Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble pushes the manila envelope in Procedures for Saying No. While the Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble (PETE) brings a good amount of anarchy to any topic, it’s clearly carried out with an extra degree of relish here, as they set their sights on workplace manners. Smart-casual clothing is abandoned along with all …
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NW Animation Fest: Just the right amount of weird
With multiple entry points, the annual festival brings something for everyone. In many ways, the animated short is a thankless medium. With few mainstream distribution channels, the joys of this usually bizarre medium are often known only to the most adventurous of YouTube explorers. As a kid, some of the darker shorts peppered between installments …
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A Tourist’s Point of View
The visual diaries of Wim Wenders concludes “Portraits Along the Road.” Concluding Northwest Film Center’s Wim Wenders retrospective are some of the German director’s far lesser-known works, many of which are documentaries. I was surprised to find out that in Wenders’ four decades in the film industry, he’s actually been most prolific in this arena. Often …
Empathy for Ahab
OR, THE WHALE BREATHES NEW AIR INTO THE SAILS OF A SINKING SHIP Coinciding the end of its run with the Fertile Ground Festival, Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble (PETE) adapts Juli Crockett’s meditation on the famous legless sea captain, Ahab, with style, humor, and controlled chaos. The piece functions as both a fictional mission to …
The Team Portland Didn’t Know It Was Waiting For
The 2015 Timbers Win Their First Major League Soccer Championship “I know we’re going to win it. I can feel it. Sometimes you just know it in your bones.” These are the words of Portland Timbers coach Caleb Porter, given the week before Sunday’s title game. They didn’t appear until Monday’s Oregonian, after Portland’s beloved …
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Misunderstood: One Witch’s Story
“BROOMSTICK,” A PLAY ABOUT A WITCH WITH AN IDENTITY CRISIS COMES TO ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATER The lights come up on a witch’s cottage complete with a wall o’ potions and a number of other eccentric, dusty knickknacks, all backed by what looks like the strands of a giant fraying wicker chair. Basically, the kind of …
Sex With Strangers (and people you think you know)
Laura Easton’s play about writing and sex in the eBook age comes to Portland Center Stage Perhaps it’s fitting—given the audience’s expectations—that the setting of Laura Easton’s play about two writers trapped in a cozy Michigan cottage has a kind of Cinemax-after-dark feel to it. Olivia (Danielle Slavick), a not-quite-40 unsuccessful novelist sits, curled in …
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How would Kafka point a gun?
The Artists Repertory Theater kicks off its season with Theresa Rebeck’s meta-comedy The Understudy. In a scene midway through Theresa Rebeck’s glimpse into the world of theater understudies, the question is repeatedly posed, “how would Franz Kafka point a gun?” Would it be slick and confident, like action star Jake (Jared Q. Miller) demonstrates? Would …
Two Davids Talking: One Famous, One Regular
A Movie Based on a Book Based on an Interview About a Book: James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour I’ve never read Infinite Jest. Due to its half a million-plus word count, it’s probably safe to assume I’m not the only one. The seminal novel’s author, David Foster Wallace’s specter has grown not only …
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