Page 2
September 4, 2019
The
Week in Review
in a fully renovated building, part
of a school improvement bond
passed in 2012. The renovation
retains the historic features of
the school, with improvements
to the building’s interior.
Teen Shot at Pier Park
A 15-year-old boy was hospi-
talized with non-life threatening
injuries Tuesday after being shot
around 1:45 a.m. at Piet Park in
St. Johns. Police were called to
the park on reports of gunfire. No Lillard Helps Kids Start School
arrests were made.
Portland Trail Blazer and NBA
great Damian Lillard helped
Scooter Crash Kills Woman
A 66-year-old Portland woman Rigler Elementary kids start
on a scooter died early Friday classes on the first day of school
evening after a crash with a Ford last week part of an initiative
Expedition. Police said the SUV with Moda Health and Tools for
turned in front of Susan V. Bart- School program.
lett around 8:45 p.m. at Northeast
40th and Tillamook. The driver of
the SUV was charged with mak-
ing an illegal left turn.
Four Escape Albina Fire
Four people
were
dis-
placed by an
early Sunday
morning fire at
an apartment
at 3955 N. Al-
bina St. Fire-
fighters said a
woman with
significant injuries was rescued
from her second story apartment. A
man had minor injuries after jump-
ing from the second floor.
Gov. Signs Student Success Act
Gov. Kate Brown met freshmen
at Jefferson High School on the
first day of school last week in a
special ceremony to sign the Stu-
dent Success Act. The legislation
was approved in May, adding $1
billion in state support to class-
rooms across Oregon
Homeless Camp Arson
Roy Elworthy, 44, of Portland
was charged last week with set-
ting a fire in a homeless camp
because he was frustrated about
Grant Opens with Upgrade
Grant High School students start- “police not enforcing laws
ed their new school year last week against homeless people.” He is
being held in Clackamas County.
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photo by J enny g rahaM /o regon s hakespeare F estival
Martin Jodes (Tony Sancho) and William Joad (Mark Murphy) find they are related, connected
by Anglo and Latinx cultures in “Mother Road,” now showing through October at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.
Road Trips of Cultural Connections
Ashland plays bring
richness of Latinx
experience
One diverse and largely Latin American cast per-
forms two plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
this season, offering opportunities for them, and us,
to explore the complexity and richness of Latinx
experience. Both productions are world premieres
with deep connections to classic work that did not
originally seek to explore the experiences of people
of color—and both productions, in their way, carry
those classic stories into new and fertile territory.
Most excitingly, one of them is a fully bilingual in-
vitation to English- and Spanish-speaking audiences
to be in community in a radical way.
“Mother Road” opened at the top of OSF’s
long-running season, the first Latinx play to be pro-
grammed in a season-long spot. The inspiration for
the play came during a road trip commissioned by
the Steinbeck National Center in preparation for a
celebration of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “The
Grapes of Wrath.” In retracing the steps of the fam-
o PinionAted
J udge
by
d arleen o rtega
ily in the novel along Route 66 from Oklahoma to
California, playwright Octavio Solis began to notice
the many connections between the white “Okie” mi-
grants in Steinbeck’s story and Mexican farmwork-
ers then and now.
In “Mother Road,” then, Solis conceives a jour-
ney from California back to Oklahoma. William
Joad, an elderly cousin of Tom Joad (the protagonist
of Steinbeck’s novel), comes to California looking
for his only remaining kin, Tom Joad’s great-grand-
son, hoping to pass the family property in Oklaho-
ma to him. It turns out that his last living relative,
Martin Jodes, is a Mexican-American farmworker.
Their road trip back to the family land in Oklahoma
c ontinued on p age 8