BECAUSE IT WAS DARK Occasionally, TBA affords an opportunity to see a local act I haven’t seen or am not super familiar with. I’ve had two great experiences in that category this year: Third Angle New Music Ensemble’s string quartet, performing in the pitch-black at the OMSI planetarium, was incredible; and I really enjoyed Monday […]
Performance
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Review: Being in ADULT
Robbie Sweeny Ducktape suspenders. It was a Monday night; I sat on a bean bag chair in the corner of the Con-Way warehouse slurping a Capri-Sun; I sat two feet away from Laura Arrington, who was wearing a beard of blue ducktape and sprightly screaming a W.H. Auden poem at me…and us, the audience. “AH […]
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Review: Three Trick Pony, a Parallel Universe
Jeff Forbes Last night, PICA’s artistic director Angela Mattox introduced Three Trick Pony referring to Linda Austin as a cornerstone in Portland dance. What does a cornerstone of Portland dance look like? Last night’s performance looked partly like an absurdist play—there’s no plot, just atmosphere—and partly like a quirky creative person (*cough*myself*cough*) alone in his/her […]
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Saturday Night at TBA: Meow Meow and the Drag Ball
Karl Giant I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun at TBA as I did on Saturday night. Evidence: cabaret with bluehairs, drag queens galore, and cheese-curd hotdogs. Can’t beat that evening with a glitter stick. I think the Schnitzer crowd got some blood flowing to their wrinkly bits at the Meow Meow show. […]
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The Blow: Cabaret Breakdown
Marina Ancona At last night’s performance of We Put It Together So We Could Take It Apart, the collaboration between musician Khaela Maricich and visual artist Melissa Dyne (AKA the Blow), I was reminded of Reggie Watts’ TBA performance at the Someday in 2008, where he collaborated with dancer Amy O’Neal and used a loop […]
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The Year I Was Born: Messy, Personal, and Totally Worthwhile
David Alarcón The performers in Lola Arias’ The Year I Was Born are young Chileans in their 20s and 30s. Most grew up in Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship; some grew up in exile, thanks to the politics of their parents. Over the course of about two hours, the show delivers biographical information about each of […]
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Review: This Is How We Disappear
Lindsey Rickert Sometimes a performance tries to do too much. Too many ideas, too many techniques, too many emotions are corralled together. It gets messy. I think this is what happened in bobbevy’s This is how we disappear, which has some gorgeous segments but overall feels incoherent. From PICA’s TBA brochure: “This is how we […]
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Eyes Wide Open: A Q&A with Lola Arias
David Alarcón Here’s an extended version of the interview the Mercury conducted with Lola Arias, whose excellent show The Year I Was Born has one more showing tomorrow night. – eds MERCURY: The show you are bringing to Portland, El año en que nací (The Year I Was Born), tells the recent history of Chile […]
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Still Standing You: This Show is Delightful and I Want You to See It
Phile Deprez Guilherme Garrido and Pieter Ampe: Really, really intimate While you file in to the Winningstad, Guilherme Garrido is watching you. He is perched aloft on the feet of his majestically-bearded partner Pieter Ampe who is laying on his back with his legs up. Before the lights go down over the audience, Gui chats […]
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Trajal Harrell: Seriously, What Did You People Expect?
Pat Moran Dance isn’t really my thing. I don’t see too much of it, I don’t know much about it, I have no particular affinity for it. Sometimes in the line of duty I have to write about it, and I do my best with the limited perspective I have. I say this not to […]
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Win Tickets to Meow Meow and Thomas Lauderdale!
Hello! And welcome to the Mercury‘s 2013 TBA blog, your source for news, reviews, interviews, and any other “ews” we can come up with. To kick things off in style, we’re giving a way a few pairs of tickets to one of the most high-profile shows on the TBA bill: The Cat’s Meow, a collaboration […]
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Final Thoughts on TBA:12
Pat Moran Keith Hennessy’s Turbulence. Would you believe this show was polarizing? The tenth anniversary edition of the TBA festival wrapped up on Sunday. Some final thoughts: • One show this year made my short list of all-time best TBA performances: Gob Squad’s Kitchen. • I’m having trouble thinking of a recent TBA show that’s […]