Krista Garver - Page 16

THE CRACKWALKER is bleak and it's hard to watch (at times, excruciating). But it's the kind of show that does exactly what theatre is supposed to do.

Madeleine George's Pulitzer Prize-nominated THE (CURIOUS CASE OF THE) WATSON INTELLIGENCE takes the audience on a journey through time (and several Watsons, from Alexander Graham Bell's assistant to Sherlock Holmes's sidekick to IBM's Jeopardy!-winning supercomputer) that explores the nature of our relationship with technology and, fundamentally, with other people.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' AN OCTOROON is a play about the racist history of the United States and the continuing racial struggle we find ourselves in today. And it's funny.

If there's a play that can help us see past our differences, it's THEY, THEMSELF AND SCHMERM, now playing as the first show of Artists Repertory Theatre's 2017/2018 Frontier Series and also part of PICA's Time-Based Art Festival. Blackwell's one-person show is bust-a-gut funny, make-you-cry moving, and one of the most compassionate pieces of theatre I've ever seen.

HAND TO GOD wasn't as funny I expected it to be. It was more disturbing, highlighting the immense dangers of not dealing with negative emotions.

The Metropolitan Community Theatre Project's THE FANTASTICKS features a strong cast and a whole lotta love.

GYPSY is often referred to as the 'greatest American musical.' The current production at Broadway Rose has almost all of the right ingredients.

Bag&Baggage's world premiere production of ROMEO & JULIET (LAYLA & MAJNUN) is a mashup of Shakespeare's classic and a Persian tale of doomed young lovers, written centuries earlier by Nizami Ganjavi (and which may very well have served as Shakespeare's inspiration).

RED BASTARD: LIE WITH ME seeks to understand the complicated rules (and double standards) we have about love and fidelity.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY brings together all of your favorite kooky characters for a fun, heartfelt show with plenty of theatre magic.

In COME TO THE TABLE, MIKE PENCE, Eve, Salome, and Queen Elizabeth I try to convince our VP to sit down for a meal.

Kelly Kinsella's HOW TO DO A ONE PERSON SHOW is part lesson/part act of creation, where you learn the fundamentals of creating a one person show.

In David Harrower's two-person drama GOOD WITH PEOPLE, two lonely people, stuck for different reasons in an otherwise empty hotel, manage to bridge many divides and find comfort in one another, at least for a short while.

SORDID LIVES is a campy, over-the-top play about sex and acceptance in a Southern town. This production provides plenty of laughs and also highlights the very real struggle many people face just being themselves.

THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE, the last show in Portland Playhouse's season, explores all of the ways language (spoken, written, nonverbal, even the language of food) both serves and fails us when it comes to human relationships.

With its all-female cast and spectacular hats, Artists Reps production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is just a heck of a lot of fun.

Nick Payne's CONSTELLATIONS is a smart, occasionally funny, and ultimately devastating play about love in the multiverse.

Shaking the Tree's production of MISS JULIE delves into the human psyche to explore why our society is so polarized right now.

THE TALENTED ONES explores the struggles immigrants face in their quest for some version of the American Dream.

Stephen Massicotte's MARY'S WEDDING, now playing at Portland Center Stage, never quite becomes the engrossing tragic historical romance it aspires to.