Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Here are some of Portland’s performing arts highlights for May and June (also see classical music and visual arts highlights)

"The People's Republic of Portland" at Portland Center Stage.z

The People’s Republic of Portland
April 23 – June 15
Portland Center Stage, 117 N.W. 11th Ave.

Comic writer/performer Lauren Weedman (“Bust”) has lurked around Portland for a couple of years now, and her account of what makes the city tick (or her take on the city’s tics) should be both hilarious and enlightening. Think of her as a Stranger in a Strange Land in this world premiere.

Ten Chimneys
April 23 – May 26
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

A cast loaded with excellent Portland actors and directed by incoming Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez has already received excellent notices for the West Coast premiere of this Jeffrey Hatcher comedy. It’s a theater play, set in the Wisconsin home of famous Broadway couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, where it’s hard to tell when someone is acting and when life is unspooling on its own.

Bodyvox celebrates its 15th season

Fifteen
May 2-18
BodyVox, 1201 N.W. 17th Ave.

This Portland company is hard to describe: a blend of modern dance, ballet, acrobatics, film and slapstick comedy, all intended to subvert expectations — for what’s next, for what “dance” is supposed to look like, for the limits of physical comedy. Celebrating its 15th year, the company (led by Jamie Hampton and Ashley Roland) revisits its repertory for a “best of the best” in two separate programs.

The Left Hand of Darkness
May 2 – June 2
Portland Playhouse, 602 N.E. Prescott St.

One of the city’s best small theater companies, Portland Playhouse, has joined forces with one of the most inventive performance units in town, Hand2Mouth Theatre, to adapt the great 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, another Portlander. “The Left Hand of Darkness” takes place on a cold planet where the humanoids are both male and female (or neither), leading to a variety of speculations about gender, behavior, politics and psychology in our own world. (more…)

Here are some of Portland’s performing arts highlights for March and April (also see music highlights):

“The Whipping Man”
Feb. 26-March 24
Portland Center Stage, 117 N.W. 11th Ave.
The Civil War is suddenly in the national consciousness, thanks to “Lincoln”� and “Django Unchained,”� and this odd and very successful play by Matthew Lopez is set in the aftermath, when a Jewish Confederate returns home, just in time for Passover, to find the family mansion occupied by two former slaves, who were also raised Jewish.

Don Kenneth Mason and Ben Newman in Blood Knot. Photo by Jamie Bosworth.

“Blood Knot”
Feb. 27-March 17
Profile Theatre, 3430 S.E. Belmont St.

Profile Theatre (like the Signature Theatre in New York) chooses one playwright every year to build its season around, and this year’s is the great South African writer, Athol Fugard, whose descriptions of the moral tensions of living under apartheid are among the very best we have.

MOMIX
Feb. 27-March 2
White Bird, Newmark Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway

Moses Pendleton, who was a co-founder of the dance acrobats of Pilobolus, formed MOMIX in 1981 to extend his experiments in movement and illusion. Here, the company will perform the kaleidoscopic “Botanica,”� with puppetry by Portland’s Michael Curry (“The Lion King”).

(more…)

Here are some of Portland’s performing arts highlights for January and February (see visual arts and music highlights):

Portland’s theater scene revs into serious action after the holiday season with a full slate of productions, many of them world premieres. That’s fitting because Fertile Ground, the city’s new works festival, also blooms in January. The dance calendar is dominated by a “Swan Lake” from Oregon Ballet Theatre.

“The Lost Boy”
Jan. 8-Feb. 10
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

This is the first of two different plays Portland playwright Sue Mach is premiering in January. “The Lost Boy” is loosely based on the true story of the disappearance of a young boy in 1874 and the attendant media hoopla, involving PT Barnum among others. Artists Rep’s cast stars Todd Van Voris as Barnum.

Rob Nagle as James Beard in I Love to Eat by James Still. Photo by Patrick Weishampel.

“I Love to Eat”
Jan. 9-Feb. 3
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11^th Ave.

The original Northwest foodie was the great gourmand James Beard, who was born in Portland and went on to become a central figure in the development of American cooking. Playwright James Still captures both Beard’s passion for food and his wit, with time for his disappointments as well, in this one-man show. And Center Stage, the city’s largest theater company, has scheduled lots of events with Portland’s present thriving foodie community in conjunction with the play.

