Tag: play

Liberace and Liza Holiday at the Mansion

Cat interlude. Matt came back from his trip and Antares immediately settled on his suitcase, something that doesn’t happen much with Matt’s things. I correctly diagnosed the cause. Matt’s swimsuit was sitting at the top of the pile of clothing, and Antares loves him some chlorine scented swimsuits.

I made time for this Portland Center Stage tribute, and was I glad I did. David Saffert and Jillian Snow were very funny as the titular characters, and the show was full of Christmas fun.

It was amusing watching the interplay between two large egos who both enjoyed each other’s company while also being annoyed at what large-ego thing the opposite person was doing.

And look at this fun set!

Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Broadway Rose Theater

I attended a matinee performance with my mother and aunt.

This featured the music of Fats Waller and I especially appreciated Antonia Darlene, Troy A. Jackson, and Jai Shane’s singing.

I didn’t, however, love the song “Fat and Greasy.” It was also the song in the play where they encouraged the audience to sing along. There were a lot of fat people in the audience. I wonder how it sat with them?

Portland Center Stage: Hair

Matt and I attended PCS’s production of the iconic 60s musical. I had only seen the movie, and that was a late night viewing that I didn’t retain too much of.

The production was well acted and the musical numbers were great. However, the discussion we had in the car going home was why we found the musical itself so annoying.

We concluded that what we mostly felt about the hippies was that they were annoying and that perhaps they needed to be annoying to throw off the dominant paradigm. While we enjoy the fruits of their actions, that doesn’t make them any less annoying.

I most identified with one of the tourists (played in a delightful scenery-chewing fashion) who, when looking at the group said, “Where are your shoes????”

Shoes are needed sometimes, Like in New York in the fall, winter, and spring.

Also, I saw a backstage photo, and all the actors put on flipflops when they come off stage.

Happy Days by NWCTC

Matt and I went to see the NWCTC perform Happy Days in the Lloyd Center Mall. It took place in the former Victoria’s Secret as it did last year, when I saw The Fever.

It’s not quite as easy to see the layout of VS because of the curtains, but you can see the iconic black and white stripes on the walls.

While I deeply loved last year’s production, I found Samuel Beckett’s play to be tedious. I’m not so much into absurdist plays. Neither was the guy next to me who looked at his Apple watch more than four times.

The program says about the play, “It is considered a ‘summit role’ for female actors, presenting a unique opportunity of intense theatricality.”

Diane Kondrat (Winnie) and Chris Porter (Willie) were very good in their roles.

What I Learned in Paris at the Portland Playhouse

I attended a Thursday night showing and by the time I got there I was a bit grumbly because (1) Thursday is a school night and I don’t love being out on school nights any more than I am due to square dancing and (2) I rode my bike and it was cold and kind of drizzly.

But, but, but! This play was so funny and so well acted I was extremely happy I attended. It takes place in 1973 after a successful campaign for J.P. Madison, who will be Atlanta’s first Black Mayor. Things become complicated when his ex-wife Eve (the hilarious Cycerli Ash) comes back to town.

Like all plays that have ended their run, this production isn’t available to you, but I encourage you to attend if it is produced in your area. You can read about it here or watch a production video on You Tube here.

Young Americans at Portland Center Stage

Matt and I really enjoyed the world premiere of Young Americans by Lauren Yee and directed by Desdemona Chiang.

The then-and-now road trips were engaging. The first was with Joe (Danny Bernardo) and Jenny (Marielle Young). Jenny has flown to Washington D.C. to meet with Joe as part of an arranged marriage. When she finds out how far away their home in Portland, Oregon, is from Washington D.C., she’s annoyed that Joe had her fly to the other side of the country. Joe wanted her to see as much of her new home as he could show here in a cross country trip.

The second trip took place a few decades later with Joe surprising his daughter Lucy in Washington D.C. as she returned from visiting the country where she was born.

