artslandia at the performance january/february 2016

AT THE PERFORMANCE

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2016 · VOL. 2 ISSUE 2 · THE FESTIVAL ISSUE

Two actors, a harpist,a sax player, and a fi lm expert rep their festivals!

FESTIVAL SPECIAL

OUT THERE

Grammy-honored “Queen of Mean” Lisa Lampanelli

THE LAST LAUGH

One theater’s plan to conquer TV

ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORMANCE • JAN | FEB 2015 5

12FROM THE EDITOR-AT-LARGEBarry Johnson commends Sven Birkerts’ new book, Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age for identifying both a problem—di� used attention—and a solution: art.

20FROM THE DESK OF: MICHAEL BUCHINOThe prolifi c theater poster designer shows o� his home o� ce and talks about his pro-cess. Some ideas take months and some mere minutes...but he always begins by reading the script.

22TOMMY TUNE’S IN TOWN!The legendary Broadway fi gure plugs his Valentine’s Day gig at the Winningstad Theatre with local musical theater maven Susannah Mars. “I’ll wear my red suit!”

26WHOLE WORLD, ONE SCREENBill Foster has spent the last 37 years programming Northwest Film Center’s International Film Festival. Artslandia asks: How do you choose your favorite movies from a world of options?

28OUT THERE: TV AS THEATERAction/Adventure Theatre’s Pilot Season debuts plays that are formatted like pilot TV episodes and lets the audience vote for which one will “air” as a series next year.

34LAST LAUGH: LISA LAMPANELLIThe self-described “Queen of Mean” comes clean to PDX-pat comic Virginia Jones about insult comedy, frat boys’ money, TV with Trump, and “a joke that got out of control.”

A R T S L A N D I A . C O M

Welcome to Artslandia at the Performance—a city playbill and performing arts magazine. ENJOY THE SHOW.

IN THIS ISSUE

Out & AboutFrom the Editor-at-LargeThe LeadFrom The Desk Of

8121420

Crossword PuzzleTag. You’re It.Fun FactsThe Last Laugh

24303234

R EGUL A R FE ATUR ES

JAN FEB 2016

28

14

26

Think you have arts smarts? Test your knowledge in our

CROSSWORD PUZZLE!

THE LEAD: FESTIVAL SPECIAL

Meet four stars: A saxophonist from PDX

Jazz Festival, a harpist from Chamber Music Northwest’s Winter Festival, and actors from Oregon Shakespeare

Festival and Fertile Ground.

The Festival Issue

6 ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORMANCE • JAN | FEB 2015

AT THE PERFORMANCE

®

What is your resolution for the new year?

PUBLISHER + FOUNDERMisty Tompoles

EDITOR-AT-LARGEBarry Johnson

ASSOCIATE EDITORA.L. Adams

OPERATIONSNina Chomak

COPY EDITORKristen Seidman

DESIGNZelda Burk

Lisa Johnston-Smith

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT

EXECUTIVESteven Sturgeon

MEDIA DIRECTORChris Porras

PUBLISHING COORDINATORBella Showerman

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Barry JohnsonVictoria JonesMatt Stangel

CONTRIBUTINGILLUSTRATOR

Carolyn Main

CONTRIBUTINGPHOTOGRAPHER

Maddie Ettinger

EDITORIAL INTERNErika Murphy

A R T S L A N D I A .COM

Become a better cook!

Learn to play the piano!

Call my grandparents more often!

Look for the silver

lining!

Make space for my own creative

projects!

Live in the moment (and drink

more water)!

See more performing

arts!

Laugh more!

Learn to play guitar!

Finish and launch the card

game I've designed and illustrated,

Pitch Please!

Artslandia at the Performance is published by Rampant Creative, Inc.

©2015 Rampant Creative, Inc.

All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

Rampant Creative, Inc./Artslandia Magazine2240 N. Interstate Ave., Suite 200 | Portland, OR 97227


MADDIE ETTINGER is a senior at Northwest Academy. She has created black and white, digital, and mixed media photography for fi ve years. She enjoys visiting Portland landmarks like the Pittock Mansion.

BARRY JOHNSON, editor of Oregon ArtsWatch, has been an arts writer and editor since 1978, when he started writing about dance for The Seattle Sun. He edited the arts section of Willamette Week in the early 1980s and started at The Oregonian as arts editor in 1983, moving between edit-ing and writing until leaving in 2009. He’s the founder and editor of culture critique website Oregon ArtsWatch, and serves as Artslandia’s Editor-at-Large.

VIRGINIA JONES started doing comedy in Portland, where she was working as “a bike-riding vegan cliché.” Now she tours the nation indulging her dark side as a “goth comic.” She appears in Portlandia and has been in six Bridgetown Comedy Festivals, as well as Boston’s Women in Comedy Fes-tival, Austin’s Ladies Are Funny Festival, and Portland’s All Jane Comedy Festival. Her debut comedy album, Gothic American, just dropped in November.

CAROLYN MAIN is an illustrator and Port-land native with a penchant for the absurd. She utilizes wild lines and color to depict the humor in everyday life. She’s currently writing a graphic novel and designing too many video games, along with one great card game. She’s also way into singing Billy Joel songs and wearing jumpsuits.

SUSANNAH MARS is thrilled to be a part of the Artslandia family. Based in Portland, Oregon, for over 25 years, Susannah is an award-winning actress who has appeared in more than 100 productions, concerts, and recordings around the country. She is a resident artist at Artists Repertory Theatre. Find out more about Susannah at susannahmars.com.

ERIKA MURPHY is a senior at the Uni-versity of Portland, studying English and Spanish. She joined the Artslandia team for a few months as an intern and really enjoyed attending and reviewing Portland’s autumn shows!

MATT STANGEL is a writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon. His articles and essays have appeared in UTNE Reader, Portland Mercury, and online at IntoThe-Woods.TV and Oregon ArtsWatch. His po-ems have been published by Sonora Review, & Review, Poictesme, and more. He com-poses music as “import/import” and per-forms with a band called No Phone.

CAITLIN WEBB moved to Portland from Georgia to immerse herself in music and art. She photographs bands for Eleven, NextNW.com, and Jambase.com. One of her images graces the cover of Phosphorescent’s most recent live album, Live at the Music Hall. Between gigs, she enhances her fash-ion editorial portfolio and shoots mysteri-ous-looking models in uncanny locations like Hippo Hardware.

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THE BOOK OF MORMONU.S. BANK BROADWAY IN PORTLANDTwo naïve Mormons on a mission to Uganda expect to delve into scriptures but are instead thrown into war, famine, poverty, and AIDS—in a funny way. Religious satire musicals are rare, but this nine-time Tony Award winner is a hit!

JAN. 12–24; KELLER AUDITORIUM

GREGORY ALAN ISAKOVOREGON SYMPHONYAfter spending much of his life traveling, this indie folk musician sings largely about place and brings intimacy to any space—even The ‘Schnitz. He’s claimed he’ll “implode” if he doesn’t write and sing, but his poetic music is far from explosive.

JAN. 14; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

THE YELLOW WALLPAPERCOHO PRODUCTIONSIsolation isn’t exactly the best cure for depression. After a doctor confi nes Charlotte to a single room, she begins to obsess over the wallpaper and fi nds a woman trapped in the pattern. The play is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story but speaks profoundly to modern dialogues on mental health.

JAN. 15–FEB. 6; COHO THEATRE

GERONIMO STILTON: MOUSE IN SPACEOREGON CHILDREN’S THEATREIn this world premiere based on the kids’ book series, we travel with an adventurous mouse on a top-secret mission to save his town, fi rst to New Mouse City—currently under the threat of an evil professor and his inven-tions—and then to outer space.

JAN. 16–FEB. 14; NEWMARK THEATRE

GREAT EXPECTATIONSPORTLAND CENTER STAGEAs the orphaned Pip adventures through this Dickensian tale, he encounters all sorts of love: his furtive a� ection for Estella, his unlikely sympathy for convict Magwitch, and his ultimate forgiveness of the eccentric Miss Havisham.

JAN. 16–FEB. 14; U.S. BANK MAIN STAGE, GERDING THEATER AT THE ARMORY

WINTER DANCE RECITALJEFFERSON DANCERSBased on their technical profi -ciency and poignant emotion, you’d never guess the dancers are in high school! Tonight all 150 of them perform a range of dance styles, which they’ve studied with world-renowned artists.

