Five Portland Performances You Shouldn’t Miss This Spring

A Portland Filmmaker Demonstrates How Political Opponents Can Build Trust

“I didn’t vote for Trump,” says Portland filmmaker Shilpa Sunthankar. “And I don’t agree with those that did. But I know many. They’re good people and I love them and they’re reasonable.” With the insurmountable political divide in our country, hearing a word like “reasonable” getting thrown around to describe the opposition can be jarring. But Sunthankar is being earnest. “There’s been a fracture,” she says. “People need to re-learn how to be, how to live with the other side.” Her new short film, Working Lunch, is an example of what it could look like if the two camps started to rebuild trust.

A Couple Struggles When One Becomes Ill in Enso Theatre’s Latest Production

In Care of Trees, Georgia (Megan Gotz) and Travis (Jon Gennari) meet and fall in love and get married. But their relationship will not fit neatly into the “happily ever after” storyline. Georgia contracts a mysterious illness that will kill her. How do you deal with a terminal diagnosis and the way it changes both people involved?

After a Series of Missed Connections, Two People Finally Meet—Resulting in a Terrifying Plot Twist

Playwright Erin Courtney is acutely aware of the expectation implicit among modern playgoing audiences: When they’re shown a coincidence, it must be meaningful, like a twee Chekhov’s gun. Courtney invites the audience into a world of comfortable convention—quirky, witty characters bejeweled with friendly, weird details, and a story coated with a warm veneer of magical realism.

North of Blue is a Hypnotic Scene of Winter

North of Blue is like an abstract painting that’s been stretched into a 60-minute movie. If you’re having trouble imagining what that would look like, Joanna Priestley, a native Portlander and animator known for her short films, offers some sage advice for those unsure how to watch her first feature: “Sit back, relax and enjoy the journey.”

Portland Center Stage Opens its 2018-19 Season with The Color Purple and a New Artistic Director

The Color Purple is the story of Celie (played by Felicia Boswell), a black woman who’s suffered abuse living in rural Georgia during the early 20th century. Portland Center Stage’s production offers emotional fulfillment like few other plays.

Home Improvement Isn’t Pretty in this Moral Satire About the Lengths People Go to Get Ahead

In Radiant Vermin, a young couple are given the opportunity to become homeowners—for free. In return, they must simply become the first gentrifiers—move in and raise the property values enough to attract more people like them.

Back to the Future Gets a Broadway-Style Treatment in New Musical Parody

Back to the Future, the Musical Parody is an exuberant, horny ode breathes new life into something very familiar.