ENTERTAINMENT
Saturday, April 22, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3C
PENDLETON
Play celebrates perseverance, impact of art
Free performance is
Saturday, April 29 at
the arts center
East Oregonian
A bilingual performance
marking the celebration of
El día de los niños/El día
de los libros (Children’s
Day/Book Day), will be
presented by Teatro Milagro
of Portland.
The Pendleton Public
Library, in partnership
with Pendleton Center for
the Arts, is bringing the
free family presentation to
Pendleton. “Mijita Fridita”
is Saturday, April 29 at 4
p.m. at the arts center, 214
N. Main St., Pendleton.
Although the play is free,
those planning to attend
need to call 541-278-9201
to reserve tickets.
Commonly referred to
as Día, it’s a celebration
of children, families and
reading that culminates
yearly on April 30. The
celebration emphasizes the
importance of literacy for
children of all linguistic and
cultural backgrounds.
The play shares the story
of young Fridita, who is
growing up in Coyoacan
during the Mexican Revo-
lution. Bedridden due to
polio, she escapes into a
world of her imagination.
There, Fridita meets another
girl that looks just like her.
They journey to the center
of the world for a fiesta with
amazing characters.
Back in the real world,
Fridita’s peers taunt her
for being different. Her
father, Guillermo, provides
encouragement by awak-
ening her interest in art
with his love of photog-
raphy. Strong and resilient,
Fridita learns to overcome
hardships — becoming
a legendary artist that
continues to inspire.
Dañel Malan and Jose
Eduardo Gonzalez, Teatro
Milagro co-founders, seek
to provide culturally appro-
priate arts education and
enrichment programs that
build cultural appreciation
and help bridge communi-
ties. The bilingual theater
group addresses global
issues through the use of
cutting edge dramatic plays.
The free performance
also is made possible due
to the generous support of
the Pendleton Friends of the
Library and Betty Klepper.
The library is planning other
Día (Children’s Day/Book
Day) events, including a
bilingual story time and a
Cinco de Mayo activity. For
a schedule or more informa-
tion, call 541-966-0380.
To reserve free tickets
to the play, call 541-278-
9201. For more about Día,
visit http://dia.ala.org. Also,
Teatro Milagro’s website is
www.milagro.org.
Photo contributed by Russell J. Young
Emile Dultra and Ajai Terrazas Tripathi are among the cast members of “Mijita
Fridita,” a free bilingual play that will be presented by Teatro Milagro April 29 at
Pendleton Center for the Arts.
WHAT TO DO
BRIEFLY
Festivals
etry Month, the BMCC English instructor
will share from her works.
Renaissance Faire
Gorge Artists Open Studios
•Saturday, April 22; 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
•Whitman College, Boyer Avenue/
South Park Street
www.whitman.edu/faire
Free. Features jousting, theater per-
formances, live music and other perform-
ers. Also food and vendors available.
Spring Release Weekend
EO Media Group file photo
Alan Domschot plays with
the Blue Mountain Old
Time Fiddlers during a past
show in Wallowa County.
The group will perform
Saturday, April 29 in Irrigon.
Old time musicians
fiddle around
IRRIGON — For some
toe-tappin’ fun, you won’t
want to miss a performance of
the Blue Mountain Old Time
Fiddlers.
The group will play
Saturday, April 29 at 6 p.m. at
Stokes Landing Senior Center,
195 N.W. Opal Place, Irrigon.
The cost is $5 and free for
ages 12 and under. People are
invited to come early, as food
will be available for purchase
at 5 p.m.
For more information,
contact irrigonchamber@
irrigonchamber.com or
541-922-6259.
Prodigal Son hosts
poetry reading
PENDLETON — In
recognition of National Poetry
Month, a poetry reading is
planned in Pendleton.
Shaindel Beers, an English
instructor at Blue Mountain
Community College, will share
her work. The free event is
Wednesday, April 26 at 6 p.m.
at The Prodigal Son Brewery
& Pub, 230 S.E. Court Ave.,
Pendleton.
For more information, call
541-276-6090.
Gorge artists
open studios
The public is invited to visit
the studios of artists in the
Mid-Columbia region from
Cascade Locks to The Dalles
and Parkdale.
In its 11th year, the Gorge
Artists Open Studios is Friday,
April 28 through Sunday,
April 30 from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. each day. The free tour is
self-guided.