JAN. 14; JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL

THE ADVENTURES OF DEX DIXON: PARANORMAL DICKSTUMPTOWN STAGES Dex Dixon works as a paranor-mal investigator “across the dimensional rift” in Night Side, a town teeming with monsters from old movies, in this musical that’s both comedic and horrifi c.

JAN. 21–31; BRUNISH THEATRE

FERTILE GROUND FESTIVALPORTLAND AREA THEATRE ALLIANCEDo you like local? How about new? These are the only criteria for enjoying the Fertile Ground Festival, which includes works of all genres from large institutions to self-produced companies. Art groups and audiences alike marinate in the ever-evolving creativity.(Read more about Fertile Ground participant Grace Carter in The Lead, pg. 14)

JAN. 21–31; CITYWIDE

IMPULSE! IMPROVISATIONAL TROUPEOREGON CHILDREN’S THEATRE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS COMPANYDespite being new to the discipline of improv, these young adults compete against professionals—and win! After a year away, they return to the OCT stage, bringing faster-than-you-can-believe games and impressive wit.

JAN. 22–FEB. 6; YP STUDIO THEATER

LA COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI: WHAT THE DAY OWES TO THE NIGHTWHITE BIRDTwelve French-Algerian and African male dancers, under the direction of French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi, integrate martial arts, gymnas-

tics, and contemporary ballet into their evocative, fi ery dance.

JAN. 28–30; LINCOLN HALL, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEEBROADWAY ROSE THEATRE COMPANYSix quirky tweens vie for brag-ging rights in a spelling bee that isn’t always on track—or appro-priate for middle schoolers. The o� cial pronouncer and a little audience participation keep us all alert and entertained. Parental guidance suggested.

JAN. 28–FEB. 28; NEW STAGE AUDITORIUM

ALICE IN WONDERLANDNW CHILDREN’S THEATERGo behind the looking glass with Alice and visit the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and a whole cast of other kooky characters.

This musical is infused with jazz to play up the pizzazz of Lewis Carroll’s vibrant story.

JAN. 30–FEB. 28; NW CHILDREN’S THEATER

FOREVERPORTLAND CENTER STAGEMonologist Dael Orlandersmith visits the graves of legendary artists who inspired her as a kid in Harlem. As she investigates a fraught maternal relationship, her anger is tangible; so is the message that art helps us over-come adversity.

JAN. 30–MAR. 20; ELLYN BYE STUDIO, GERDING THEATER AT THE ARMORY

YOU FOR ME FOR YOUPORTLAND PLAYHOUSEA supernatural story fl its be-tween the U.S. and North Korea following two Chinese sisters who are experiencing life as foreigners. American culture is

OUT & ABOUT MUSIC DANCE THEATER ONE NIGHT ONLY! FAMILY SHOW

Phot

o by

T. C

harle

s Eric

kson

.

OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVALOREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Up for a trip to Ashland? The Oregon Shakespeare Festival opens with three world premiere adaptations from classic literature (Great

Expectations, The River Bride, The Yeomen of the Guard) and one Shakespeare production (Twelfth Night). Strong male leads abound: an orphan boy, a stranger mysteriously pulled from a river, a wrongly ac-cused man facing death, and one more man...who’s actually a woman!

(Read more about OSF actor Danforth Comins in The Lead, pg. 14) THROUGHOUT 2016; ANGUS BOWMER THEATRE

AND THOMAS THEATRE


presented from an outside perspective, where American accents and customs are di� cult to decipher.

FEB. 3–28; PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE

THE CALLPROFILE THEATREAs “perfect couple” Annie and Peter navigate international adoption, increasingly di� cult circumstances cause them to reevaluate their relation-ship, their culture, and the sacrifi ces they’re willing to make for parenthood.

FEB. 4–21; MORRISON STAGE, ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE

WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOWTRIANGLE PRODUCTIONS!When a new girl arrives at a Catholic reformatory in 1914 with Margaret Sanger’s revolutionary pamphlets on birth control, a group of girls becomes obsessed. While they religiously follow the famous feminist’s life in the news-papers, they reveal a little about their own lives, including their hardships.

FEB. 4–27; THE SANCTUARY AT SANDY PLAZA

EACH AND EVERY THINGPORTLAND CENTER STAGESolo actor/playwright Dan Hoyle grapples with our unmet needs for community in this digital age, bringing us along in his world travels by imper-sonating real-life characters he met in a small Nebraska town, a Digital Detox retreat, and Calcutta.

FEB. 6–MAR. 27; ELLYN BYE STUDIO, GERDING THEATER AT THE ARMORY

MOTHERS & SONSARTISTS REPERTORY THEATREA mother whose son died from AIDS 20 years ago reconnects with his for-mer partner, a man now married with a young son. The play is humorous, hopeful, and one of the fi rst to bring 1980s dialogues about AIDS to the stage.

FEB. 9–MAR. 6; ALDER STAGE, ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE

SKINNER/KIRK DANCE ENSEMBLEBODYVOXEric Skinner and Daniel Kirk founded their dance company to push boundaries, and their work is just as innovative nearly two decades later. They’ll premiere two new dances about relationships and spirituality, choreographed to original music by Tim Ribner.

FEB. 11–20; BODYVOX DANCE CENTER

Butterfl ies and LightningThrough Jan. 16 | Froelick Gallery

Miles Cleveland Goodwin’s impressionist landscape paintings typically feature humans and beasts, but this exhibit favors the more delicate butterfl y, which he transforms into a haunting and darkly beautiful creature. Goodwin is proud that, even in this age of digital manipulation, he’s an artist who intentionally creates by hand, for a canvas that’s textured and nuanced. (froelickgallery.com; 714 NW Davis St.)

Jim Lommasson: Exit Wounds and What We Carried Life After War—Soldiers’ Stories and What We Carried: Fragments from the Cradle of CivilizationJan. 6–31 | Blue Sky Gallery

Iraqi refugees and American soldiers each share their experiences in two separate photo exhibits by Jim Lommasson. In Exit Wounds, soldiers reveal the hardships they face reintegrating into daily life when they return from war through a varied collection of both staged and candid photographs paired with thought-provoking quotes from the photos’ subjects. In What We Carried, Lommasson highlights the humanity of Iraqi refugees by photographing personal items they’ve brought along in their escape from Iraq to the U.S. He’s also asked refugees to individualize their photos. Some added drawings or words, others collaged. Both exhibits express Lommasson’s earnest hope to foster connections between Iraqis and Americans. (blueskygallery.org; 122 NW 8th Ave.)

24 Hour EmpireJan. 7–16 | Upfor Gallery

Josh Michaels has created a 24-hour homage to Empire, Andy Warhol’s famous 1964 fi lm that features eight hours of continuous footage of the Empire State Building. But Michaels sets his fi lm within the context of today’s 24-hour security cameras. While it doesn’t include any of Warhol’s original footage, it does utilize a fi xed camera and a single frame like the original. In one area of the exhibit, the fi lm plays in real time, and in

another, viewers can compress or expand the duration. Just once, Upfor will play the fi lm in its full 24-hour duration. (upforgallery.com; 929 NW Flanders St.)

Rowland RickettsJan. 29–June 4 | Museum of Contemporary Craft

Trained in Tokushima, Ricketts harvests indigo pigment in the Japanese tradition. This centuries-old process produces hand-farmed indigo instead of today’s petroleum-derived synthetic dye. It would seem the more sustainable method, but he explores the environmental costs and potential benefi ts of local, individual indigo production in his installation of dyed textiles and process documentation. (mocc.pnca.edu; 724 NW Davis St.)

David Slader and Phil SylvesterFeb. 4–March 2 | Gallery 114

Portland painter David Slader’s new work would be enticement enough to visit Gallery 114, but there’s more. Slader’s coaxed Phil Sylvester, his friend and “the best-known disappeared artist in Oregon,” out of hiding to unveil his last 15 years of drawings. They’re all of one subject who sat for more than 1,000 hours. (gallery114pdx.com; 1100 NW Glisan St.)

Contemporary Native Photographers and The Edward Curtis LegacyFeb. 6–May 8 | Portland Art Museum

PAM welcomes three contemporary Native American photographers, including Zig Jackson, the fi rst to enter the Library of Congress in 2005. Alongside these works, PAM honors ethnologist and photographer Edward Curtis, who documented Native American cultural practices, languages, and traditions for over 80 tribes in The North American Indian, his 20-volume book set published between 1907 and 1930. This exhibit features highlights from his expansive collection of over 1,500 photogravures and 700 other large-scale images. (portlandartmuseum.org; 1219 SW Park Ave.)

ABOVE: Zig Jackson, Untitled, 1998, from the series Entering Zig’s Reservation, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist.

S P O N S O R E D B Y T H E P O R T L A N D A R T M U S E U M

GALLERY GUIDE


CONTIGO PAN Y CEBOLLAMILAGROFamous Cuban playwright Hector Quintero brings levity to 1950s Havana hardships. Plucky Lala can’t quite scrape together enough money for her family, but she excels at creating chaos. No matter what, this family will be “together through thick and thin,” as the title suggests.

FEB. 11–MAR. 5; MILAGRO THEATRE

2016 PDX JAZZ FESTIVALPDX JAZZOne hundred events in 10 jazz-packed days include the Spanish Harlem Or-chestra, Grammy-Award winner Dianne Reeves, fl amenco-rooted pianist Chano Dominguez, the Africa Bass Ensemble, and tributes to jazz greats like Freddie Hubbard and Alice Coltrane. (Read more about PDX Jazz Fest saxophonist Nicole Glover in The Lead, pg. 14)

FEB. 18–28; CITYWIDE

2016 WINTER FESTIVALCHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST CMNW, a group that’s fi lled 46 Portland summers with classical music, has themed its third winter o� ering “Masterpieces Reimagined,” bringing new instruments and arrangements to well-worn works. (Read more about harpist Nancy Allen in The Lead, pg. 14)

JAN. 27–FEB. 1; CITYWIDE

ROMEO AND JULIETOREGON BALLET THEATREJames Canfi eld was artistic director of OBT from its emergence in 1989 until 2003. Now OBT revives one of his original works, which unfl inchingly translates the dark passion of Shakespeare’s poetry into movement.

FEB. 27–MAR. 5; KELLER AUDITORIUM

BAD KITTY: ON STAGEOREGON CHILDREN’S THEATREYou might have more in common with this cat than you think! When a new baby and a new dog encroach on Kitty’s territory, Kitty feels unjustly edged out and needs a plan. A new dog might not upset us, but we’ve surely all felt jealous or unsure of our place at some point or other.

FEB. 27–MAR. 27; WINNINGSTAD THEATRE

STUPID F#*@ING BIRDPORTLAND CENTER STAGERi� ng o� Chekhov’s The Seagull, an aspiring director rebels against art from previous generations, and a younger woman vies with an older woman for the attention of one writer. The original play is from 1895, but we still confront its main dilemmas, namely the small group power struggle and the threat of infi delity.

FEB. 27–MAR. 27; U.S. BANK MAIN STAGE, GERDING THEATRE AT THE ARMORY

A R T I S T SR E P E R T O R Y

T H E A T R E

MOTHERS AND SONSTerrence McNallyJane Unger

directed by

by

Mic

hae

l Me

nd

els

on

FEB 9 - MAR 6

“…A TAUT, TERRIFIC NEWPLAY…THE TENSION

CONSTANTLY PERCOLATES.”HOWARD SHAPIRO, NEWSWORKS.ORG

SEASON SPONSOR

RONNI LACROUTE David & ChristineVernier


BY NOW NEARLY ALL OF US ARE AWARE THAT SOMETHING ISN’T QUITE RIGHT,

at least those of us who were up and running be-

fore the Internet.

“We feel it as anxiety, as self-detachment, as a sense of incompleteness, a private distress to which we respond, if we do at all, by turning to therapy, to prescriptions, to meditation and endorphin-releasing exertions,” writes Sven Birkerts in his new book Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age.

I’ll pick up another sentence, almost at ran-dom from the fi rst essay in the book: “Modern living fi nds us enmeshed in systems that we think we require, that require us, from which it is every day more di� cult to extricate our-selves.”

We are swamped—with information, sales pitches, entertainments, a cacophony of voices and arguments, with images, increas-ingly seductive and fast moving. If we want to participate in this culture of data excess, we have to be available to it all the time. But you know this, unless you’ve had the fortitude to pass on the past two decades of technological evolution. And really, even if you don’t have a smartphone, a smart TV, a laptop with high pixel density, a tablet that’s the same as a laptop only better (!), you know about the anxiety we’re talking about because you’ve made a conscious decision to be a refusenik.

Since writing The Gutenberg Elegies in 1994, Birkerts has focused on the changes our new

technology enforces on us. Maybe this obser-vation is just an extension of the old Marshall McLuhan dictum: The medium is the mes-sage. Except that the medium has become plu-ral and more pervasive than McLuhan, who died in 1980, could have imagined. Maybe. After all, he also said, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” And his imagination was a powerful tool.

If your attention is waning at this point, I understand completely. Attention Defi cit Disorder is our common cultural complaint. I’m fond of quoting Simone Weil: “Culture is the formation of attention.” But what does a culture look like that struggles with forming attention? Well, it’s as fractured, confused, and overwhelmed as ours is. It’s a condition, not a culture, really, except in the broadest anthropological description.

Is resistance futile? Would a little more RAM cure what ails us? Hey, virtual reality is just getting warmed up. Maybe our tech will save us, after all? Except that Birkerts mourns our increasing remoteness from physical reality.

What, then, is the remedy for repair, besides complete resistance? Maybe you’ve already fi gured this out yourself, because most of you have picked up this magazine at an arts event.

“Works of art are feats of concentration,” Birkerts writes. “And imagination is the in-strument of concentration.” And not just for the artist: “Our involvement with a genuine work of art not only gives us the human ex-perience, it also asks from us some of the same attention that fi rst triggered the artist’s creative impulse.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

Distracted? Focus on Art.A new book says our modern attention is fragmented—and the arts can help.

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BY NOW NEARLY ALL OF US ARE AWARE THAT SOMETHING ISN’T QUITE RIGHT,

at least those of us who were up and running be-

fore the Internet.

“We feel it as anxiety, as self-detachment, as a sense of incompleteness, a private distress to which we respond, if we do at all, by turning to therapy, to prescriptions, to meditation and endorphin-releasing exertions,” writes Sven Birkerts in his new book Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age.

I’ll pick up another sentence, almost at ran-dom from the fi rst essay in the book: “Modern living fi nds us enmeshed in systems that we think we require, that require us, from which it is every day more di� cult to extricate our-selves.”

We are swamped—with information, sales pitches, entertainments, a cacophony of voices and arguments, with images, increas-ingly seductive and fast moving. If we want to participate in this culture of data excess, we have to be available to it all the time. But you know this, unless you’ve had the fortitude to pass on the past two decades of technological evolution. And really, even if you don’t have a smartphone, a smart TV, a laptop with high pixel density, a tablet that’s the same as a laptop only better (!), you know about the anxiety we’re talking about because you’ve made a conscious decision to be a refusenik.

Since writing The Gutenberg Elegies in 1994, Birkerts has focused on the changes our new

technology enforces on us. Maybe this obser-vation is just an extension of the old Marshall McLuhan dictum: The medium is the mes-sage. Except that the medium has become plu-ral and more pervasive than McLuhan, who died in 1980, could have imagined. Maybe. After all, he also said, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” And his imagination was a powerful tool.

If your attention is waning at this point, I understand completely. Attention Defi cit Disorder is our common cultural complaint. I’m fond of quoting Simone Weil: “Culture is the formation of attention.” But what does a culture look like that struggles with forming attention? Well, it’s as fractured, confused, and overwhelmed as ours is. It’s a condition, not a culture, really, except in the broadest anthropological description.

Is resistance futile? Would a little more RAM cure what ails us? Hey, virtual reality is just getting warmed up. Maybe our tech will save us, after all? Except that Birkerts mourns our increasing remoteness from physical reality.

What, then, is the remedy for repair, besides complete resistance? Maybe you’ve already fi gured this out yourself, because most of you have picked up this magazine at an arts event.

“Works of art are feats of concentration,” Birkerts writes. “And imagination is the in-strument of concentration.” And not just for the artist: “Our involvement with a genuine work of art not only gives us the human ex-perience, it also asks from us some of the same attention that fi rst triggered the artist’s creative impulse.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

Distracted? Focus on Art.A new book says our modern attention is fragmented—and the arts can help.