“The Road To Mecca”
Jan. 9-Feb. 3
Profile Theater, 3430 S.E. Belmont St.

Profile Theatre (like the Signature Theatre in New York) chooses one playwright every year to build its season around, and this year’s is the great South African writer Athol Fugard. “The Road to Mecca” is the first of two Fugard plays on stage this winter and treats the themes of birth, death, faith and afterlife.

Image courtesy Third Rail Repertory

“A Noble Failure”
Jan. 11-Feb. 3
Third Rail Repertory Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway

Portland playwright Sue Mach’s second January premiere is presented as part of the Fertile Ground Festival. “A Noble Failure” is a dramatic examination of our modern school system and its discontents.

“The Huntsmen”
Jan. 17-Feb. 17
Portland Playhouse, 602 N.E. Prescott St.

Quincy Long’s doo-wop musical improbably involves a serial killer as its central character. Smart and witty, this is another world premiere (originally workshopped at Portland Center Stage), and the cozy neighborhood Portland Playhouse should be the perfect spot for it.

Fertile Ground festival
Jan. 24-Feb 3
various venues

Theater and performance arts groups, established and ad hoc, mainstream and fringe, premiere new work all over the city during the Fertile Ground festival. Some of it is ready for a full production and some of it is in the workshop phase, but all of it is getting its first chance in front of the public. Check out the Fertile Ground website for a full schedule. Some of our tips include “R3” by the Portland Experimental Theatre Collective, “(…)” by the Fuse Theatre Ensemble, and Third Eye’s “Grand Guignol 5: Possessions,” but we’ll be wandering into lots of these shows, just to get a sense of the performance ferment of the city.

“Venus in Fur”
Jan. 29-March 10
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

David Ives is one of the funniest writers going these days, and this one is… well, a sado-masochistic comedy based on an 1870 novel by, yes, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and it was a major  Broadway hit.  It involves a director and an actress he’s auditioning and, needless to say, it takes an unusual turn.

The Portland International Film Festival
Feb. 7-23
various venues

This will be the 36th installment of this festival, which brings dozens of foreign films to Portland for a concentrated period of screenings. They don’t just come from the major film countries, either—the festival wanders all over the globe for films from Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The full schedule will be released as we get closer to opening night, which will feature the Australian hit movie, “The Sapphires.” For movie fans with a taste for the unusual, PIFF is exactly the cure for the winter time blues.

“Red Herring”
Feb. 12-March 13
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

As the title suggests, this is a comic noir mystery by Michael Hollinger, and yes, it involves nuclear secrets, a murder and a little hanky-panky. Did we mention the daughter of Joseph McCarthy? Yes, her too.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Feb. 13
White Bird, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

Portland’s leading dance presenter is bringing a variety of dance groups to town this winter, including innovative Hubbard Street. This isn’t the first time in Portland for the group and its energetic and sometimes disconcerting approach.

Xuan Cheng in Christopher Stowell's "Swan Lake." Photo by Andy Batt.

“Swan Lake”
Feb. 16-23
Oregon Ballet Theatre, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St.

Oregon Ballet Theatre’s former artistic director, Christopher Stowell, created a new “Swan Lake,” based on what we know of the 1895 Petipa/Ivanov version, in 2006 to rave reviews, and its return to the stage is welcome for fans of classical dance.

Black Grace
Feb. 19
White Bird, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway

New Zealand’s Black Grace brings its blend of modern and traditional Maori dance to Portland for the first time this winter. Clips of the group’s dance suggest it will be a truly amazing show.

“The Whipping Man”
Feb. 26-March 24
Portland Center Stage, 117 N.W. 11th Ave.

The Civil War is suddenly in the national consciousness, thanks to “Lincoln” and, um, “Django Unchained,” and this odd and very successful play by Matthew Lopez is set in the aftermath, when a Jewish Confederate returns home, just in time for Passover, to find the family mansion occupied by two former slaves, who were also raised Jewish.

“Blood Knot”
Feb. 27-March 17
Profile Theatre, 3430 S.E. Belmont St.

The second of Profile Theatre’s Athol Fugard plays this winter deals with race and love. The South African writer’s descriptions of the moral tensions of living under apartheid are among the very best we have.