More than three dozen juried
artists are allowing access to
where they work on everything
from painting, drawing and
photography to jewelry,
sculpture and textiles. Artwork
is for sale at most of the studios.
Detailed maps of
participating studios are
available at www.gorgeartists.
org, as well as at Gorge-area
chambers of commerce and
Columbia Center for the Arts,
215 Cascade St., Hood River.
For more information, visit
www.facebook.com/gaos.
tour, or contact gaostudios@
gmail.com or Kathy Watne at
541-490-6897.
———
Submit information to:
community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention
of Tammy Malgesini at 333 E.
Main St., Hermiston or Renee
Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers
Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-
4539 or 541-966-0818 with
questions.
•May 5-7
•Various wineries in Milton-Freewa-
ter, Walla Walla region
www.wallawallawine.com
Some events free. Cellar doors are
open and new releases are available
for tasting. Celebrate the end of harvest
season with special pours, winemaker
dinners, live music and more.
Cinco de Mayo
•May 6-7
•Butte Park, 1245 N.W. Seventh St.,
Hermiston
Free. Features a carnival, food, en-
tertainment, competitions, a speech by
Portland’s consul general of Mexico, a
youth dance, an adult dance and fire-
works. A parade is Saturday at 1 p.m.
Pendleton Cattle Barons Weekend
•May 12-13
•Blue Mountain Community College
www.cattlebarons.net
Free/many activities, .Selected as
Pendleton’s Tourism Event of the Year,
its goal is to preserve the region’s ranch-
ing heritage and raise money for schol-
arships. It features a select gelding sale,
a working dog sale, ranch rodeo events
and the North American Stock Saddle
Bronc Championship. Also the Bit, Spur
and Engraver Show, a world-class Sad-
dlemaker’s Show, a Tradin’ Post and the
Buckaroo Barbecue Challenge.
Art, Museums & Authors
Terrific Tuesday
•Tuesday, April 25; 7-8:30 p.m.
•Heritage Station Museum, 108 S.W.
Frazer Ave., Pendleton
www.heritagestationmuseum.org
Free. Joey Lavadour presents a bas-
ketweaving presentation and demonstra-
tion.
Chuck Close: Portraits
•Tuesday-Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.,
Saturdays, noon-4 p.m.
•Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N.
Main St.
www.pendletonarts.org
Free. Selection of Close’s works from
the collection of Jordan Schnitzer. Runs
through April 29.
Shaindel Beers poetry reading
•Wednesday, April 26, 6 p.m.
•Prodigal Son Brewery & Pub, 230
S.E. Court Ave., Pendleton
Free. In celebration of National Po-
•April 28-30; 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
•Various locations between Cascade
Locks to Hood River
www.gorgeartists.org
Free. More than three dozen artists
open their studios to share their craft with
the public. Artwork on sale at many loca-
tions. A map is available for the self-guid-
ed tour.
Open Regional Exhibit
•Saturday, April 29; noon-4 p.m., ac-
cept entries
•Thursday, May 4; 5 p.m., opening
reception
•Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N.
Main St.
www.pendletonarts.org
$10/adults, $5/youths entry fee per
piece of art. Cash prizes awarded.
“The Path of Totality”
•Monday-Saturdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
•Crossroads Carnegie Art Center,
2020 Auburn St., Baker City
www.crossroads-arts.org
Free. Amateur and professional art-
ists’ work depict the theme inspired by
the upcoming Aug. 21 total solar eclipse.
Show and sale runs through April 29.
Music
“Go Fourth and Be Merry”
•Saturday, April 22; 7:30 p.m.
•Vert Auditorium, 480 S.W. Dorion
Ave., Pendleton
www.oregoneastsymphony.org
$20/adults, $15/students, seniors,
$45/family. Oregon East Symphony and
Chorale. The program includes Beetho-
ven’s “Symphony No. 4,” Mozart’s “Pi-
ano Concerto No. 21,” featuring James
Cook on piano, and Rossini’s Overture to
“L’Italiana in Algeri.”
Cadillacs for Everyone
•Saturday, April 22; 8 p.m. No cover
•Wildhorse Sports Bar, Wildhorse Re-
sort & Casino, off I-84 Exit 216, Mission
James Dean Kindle
•Tuesday, April 25; 7-9 p.m.
•Great Pacific Wine & Coffee Co.,
403 S. Main St., Pendleton
No cover, all ages.
Live Music Thursday
•Thursdays 7-9 p.m. No cover
•40 Taps, 337 S.W. Emigrant Ave.,
Pendleton
Open Mic at GP
•Thursday, April 27; 7-9 p.m.
