The Santaland Diaries

Portland Center Stage
December 3 - 27, 2009

Summary:

Based on the outlandish, and true, chronicles of David Sedaris’ experience as Crumpet the Elf in Macy’s Santaland display, this hilarious cult classic features comic encounters during the height of the holiday crunch. PCS brings a holiday favorite back to Portland as a special Studio Theater presentation. Starring Wade McCollum.

A Christmas Carol

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
November 24 - December 27, 2009

Summary:

Already a Portland holiday tradition, this original adaptation by Mead Hunter asks the timely and reflective questions: What do you value most? And is it what’s truly important? At the holiday season, renew your answers to these essential questions alongside Tiny Tim, Ebenezer Scrooge and a sleigh full of ghosts and magical creatures.

Ben Franklin: Unplugged

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
September 29 - November 22, 2009

Summary:

Gazing into the bathroom mirror one morning while shaving, Josh Kornbluth realizes that he looks remarkably like the guy on the $100 bill. Like any good Jewish son, he immediately calls his mother. From there he becomes obsessed with what it means to be a founding father.

Ragtime

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
September 22 - November 1, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Even-keeled but that works as story focuses on the many faces of early 20th century America rather than one. Leif Norby, Susannah Mars lovely. Set’s intention puzzled, distracted - bare stage flanked by marble walls, industrial copper doors – meaning continually morphed - train station, tomb, edifice. Chairs as everyprop irritated.

Crazy Enough

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
March 31 - August 16, 2009 **Extended**

Review by peanutduck

JAW review applicable; addendums: Storm Large is a generous performer. Keen ear; when language flows into beat-poetics tinged with soft irony - simply wrenching. But full production accentuates self-consciousness as actor, girdled by text, which suffered “polishing,” forced into pointed narrative; perhaps better as episodic. Act break unnecessary; set inharmonious.

JAW: 99 Ways to Fuck a Swan by Kimberly Rosenstock

Portland Center Stage
July 26, 2009

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JAW: On The Nature of Dust by Stephanie Timm

Portland Center Stage
July 26, 2009

Review by peanutduck

A precise, deliberated, tightly-structured (in retrospect, bordering on cold) adventure that queries: What do you do when your daughter transforms into a chimpanzee and, gradually, a sunfish? How do you fit the unknowable into your religious and/or scientific schematic? Ingenious situation, sharp dialogue make fresh oft-explored coming of age drama.

JAW: Middletown by Will Eno

Portland Center Stage
July 25, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Middletown: a town (or state-of-being) between two places long extinct; where people experience life unfiltered, without assumptions - creating new answers to old questions - with innocent (but not naïve) wonderment and awareness of their singular loneliness and futility. A playful, poignant journey through the absurd, meaningless patter of everyday.

JAW: Futura by Jordan Harrison

Portland Center Stage
July 25, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Premise: A la 1984/Farenheit 451, information and “writing” are electronic, changeable, controlled by the Company, thereby nullifying free will. But first section - a stimulating lecture celebrating typography’s socio-political history - doesn’t fit premise or second section, where conflict isn’t about type, but disappearance of physical text, ie, paper and handwriting.

JAW: 遠西奇器述 (Translation: Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West) by Naomi Iizuka

Portland Center Stage
July 24, 2009

Review by peanutduck

It’s easy to release imagination to the sweeping waves of metaphor; forceful characters; radiant yet lonely photographic, mythic, and linguistic imagery; delicate, mournful sounds of Naomi Iizuka’s polymorphous Japans. Eventually I got lost in the rapid-fire blackmails, time swapping, proliferate unveiling of untruths; occasionally Iizuka overwrites, unnecessarily explaining her story.

JAW: Birds of a Feather by Marc Acito

Portland Center Stage
July 24, 2009

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JAW: Festival Weekend

Portland Center Stage
July 24 - 26, 2009 - Free!

A whirlwind weekend of plays-in-progress readings, theatre fair, happy hours, and site-specific performances.

