Ten Tiny Dances Becomes Ten…Tiny… Musicals? January 20, 2012

Our friends at Portland Center Stage are not only producing a fully staged world premiere for the festival this year (the hilariously dark The North Plan) and hosting a variety of participants in their mezzanine performance spaces, they also are chock-a-block full of staff members who are utilizing the festival to pursue their own creative projects.

Here’s a quick post from them about the PCS staffers helping create  4X4=8, a collection of 10 minute micro-musicals all performed in a 4ft square space (inspired by the classic Portland dance series 10 Tiny Dances).

Master Electrician Connery MacRae and Sound Operator Cameron McFee have teamed up to write a ten-minute musical based on the OCCUPY movement.  Sure to include pepper spray, riots, guards and unlikely lovers – you won’t want to miss their collaboration.

Kelsey Tyler, Education and Community Programs Director at PCS, will be stepping out from behind his desk to flex his acting muscles.  He’ll be featured in two of the musicals, Wishes of Eternity and Truth and Justice.  He has also acted at PCS, most recently in A Christmas Carol.  He’s sure to bring comic wit and a great voice to these 4×4 musicals.

PCS Company Manager Brandon Woolley will make his debut as a director in Portland.  He’ll be directing Crownheads, Daydream Meanderings…, Wishes of Eternity and Work Friends. Don’t miss it!

Read the full post here.

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t Let Us Tell You What to See… January 20, 2012

Check out these recommends from the Oregonian, the Willamette Week and The Portland Mercury to help you filter your Festival Weekend options:

The Oregonian picks out a vibrant selection of smaller and quirkier festival offerings here, to balance out their top picks and promising productions selections from last week:

Sample pick:

“They”: Fertile Ground is dedicated to new work, but sometimes the definition of that can be liberal. Hence the inclusion of this 1920 expressionist comedy by Polish writer/artist Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, who used the pen name Witkacy. What’s new is this adaptation by Rogers Truax. It’s a political satire about secret forces behind state power, bent on crush individuality and creativity. The cast includes such reliable talents as Brian Allard and Northwest Classical Theatre stalwart Melissa Whitney. Read more.

The Willamette Week take a decidedly spookier stroll through the festival offerings, coming up with this bloody sexy set of selections to satisfy your inner goth:

Sample picks:

There’s political intrigue (The North Plan, They), supernatural terror (Ablaze, Bite Me a Little), gore ([I Am Still] the Duchess of Malfi, Grand Guignol 4) and rumblings of doomsday (Waxwing, B’aktun 13). So get out there and take in a little light entertainment—that is, if you’ve got the guts. Read more.

The Portland Mercury likes arty, smarty sexy and ironic. Their picks for the festival hit all the right notes.

Sample picks:

Something’s Got Ahold of My Heart—The lifespan of a Hand2Mouth show includes months of workshopping and revisions; their new production explores both the representations and the realities of love and commitment. The Mouth at Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont, Fri Jan 27-Sun Jan 29, 7 pm, hand2mouththeatre.org

Big Plastic Heroes—Performers auGi and Slash Coleman pair two like-minded stories of nerdy childhoods spent idolizing larger-than-life action heroes. The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy, bigplasticheroes.com for dates and times, through Feb 4

Read more.

Of course the most important taste maker in this particular festival is YOU the festival-goer. What’s on your opening weekend must see list?