Here are some of Portland’s many stage productions to help you celebrate the season. Check out our Holiday Music Guide, too.

A Midsummer Nights Dream at Portland Center Stage. Photo by Patrick Weishampel.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Portland Center Stage
Nov. 13-Dec. 23
128 N.W. 11th Ave.

Strictly speaking, this isn’t a holiday show, of course, but it does have fairies and elves (Isn’t Puck a sort of elf?). Center Stage, the city’s biggest theater, will give it a good ride, and director Penny Metropulos, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival veteran, has done great work with the play there before.

“Christmas on Broadway”
Broadway Rose
Nov. 21-Dec. 23
12850 S.W. Grant Ave., Tigard

This Tigard-based company specializes in musicals, and this one, designed by Rick Lewis, is a sort of Greatest Holiday Hits from Broadway, built around the idea of a bunch of snowbound actors entertaining themselves on Christmas Eve.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol”
Artists Repertory Theatre
Nov. 27-Dec. 30
1516 S.W. Morrison St.

In this hit from Christmas Past, the intrepid but dour detective undergoes a very Scrooge-like experience, aided by the equally intrepid but altogether more balanced Dr. Watson. (more…)

Photo by Marty Davis, Just Out

If Cheers is the bar where everybody knows your name, Blow Pony is the party where nobody cares what it is — so long as you’re dancing. Held the fourth Saturday of every month at Branx and Rotture in the city’s Southeast warehouse district, this four-alarm rager is like the inside of a piñata — colorful, fun, and explosive.

Started in 2007 as a place where “all our brothers and sisters felt welcome and loved,” the two-floor, hot and sweaty glitter-fest usually has four or five different DJs, mixing up a wide variety of music — basically anything with a beat. It’s a wild time where everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender, is allowed to be their deep-down self, whether that’s a wallflower sporting jeans and a T-shirt, or an outlandish dance queen wearing DayGlo panties and body paint. Be sure to get there early, and make no other plans, because at this monthly event, you’ll get to admire everything that keeps Portland weird as you party until the house lights come on.

Here are some of Portland’s performing arts highlights for September and October (see visual arts and music highlights):

Portland’s stages are filled in September and October, often with the very best productions of the year, from the beautiful productions of Portland Center Stage to the intimate shows at the city’s neighborhood theaters.

“Seven Guitars”
Oct. 9-Nov. 11
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

In recent years, Portland has seen fine productions of several of the great August Wilson’s 10-play theater cycle, set in an African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh over 100 years. This one is set in 1948 and captures Wilson at his lyrical and musical peak.

“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”
Oct. 11-Nov. 11
Portland Playhouse, 602 N.E. Prescott St.

The question is, can Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson survive the assault of this rock musical? Portland Playhouse is a little theater with big ambitions, known for its risk-taking and sense of fun and energy. This excursion into American political history arrives just in time for the elections.

“Body Awareness”
Oct. 18-Nov. 10
Coho Productions, 2257 N.W. Raleigh St.

Coho is another of Portland’s little neighborhood theaters that so frequently produce great, gripping evenings of theater. “Body Awareness,” by Annie Baker, is set in a Vermont college town where a family deals with the introduction of a visitor whose career sets him at odds with everyone, except perhaps the son. One of the city’s best directors (and actors), Gretchen Corbett, directs. (more…)

Here’s a look at some of Portland’s best theater and dance offerings this spring:

"A Lesson Before Dying," photo by Jamie Bosworth

“A Lesson Before Dying”
March 2-27
Profile Theatre, 3430 S.E. Belmont St.

This Romulus Linney adaptation of Ernest Gaines’ powerful novel about the last days of an African-American man wrongly accused of murder in the Jim Crow South has an undeniable gravity of its own.

“Race”
March 6 through April 15
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 S.W. Morrison St.

David Mamet’s courtroom drama hinges, as the title suggests, on matters of racial politics, but with Mamet, it’s never as easy as that.

