Krista Garver - Page 18

This Portland theatre season has been delightfully packed with stories about incredible women who have overcome seemingly impossible odds. They've all been stunning, but we've hit a new high with Portland Center Stage's HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW, a biographical portrait of African American stage and screen performer Ethel Waters.

Remember pep talks? Those inspiring speeches your [insert sport here] coach gave to pump up your team before you hit the field. Remember how they made you feel like you could do anything? Could you use one of those right about now?

Think about someone important to you who has died. Now imagine you could make an artificial intelligence (AI) robot who looked and acted exactly like your lost loved one. Would you do it? What if you were elderly and needed care? What if you were lonely? And what would that mean for the nature of human relationships? These are just a few of the questions Jordan Harrison's MARJORIE PRIME, now playing at Artists Rep, asks us to consider.

It would be difficult to know less about Dusty Springfield than I did when I walked into the Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza to see triangle productions' FOREVER DUSTY on Thursday. I knew some of her music, and even had an album, but that was it. Frankly, I expected the show to be a loosely knit story of her greatest hits.

Amazing that a musical from 1970 can still feel so fresh. But that's exactly what Broadway Rose accomplishes with their current production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's COMPANY.

I started to get nervous the moment I walked into the Shoebox Theatre to see Theatre Vertigo's CARNIVORA.

I read Peter Stark's Astoria last year on the suggestion of Portland Center Stage Artistic Director Chris Coleman. It's the history of the John Jacob Astor-funded expedition to establish a fur trading post on the Pacific. He sent one party by land and another by sea to Astoria, Oregon, which became the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest. The whole time I was reading, all I could think was, 'How did they make it?'

Fertile Ground 2017 is in full swing! If you haven't checked it out yet, there's still a full week of new works being premiered around the city. Here's my take on what I've seen so far.

In 1971, a man (who the FBI describe as 'nondescript') going by the name Dan Cooper hijacked a plane from Portland to Seattle, negotiated $200K and some parachutes in exchange for the passengers, and then jumped out of the plane as it headed back south. He was never found. He could still be alive. He could be your next door neighbor.

The past few weeks have been tough for theatre. A series of winter storms have effectively shut down the city. I've had three shows canceled, and as I write this we're under a sheet of ice! Fortunately, that's all about to change, and with the warmer temperatures will come one of my favorite PDX festivals: Fertile Ground. A full 11 days of brand new works by artists both veteran and new on the scene.

Christmas shows usually come with a moral -- some 'true message of Christmas' about generosity or acceptance that we're supposed to carry in our hearts throughout the year to come. Broadway Rose's A VERY MERRY PDX-MAS has none of that. Your heart won't grow three sizes. There isn't even an overarching story you'll spend hours or days getting to the bottom of. What you will have is a smile on your face that will help you get through what is widely recognized as the most stressful time of year.

This month, millions of people across America will gather in squares, theatres, and many other places to sing their favorite seasonal carols. At 99.99% of these gatherings, someone will strike up the tune of 'White Christmas.' Meanwhile, at sporting events across the country, just after the national anthem, many people will remain standing to participate in a rousing rendition of 'God Bless America.' Very few of these people will know that these songs -- both quintessentially American -- were written by a Russian Jewish immigrant. That immigrant, who gave us much of the Great American Songbook, was Irving Berlin.

Holiday shows can be pretty cliche -- someone learns the true meaning of Christmas and then everyone breaks into song. Now, don't get me wrong, I look forward to watching Mickey's Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version) every year. But during a time when new societal fault lines seem to open up every day, we need a different story.

The next time you're getting ready for work, take a moment to be grateful that your boss is not Daniel Weisinger, the super-rich, super-entitled boss who sucks the life out of one assistant after another in Leslye Headland's ASSISTANCE, now playing at Theatre Vertigo. The play is a sarcastic and funny look at the worst bits of modern office life, and the people on which that life takes its toll.

In this weird presidential campaign, where ideas like building a wall along our southern border and excluding entire groups of people from our country based on their religion are tossed around as if they were reasonable, it's important to look back at our shameful history -- in the hopes that we might avoid repeating it. Jeanne Sakata's HOLD THESE TRUTHS, now playing at Portland Center Stage, gives us that opportunity, and I urge as many people as possible to take it.

What do you do if you work at a fast-food franchise that's been abandoned by the manager, but instructed by corporate to stay open, even without supplies?

If you're looking for Portland's most creative theatre, Shaking the Tree productions are always in the running. And the current show is no exception. Just in time for Halloween, director Samantha Van Der Merwe brings us HEAD. HANDS. FEET., which consists of three devised works based on the fairy tales Bluebeard, The Handless Maiden, and The Red Shoes, plus an adaptation of Euripides' Iphigenia.

If you'd like to know how August Wilson went from humble beginnings to a beloved (and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning) playwright, then make your way over to Portland Playhouse for HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED, a one-man show originally written as a memoir and performed by the playwright himself.

If you're looking for that next musical to fall in love with, or you wonder what the big deal is about musical theatre, I very highly recommend you make your way out to Tigard to see FLY BY NIGHT at Broadway Rose. (Protip: Take a date. And tissues.)

You know the songs by heart, you have complicated feelings about the dentist (Steve Martin could never really be that bad, right?), and, admit it, you always secretly root for the plant. If any of this rings true, then go right now and buy your tickets to LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Portland Center Stage. It will fulfill all of your 'rock musical horror comedy' fantasies. (Rock musical horror comedy -- that's how Wikipedia describes it. Are there any other shows in this genre?)