One Week Only

DK PDX
The Drag KINGS of Portland return for an evening of theatrics slightly different from that of their usual lip-synching and prancing. Tonight observe a faux summer camp motif, with hot queer campers and naughty counselors telling scary stories and confessing their secret crushes on each other. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, Sat 9 pm, $5

* RENT
Call us a sap, but we really love this musical. When we're doing dishes we turn it on and sing our butts off. And every time Roger howls "Mimi!" while holding his dying lover in his arms, we shed a little tear. Broadway in Portland, at the Keller Auditorium, SW Third and Clay, 790-ARTS, Thurs-Sat 7:30 pm, Sat 2 pm, Sun 1 & 6:30 pm, $21.50 - $58.50

Wade McCollum & Susannah Mars
Two of Portland's best theatrical singers perform numbers from shows like Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The ticket price is exorbitant, but it's for a good cause--McCollum's upstart theater collective, Inside Out. Roseland, 8 NW 6th Ave, 219-9929, Silent auction 7 pm, show 8 pm, $45

Closing This Week

Face Reader
Elizabeth Young is Bethany, a research scientist who has mapped the range of human emotion in the muscles of the face. The introverted Bethany finds new excitement in her zany, off-the-wall, free spirit of a roommate Luka (Brooke Fletcher). Luka is an actress and activist protesting U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. Later a pair of CIA agents (Peter Handy and Skeeter Greene) show up on the scene, and we've got ourselves some lie-detectin', table-turnin', face-readin' intrigue! TP Mago Hunt Center, at the University of Portland, 5000 N Willamette Blvd, 943-7287, Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, $8-15

* Hors d'Oeuvres
Bridging amusement and intellect, this comedy about a high society dinner party gone wrong largely avoids the opposing pitfalls of slapstick schlock and heady sermonizing. In two acts, it moves from a comedy of manners to a dark commentary on the failing of words and the people who use them. RD Stark Raving, at the Coho Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh, 232-7072, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, $10-18

Thrust
A late-night riff on sex and sexuality, penned by the actors, and featuring plenty of nudity. Stark Raving, at the Coho Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh, 232-7072, Fri 10:30 pm, $12

* Uncle Rubio's Instant Star Chamber
Reuben Nisenfeld, whose one-man show Attendance is Mandatory was a semi-hilarious mess, now brings an ever-changing cast of performers onboard to give him a boost. Chamber features "a twist of sensualist Japanese puppetry" and musical guests each night. Back Door Theater, 4321 SE Hawthorne , 736-1027, Fri-Sat 10:30 pm, through Aug 14, $7-8

Ursula K. LeGuin: Earth Stories
After an uneven start with Carver Country, a staged adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Portland Arts & Lectures gives its new VERB series another go-around with some staged tales by LeGuin, taken from her collection Unlocking the Air and Other Short Stories. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont, 227-2583, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through Aug 15, $12-24

Current Runs

Gross Generalization
In Gross Generalizations (The Bunny Play), young playwright James Sandlin Ashby and his compatriots from Reed's undergraduate theater program have created a meditation on suburban family life at the end of the Great 20th Century. The eponymous Bunny (C. Wright Cronin) is our guide through an often fragmented, nonlinear narrative. Somewhere inside the rather rigorous text is a connection between consumerism and family ties, between materialism and violence. If it sounds like a little much, it is, and while some sequences offer some acerbic wit (particularly those dealing with pastoral painter cum shopping mall cult leader Thomas Kincaid), Ashby falls victim to writing as therapy. TP Back Door Theater, 4321 SE Hawthorne, 736-1027, Thurs-Sat 9 pm, through Aug 14, $10

Wonder of the World
David Lindsay-Abaire's satire about a repressed math teacher who leaves her husband to embark on a road trip to Niagara Falls. Magdelyn Theatre Company, 403 NW 5th, (971) 544-1736, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through Aug 29, $15

Dance

* Vaudeville Lounge & Roxanne Butterfly
Portland's local tap dancing crew Vaudeville Lounge jams with New York tap dance sensation Roxanne Butterfly. And it's all part of the Bite of Oregon, which means you can also eat your face off. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Sun 12 - 1:30 pm, $5