•Great Pacific Wine & Coffee Co.,
403 S. Main St., Pendleton
No cover. All ages are welcome
during the last Thursday of each month.
Bring your instrument, voice, family and
friends.
The Phoenix
•Friday, April 28; Saturday, April 29;
8 p.m. No cover
•Wildhorse Sports Bar, Wildhorse
Resort & Casino, off I-84 Exit 216, Mis-
sion
Blue Mountain Old Time Fiddlers
•Saturday, April 29, 6 p.m.
•Stokes Landing Senior Center, 195
N.W. Opal Place, Irrigon
$5/adults, free/12 and under. People
are invited to come at 5 p.m. for dinner,
which will be available for purchase.
Martin Gerschwitz
•Sunday, April 30; 3-6 p.m.
•Sno Road Winery, 111 W. Main St.,
Echo
No cover. Kid-friendly. Formerly with
Iron Butterfly, Meat Loaf, Walter Trout
and more.
Night life
DJ music
•Saturdays, 8 p.m.
•The Pheasant, 149 E. Main St.,
Hermiston
Karaoke w/DJ David
•Fridays and Saturdays; 8 p.m.
•Riverside Sports Bar, 1501 Sixth
St., Umatilla
Lock, Stock & Lipstick Ladies’
Night
•Saturdays; 8 p.m.-2 a.m.
•Sub Zero Restaurant & Lounge,
100 W. Highway 730, Irrigon
No cover. Drink specials from 8-10
p.m. Live DJ with female-friendly music.
The Office Trivia Tuesday
•Tuesday, April 25; 7 p.m. No cover
•40 Taps, 337 S.W. Emigrant Ave.,
Pendleton
Whiskey Wednesday Game Night
•Wednesdays; 3-7 p.m.
•The Pheasant, 149 E. Main St.,
Hermiston
No cover. Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii,
PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 64.
Digital Karaoke
•Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m.
•The Pheasant, 149 E. Main St.,
Hermiston
LOL Comedy Jam
•Thursdays; 8 p.m.
•Wildhorse Sports Bar, Wildhorse
Resort & Casino, off I-84 Exit 216, Mis-
sion.
No cover. April 27: Live DJ
Mac’s Trivia Night
•First Thursday of month, 8 p.m. No
cover
•Mac’s Bar & Grill, 1400 S.W. Dorion
Ave., Pendleton
21 and older. East. Drink. Think.
Teams of 2-8 compete in trivia contest
with other teams. Live host and prizes.
Wine tasting
•Fridays, 4-8 p.m.
•Sno Road Winery, 111 W. Main St.,
Echo.
Theater, Stage & Film
“Diary of Anne Frank”
•Saturday, April 22; 7 p.m.
•Irrigon High School, 315 E. Wyoming
Ave.
By donation. Students present the
story based on writings by Anne Frank, a
young Jewish girl.
Chippendales
•Thursday, April 29; 6:30 & 9:30 p.m.
•Rivers Event Center, Wildhorse Re-
sort & Casino, off I-84 Exit 216, Mission.
www.wildhorseresort.com
$54/premium seats, $44/general seats
(Club Wild members receive $10 discount).
The male revue features chiseled bodies,
cheeky humor and charm. 21 and older.
“Live Wire!” w/Luke Burbank
•Saturday, April 29; 7:30 p.m. No cover
•Hamley Saloon, 8 S.E. Court Ave.,
Pendleton
www.livewireradio.org/live
$15/general; $25/VIP. Join Emmy
award-winning host Luke Burbank for a
live taping of the fastest growing entertain-
ment show on public radio. An evening of
Late Night stride, Oscar Wilde wit and the
charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshal-
ing a parade. Music, comedy and conver-
sation. Also features James Lavadour and
Jim Brunberg.
