My frugal self loves the JAW festival because the readings are free. But I also love plays and have enjoyed our previous outing.
Fires, Ohio was another good night at the theater. Trapped by poor air quality from a nearby fire, a family has a dinner together to celebrate an old friend’s visit. And then so many other things happen.
As the play progressed, each character searched the internet for information. I thought this was a particularly brilliant way to get insight about the characters.
Portland Center Stage gave us a great show with What the Constitution Means to Me.
Rebecca Lingafelter was excellent as Heidi Schreck, the young woman who participated in Veterans of Foreign Wars speaking competitions.
As Marissa Wolf, PCS artistic director, says in the program, “Immediately, we’re lifted into a powerful world in which she maps legal rights and history onto her own body and invites the audience into this crucible through emotions, sometimes thriller-esque storytelling.”
I also really liked the set, which had a pieced together diorama quality. In this rather dark photo, you can see the large paperclip that is holding the eagle to the curtain.
Alas, we caught the penultimate show, so we couldn’t spread the word. But if this show should appear in your town, do make time for it.
Cat interlude. Matt came back from his trip and Antares immediately settled on his suitcase, something that doesn’t happen much with Matt’s things. I correctly diagnosed the cause. Matt’s swimsuit was sitting at the top of the pile of clothing, and Antares loves him some chlorine scented swimsuits.
I made time for this Portland Center Stage tribute, and was I glad I did. David Saffert and Jillian Snow were very funny as the titular characters, and the show was full of Christmas fun.
It was amusing watching the interplay between two large egos who both enjoyed each other’s company while also being annoyed at what large-ego thing the opposite person was doing.
And look at this fun set!
I attended a matinee performance with my mother and aunt.
This featured the music of Fats Waller and I especially appreciated Antonia Darlene, Troy A. Jackson, and Jai Shane’s singing.
I didn’t, however, love the song “Fat and Greasy.” It was also the song in the play where they encouraged the audience to sing along. There were a lot of fat people in the audience. I wonder how it sat with them?
Matt and I attended PCS’s production of the iconic 60s musical. I had only seen the movie, and that was a late night viewing that I didn’t retain too much of.
The production was well acted and the musical numbers were great. However, the discussion we had in the car going home was why we found the musical itself so annoying.
We concluded that what we mostly felt about the hippies was that they were annoying and that perhaps they needed to be annoying to throw off the dominant paradigm. While we enjoy the fruits of their actions, that doesn’t make them any less annoying.
I most identified with one of the tourists (played in a delightful scenery-chewing fashion) who, when looking at the group said, “Where are your shoes????”
Shoes are needed sometimes, Like in New York in the fall, winter, and spring.
Also, I saw a backstage photo, and all the actors put on flipflops when they come off stage.
Matt and I went to see the NWCTC perform Happy Days in the Lloyd Center Mall. It took place in the former Victoria’s Secret as it did last year, when I saw The Fever.
It’s not quite as easy to see the layout of VS because of the curtains, but you can see the iconic black and white stripes on the walls.
While I deeply loved last year’s production, I found Samuel Beckett’s play to be tedious. I’m not so much into absurdist plays. Neither was the guy next to me who looked at his Apple watch more than four times.
The program says about the play, “It is considered a ‘summit role’ for female actors, presenting a unique opportunity of intense theatricality.”
Diane Kondrat (Winnie) and Chris Porter (Willie) were very good in their roles.
I attended a Thursday night showing and by the time I got there I was a bit grumbly because (1) Thursday is a school night and I don’t love being out on school nights any more than I am due to square dancing and (2) I rode my bike and it was cold and kind of drizzly.
But, but, but! This play was so funny and so well acted I was extremely happy I attended. It takes place in 1973 after a successful campaign for J.P. Madison, who will be Atlanta’s first Black Mayor. Things become complicated when his ex-wife Eve (the hilarious Cycerli Ash) comes back to town.
Like all plays that have ended their run, this production isn’t available to you, but I encourage you to attend if it is produced in your area. You can read about it here or watch a production video on You Tube here.
Matt and I really enjoyed the world premiere of Young Americans by Lauren Yee and directed by Desdemona Chiang.
The then-and-now road trips were engaging. The first was with Joe (Danny Bernardo) and Jenny (Marielle Young). Jenny has flown to Washington D.C. to meet with Joe as part of an arranged marriage. When she finds out how far away their home in Portland, Oregon, is from Washington D.C., she’s annoyed that Joe had her fly to the other side of the country. Joe wanted her to see as much of her new home as he could show here in a cross country trip.
The second trip took place a few decades later with Joe surprising his daughter Lucy in Washington D.C. as she returned from visiting the country where she was born.
As these two trips alternated, it was interesting to see the conversations the young (as in new) Americans and young (as in not-old) Americans had.
I also really enjoyed the car that the cast drove as they made there way across the landscape. It swiveled and turned so the audience had differing views.
This play was enjoyable and left me with a lot to think about.
Matt and I took in a delightful performance of Kristina Wong’s Sweatshop Overlord. It discussed how Wong’s livelihood as a performance artist tanked during the pandemic. To help and to distract herself, she began sewing masks. Her efforts eventually grew into the Auntie Sewing Squad, a group of many women, who sewed mask after mask, month after month through the first years of the pandemic.
As all good plays, this had all the feelings.
I was glad I caught Christina Anderson’s play about a hometown swimming pool and how it defined one family’s activism.
Lauren Steele was excellent as Janice, the daughter of two parents who grew up swimming in a segregated pool. I enjoyed the efforts of Young Ambitious Black Woman (Chavez Ravine), who was trying to get Janice back to town for the opening of a new pool named after her father.
The present day plot included Janice’s mother (Lauren Steele) and Aunt Gayle (Chavez Ravine again) and was interspersed with scenes from the past with Janice’s father Edwin (Don Kenneth Mason for my performance), mother, aunt and young Janice.
I enjoyed the complex feelings Janice had about swimming and seeing how pool access shaped different generations of her family. And I adored the set that transformed again and again making different kinds of rooms and pools, ultimately ending with this gorgeous looking set.
Should you find yourself with the option to see this play, I highly recommend it. If you are a swimmer, there’s even more motivation to go.