Gerding Theater at the Armory128 NW Eleventh Avenue

503.445.3700 pcs.org

Chris ColemanArtistic Director

SEASON TICKET PACKAGES ARE STILL AVAILABLE!

To order, visit pcs.org, call the box offi ce at 503.445.3700 or drop by at 128 NW Eleventh Avenue

2015–2016 Season

artslandia_15/16_JAN-JUNE-1pg-4c.indd 1 29/12/15 3:45 PM


Saxophonist releasing her debut solo album, First Record

LAST SEEN Before moving to New

York, playing in Portland with the George Colligan

Quartet & Theoretical Planets, Alan Jones Sextet,

Ural Thomas & the Pain, Thomas Barber’s Spiral

Road, Kerry Politzer Quartet, and the Thara

Memory SuperbandDEGREES/AWARDS Bachelor of Music

from Portland State University, William

Bradford Mersereau, Jr. Endowed Scholarship

FAVORITE JAZZ PLAYERSJohn Coltrane, Wayne

Shorter, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Lester

Young, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Louis

ArmstrongOFFSTAGE INTERESTS

Science fi ction, dreams, Hesse, chess, creative

writing, Taoism

THE FESTIVALI’ve been attending since I was young, and I’ve played for the past four years. My top two fa-vorite memories are seeing my friend and mentor George Colligan perform with Jack DeJohnette when Jack sang and played Jim Pepper’s tune Witchi Tai To, and the Lee Konitz show in 2014 when he invited the audience to sing along. It was an incredible feeling to make music with Lee in that way.

MY SHOWThis is my fi rst time headlining! I couldn’t be more excited to be playing my original com-positions and releasing my fi rst album with my closest friends, for the people of my hometown. I’ve already played extensively with my band—who are also three of my best friends—but since I moved to New York City, we haven’t had the same opportunities to play together. This show will serve as a reunion concert for me, where I get to play with my favorite musicians again.

SHOWS I’LL SEEPuttin it Together: A Tribute to Elvin. My teacher Alan Jones, an absolute authority on all things Elvin, leads a group with Jonathan Lakey, my best friend and up-and-coming bassist in Port-land, as well as Azar Lawrence and Sonny Fortune, two music legends. Universal Conscious-ness: Tribute to Alice Coltrane. Each musician in this group is individually incredible, so it’ll be an unbelievable experience to see them to-gether, performing the music of someone whose spirit they all embody. Gary Bartz. Any lover of jazz music needs to see him at some point in their life. He represents a certain era of the music that can only be witnessed in person to experience the full impact. He’s irreplaceable.PHOTO BY CYPRESS CHVATAL-JONES.

Nicole Glover

PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL THE LEAD


Actor playing Hamlet in Hamlet and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night

THE FESTIVALI’ve acted in the OSF company over the last 12 seasons. I think Ashland’s unique destination experience allows theatergoers to really focus on the art. Their daily concerns melt away under the picturesque backdrop of the beautiful Rogue Valley. I know I sound like a travel agent, but I truly believe it!

MY SHOWSVery excited to be working on two of Shakespeare’s most acclaimed works, and I’m playing such contrasting characters! I’m in a comedy in the afternoon and a tragedy in the eve-ning. The di� erence between them keeps both performances fresh and alive. The trick is to focus solely on the moment—to know exactly where each character is in his journey in each moment and commit fully to that moment.

SHOWS I’LL SEEI’m looking forward to Lisa Loomer’s new play Roe, as it grapples with one of the biggest social issues of our time, as well as Sean Graney’s adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yeomen of the Guard. Sean’s company, The Hypo-crites, has been tearing it up in Chicago for years... Also anticipating Desdemona Chiang’s direction of The Winter’s Tale. She’s a brilliant up-and-coming director. PHOTO BY JENNY GRAHAM.

OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Danforth Comins

LAST SEENActing onstage in the last 12 seasons of Oregon Shakespeare FestivalDEGREES/AWARDS Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of IllinoisFAVORITE PLAYWRIGHTS Eugene O’Neill, William Shakespeare, Lynn NottageFAVORITE FAMOUS ACTORS Steve McQueen, Mark Rylance, Katharine HepburnOFFSTAGE INTERESTS Hiking, playing guitar, painting, watching sports

THE LEAD


THE LEAD

FERTILE GROUND FESTIVAL

Grace CarterCrowdfunded, helped devise, and plays main character, Charlotte, in a new adaptation of The Yellow Wall-paper

THE FESTIVALI’ve been in the Portland theater commu-nity for quite a few years, so I’ve known of Fertile Ground for quite some time. I’ve seen a few pieces, and I’ve enjoyed the program for fostering new and innovative local work. My impression is that Fertile Ground has the ability to draw an eclectic and experimental audience—and I’d say the same of the talent. There’s a kind of invigorated energy around the work.

MY SHOWCharlotte from The Yellow Wallpaper is a fabulously energetic and bright woman, with a quick wit and a fast-paced intellect. This is by far the hardest I’ve ever worked on a character or a show! The long-form process has been really rewarding, but also a stamina challenge. I get to be par-ticularly physical and to interact with a complicated score and video installation, and the show allows me to use a range of vocal activity—voice-over work, singing, and several di� erent “states” of speaking. It’s a small ensemble (with Christy Bigelow and Chris Harder), which is satisfying; three is actually my favorite number of characters onstage.

A SHOW I’LL SEEBob #middleschool #tweensandteens by Rogue Pack. I saw some of Rogue Pack’s work with p:ear homeless youth, and it was very well done! An excellent way for youth to have their voices heard through art. PHOTO BY OWEN CAREY.

LAST SEENAs a co-founder &

company member at Defunkt Theatre, playing Ruth in The Homecoming,

Martha in The Children’s Hour, and Roma in

Glengarry Glen RossDEGREES/AWARDS

Drammy Award (Best Director)

for 4.48 Psychosis, Defunkt Theatre

FAVORITE PLAYWRIGHTSSarah Kane, Harold Pinter,

Sam Shepard, Sue Mach FAVORITE FAMOUS ACTORS

Naomi Watts, Katherine Waterston,

David Oyelowo, Gong Li, Robert Downey, Jr.,

all the ladies in Kill BillOFFSTAGE INTERESTS

Working with youth in schools, spending

time with my son, collecting LPs, listening to records, eating tacos

THE LEAD


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THE LEAD

CHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST WINTER FESTIVAL

Nancy AllenHarpist and masterclass teacher

LAST SEENOn and o� at CMNW Winter Fest for 35 years and teaching masterclassesDEGREES/AWARDS Master of Music from Juilliard, studied in France with Lily Laskine, Grammy nominee

THE FESTIVALI’ve played at Chamber Music North-west intermittently for over 35 years. When I fi rst performed, it felt almost like a surreal extension of my graduate music studies. There used to be giant swings perched up on the hill by Anna Mann dormitory. I spent hours there swinging away all the tension after long rehearsals. There’s a camaraderie there that’s unmatched anywhere, and I learned so much about music making.

MY SHOWThe harp is essentially a French instru-ment, and the works I’ll play in January are all French and all transcriptions. Both Ravel and Debussy orchestrated many of their own piano works, expand-ing their colors, giving them a new di-mension. I’ll be arranging the piano part for the harp in Debussy’s Prélude à l’ apres-midi d’un Faun. Ravel’s Sona-tine, originally for piano solo, will be joined by fl ute and viola. I’ll also play Debussy’s two Arabesques, originally for piano. Obviously, the harp is a more delicate instrument, and I use this qual-ity to the gently illuminate the notes. A special arrangement is being made of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, and I have no idea yet which parts I’ll play. That’s a bit daunting! French music is warm, playful, and very sensitive, and adding new voices to old masterpieces is a reason to come hear it.

SHOWS I’LL SEEI would try to see/hear CelloPointe: The Magic of Music and Dance, because it sounds absolutely out of this world—a combination of musical and visual beauty and creativity.

I would also recommend Tailored For Two: Peter Serkin and Julia Hsu. The only thing better than one pianist is two artists playing one piano.PHOTO BY CHRIS LEE.

