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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2011)
Jjgj] 2 8 •thearts APRIL ’5.2011 Do You Want Longer Lasting Erections? PCS artistic director Chris Coleman changes hats to act in Opus UP TO Happy Hour til 7pm DJ for Sunday Brunch Thursday Margarita Night Tons of Outdoor Seating 2 HOURSÜ 503.235.8150 crushbar.com 1400 SE Morrison We Can Help! BREAKFAST ALL DAY + NIGHT LUNCH & DINNER SERVED FULL BAR! $99 Exam Let the highly trained medical professionals at Diagnostic Male Medical Center help. GUARANTEED or Office Visit is FREE! ESPRESSO! Between North Gay & Gay. Includes: • Office Visits for a FULL YEAR! W WW.JUSTOUT.COM Role Play 1/2 Hour, 1 Hour? • Doppler Ultrasound Test • Medical Evaluation • Test Dose of Medication F 2201 N. Killingsworth, Portland, OR 97217 5 0 3 .7 3 5 .4 6 5 2 snap K- n r n r s s . ^ , 7 . A f fa s it t • • ci convamant • affordabla Try before you buy with this mvii =i :m PASS! Better Workouts, Better Results Tone up, trim down in a Snap! • Nearby and open 24/7 • • No Contracts, No risk - pay monthly • Milwaukie - 4200 SE King Road BY KIRA LESLEY For over a decade, Chris Coleman has anger one can hold as a result of growing up played many roles as artistic director of gay. “W hat happens to the shame you expe Portland Center Stage. This month, he’s tak rience growing up, if you don’t find some ing on a new one— actor. way to heal it, inevitably, it pathologizes,” he Although Coleman has performed exten observes. “You drink too much, or you screw sively throughout his career, this is his first too much, or you work too much.” time on stage in Portland. He portrays Elliot In his own life, he got on the work-too- in the current PCS production o f Opus, which much track. “My M .O. was to achieve," the examines the inner workings of a world-class director and performer says. W hen he was string quartet. He calls the play a “delicious younger, he thought, “I will be a super achiev insider look at how you make great music and er and that will hide my secret and make me the intensity o f the relationships.” invulnerable to being called names,” Cole In Opus, violist-turned- man explains. playwright Michael Hol- “ Inevitably, when He shared some of linger focuses on the fic someone’s that prickly [as those insecurities in a tional Lazara Quartet. A video inspired by Dan few days before the group Elliot] it’s because they’re Savage’s “It Gets Better” is to give a televised per project. In the YouTube hurt . . . so it’s fascinating formance for the president, clip, Coleman talks about to try to get in this guy’s their violist suffers a men the depression and isola tal breakdown, leaving the tion he felt watching his mind, his experience.” remaining three scram heterosexual friends’ ro -C H R IS COLEM AN, bling for a replacement. In ON HIS CHARACTER IN OPUS mantic relationships and the process, the audience believing their experi gets an insider’s glimpse of the interpersonal ences were something he would never have. relationships, emotions and tensions that ex As he states in the video, he threw himself ist behind the group’s onstage perfection. into “achieving” to compensate. Elliot is first violinist, and partner o f the Coleman grew up in Atlanta, where he ousted violist. Coleman says he was drawn attended a Southern Baptist church. It was to the character because “he’s a brilliant guy, also in Atlanta that he would develop strong acerbic and quite funny ... and he’s scary, his ties with the gay community. He cofounded anger is scary.” In addition, he saw some the highly respected Actor’s Express Theatre thing behind the anger: “Inevitably, when Company in 1988 and served as artistic di someone’s that prickly [as Elliot] it’s because rector there for 12 years, receiving many ac they’re hurt . . . so it’s fascinating to try to colades, before coming to PCS in 2000. get in this guy’s mind, his experience,” Cole According to Coleman, the production man says. that put Actor’s Express on the map was the Although personally not as volatile as El 1991 original musical The Harvey M ilk liot, Coleman says he identifies with the Show. Coleman starred as the gay rights 503-353-7627 (SNAP) Same Day Solution Diagnostic ! M o le Medical „ B ar C arlo noun breakfast Served All Day Tuesday: Closed ..'HS? ‘¿/t Q 433 SC Toslrr Ed, Portland, OR 0 7 2 0 0 * 303.771.1004 • 5arCarlo.com ^ 15895 SW 72nd Ave., Ste. 250, Portland, OR 97224 888 705-7449 - Walk-in’s Welcome • Mon-Frl 9-5 diagnosticmalemedical.com
