I’ve never wanted to go to Antarctica. Too dark. Too cold. No good restaurants. But scientists love it. In the world premiere of E.M. Lewis’s Magellanica, six of them are falling all over themselves to spend eight and a half months there with no chance of getting out. It is 1986. American Dr. Morgan Halstead (Sara […]
Allen Nause, Antarctica, Artists Repertory Theatre, Aurora Astralis, Barbie Wu, Carl Faber, climate change, Damaso Rodriguez, E.M. Lewis, Eric Pargac, John San Nicolas, Joshua J. Weinstein, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Megan Wilkersoon, Michael Mendelson, ozone hole, ozone layer, Rodolfo Ortega, Sara Hennessey, South Pole, South Pole Station, Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, Vin ShambryIt was Leo Tolstoy who said, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Since the financial meltdown of 2008, the United States has gained a great many more unhappy families–a fact not lost on contemporary playwright Stephen Karam, whose Pulitzer Prize Finalist play The Humans is now onstage at Artists […]
2016 Tony Award Best Play, 21st Century American experience, Artists Repertory Theatre, Damaso Rodriguez, dramatic play, John San Nicolas, Luisa Sermol, Obie Award, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Quinlan Fitzgerald, regional premiere, Robert Pescovitz, Stephen Karam, Thanksgiving, The Humans, Val Landrum, Vana O'Brien, working class milieuIt’s a modern (2014) play based on an old play (1859). It’s a madcap melodrama with a golden-haired hero and a lecherous villain. It’s a chilling statement on race. An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins opened at Artists Repertory Theatre last Saturday. Co-directed by Artist Rep Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez and Lava Alapai, the play begins […]
Alex Ramirez de Cruz, An Octoroon, Andrea Vernae, antebellum South, Artists Repertory Theatre, Ayanna Berkshire, Brenden Jacobs-Jenkins, Damaso Rodriguez, Dion Boucicault, Jimmy Garcia, John San Nicolas, Joseph Gibson, Josie Seid, Kailey Rhodes, Lava Alapai, melodrama, meta-melodrama, Michael Mendelson, Minstrel shows, racism in America, satire, The OctoroonAlthough I’ve always thought of the summer as a down time for live theatre in metropolitan Portland, there really is a lot going on. One special summer treat is the Clackamas Repertory Theatre, which produces three summer shows yearly. Onstage now is Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery which opened June 30 at Clackamas Community College’s […]
Alex Fox, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Clackamas Community College, Clackamas Repertory Theatre, comedy, David Smith-English, Dennis Kelly, farce, Jayne Stevens, John San Nicolas, Ken Ludwig, March Schwahn, Ostserman Theatre, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the BaskervillesThe state of the state For what it’s worth, my life has been in a state of high flux. Not the type of flux one likes talking about. So…the first of June, I quit my job of eight years. The last nine months there were unpleasant for a variety of reasons. Near the bursting point, […]
Anne Lamott, Baskerville, Broadway Rose Theatre Company, Clackamas Repertory Theatre, first draft, Gore Vidal, John San Nicolas, Lakewood Theatre Company, Melody Beattie, mystery novel, novel, The Addams Familly, Visit to a Small Planet, writing