THE LEAD

FAVORITE COMPOSERSSchumann, Brahms, impressionists Berg and Schoenberg, and lesser-knowns Hasselmans, Tournier, Renié, Salzedo, GrandjanyOFFSTAGE INTERESTSCooking, my two Turkish angora cats, following horse races, hiking, cross-country skiing, playing squash quite badly

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We arePortland

FROM THE DESK OF:

MICHAELBUCHINO

BY A.L. ADAMS. PHOTO BY CHRIS PORRAS.

Behold graphic designer Michael Buchino’s specifi c niche: creating theater posters for some of Portland’s biggest plays from the comfort of his Northeast Hollywood Dis-trict home. “First, I read the script to get a feel for the story,” he explains. Then he scours the internet for imagery. Then comes hand-sketching, scanning, outlining in Illus-trator, and doing the layout in Photoshop. And fi nally...showtime. “One of the biggest rewards is seeing a play onstage,” he says. “Actors and directors constantly surprise me.”

7years designing

for PCS

years in the theater design

industry

15

50number of posters

designed for Portland Center Stage to date

book covers created

25 38Can say “Cheers” in

languages

Handmade Romanian rug, a souvenir from his parents’ travels, heavy on his favorite colors:

black, white, red

Cheap guitar, painted and used in a play poster

Design process: Sketch, scan, manipulate in

Illustrator, lay out in Photoshop

size, in feet, of Buchino’s largest

design ever printed (a billboard!)

40“My drawing of our mascot,

an eagle, was plastered on the basketball court, sweatshirts,

hats...everywhere!”

10age at which he created his fi rst

logo design

Worked full-time to design 12 theater posters

a year but now works part-time to design 3 a year...with time for 10 personal projects

Pencil sketch for An Iliad,

Portland Center Stage

Opus, Portland Center Stage

2Longest time

to design a poster

MONTHS

30Shortest time

to design a poster

MINUTES



FROM THE DESK OF:

MICHAELBUCHINO

BY A.L. ADAMS. PHOTO BY CHRIS PORRAS.

Behold graphic designer Michael Buchino’s specifi c niche: creating theater posters for some of Portland’s biggest plays from the comfort of his Northeast Hollywood Dis-trict home. “First, I read the script to get a feel for the story,” he explains. Then he scours the internet for imagery. Then comes hand-sketching, scanning, outlining in Illus-trator, and doing the layout in Photoshop. And fi nally...showtime. “One of the biggest rewards is seeing a play onstage,” he says. “Actors and directors constantly surprise me.”

7years designing

for PCS

years in the theater design

industry

15

50number of posters

designed for Portland Center Stage to date

book covers created

25 38Can say “Cheers” in

languages

Handmade Romanian rug, a souvenir from his parents’ travels, heavy on his favorite colors:

black, white, red

Cheap guitar, painted and used in a play poster

Design process: Sketch, scan, manipulate in

Illustrator, lay out in Photoshop

size, in feet, of Buchino’s largest

design ever printed (a billboard!)

40“My drawing of our mascot,

an eagle, was plastered on the basketball court, sweatshirts,

hats...everywhere!”

10age at which he created his fi rst

logo design

Worked full-time to design 12 theater posters

a year but now works part-time to design 3 a year...with time for 10 personal projects

Pencil sketch for An Iliad,

Portland Center Stage

Opus, Portland Center Stage

2Longest time

to design a poster

MONTHS

30Shortest time

to design a poster

MINUTES

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SUSANNAH MARS: What can you tell us about your show, Taps, Tunes, and Tall Tales, Tommy?TOMMY TUNE: It’s sort of an arc of my 55-year career in show business. I worked with a lot of famous people. I do songs, dances, and stories, and it all connects. And I do a lot of Cole Porter and Carole King. It’s very eclectic, from Kurt Vile to Burt Bacharach, a lot of Gershwin; they’re my favorites.SM: Have you been in Portland before with any other shows?TT: I have! I have a wonderful memory of the fi rst time I came to Portland. I had a matinee show, and after I left the theater I went right across the street, and there was this wonderful kind of man-made waterfall. Do you know? Is it still there?SM: Keller Fountain Park!TT: There we are. I came out, and I just had to roll up my pants, take o� my shoes, and climb up that waterfall. Also the food in Portland, I remember, was really delicious.SM: What’s your favorite type of food?TT: Everything! I love Mexican food. I just came back from Thailand and had three won-derful meals there. In Vietnam also. And in Singapore, I had a great Chinese lunch. I’m a foodie.SM: Do you like to cook?TT: Oh yeah. SM: Did you ever choreograph anything that had a cooking theme? TT: I put on a show in high school that was set in the kitchen. I was a carrot, and the chef came up and cut o� my top green part—my headdress—and I sang, “All of me, why not take all of me?” Or maybe I was celery, be-cause I sang, “You took the part that was my heart...” SM: What else are you working on this sea-son? TT: Probably about the middle of next year I’ll

be directing Grand Hotel in Tokyo and Osaka.SM: Will you do that in Japanese, or will it be in English with surtitles?TT: It’ll be in Japanese. It will have to be translated.SM: Is it di� cult to make a translation?TT: They have their own version. They use the word “dream” a lot. I’ve asked, “What ex-actly are you singing here? Because it doesn’t seem to be matching the English lyric,” and it would be something like, “Happy dreams and beautiful times we are having.” SM: What do you like to do in your spare time...if there is any such thing?TT: Well, I have an art studio, and I love to paint. I don’t take photographs, and I don’t have a cell phone, and I don’t use the inter-net. I’m totally unplugged. I write notes, and I talk to people on the telephone. I’m very “old school.” So, what kind of a theater am I playing in Portland?SM: The Winningstad Theatre at Portland’5. It’s a beautiful three-tiered stage, tall and very intimate.TT: Tall is good for me.SM: It’s red. It’s a lovely, intimate “hugging” space, where you’re surrounded by audience, and they’ll be close to you to see your work and hear your stories.TT: Oh good, because this show is expandable and contractible. I’ve played very large and very small theaters, intimate cabarets, and everything in between. I’m using pianist/director Michael Biagi—he’s been with me for 47 years—and then we’ll have bass, drums. Maybe we’ll pick that up locally. Do you know when my show is? It’s on Val-entine’s Day. I’m going to love that.SM: That’s perfect, because you’re going to be in the red theater.TT: Oh good. I’ll wear my red suit.

TOMMY TUNE’S in TOWN

THERE’S MORE! Read the rest of our Q+A with Tommy Tune on artslandia.com

Broadway’s longtime true love, TOMMY TUNE, dances his way

into Portland hearts...just in time for Valentine’s Day.

INTERVIEW BY SUSANNAH MARS.

Q A

PHO

TO B

Y FR

AN

CO

LA

CO

STA

.


SUSANNAH MARS: What can you tell us about your show, Taps, Tunes, and Tall Tales, Tommy?TOMMY TUNE: It’s sort of an arc of my 55-year career in show business. I worked with a lot of famous people. I do songs, dances, and stories, and it all connects. And I do a lot of Cole Porter and Carole King. It’s very eclectic, from Kurt Vile to Burt Bacharach, a lot of Gershwin; they’re my favorites.SM: Have you been in Portland before with any other shows?TT: I have! I have a wonderful memory of the fi rst time I came to Portland. I had a matinee show, and after I left the theater I went right across the street, and there was this wonderful kind of man-made waterfall. Do you know? Is it still there?SM: Keller Fountain Park!TT: There we are. I came out, and I just had to roll up my pants, take o� my shoes, and climb up that waterfall. Also the food in Portland, I remember, was really delicious.SM: What’s your favorite type of food?TT: Everything! I love Mexican food. I just came back from Thailand and had three won-derful meals there. In Vietnam also. And in Singapore, I had a great Chinese lunch. I’m a foodie.SM: Do you like to cook?TT: Oh yeah. SM: Did you ever choreograph anything that had a cooking theme? TT: I put on a show in high school that was set in the kitchen. I was a carrot, and the chef came up and cut o� my top green part—my headdress—and I sang, “All of me, why not take all of me?” Or maybe I was celery, be-cause I sang, “You took the part that was my heart...” SM: What else are you working on this sea-son? TT: Probably about the middle of next year I’ll

