Whatever Girl Echo Theatre, 1515 SE 37th, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, one week only, $5-15 sliding After years of toiling backstage as a local techie, dabbler playwright Jason Ferte met and fell in love with musician Rachel Sakry, who convinced him they should write a musical together. Whatever Girl was thus born, the story of a […]
Justin Wescoat Sanders
Posted inTheater & Performance
Johnny Stallings’ Hamlet
Johnny Stallings’ Hamlet Brooklyn Bay, 1825 SE Franklin, Bay K, 231-7876, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, this weekend only, $10-15 A shortish, mousey, middle-aged guy with a squeaky voice, Johnny Stallings is a far cry from the first person you’d cast as Hamlet, or Polonius, or Ophelia, or for that matter, most of the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Take Me Out
Take Me Out Artists Repertory Theatre1516 SW Alder, 241-8268Tues-Thurs 7 pm, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through July 3, $15-35 Some experts believe that as much as 10% of the human race is homosexual. For professional baseball players and their fans, this means that one in 10 players on each of your beloved teams–approximately […]
Posted inBooks
Pinball Open House Party
Pinball Open House Party featuring Datr & DJ Sarah Lund, Pinball Publishing, 1003 SE Grant, Saturday June 4, 6 pm – late, free In just four years of existence, Pinball Publishing has gone from a humble little space on SE Clinton to a humble, much bigger warehouse space on SE Grant, stuffed with large, impressive […]
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Big River: the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Keller Auditorium, SW 3rd and Clay, 790-ARTS, May 24-28 @ 7:30 pm, May 28 @ 2 pm, May 29 @ 1 & 6:30 pm, $24-66 The audacity of turning Mark Twain’s classic into a cheesy Broadway musical notwithstanding, this touring production of Big River has one extremely fascinating […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Boy Gets Girl
Boy Gets Girl CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh, 220-COHO, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through June 18, $19-21 Advertised by CoHo as a “taut psychological thriller,” Rebecca Gilman’s (Spinning Into Butter) stalker play Boy Gets Girl is a blatant example of false advertising. At nearly two-and-a-half hours it’s hardly taut, and, lacking any suspense, […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Marie and Bruce
Marie and Bruce New House Theatre, 628 SE Mill, (971) 563-4284, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, through May 21, $10 sug. donation Back before I was alienated from the theater community due to my role as a critic, I was a theater artist myself, and I had a project idea that I was in love with: to […]
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Death, Drama, Deconstruction
A Chapter in Portland Theater History Draws to a Close
The Resurrectory runs Thurs-Sat 8-10 pm, Portland Art Center, 2045 SE Belmont, 890-2993, $6-10 pay-what-you-can, through June 18. The unattended Resurrectory space is open for public viewing Wed-Sat, noon-6 pm. It’s rare that a story about a fringe theater company makes it out of the Mercury‘s fine arts section and into our illustrious and internationally […]
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Anonymous Theater
Anonymous Theatre presenting Don’t Drink the Water, Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th, 306-0870, Monday May 9, 7:30 pm, $15-20 This Monday (May 9), Theatre Vertigo and the Cardboard Box Company once again present the phenomenon known as Anonymous Theatre. Woody Allen’s hilarious Don’t Drink the Water is the production, but the real star of this […]
Posted inBooks
The Evil B.B. Chow
The Evil B.B. Chow by Steve Almond, appearing at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, Monday May 2, 7:30 pm Steve Almond’s best short stories break down isolated and frequently unpleasant, yet entirely familiar human interactions into their sparest, most revealing components. His new story collection, The Evil B.B. Chow, is better than his […]
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Mysteries of the Heart
Mysteries of the Heart Hand2Mouth at the Brooklyn Bay, 1825 SE Franklin, 248-0557, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through May 8, $10-12 The quietly innovative Hand2Mouth Theatre’s last production, Wild Child, was notable–among many things–for its reliance on a simple wooden puppet. Having demonstrated the raw power basic puppetry can still wield in this […]
Posted inBooks
Word Up!
Wordstock Festival Ignites Portland’s Literary Scene
On Tuesday, April 19, a writerly storm will descend on our town unlike anything Portland has ever seen. Kicking off with a rare appearance by John Irving (Keller Auditorium, 7 pm), the first annual Wordstock Festival is a six-day tapestry of readings, workshops, lectures, and a two-day book fair with over 200 authors in attendance. […]