A return to the water
Water is a complicated element. It heals, destroys, rescues, erases. It drowns. It saves. It holds memory. It washes away pain. –Christina Anderson In Christina Anderson‘s new play [...]
Kick them, punch them, throw them to the mat!
There are the plays for fun and entertainment. There are important plays that focus on universal issues–grief, love, old resentments. Then there are the messy social plays that take on some [...]
A POWER-ful walk through North Portland
The young always inherit the revolution. –Huey Newton In another time, in a historic North Portland neighborhood, a revolution was taking place. It began with young Black men in the [...]
Taking it to the limit
It’s a familiar trope. Relatives gather at the home place after the death of the patriarch or matriarch to gnaw the bones, remember what a character he/she was, and fight over money and who [...]
Elegance and Irony
In 1834, 14-year-old Afong Moy (Barbie Wu) arrives in New York City from China’s Guangzhou Province. Sold as chattel by her family, she will perform in a museum to paying gawkers. She will [...]
An American love story
Families can be so full of surprises. Take Uncle Stevie (Tyrone Mitchell Henderson) for example. He loves hip-hop but can’t keep up in his dance class. He gets kicked out of his aerobics [...]
The faces of Ferguson
The first thing audience members need to know before attending Until the Flood at Portland Center Stage at the Armory’s Ellyn Bye Studio is that playwright Dael Orlandersmith is a tour de [...]
Deidrie Henry is Billie Holiday
March, 1959. In a run-down bar in South Philly, the celebrated jazz singer Billie Holiday gives what will be one of her last performances. It’s difficult to watch her take the stage. [...]