Portland Playhouse’s Crowns is a Poignant Musical About Hats and Heritage

Milagro and Confrontation’s Jump is an Earth-Shaking Saga of Grief and Endurance

Take a Look Behind the Scenes of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo

In Cirque du Soleil’s extravaganza Corteo, a clown envisions his own funeral. Although the show meditates on death, being part of it is a joy for David Lieder Resnick, who started doing gymnastics 30 to 40 hours a week when he was 6 years old and is featured in two acts of Corteo, titled Bouncing Beds and Tournik.

Made to Dance in Burning Buildings is a Ferocious Rush of Pain and Catharsis

With its often enigmatic storytelling, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings—which is having its world premiere at Shaking the Tree Theatre—is certainly poetic. It is also about the toughest, fiercest kind of love of all—the love of self it takes to transcend trauma. That’s why the presentation transfixes, even when it terrifies you so deeply it’s tempting to turn away.

NW Dance Project’s New Show Features Giant Puppets, a Cooking Show and Choreography Performed on Multiple Floors of One Building

Bringing dance out of a performance hall means Trip the Light Fantastic will evolve, and each performance of the show may be slightly different.

Buyer & Cellar is an Uproarious Satire of Streisand Mania

The idea of Barbra Streisand owning an underground shopping mall sounds too gloriously absurd to be true. Yet the mall—which features, among other things, candy and costume stores—is a reality and the topic of Jonathan Tolins’ fictional one-man satire Buyer & Cellar, which has been brought to life in a lavish and hysterical production at Portland Center Stage.

Fertile Ground 2019 Concludes With Monsters and Musicals

Fertile Ground 2019 is literally ending on a high note with an array of plays that includes several striking musicals. The Broken Planetarium’s Sirens of Coos Bay is a rock-and-roll revamp of The Little Mermaid, Holly Yurth Harmon’s Welcome to Zion uses song to take us inside the mind of a tormented gay Mormon and Lily Valentine Productions’ disconnected: a frankenstein musical is exactly what it sounds like—except when it isn’t.

Teen Detectives, Embattled Siblings and an Airport are Among Fertile Ground’s Highlights

“Electricity”—that’s the word playwright Maeve Z recently used to describe the vibe of Fertile Ground. The aggressive pace of the festival of new works, she points out, forces you to go onstage before you are ready. There isn’t always time to finesse every detail in the lighting design or rehearse to perfection all the emotional beats. Sometimes you simply have to trust that what you are offering will thrill, move or entertain.