be directing Grand Hotel in Tokyo and Osaka.SM: Will you do that in Japanese, or will it be in English with surtitles?TT: It’ll be in Japanese. It will have to be translated.SM: Is it di� cult to make a translation?TT: They have their own version. They use the word “dream” a lot. I’ve asked, “What ex-actly are you singing here? Because it doesn’t seem to be matching the English lyric,” and it would be something like, “Happy dreams and beautiful times we are having.” SM: What do you like to do in your spare time...if there is any such thing?TT: Well, I have an art studio, and I love to paint. I don’t take photographs, and I don’t have a cell phone, and I don’t use the inter-net. I’m totally unplugged. I write notes, and I talk to people on the telephone. I’m very “old school.” So, what kind of a theater am I playing in Portland?SM: The Winningstad Theatre at Portland’5. It’s a beautiful three-tiered stage, tall and very intimate.TT: Tall is good for me.SM: It’s red. It’s a lovely, intimate “hugging” space, where you’re surrounded by audience, and they’ll be close to you to see your work and hear your stories.TT: Oh good, because this show is expandable and contractible. I’ve played very large and very small theaters, intimate cabarets, and everything in between. I’m using pianist/director Michael Biagi—he’s been with me for 47 years—and then we’ll have bass, drums. Maybe we’ll pick that up locally. Do you know when my show is? It’s on Val-entine’s Day. I’m going to love that.SM: That’s perfect, because you’re going to be in the red theater.TT: Oh good. I’ll wear my red suit.

TOMMY TUNE’S in TOWN

THERE’S MORE! Read the rest of our Q+A with Tommy Tune on artslandia.com

Broadway’s longtime true love, TOMMY TUNE, dances his way

into Portland hearts...just in time for Valentine’s Day.

INTERVIEW BY SUSANNAH MARS.

Q A

PHO

TO B

Y FR

AN

CO

LA

CO

STA

.

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THE CALL[ FEBRUARY 4–21, 2016 ]

By Tanya BarfieldDirected by Gemma Whelan

"Potent and engaging" –The New York Times

ACROSS

1. Ghosts playwright considered the father of prose drama.

2. Shakespeare play in which Polonius makes an appearance.

3. This Glass Menagerie playwright would have celebrated his 105th birthday this year.

6. She originated the role of Maureen in Rent.

7. This Dame is one of fi ve actresses to ever win a Tony and an Oscar in the same year.

9. The Tony-award winning play with the shortest title (1978).

12. Brahms composed 21 of these Dances.14. In Peter and the Wolf, this instrument

represents the cat. 15. This man is the choreographer with the

most Tony awards. 18. This British playwright was a friend and

neighbor of James Bond creator, Ian Fleming.

19. Playwright who wrote For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf.

DOWN

1. A line run where actors speak their lines as fast as possible is called this kind of rehearsal.

4. Romeo’s last name.5. Theater district in London.6. This day of the week is considered a “dark

night” for Broadway shows in NYC.8. The English word for “battacio” comedy.10. Most ballet terminology is spoken in this

language.11. Carmen composer. 13. The title of Lorraine Hansberry’s

A Raisin in the Sun comes from this Langston Hughes poem.

16. Judy Garland’s original fi rst name.17. Theater term for a stage that is slightly

tilted toward the audience.

C R O S S W O R D

Think you got ‘em all right? Find the answers to this crossword puzzle online!

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Bill Foster wants to make one thing clear: He isn’t playing favorites.

The longtime director of the NW Film Center may have helped winnow the selections for Portland International Film Festival from more than 900 submissions, but he insists that singling any of those fi lms out would be “stupid.”

“The intent is to get people who are pretty much bludgeoned to death by commercial movies to dig a little deeper and see that there are all kinds of other fi lmmakers, and all kinds of other cultures for them to explore. We’re not dictating, ‘This is a work of genius!’ We’re not approaching this as fi lm critics. Not trying to persuade you that it’s anything other than interesting.”

Foster has a habit of rattling o� lists of genres as he speaks (“Chinese, French, or Italian...” “documentary, experimental, or narrative...” “Japanese, Czech, or Scandanavian...”) and it’s no wonder. Among the Film Center’s 30 series—PIFF and the Reel Music Festival (on this month), the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (each fall), and so many more—they manage to screen just about every type of fi lm, all with the same goal of turning watchers into seekers.

“You might see an Italian fi lm, and then go, ‘I really enjoyed that! I’m going to look for more Italian fi lms!’ or you might say, ‘Gosh, that Northwest fi lmmaker lives right in my neighborhood,’ and then you get more inter-ested in their work.”

PIFF, in particular, o� ers another perk: a chance for diverse Portlanders to see fi lms

NW Film Center presents the 39th annual Portland International Film Festival. BY A.L. ADAMS

in their fi rst language or from their country of origin. “We show fi lms from about three dozen countries, if not as many languages,” explains Foster. “If you’re Hungarian, Chi-nese, or French, you might hear of a fi lm being heralded in your own country and want to see it, and it may or may not be shown at other theaters in Portland. It may never make it to Netfl ix.”

And regardless, Foster insists stay-home movie watching falls far short of the theater experience and the festival adventure. “Any-thing that’s epic—sound, landscape, scale—is better in the theater. So is having your senses taken over by images and sound. Your cat’s

Turning Watchers intoSeekers

not jumping in your lap; the phone’s not ringing; you’re giving yourself over 100%. There’s a power that comes from being in that kind of space, with your attention undistracted. And to share that experience with an audience and feel their vibe...that’s the ‘magic of fi lm’ everybody talks about.”

And now in the form of a list: “There’s excitement; there’s urgency; there’s a community experience; there’s juxtaposition, and there’s context.” .

NW Film Center’s Portland International Film Fes-tival will present more than 140 feature fi lms and shorts from around the world from Feb. 11–27. For more information, visit nwfi lm.org/festivals/pi� .

NWFC Director, Bill Foster, has all

types of fi lms at his fi ngertips.

Photo by Caitlin Webb.

FEATURE


January 28 6:30-8:30 pm

January 15Bill Foster wants to make one thing clear: He isn’t playing favorites.

The longtime director of the NW Film Center may have helped winnow the selections for Portland International Film Festival from more than 900 submissions, but he insists that singling any of those fi lms out would be “stupid.”

“The intent is to get people who are pretty much bludgeoned to death by commercial movies to dig a little deeper and see that there are all kinds of other fi lmmakers, and all kinds of other cultures for them to explore. We’re not dictating, ‘This is a work of genius!’ We’re not approaching this as fi lm critics. Not trying to persuade you that it’s anything other than interesting.”

Foster has a habit of rattling o� lists of genres as he speaks (“Chinese, French, or Italian...” “documentary, experimental, or narrative...” “Japanese, Czech, or Scandanavian...”) and it’s no wonder. Among the Film Center’s 30 series—PIFF and the Reel Music Festival (on this month), the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (each fall), and so many more—they manage to screen just about every type of fi lm, all with the same goal of turning watchers into seekers.

“You might see an Italian fi lm, and then go, ‘I really enjoyed that! I’m going to look for more Italian fi lms!’ or you might say, ‘Gosh, that Northwest fi lmmaker lives right in my neighborhood,’ and then you get more inter-ested in their work.”

PIFF, in particular, o� ers another perk: a chance for diverse Portlanders to see fi lms

NW Film Center presents the 39th annual Portland International Film Festival. BY A.L. ADAMS

in their fi rst language or from their country of origin. “We show fi lms from about three dozen countries, if not as many languages,” explains Foster. “If you’re Hungarian, Chi-nese, or French, you might hear of a fi lm being heralded in your own country and want to see it, and it may or may not be shown at other theaters in Portland. It may never make it to Netfl ix.”

And regardless, Foster insists stay-home movie watching falls far short of the theater experience and the festival adventure. “Any-thing that’s epic—sound, landscape, scale—is better in the theater. So is having your senses taken over by images and sound. Your cat’s

Turning Watchers intoSeekers

not jumping in your lap; the phone’s not ringing; you’re giving yourself over 100%. There’s a power that comes from being in that kind of space, with your attention undistracted. And to share that experience with an audience and feel their vibe...that’s the ‘magic of fi lm’ everybody talks about.”

And now in the form of a list: “There’s excitement; there’s urgency; there’s a community experience; there’s juxtaposition, and there’s context.” .

