July 06. 2022
Page 9
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
Rhythms of Cultures
Opinionated
Judge
Something for
everyone at Oregon
Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is
open for its first full season since lockdown
in 2020, the first under the direction of Ar-
tistic Director Nataki Garrett. Five shows
are currently on stage; I’ll begin with the
three I saw first, which rage widely in tone
and may each have their own audience.
That may well be the point; if theater real-
ly is for everyone, that may not mean that
everyone likes each show but rather than
there is something for everyone.
“Once On This Island” may have the
most wide-ranging appeal of the three and
runs all season. It is a buoyant one-act mu-
sical that can be experienced purely for
dance and music and vibrant color—but to
the particular delight of some of us, OSF’s
production is built with particular mind-
fulness around Haitian culture. The show
is usually set on an unnamed Caribbean
island and, though its source material is a
novel written by Rosa Guy, an immigrant
to the U.S. from Trinidad, the show’s white
creators (book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
and music by Stephen Flaherty) kept the
cultural references generic, a feature com-
monly found in “ethnic” plays. Director
Lili-Anne Brown sought to honor speci-
ficity by setting OSF’s production in Haiti,
with particular attention to the rhythms of
that country’s language, its history, its in-
digenous Vodou religion, and its swirl of
colonized cultures.
For those who approach the work with
curiosity about and admiration for Haitian
culture, this production holds particular
by
Darleen
Ortega
delights that hold the story well. During
a storm, the village storytellers comfort a
young girl with a tale about another peas-
ant girl, Ti Moune, who falls in love with
Daniel, a lighter-skinned man descended
from a French colonizer who bore children
with a dark-skinned native woman. The
island is divided among the weathier light-
er-skinned descendants of colonizers and
darker-skinned peasants like Ti Moune, but
when Daniel gets into an accident on the
“wrong” side of the island, she nurses him
back to health. The colorism and prejudice
that follow colonization doom Ti Moune’s
love for Daniel and her dreams of a better
life in typically nonsensical and unyielding
ways. Yet pure of heart, Ti Moune grasps
for more than fate appears ready to al-
low her, and the gods respond in quixotic
ways; her prayers, love, and efforts to push
against the strictures of her circumstances
are expressed in song and dance, as are the
responses of her loved ones, the gods, Dan-
iel, and his privileged relations.
Though most of us will miss many of
the show’s cultural references, the produc-
tion feels like a celebration of Haitian life,
including the resilience, struggles, creativ-
ity, and joy that have persisted through
centuries of colonization and exploitation.
It strikes me that the source material itself
reflects a colonization process that director
Brown and her creative partners (includ-
ing a talented and diverse cast of Black
performers) have attempted to push back
against—a worthy practice that may well
contain clues about surmounting barri-
ers to love evoked in fables like this one.
“Once On This Island” plays in the Angus
Bowmer Theater through Oct. 30.
Continued on Page 11
Photo by Jenny Graham/Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is back with its first full season since the corona-
virus pandemic. Five shows are currently on stage, including ‘Once On This Island,’
(above), a production that adds a particular mindfulness around Haitian culture.
Photo by Samu3l Prather/Portland Parks & Recreation
Portland’s own, five-time Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding will perform
during the second night of first annual East Portland Summer Arts Festival,
taking place Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10 at Ventura Park, 460 S.E.
113th .
First East Portland Festival
Grammy sensation to
headline free event
Grammy award-winning Portland
native and artist Esperanza Spalding
will headline the first annual East
Portland Summer Arts Festival, held
Saturday and Sunday, July 9 and 10,
at Ventura Park, 460 S.E. 113th Ave.,
the latest of Portland Parks & Recre-
ation’s Summer Free for All celebra-
tions this summer.
Spalding’s performance is the eve-
ning of July 10. Aaron Nigel Smith
& 1 World Chorus + Sora Shodo, a
reggae fusion and live painting per-
formance, will also be featured at the
festival. Daytime arts activities are sched-
uled from 2 p .m. to 4 p.m. with the head-
lining performance at 6 p.m. both days
“There is no Portland without a vi-
brant arts and culture community, and
without vibrant arts and culture across
our whole community,” said Portland
Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio,
who also serves as the City’s Arts and
Culture Commissioner. “This first-ever
East Portland Summer Arts Festival ac-
cessibly brings arts and culture to East
Portland, and I’m hopefully it will be a
treasured annual event.”
Free drop-in mini music lessons, art
activities, and more are also planned. For
more information, visit portland.gov/
parks/sffa.