JAW: Pony

Portland Center Stage
July 20, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Great characters but the story and relationships are unclear. What interested: no one is who he or she seems to be – physically or emotionally. Three of the characters are trans or passing; nice Marie finds a murderous crime of passion erotic. Passing thought: would this work better as a movie?

JAW: Crazy Enough

Portland Center Stage
July 20, 2008

Review by peanutduck

How can one not enjoy the lyric, “my vagina is eight miles wide,” carried by Storm’s throaty voice? Her history is fascinating. Fingers crossed that revisions strengthen the text, which doesn’t yet do her story justice, and she relaxes, enabling her passion, palpable in song, to flow through her storytelling.

JAW: A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits

Portland Center Stage
July 19, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Of Swanson’s original one-act, one page survives; she leaves with 99 new pages of an incomplete, wildly imaginative two-act involving a surrogate mother birthing rabbits, a philosophical stork, an obstetrical farce puppet theatre. It has a too-many-writers-wielding-the-pen feeling but once the guiding voice is found, it’ll be a laugh-your-ass-off adventure.

JAW: Paradise Street

Portland Center Stage
July 19, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Enter TJ, a combative, homeless woman whose attack on a post-post-feminist theorist catalyzes the downfall of three of the privileged upper-class – one to prison, two working at “Mega-Mart.” Congdon’s play is a tornado of ideas, ironic commentary, and keeps us guessing. Second act weaker as it meanders, loses focus, tension.

JAW: A Playwrights Festival

Portland Center Stage **Poster image by David Emmite**
July 8 - 20, 2008

J.ust A.dd W.ater (West)

Newspeak: A 2-week developmental festival of new work for the stage.

The Truth: A chance for PCS to loosen the hairnet. It's 2 weeks of playing rough in the dirt with Oregon and national playwrights, jumping into some site specifics, and lots 'o mingling. Check out what that drafting, re-drafting, re-creating, tossing-it-all-out-and-writing-it-again is all about.

JAW is awesome. It's free. It's the 10th anniversary and they're pullin' out all the stops.

July 8 -10: Made in Oregon Readings
Friday, July 18: Commission! Commission!
Saturday, July 19: Theatre Fair & You Are There

Workshop Readings: Crazy Enough
A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits
Paradise Street

Sunday, July 20: Playwright's Slam

Workshop Readings: Crazy Enough
Pony
Enchantment

Now Hear This: Why Love Doesn't Recognize Its Name

Portland Center Stage
June 28, 2008

Summary:

At a loss for words? Come down to Lee’s Expressive! Lee and his team of mechanics help clients whose speech patterns are clogged with words that are too ornate, or have the wrong shade of meaning, or just plain don’t communicate. Only Deep Mystery can unlock the most problematic phrases.

The Little Dog Laughed

Portland Center Stage
May 2 - June 29, 2008 (Extended)

Review by peanutduck

Surprisingly substantial; you laugh while being punched in the gut...if you laugh at all. Beneath masks of uber-stylishness, self-absorption four people battle, and are sacrificed by, not only the Hollywood slaughterhouse, but societal expectations and hypocrisy. At times too neat, emotionally trite, and/or rushed, but a solid, affecting play nonetheless.

Doubt: A Parable

Portland Center Stage
May 20 - June 15, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Doubt provides no answers – only a spiral of gray questions; and the priest’s innocence or guilt is the least of them. Shanley’s provocative script is the star; Pitts’ brief appearance as Mrs. Muller – among the most interesting characters recently created - a close second. Taini’s Sister Aloysius too heavy-handedly hateful.

Now Hear This: F.U.B.A.R.

Portland Center Stage
May 17, 2008

Summary:

Mary lives amid the boxes her abused mother left behind. David is desperate to stay young and hip. Richard is on the road not taken and Sylvia’s along for the ride. Then Mary is the victim of an act of violence, leading them each down different paths of addiction, realization.

Sometimes a Great Notion

PCS
April 1 - May 11, 2008 (extended)

Review by peanutduck

Brothers’ relationship, tangled with love, resentment, admiration, affects through well-structured dialogue interwoven with asides, choral accompaniment. Scenes with disgruntled logging community - The Six (among Portland’s best) – suffer from overly expository writing, static direction. Language, movement, lighting at times beautiful. Worth the hype? Still too uneven; another draft should tell.

All Hail Hurricane Gordo

Portland Center Stage

February 23, 2008

Summary:

Staged Reading. Two brothers' tenuous hold on stability gets blown apart when they take in a plucky young houseguest with a secret. India is running away from her relatively normal family; Chaz struggles to find normalcy in the one he already has. Playwright Carly Mensch is currently at Julliard.

A Feminine Ending

Portland Center Stage
February 5 - March 23, 2008

Review by Thursday

Amanda Blue scripts a short section of her life as composer and oboe player. Beautifully written text compensates for one-note Amanda. Land, Schultz bring out colors in Bloom's performance. Although lighting in first scene distracts; inventive set, blocking make show seamless. Ambiguous closing proves piece indeed has a feminine ending.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night
January 22 - March 9, 2008

Review by Mint Tumbles

It's all about the women. Carol Halstead is a magnetic Olivia, Maria and Viola anchor the other stories. Brad Bellamy very natural as Feste. More lovely songs. The choice to do this in repertory with Beard is a natural fit. Duke Orsino a bit too like de Vere. Fantastic frightened swordfight.

Beard of Avon

Portland Center Stage
January 15 - March 19, 2008

Review by Mint Tumbles

Delightful performances from hollow script. Shakespearian structurewith high court plot (de Vere) and low (Shakspere) amusing, if forced. Stagey conceits largely work, ditto the all-purpose set. Lovely use of song from Ben Buckley. Darius Pierce is funny as Will, Catherine Lynn Davis affecting as Anne. Wordplay and wigplay.

A Christmas Carol

Portland Center Stage
November 27 - December 23, 2007

The Underpants

Portland Center Stage
October 16 - December 9, 2007

November 7, 2007
Posted by Followspot

Not so much over the top as under the bottom. Why, when you could do almost any play, would you choose this one? Kind of like ordering a corn dog at Higgins. Martin’s talent seems more about his own physicality than writing ability. Despite material, Steinkamp and Borrelli shine bright.

Cabaret

Portland Center Stage
September 29; closes November 4, 2007

Epic, entertaining, impressive. Sharp, tight look and feel. Just about everything works. Many fine performances, but one crucial link binds it all together: Wade McCollum. Over-sexed choreography highlights that spoken story is for the most part fairly tame stuff. Opening starts so high, there is nowhere to go but down.

JAW 2007

A spot for observations, thoughts, input on this year's JAW.

Mead Hunter - Interview

Jason Grote - Interview

Dan LeFranc - Interview

7/12 - Sometimes A Great Notion

7/16 - Driving Under the Influence

7/17 - First Beard

7/19 - The Book of John

7/22 - Playwrights' Slam

7/22 - A Story About a Girl

JAW - A Story About a Girl - Jacquelyn Reingold

July 22, 2007

JAW - Playwrights' Slam

For an interview with Slam curator Andrew Golla, click here.

The Slam lineup (alphabetical by author):

CHUCK FROM FINANCE, OR THE HAPPY PENGUIN by Hunt Holman

TRYING NOT TO STARE by Ellen Margolis

[TITLE UNKNOWN] by Alex Reagan

GHOSTS OF CELILO by Marv Ross
Music by Marv Ross, Chenoa Egawa, Arlie Neskahi, and Mel Kubik-Bondy

8 VIEWS TOWARD CENTER by Francesca Sanders

New Adaptation of Aristophanes' PEACE by Keith Scales