Friday
4pm: Birds of a Feather by Marc Acito
8pm: 遠西奇器述 (Translation: Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West) by Naomi Iizuka

Saturday
11am - 1pm: Plays: The Art of Commissioning, Developing and Producing New Plays
1 - 4pm, 6 -8pm: Theater Fair - Meet and chat with your favorite theatre companies
Devise & Conquer - Site-specific performance pieces by Fever Theater, Third Rail Rep, Action/Adventure, and tEEth
4pm: Futura by Jordan Harrison
8pm: Middletown by Will Eno

Sunday
4pm: On The Nature of Dust by Stephanie Timm
8pm: 99 Ways to Fuck a Swan by Kimberly Rosenstock

JAW: Bad Family by Andrea Stolowitz

Portland Center Stage
July 16, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Semi-predictable dysfunctional (possibly due to a Wiccan curse) family comedy-drama that wraps up in an uplifting bow (the curse is reversed), with a sage immigrant guiding the wayward angry teen thrown in. Best moments are when characters (and script) break free from hyper-articulate self-awareness, e.g., during the energetic badminton game.

JAW: Made in Oregon

Portland Center Stage
July 13 - 16, 2009, 6pm

The Made in Oregon Series features Oregon playwrights for one night only readings of works in progress. Free!

July 13th: The Lost Boy by Susan Mach
July 14th: In School Suspension by Brian Kettler
July 15th: The Missing Pieces by Nick Zagone
July 16th: Bad Family by Andrea Stolowitz

Grey Gardens

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
May 26 - June 21, 2009

Review by peanutduck

A concept – two cat ladies and how they got that way – in search of story, reason for audience to care. Act One: Bereft of honest emotion or motivated action; with cringe-worthy dancing, centipede-patterned wallpaper, perplexing lighting intentions. Act Two: Carried by Rebecca Eichenberger’s staunch, egoistical, bewildered Little Edie – fantastic performance.

Frost/Nixon

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
April 14 - May 10, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Three-quarters exposition played overly tongue-in-cheek and lead by weak protagonist (Frost) makes for undramatic journey towards a payoff (Nixon’s confession) downloadable from youtube. Stageworthy: Tony Cisek’s scenic design – backdrop of elegant, mod-style cubes that frame and amplify media and light play; gliding, wood-static screens that fashion an obscured televised reality.

Lights down on PCS Lit Department

On the heels of the Fertile Ground new works festival, Portland Center Stage makes what, at best, may be described as an interesting choice in the world of creating new theatre: the letting go of both Mead Hunter - Literary Director, spear-header of the playwright's festival Just Add Water/West, and all-around new works advocate, guru, dramaturg extraordinaire - and Megan Ward, Artistic/Literary Assistant, creator of the Now Hear This reading series at PCS, and local director and dramaturg.

An update from The Mercury...WWire...

If you don't know Mead, there are two interviews in the artist profile archive.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Portland Center Stage **Photo credit: Owen Carey**
February 24 - March 29, 2009

Review by peanutduck

First act killed; remaining two, thanks to Nikki Coble, Sharonlee McLean, Tim True, who somehow remain unscathed, just barely survive Chris Coleman’s sledgehammer. Director - Wilde’s wit doesn’t need to be “revealed” – it’s already there; effective comedy doesn’t comment on punchline - it comes from characters’ ignorance of own absurdity.

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

Portland Center Stage
January 27 - March 22, 2009

Review by peanutduck

Fin Kennedy's play, realized by Rose Riordan, who trusts her playwright, and company, is a grotesque, hyperreal externalization of inner desperation and agony. Interrogatory and pale-blood lighting plays upon sparse, fissured landscape; this contained within soundscape of hollow palpitations, static, and shrill ringing creates claustrophobic techno-warehouse of Hell. Gaspingly thrilling.

ART and PCS announce next season

Artists Repertory Theatre:

Othello by William Shakespeare
Becky’s New Car by Stephen Dietz
Holidazed by Marc Acito & C.S. Whitcomb
Design for Living by Noël Coward
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
Gracie and the Atom by McKinley

Portland Center Stage:

Ragtime Book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty
Thurgood by George Stevens, Jr.
The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris
Snow Falling on Cedars adapted for the stage by Kevin McKeon
The Chosen adapted by Aaron Posner
Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone By August Wilson
The Best So Far By Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich