Center Stage, were planted and nurtured in Oregon.
A taut, terrific staging of Caryl Churchill’s speculative drama kicks off Portland theater’s “second season.” Plus: OSF Ashland stars on a new stage; how companies weathered the weather.
Since arriving in town in 2016, Grant has made his mark in an array of roles on stage and film. Now he’s Portland Playhouse’s producing director, and director of this year’s hit “A Christmas Carol.”
Director Isabel McTighe and creator/star Elsa Dougherty make sure nothing bad will ever happen. Plus: Portland Revels’ “Emerald Odyssey,” openings, last chances.
The Portland actor and friends are staging a one-night performance of a modern adaptation of Homer’s classic Greek tale before taking it back on the road – including to prisons.
Imago’s playful costumed critters return for a welcome holiday run, this time with some zebras joining the menagerie. Plus Fuse’s “Great White,” Bridgetown’s “Orphan Boy,” a national look at OSF’s leadership switch, last chances & more.
Ajai Tripathi’s new play “Great White Gets Off,” seeded during the pandemic, looks at racial and power dynamics and the way they play into a romantic relationship.
Dmae Lo Roberts talks in her new podcast with Jerry Foster, leader of the Black theater company PassinArt, about staging Langston Hughes’ gospel musical version of the Nativity story.
Bobby Bermea: The talented actor Lester Purry, who’s created a bond with Portland Playhouse, is back in town and creating his own kind of skinflint in the Playhouse’s “A Christmas Carol.”
21ten’s “Taking Care of Animals” is a big show in a small space. Plus: a snowflurry of holiday shows, from Scrooge to Rudolph to “Black Nativity” and more.
Four humans huddle in a farmhouse against a storm as the wild beasts roam outside in “Taking Care of Animals.” Plus some grand celebrity impersonation, openings, and last chances.
Profile’s world premiere of christopher oscar peña’s story of a young woman’s perilous arrival in the United States defies expectations.
The company, beset by financial problems in the midst of a major construction project and a suspended season, parts ways with Jeanette Harrison, its artistic director of only a year.
Third Rail Rep bellies up to the Irish writer’s “Two Pints.” Plus: A Lebanese solo show, an annotated “Merchant of Venice,” openings and last chances.
The puppeteers of Kettlehead Studios, the instrumentalists of Musica Universalis, an adventurous director and a skilled actress create a myth-driven seasonal show.
Shaking the Tree takes on the bitter beauty of Lorca’s poetic tale. Plus: “California” returns, Milagro celebrates women warriors, Triangle heads for the Big Apple.
Portland Playhouse’s musical-theater version of the Roald Dahl children’s novel is enchanting for audiences of all ages.
Center Stage’s revival of the 1968 musical of youthful protest and rebellion reclaims the anger, joy, and love for a new era of cultural and political divisiveness and disarray.
The Reformers get into the Halloween spirit with a string of shows at Movie Madness inspired by ’80s slasher flicks.
As the theater season shifts into high gear, Center Stage’s “Hair” marches to the beat of 1968’s drum and a host of other shows hit the stage.
Bag & Baggage’s “Our Utopia” riffs on themes from Thornton Wilder’s classic. Plus openings, closings, and Bill Rauch’s debut with the new Perelman Center in New York.
A new artistic director and a revived, walk-through “immersive installation piece” at Zidell Yards keeps the veteran devised-theater company moving forward.
Why everyone’s flocking to an old Victoria’s Secret to see a Beckett play. Plus: “Tina” on tour, the joys of a kids’ backyard theater camp, and a question: Must the show go on?
In a tiny Southeast Portland space, a lean and lively actors’ theater is emerging. Up next, “52 Pick-up.” Also: openings and last chances.
Financial problems stemming in part from the pandemic, an expensive construction project, lack of expected state funding and a national slump in theater attendance force a drastic step.
The Portland actress takes on the multiple challenges of Samuel Beckett’s Winnie – in an old Victoria’s Secret at the Lloyd Center mall.
The former Artists Rep artistic leader is the new artistic director of Seattle’s much larger flagship theater, and JAW keeps faith with the theatrical tradition of the new.
Henry VIII’s wives take the stage in Portland in the musical “Six”; Bag&Baggage’s “Red Velvet,” Box of Clowns, stinky cheese, Shakespeare in Elgin, time out for kids’ shows, more.
Apalategui’s “Downward Facing,” the show that just kept growing, takes its next big step in Fuse Theatre’s Atelier Festival.
CoHo’s clowns tie a twister by the tail. Plus: a jukebox musical at Lakewood, a sketch comedy festival, Astoria’s “performathon,” seasons’ greetings, throwing the dice on “Six.”
Clackamas Rep brings the ancients romping into the present. Plus: Broadway Rose’s “Dreamcoat,” new leader at Artists Rep, farewell to Book-It Rep and Sheldon Harnick, more.
From the Cocteau Twins to the Cure, a splashy cabaret celebrates goth culture with playful spookiness. Plus: Last call for some good shows, a shutdown in L.A.
Review: Portland Center Stage’s fresh take on Shakespeare’s comedy is a nimble, playful, genderfluid, and not at all didactic delight.
Profile’s “How to Make an American Son” tells a generational family tale. Plus: Duffy Epstein & friends head for “California,” openings, closings.
A celebration of the theater leader’s life is June 19; Oregon immigrant stories move to Hillsboro; small grants help bring 16 Latino art projects to life.
Lee Blessing life-and-death drama, Shakespeare’s Puck & the gang, “Full Monty,” and last chance for the fine “Mary Jane” and “True Story.”
Ernie Lijoi’s new musical, about the day the nuclear bomb DOESN’T drop, takes the spotlight at Fuse’s OUTwright Festival.
The premiere of a fresh Kabuki adaptation of a 1685 Japanese puppet play is Laurence Kominz’ swan song. Plus “Afropolitical Movement,” openings, closings.
Also screening this week: ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’ Jane Arden’s ‘The Other Side of Underneath,’ a double feature of ‘Ator: The Fighting Eagle’ and ‘Dead Heat,’ and all nine ‘Fast & Furious’ films.
At Profile, a gathering of contemporary voices. Plus: Clowning around at Milagro, Corrib’s gritty solo show, last days for “Come From Away,” Portland Playhouse’s new season and more.
Actor Luisa Sermol and novelist Rene Denfeld sit down for a chat about drama, stories, sexism, making the invisible seen, and working together on the play “Myra’s Story.”
A busy stage week also brings a pair of promising kids’ shows, the opening of “The Judy,” a Shakespeare parody, and the Broadway opening of the born-in-Portland “Thanksgiving Play.”
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