NW Film Center’s Portland International Film Fes-tival will present more than 140 feature fi lms and shorts from around the world from Feb. 11–27. For more information, visit nwfi lm.org/festivals/pi� .

NWFC Director, Bill Foster, has all

types of fi lms at his fi ngertips.

Photo by Caitlin Webb.

FEATURE

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THEATER IMITATES TVAction/Adventure Theatre shows serial weekly plays and

an annual festival of new work, Pilot Season. BY MATT STANGEL

enough knockout runs and sold-out nights of this quasi-TV, Action/Adventure earned an underground reputation as the place for original shows with the life and personality of Portland, a place that eases younger au-diences’ transition from TV to theater, while o� ering the “Kill your TV” crowd a grassroots pure entertainment alternative. And then, suddenly...there were too many new ideas.

“2014 was the year when just about every company member had a great idea for a se-rialized show, and we were wanting to fi nd a place for each of them,” recalls Action/Adven-ture’s Associate Artistic Director, actor, and writer Noah Dunham. Though the wealth of ideas was a source of happy contention, “Doing, like, eight serials in a season would be just about impossible for a small company like us to take on.”

Time for another trick of the TV trade. A/A asked would-be show creators to jump through a hoop: submit a “pilot episode,” the speculative fi rst show in their series, for the company’s consideration. A/A collectively billed these shows as a “pilot season” and put them onstage, inviting audiences to watch them all and vote for whichever one they wanted to see more of. The winning show would be staged the following season. The runners-up would get a thumbs-up for trying, but they’d be shelved.

That’s how A/A got to Mars—Nick Fenster’s pilot, Mars One, was chosen for a full season and reprised for a second year as Mars Two. It’s also how they decided to eavesdrop on a girls’ school this spring—Brenan Dwyer’s No Man’s Land pilot was chosen. And ultimately, it’s how A/A reluctantly decided against a season of vicarious D&D—Ben Coleman’s Punching and Wizardry, along with many other fun ideas, was felled in battle.

Fenster credits the win of Mars One to “the obsessive level of world-building we put into the fi rst episode. This idea had been bouncing around in my head for several months before Pilot Season came along, so by the time we presented, we had a fairly polished piece of work in place.”

Brenan Dwyer says “having a wealth of char-acters in a well-defi ned scenario” helped her No Man’s Land stand out from the pilot pack, also touting its female perspective (sadly still under-represented in the entertainment arts) and her dedication to presenting “a perfor-mance that felt as fi nal and thought-out as a regular season show.” In anticipation of its March 2016 series debut, Action/Adventure gives the show a hell of a plug: “Three mis-fi t friends adventure through Catholic high school, dodging the watchful eye of a myste-rious nun, competing with the popular girls,

OUT THERE

All the world's a stage! "OUT THERE" spotlights o� eat performance styles and surprising or unusual arts happenings.

What’s going to happen when the fi rst humans colonize Mars? What’s it like to try a role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons for the fi rst time? How does it feel to go to an all-girl Catholic boarding school?

Themes like these may be okay in a two-hour play...but don’t you think they’d each be even better as a TV series?

Cue Action/Adventure, a scrappy theater collective by the train tracks that’s spent their last several years (or seasons?) presenting serial comedies described as “theater for TV audiences.” After settling on a theme, they “air” a series of hourlong episodes—a new one each week—until a given series is complete. Like TV, the same main characters return each week and a few supporting ones come

and go. Individual episodes each have a plot, while the season as a whole completes a larger storyline. “Wow,” you might say, “That must make for a lot of dialogue,” and A/A agrees—so they don’t write it. Instead, series creators outline characters, plot points, and “beats,” and then let actors decide what’s actually said onstage. This ensures that (unlike some improv) the pacing stays on-point, but no two nights of the same show are ever alike.

The prototype for this model was A/A’s Fall of the House, a hipster housemate comedy which saw six seasons and great local acclaim. Then there was Fall of the Band, a two-season sendup of a rock band in constant fl ux, com-plete with an EP’s-worth of original music. Then there was Sidekicks, which answered the question, “What happens when all the superheroes die and only their sidekicks with limited powers are left to save the day?” After

Photo by Pat Moran.


ping its third set of show possibilities, culled from an open submission process. From Jan. 21 through Feb. 14, they’ll consider:

· Talon Bigelow’s Purgator Inc., “a romantic workplace comedy about the minutiae of the working class in the afterlife.”

· Isinglass’s Fall of the Faire (A ri� on prior A/A titles for extra points?), a meta-comedy about young adults working their fi rst job at a fi ctional “Medieval Funworld Amusement Park,” where the modus operandi is, “Never break character.”

· Benja Barker’s Explorers of the Quantum Doorway—which sounds a bit like the sci-fi series Star Gate SG-1 peppered with Adult Swim-style antics.

· Connery MacRae and Alexandra’s Schaf-fer’s Pandemonium Playhouse Presents: DOOMAGEDDON!, which might get a little creepy: “In a world where puppets and chil-dren have become increasingly unpopular, Pandemonium Playhouse’s edu-tainment shows for kids have been shu� ed to the midnight hour. Lately, the lessons have be-come a little...strange.”

And you? If you can clear four evenings and leave your remote at home, you can help decide which show is most worthy of a four-week run in 2017. May the best production win! .

Action/Adventure's Pilot Season runs Jan. 21–Feb. 14. Each weekend features one of the four total pilot plays eligible for audience voting. For more information, visit action-adventure.squarespace.com.

and contending with the crippling absence of boys in the hallways.”

Having e� ectively combined the focus-group intentions of the pilot with the immediacy and wit of live, improvised theater to fi nd new works they want to show, A/A is busily prep-

LIKE TV, THE SAME MAIN CHARACTERS RETURN

EACH WEEK, AND A FEW SUPPORTING ONES COME

AND GO. INDIVIDUAL EPISODES EACH HAVE A

PLOT, WHILE THE SEASON AS A WHOLE COMPLETES

A LARGER STORYLINE.

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Artslandia_January.indd 1 12/30/15 10:36 AM


CMNW EDITION

Tag. You’re It.

TAG

CURTIS DAILYPRINCIPAL BASSIST,

PORTLAND BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

ON DAVID SHIFRINARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHAMBER

MUSIC NORTHWEST

He’s absolutely awesome and an inspira-tion! I’ve never seen anyone with such an indefatigable energy for music.

DAVID SHIFRIN ON PETER SHICKELE

COMPOSER EXTRAORDINAIRE

It’s been a great honor to have him here for his 80th birthday and the 50th anni-versary year of his discovery of P.D.Q. Bach. Peter is one of the great musicians of our time. A great humanitarian and a heck of a guy!

PETER SCHICKELE ON YEVGENY YONTOV

PIANIST, YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

He’s a real phenomenon of nature. He just sits down at the piano and plays anything you put in front of him, and he has such spirit the way he plays.

YEVGENY YONTOV ON EVANNA CHIEW

MEZZO-SOPRRANO, YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Evanna, if you’re reading this, you’re amazing! I’ve been playing with her this year, and more intensively in CMNW’s

Summer Festival, and it’s been an amazing experience. I’m so thankful to have met her.

Artslandia’s twist on the timeless chasing game of “tag” is a pay-it-forward series of compliments between members of Portland’s performing arts community, championing good work and generating good will at every stop. For this install-ment, Artslandia visited a CHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST event to gather orchestral accolades. BY SUSANNAH MARS.

MAR 17-19 / 7:30PM

“SOME OF THE BEST DANCERS YOU WILL EVER SEE”

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Carol Flanagan 503.528.9800

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Helping you find your way home.


Artslandia 1/3 sq - 4.65x4.75: Joshua Bell Runs: Jan/Feb 2016

A r l e n e S c h n i t z e r c o n c e r t h A l l

Saturday, February 20 | 7:30 pmSunday, February 21 | 7:30 pmMonday, February 22 | 8 pm

Robert Spano, conductor • Joshua Bell, violin

Wagner: Parsifal Prelude to Act ISibelius: Symphony No. 6

• Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1Wagner: Die Meistersinger Prelude to Act I

The consummate Joshua Bell returns to perform what renowned turn-of-the-19th Century violinist Joseph Joachim declared the “richest, most seductive” of all German violin concertos.