As these two trips alternated, it was interesting to see the conversations the young (as in new) Americans and young (as in not-old) Americans had.

I also really enjoyed the car that the cast drove as they made there way across the landscape. It swiveled and turned so the audience had differing views.

This play was enjoyable and left me with a lot to think about.

Sweatshop Overlord at Portland Center Stage

Matt and I took in a delightful performance of Kristina Wong’s Sweatshop Overlord. It discussed how Wong’s livelihood as a performance artist tanked during the pandemic. To help and to distract herself, she began sewing masks. Her efforts eventually grew into the Auntie Sewing Squad, a group of many women, who sewed mask after mask, month after month through the first years of the pandemic.

As all good plays, this had all the feelings.

The ripple, the wave that carried me home

I was glad I caught Christina Anderson’s play about a hometown swimming pool and how it defined one family’s activism.

Lauren Steele was excellent as Janice, the daughter of two parents who grew up swimming in a segregated pool. I enjoyed the efforts of Young Ambitious Black Woman (Chavez Ravine), who was trying to get Janice back to town for the opening of a new pool named after her father.

The present day plot included Janice’s mother (Lauren Steele) and Aunt Gayle (Chavez Ravine again) and was interspersed with scenes from the past with Janice’s father Edwin (Don Kenneth Mason for my performance), mother, aunt and young Janice.

I enjoyed the complex feelings Janice had about swimming and seeing how pool access shaped different generations of her family. And I adored the set that transformed again and again making different kinds of rooms and pools, ultimately ending with this gorgeous looking set.

Should you find yourself with the option to see this play, I highly recommend it. If you are a swimmer, there’s even more motivation to go.

The Fever by Northwest Classical Theater Collaborative

The Northwest Classical Theater Collaborative (which once upon a time we knew as the Northwest Classical Theater Company) performed Wallace Shawn’s The Fever and I reserved a ticket. The collaborative staged the play in a variety of locations. I attended a performance at the Lloyd Center, in the former Victoria’s Secret store.

Before the play started, I took a loop around the first floor of the mall. The Lloyd Center hasn’t fared well in the pandemic and very few stores remain. It was nearly deserted on a Sunday evening, so deserted that the cleaners had already started sweeping the main drag 15 minutes before closing time.

Loop finished, I headed into the theater. It was a long walk from the front of the store to where the play was.

Having taken that walk, I really liked how they used the bones of the old Victoria’s Secret store for their stage.

There were about ten people present for the performance, which was directed by Patrick Walsh and starred Paul Susi as the main character.

I wasn’t familiar with this play and found it churned up quite a bit of feelings.

Thanks to the NWCTC for another good performance and unique setting.

At the end, we all exited together through the service corridor (another fun thing about this performance.)

Middle School Theater: Arsenic & Old Lace @ Beverly Cleary Fernwood

I’m a volunteer at the Hollywood Library.  The book group I lead had two students participating their middle school play.  The librarian and I made a plan to see their dramatic work.  Arsenic & Old Lace, here we come!

First of all, I was surprised to learn that a lot of people in my social circle have not seen the classic movie. Then, I was even more surprised when I gave a short synopsis (Cary Grant has elderly Aunts and they take in borders and kill them) people reacted with horror.  “No, it’s a comedy!  A screw-ball comedy!” I protested.  But they were not swayed.  It sounded like a terrible movie to them.  And middle school students performing it?  Aren’t they too young?

This group did a great job of putting us through our comedy paces.  The set, built on the stage in the cafetorium (that marvel of disinterest to the arts: cafeteria and auditorium combined in one) was also impressive.  The actors and stage hands started at a disadvantage, due to the many no-school days which opened the semester.

After, we clapped for the cast as usual.  Then we clapped for the crew, then the student directors, then the director.  And then the student directors each read the director a letter they had written for him.  And then they gave him an elderberry bush.  Which cracked me up.

It was a good afternoon at the theater.