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…)

If you could do it all over again, would you? Beware if you say yes, because you might end up seeing things quite differently the second time around.

In Anything But Brilliant – A Love Story, Sam, a middle-aged playwright, turns back the pages of his own life in the days following the death of his partner, Jesse. But the story he relives is two parts memories and one part fiction, an intoxicating tonic that stirs through him as he struggles to complete a script that, in many ways, holds his own personal narrative together. Running Thursday – Saturday through April 20 at Southeast Portland’s Profile Theatre, this rich yet earnest production interweaves multiple art forms, including music, poetry and experimental staging, to explore the love that exists — in life and in death — between these partners. Both sorrowful and seductive, Anything But Brilliant is as much about learning and loving as it is about letting go.

Every Thursday during its run, you can see the play for a “pay what you can” rate, and the April 13 show will benefit Basic Rights Oregon and will be followed by a discussion of marriage equality.

Tickets are available in advance at Lights Up! Productions.

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”).

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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 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…)

Every year Portland has an unbeatable arts season but this year we get a really special treat.  No, we get a really amazing show with top actors.  Every time Artists Repertory Theatre brings William Hurt to Portland for a performance it is a special treat but this time ART has taken one of the classic American plays, Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill, and brought continents together.  Australia’s Robyn Nevin is joining Hurt and one of Portland’s favorites, Todd Van Voris, for this special production at the Newmark Theatre.

(more…)

The quintessential Portland cultural weekend includes performing and visual arts as well as culinary tourism. I started out at Travel Portland as the cultural tourism director and it’s still my job to experience firsthand all of the above and more. I know, it’s a tough gig, but that’s why I’m here.

So let me tell you about last weekend — because you can do the same thing almost any weekend with variations on the theme. Artist Repertory Theater premiered “Gracie and the Atom,” a musical about many things: loss, finding friendship, religion vs. science, Catholic girls’ schools, all those universal themes. Great music, touching story, amazing voices.

Saturday turned into the visual arts day. (more…)

What do Beethoven and opera have in common?  Not very much, as it turns out.  Indeed, the masterful composer’s only operatic work is the beautifully composed, poorly lyrical Fidelio.  Showing in Stumptown for the first time in nearly 30 years, the Portland Opera brought Fidelio back on stage this November.

The story centers on Leonore, a woman whose husband is unjustly imprisoned.  Leonore disguises herself as a man in order to obtain work as a prison guard.  Her struggle to free her husband – and take a stand against tyranny – are the central themes of the performance.

Sung in German with translated English dialogue, the Portland work meshes historical and modern-day costuming for an across-the-centuries statement against opression.

The 2008-2009 opera season, entitled “Life on the Edge”, continues in February with The Turn of the Screw.