Joshua Bell

OrSymphony.org | 503-228-1353 | Groups save: 503-416-6380

OREGON BALLET THEATRE’S PRODUCTION OFThe Swigert Warren Foundation and ESCO Foundation present

Xuan Che g & Brian Simcoe. Photo by Tatiana W

ills.

Feb. 27 - Mar. 5, 2016Keller Auditorium

Tickets start at $31Groups of 10 or more start at just $15!obt.org | 503.222.5538

James Canfield / Sergei Prokofiev

Featuring the OBT Orchestra for all performances

SUPPORTED IN PART BY

SUE HORN-CASKEY & RICK CASKEY | WENDY WARREN & THOMAS BROWN


FUN FACTS

To treat mental illness in 5000 BCE, Neolithic populations chipped holes into the skulls of a� icted people to release problematic “evil spirits.” Surprisingly, some patients survived this procedure!THE YELLOW WALLPAPERCoHo Productions[January 15–February 6]

CHARLES DICKENS KNEW A THINGOR TWO ABOUT HARD TIMES. HEHAD TO DROP OUT OF SCHOOL AND START WORKING AT AGE 10 BECAUSE HIS DAD WAS IN JAIL. STILL, HE FORGED ON TO WRITE 15 NOVELS AND OVER 100 SHORT STORIES.

GREAT EXPECTATIONSPortland Center Stage[January 16–February 14]

Lewis Carroll suffered a bad stammer—except when he talked with kids. Alice in Wonderland emerged as he regaled kids with the imagined adventures of one child in particular, Alice. ALICE IN WONDERL ANDNW Children’s Theater[January 30–February 28]

A happy end to Shakespeare’s tragic Romeo and Juliet? That’s what Prokofi ev fi rst envisioned! In his original fi nal act, the lovers didn’t die but ambiguously wandered o� . The approach was a bit too optimistic for Stalin’s Russia in 1935; Prokofi ev was forced to rewrite it.ROMEO AND JULIETOregon Ballet Theatre[February 27–March 5]

www.octc.org

Tickets start at just $14

FEB 27–MAR 27WINNINGSTAD THEATRE

c o m m i s s i o noregon arts

Frenzied feline fun fur the whole family!

Bad Kitty On Stage. By Min Kahng. Adapted from the books by Nick Bruel. Co-commissioned by Bay Area Children’s Theatre and Oregon Children’s Theatre.


He continues: “But more than a refuge or a sanctuary, it is also an inoculation; it is a preemptive engagement undertaken on behalf of the individual and it keeps the ideal of individuation, so threatened, still viable.”

Birkerts believes that we’re risking our very selves, our individual capacity to think, imag-ine, create, experience, on our own without the mediation of the Internet voices (or those on talk radio). Art leads us fi rst to attend, then to imagine, and then to develop a distinct sense of self. “Art serves the soul not least by demanding and creating attention. This same attention in its early stages allows us to winnow the meaningful signal from the distracting noise, and ultimately rejuvenates the connection of the self to the world.”

Writing about the arts helps to do the same thing. OK, that sounds self-serving. But over at my usual digs at Oregon ArtsWatch (orartswatch.org), we’ve been discussing the various ways that arts writing (analysis, commentary, reporting) can help the process along. It can direct us to arts experiences that could be important to us. It can provide the context that kindles that experience. It can describe the “feats of concentration” it took to create art. It can model the attention that art requires for its full e� ects to take place. It can encourage the formation of your own ideas and opinions, based on the trip your imagination takes you on.

Maybe that last one seems odd. Arts writing, especially what passes for arts criticism, can seem to be all about browbeating you into thinking the same way the critic thinks. It can be all about assertions of (very subjec-tive) “standards” instead of providing useful descriptions of the art and the process in question. It can stop the conversation, instead of encouraging it to fl ourish.

Clearly, I’m arguing for something else. Our considerations of art are most fruitful when they are open-ended, whether we’re writ-ing them for publication or not. They can be invitations to ourselves, even, to debate art further, imagine it di� erently, think new thoughts.

I’ll close with Birkerts, because he started us o� : “More and more I believe that art—via imagination—is the necessary counter to our information-glut crisis.” Here at Artslandia, we agree completely. .

BARRY JOHNSON is the editor of Oregon ArtsWatch and the Editor-at-Large of Artslandia.

DISTRACTED?, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12


ILLUSTRATION BY

CAROLYN MAIN

LASTLAUGH

THE

ARTSLANDIA: OK. Insult comedy. Don Rick-les has been doing it forever, but for a woman to do it is kind of revolutionary, right? Which other women came before you in insult com-edy? Joan Rivers?

LISA: There was a comic named Pudgy, who was never super famous, but she was a genius. She was a great insult comic, on the level of where I think 99% of her material would be o� the audience. I watched a Showtime special of hers. I also think Totie Fields did a little...but Rickles is defi nitely the man.

I just did it despite my gender because it’s kind of who I am. I kind of make fun of my friends in real life, and they don’t seem to take o� ense, so I’m just going for it!

A: One thing you and Joan Rivers have in common is an amazing gay following, and you’ve been amazing back to your follow-ing, including a large donation to Gay Men’s Health Crisis that you credited to the West-boro Baptist church—how did you build that audience?

L: I think I’ve always felt like I didn’t belong in life. I would never have been in a sorority; they wouldn’t have gotten me, and I wouldn’t have gotten them. I think gay people feel they don’t fi t in either (or at least they did back when I started), so I feel like they sense I’m kind of like them in a way. We’re all just dented cans going through life, trying to fi nd people whose dents fi t our dents, and I kinda love that. I would rather be the person that misfi ts come to see than frat boys—even though frat boys’ money is good, and I’ll take it! I do feel like people who don’t belong, belong at my show.

A: Which comics infl uenced you growing up?

L: I’ve never watched standup, but I used to watch the old roasts with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, and they’re having such a great time making fun of each other. That got stuck in my head; that’s what comedy looks like. Probably that’s why I grav-itated to that form of comedy. That’s why I’m not a monologist, getting up there with a microphone telling stories.

A: You got to know Donald Trump on your turn in Celebrity Apprentice. What do you think about his presidential bid? Where do you think this is headed?

L: I mean, I just thought it was a joke that got out of control. He just wanted to see what happened for publicity, and it took o� , so I blame America for this! Ha! I got to know him better after Apprentice, doing charity work for St. Jude’s Hospital. When you see someone in a charity light, you look at ‘em a lot nicer. He was always a gentleman to me, so I’ll never say a bad word about Trump. Do I joke around about him? Of course. You know, c’mon, he’s just like me. We can take a joke, but it’s crazy, and who knows what’ll happen. Hopefully, I’ll be dead soon and won’t have to worry about who gets elected. .

Catch Lisa Lampanelli at Spirit Mountain Casino, Feb. 20.

Holding forth at countless Friar’s Club Roasts, sitting in with radio scather Howard Stern, and capturing the enviable web domain insultcomic.com, LISA LAMPANELLI has forged a solid reputation as the “Queen of Mean.” By the time she hits Oregon’s Spirit Mountain Casino Feb. 20, she may even have scored a Grammy for her nominated comedy album, Back to the Drawing Board. Artslandia asks Lampa-nelli about her favorite insult-slingers, her loyal gay audience, and her surprisingly kind take on Donald Trump. BY VIRGINIA JONES

This sneak peek behind the scenes comes to you from Portland Opera’s costume and prop shops. The sets from the Maurice Sendak production of The Magic Flute were destroyed by a hurricane years ago, but we are rebuilding them for the opening work of our inaugural Spring/Summer Season. Plan today to join us for the world re-premiere of this sparkling masterpiece!

THE MAGIC FLUTEMozartMay 6, 8m, 12, 14Keller Auditorium

SWEENEY TODDSondheimJune 3, 5m, 9, 10, 11Keller Auditorium

EUGENE ONEGINTchaikovskyJuly 8, 10m, 14, 15, 17m, 23 & 26Newmark Theatre

THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERSRossiniJuly 22, 24m, 27, 29, & 31m; August 4 & 6Newmark Theatre

Packages On Sale Now503-241-1802 | 866-739-6737 PortlandOpera.org

2016EXP E R I E N C E

Portland Opera

Photos © Jonathan Ley

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CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF PARTNERSHIP WITH CLIENTS AND ARCHITECTS

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artslandia at the performance january/february 2016

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