Hot tickets
•The Pilot Tour: (featuring hip-hop
artists Gem Starks and US[+] from Port-
land) May 12, Flower Building in Walla
Walla; and May 13, Little Vert Theater
in Pendleton. Tickets available ($10) via
www.thepilottour.com
•What the Festival: June 16-19, Wolf
Run Ranch, near Dufur. Three-day music,
art, film and interactive festival. Features
90 electronic music DJs on eight stages
and the largest splash pool in North Amer-
ica. Camping options available ($300-
$2,500) via www.whatthefestival.com
•Pendleton Whisky Fest: (featuring
Maroon 5) July 15, Pendleton Round-Up
Grounds. Box/grand stand seats still avail-
able ($70-$95) via www.pendletonwhisky-
musicfest.com
•Northwest World Reggae Festival:
(music, camping, food, vendors) July 28-
30, Pfau Pfamily Pfarma, 13 miles west of
Sandy. Early bird prices ($120) via www.
nwwrf.com
•Eclipse Wine Festival: (music,
rooms, camping, wine, meals, tours,
eclipse viewing) Aug. 18-21, Eola Hills
Legacy Vineyard, near Salem. Single
event or multiple-day packages (free-
$2,900) via www.eolahillswinery.com
———
Want to get your event listed in our
calendar? Send information to commu-
nity@eastoregonian.com, or c/o Tammy
Malgesini, 333 E. Main Street, Hermiston,
OR, 97838.
MOVIE REVIEW
Love triangle undoes historical epic ‘The Promise’
By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer
The Armenian Genocide is a
curiously unexplored moment in
our modern history, cinematically
speaking. That fact alone makes
director and co-writer Terry
George’s “The Promise” intriguing
enough. Historical fiction generally
has it over documentaries in
inspiring mass interest, especially
when actors as appealing as Oscar
Isaac, Christian Bale and Charlotte
Le Bon are involved.
And indeed, “The Promise” is
a sprawling and handsome epic
set around the extermination of
1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey. But despite the best of
intentions, the film fails to properly
explain and contextualize both
what led to that disgraceful episode,
which Turkey to this day denies,
and why it escalated as it did.
Instead, “The Promise” chooses to
focus in on an unsympathetic love
triangle that manages to trivialize
the film overall.
The goal, as always, is to
personalize the events that are too
big and too devastating to look at as
a whole — to make it about the lives
interrupted, cut short and thrown
into turmoil because of external
forces. Thus we’re given the char-
acter Michael Boghosian (Isaac),
an Armenian medical student
from a small village in Southern
Turkey who uses his fiancée’s
dowry to study modern medicine
in Constantinople. Michael isn’t
“The Promise”
★★★☆
PG-13, 134 minutes
Jose Haro/Open Road Films via AP
This image released by Open Road Films shows Oscar Isaac, left,
and Charlotte Le Bon in a scene from “The Promise.”
in love with his fiancée (Angela
Sarafyan), but such is life in Siroun
where marriages are arranged and
he doesn’t have any other choice.
He kisses her goodbye and heads off
to the big city, promising to return in
just a few years.
Constantinople is an oasis
of temptation for Michael, who
essentially falls for the first woman
he sees. The beguiling Ana (Le
Bon) is a cosmopolitan beauty
and intellectual. She lived in Paris
for years. She exudes ethereal
confidence. And she’s an Armenian
from around his hometown. Ana
also happens to be in a long-term
relationship with Chris Myers
(Bale), an Associated Press reporter
who we’re told drinks too much.
While Michael is enjoying
the city life and lusting after Ana,
though, things are devolving around
him. It’s 1914 and vague signs of
war are emerging. Things go on as
normal for a little while — there
are German soldiers at the parties
now and battleships in the harbor
and a heightened sense that some
Turks are anti-Armenian. And
then Constantinople’s Armenian
intellectuals start getting arrested
and taken away. To where is unclear.
To fight? To prison camps? To be
executed?
The intention, likely, is to put
the viewer on the blurry ground
level with Michael and Ana, who
see their world turned upside down
so suddenly that of course there
would be confusion. Explanation
and insight is hardly a priority when
survival is the goal. But that’s where
Bale’s Chris Myers should have
been more useful.
To the film’s credit, he does take
us early on to distant villages to
witness townspeople being rounded
up and walked through the desert.
Women and children are executed
without hesitation and, when
Chris is spotted in the distance,
soldiers take off after him. It’s
clear they don’t want people seeing
what they’re doing. He chimes in
occasionally with helpful exposition
as he’s dictating articles.
“The Promise” is infinitely more
interested in the triangle, dropping
the three leads into convenient
situations to heighten the will they/
won’t they/can they/should they
drama, which, frankly, becomes
increasingly unsympathetic as the
situation around them becomes
more dire.
It’s unfair to critique such an
utterly sincere film that does contain
some riveting action and acting
and even might inspire some to
learn more about this moment in
history, but unfortunately, the story
just doesn’t live up to its grand
ambitions.