Northwest Dance Project

Northwest Dance Project’s Spring Premieres
March 9-10
Newmark Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway

Three world premieres by choreographers Sarah Slipper, Patrick Delcroix and Wen Wei Wang are on the program for this modern-ballet hybrid company. Delcroix has worked extensively with the Nederlands Dans Theater, and the Chinese-born Wen Wei Wang is one of Canada’s leading choreographers. (more…)

With a new year upon us, most people take stock of what they’d like to accomplish in the next year – everything from exercising more, losing weight and breaking bad habits. However, I’m focusing on my Portland New Years’ resolutions – to explore more of the city, and its surrounding adventure, in the next year. Here are a few items on my annual “bucket list”:

Fertile Ground Festival: This 10-day festival of new works features plays, including “(I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi” at Artists Repertory Theatre, as well as dance performances, staged readings and a compilation of short films.

Belly dance classes: Yes, I’m joining thousands of other Portlanders who take continuing education classes through Portland Community College. I’ll be learning new things and trying to NOT trip over my two left feet!

Spend a night (or two) at Timberline Lodge. Who knows, I may even add “skiing lessons” to my list!

How do you get in the holiday spirit? Well, elves help and so do ghosts of Christmases Past.  Somehow Rat Kings and Nutcrackers figure and so do Bing Crosby, a Red Ryder BB gun and maybe an angel or two. We can’t guarantee a white Christmas in Portland, but there’s plenty of holiday cheer, with or without the snow.

"White Christmas" at Lakewood Theatre

“White Christmas”
Nov. 4 through Dec. 18
Lakewood Theatre, 368 S. State St., Lake Oswego

The great Irving Berlin movie musical has been converted to the stage, and though Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney won’t be there, Lakewood musicals have a good reputation, so the title song will be in good hands.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol”
Nov. 15 through Dec. 24
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 S.W. Morrison St.

The Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the ghosts of Christmas has gotten a serious shaking from Seattle playwright John Longenbaugh. Instead of Scrooge, a reclusive Sherlock Holmes is on the scene to deduce the facts of a particular visitation by a peculiar trio of ghosts. The show stars two of Portland’s favorite actors, Michael Mendelson and Todd Van Voris, as Holmes and Watson.

“A Christmas Story”
Nov. 20 through Dec. 24
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

This is the stage adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s great Christmas reminiscence about growing up in the 1950s, when a bar of soap in the mouth was the antidote to bad language and the Little Orphan Annie radio program was just about the best thing going — except for that Red Ryder BB gun, which Ralphie Parker desperately hopes is under the tree. This popular comedy returns for another season at Portland’s biggest theater.

“Ahhh HA!”
Nov. 26 through Dec. 30
Do Jump!, Echo Theatre, 1515 S.E. 37th Ave.

Do Jump artistic director Robin Lane has explored the intersection of physical comedy, acrobatics and the dream world for more than 30 years, and this holiday show assembles the best of her research into one family-friendly holiday show.

“The Santaland Diaries”
Nov. 29 through Dec. 31
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

The career of humorist David Sedaris started with an essay he wrote about his experience playing an elf in the Santaland at Macy’s in New York. He read the essay on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and it’s become a holiday tradition. It’s been a hit at Center Stage for the past two seasons, and it returns this year with Jim Lichtscheidl playing Sedaris in the one-man show. (more…)

Theater in Portland has become progressively better and more adventurous in recent years, and the fall season looks especially inviting, between a visit from film star William Hurt and a slate of sharp-edged American plays. “Oklahoma!” — Portland Center Stage’s big musical of the year — adds a touch of the American classic. The dance season is also promising, leaning heavily toward the acrobatic end of the spectrum for modern and toward story ballets for classical.

Dan Hoyle (photo courtesy Portland Center Stage)

“The Real Americans” – Sept. 6-Nov. 6
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

Bay Area comedian Dan Hoyle took a trip through the American heartland, looking for examples of what 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called “real Americans.”  The surprising — and funny — results are in this one-man show.

“God of Carnage” – Sept. 6-Oct. 9
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 S.W. Alder St.

In Yasmina Reza’s 2009 Tony winner, two sets of parents get together to discuss a bullying incident, and things disintegrate from there.

“Shrek: The Musical” - Sept. 13-18
Broadway Across America, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St.

Something green this way comes. Also big and funny!

“Oklahoma!” - Sept. 20-Oct. 30
Portland Center Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.

In recent years, Portland Center Stage, the city’s biggest theater company, has opened its season with a musical, and this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is their most ambitious undertaking so far. And speaking of “real Americans” … (more…)