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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 2011)
THE YEAR IN performingarts OREGON S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE DECEMBER 9 . 2011 «9 JW BY AMANDA SCHURR before moving to Portland expressly for that reason. The combination of Brian and Nikki’s theater background and Michael’s business expertise cultivated an ideal business model, based as much on passion as dollars and cents. “Michael could make money selling bottled air,” says Brian of his brother’s business savvy. “I tricked [him]! I told him it was possible to make a living in the arts if you run the busi ness well.” The ruse didn’t deter Michael, and all three Weavers made a point to prove Brian wrong, first by acquiring the church, then by net working with Portland actors and other the ater companies. Nikki helped foster commu nity bonds by acting with other companies while things ironed out. It didn’t happen overnight. “[W hen] we did our first show, four peo ple came,” says Michael. The second night, two people came. Four years later, PPH routinely sells out its 100-seat space, and has moved produc tions into bigger venues like the World Trade Center. Part of the plan for success was enticing nontraditional theatergoers out to shows. “There is a ‘theater audience’ who come to everything, and they are punished relentlessly with mediocre theater,” explains Brian. “It’s our challenge to create thrilling work that people want and n eed to attend.” Despite some neighborhood noise and parking complaints, PPH has been a boon to the indie theater scene. W hat they grow into appears to be more a matter of when than if. “WeVe tripled in size every year four years in a row,” notes Brian. “We love our cozy little church.” “We want to continue to have shows there for years to come,” adds Michael, “but one day, we’d like to build a large new theater in Portland. We want to grow and expand.” For more information on Portland Playhouse, visit portlandplayhouse.org, or call 503-488-5822. Port land Playhouse is located at 602 NE Prescott Ave. A ngels in A merica capped a year of stunning performing arts, which educated as they enter tained, provoked and benefited the community in more ways than one. From D aily Show alumna Lauren Weedman in Portland Center Stage’s Bust to Portland Opera’s The M arriage o f F igaro and Oregon Ballet Theatre’s in novative Petrouchka/Carmen dou bleheader, there was something for every theatergoer in 2011. Portland theater company JANE presented L ooking f o r N orm al, playwright Jane Anderson’s do mestic comedy-drama with a (trans)gender twist. Respected middle American patriarch Roy approaches wife Irma with a con fession: He’s a woman trapped in side a man’s body and wants to undergo gender reassignment. As the couple, their adolescent tomboy daughter and grown son struggle with their own life changes—Irma’s in menopause, to boot—the family and community at large grapple with the definitions and dynamics of love, and how it ultimately transcends gender. In March, Portland native Christopher Kenney and husband Jamie Morris brought their outrageously twisted takes on gamut running film classics M om m ie D earest and S ilence o f th e Lambs to Portland Actors Conservatory in a one-two punch of drag. That same month dancer multi-hyphenate Meshi Chavez explored relationships with We Two Boys, a translation into movement of a Walt Whitman poem of which Chavez ex plained, “As men we’ve had these relation ships with other men that are so deep, [yet] there’s something that doesn’t get spoken about, it’s never revealed.” W hite Bird presented Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for the first time in five years, while Teatro Milagro artistic director Danel Malan brought the world- premiere of his D u en de d e L orca, the story of Spanish surrealist and poet Federico Garcia Lorca (played by Rory Stitt), to the stage. Milagro also explored hope through transformation with BOOMCRACKLE- FLY, the intersecting stories of a lonely drag queen, a circus acrobat and a Cuban man constructing wings. The Fertile Ground Festival returned for a third year of fully produced theatrical productions by long-running professional companies rang ing from Oslund+Co/Dance and BodyVox to NW Fusion and Legacy Dance. Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking Vagina M onologues got a makeover thanks to a Q_ Center production, which augmented the work to include the experiences of trans women and queer-identified persons. Else where, defunkt theatre queered the David Mamet classic G len ga rry Glen Ross, and Bag&Baggage Theatre delved into Ihe M ys tery o f Irm a Vep, complete with the stipula tion that the actors must be of the same sex, in order to ensure cross-dressing. Broadway Across America brought ev erything from B illy Elliot The M usical to M amma M ia! to West Side Story to Stumptown, while the Broadway Rose revisited seminal Aqua Net stage smash H airspray. Chris Coleman and Portland Center Stage triumphed with creative por trait Opus, and the world premiere of One N ight w ith Janis Jop lin , as - did Portland Actors Conservatory with Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play. Vertigo Theatre crafted a gen der-bending mix of sex and satire with Cloud 9, and Profile Theatre opened its 15th season with Ter rence M cNally’s AIDS-era drama Lips Together, Teeth A part, follow ing the conclusion of its well-re ceived Lee Blessing repertoire. Collaborative efforts like the Galaxy Dance Festival and Ore gon Ballet Theatre’s S travin sk y P r o ject delighted audiences, along with Water in the Desert’s First Annual 1 Festival, the brainchild of local choreographer Mizu Desierto and perform er Sean Bowie. “Princess of Pastiche”Taylor Mac and choreographer Kyle Abraham marked Time-Based A rt’s ninth install ment, the Alberta Rose Theatre presented a star-studded evening of the “Songs of Sondheim,” and over at Triangle Produc tions!, the PDX Pride Reading Series got its gay on with entries like S teel DRAGno- “ lias and Zanna, Don't!—the latter in which gay is more than okay, it’s the norm. In early November, S ta n din g on C erem o n y —T he Gay M a rria ge P lays threaded to gether nine 10-minute plays, written by a who’s who of scribes (including Tony Award nominees Moisés Kaufman and Neil LaBute) in a national effort presented lo cally by Portland’s Artists Repertory The atre to benefit Basic Rights Oregon. ART plans to follow up the one-night-only event with a full run with revolving actors come spring 2012. How’s that for a curtain call to the year at the theater? J#] ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 i--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • OS POSg/ O p e n i n g in D e c e m b e r , see o u r w e b s i t e for d e t a ils !