Baffled sometimes when people say theatre is expensive to watch. We have so many great places to…read moresee plays for many different budgets, and Portland Center Stage hits the mark on it. They have a number of programs, like $25 tickets, Rush/Standby Tickets, Arts for All, Pay What You Will days. All very affordable! And for the quality of the shows here, it's absolutely worth it to go see at least one show a season. The stage crew and actors put on great shows! Every staff member I've encountered there have been friendly, patient and accommodating. I've done the Standby tickets for a few shows now and it's a great experience. Put your name on the wait-list about 90 minutes before showtime, go grab a bite to eat, and if you get a seat, that's great! If not, they can put you on the wait list for the next show (and then you can go do another activity downtown). They keep the place pretty clean too, really nice bathrooms haha.

I need to do an update as I have become a lot more attending of the performances here. The reason…read morefor this is accessibility. As someone with limited mobility often - I have a tissue disorder and some days I am far more mobile than others. I am also, due to the tissue disorder, more modest means. Thankfully Portland Center Stage is a proud Arts for All member. In addition - they really do welcome people. They have a lot of seating for ADA and accommodate you should you need chair arms or no arms or will have a spot cleared for your wheelchair. I appreciate tickets being low cost for me but with ADA it can be tricky and the events at the most challenging ADA locations expect you to show up right before a show hoping they will have an extra ticket which I cannot physically do and would not want that on ushers either. When inquiring, I have been treated with less than stellar attitude. I would love to have money and mobility and I used to! I know so many who are starting to struggle with mobility as they age and I really encourage them to go to spaces like this where they can easily get in and out. But even just calling - they actually answer the phone and are so helpful! I get that they want to sell as much at full price but it makes me really appreciate how truly welcoming Portland Center Stage is. Arts are healing and the productions here really are top notch. Their staff is very diverse throughout the theater making it feel like a safe space for everyone also. When seeing shows here, they do have a great concessions stand/bar with a great wine selection and some decent snacks. The theater is in such a great location - to the back of the theater is a favorite gelato place of mine and also some of the most delicious West African food if you want to make a whole night of it!

Wow... Light Opera of Portland is doing a performance of The Gondoliers. I am severely disabled and…read morehave a pretty limited income. I try hard to stay going out, being supportive best I can of the arts. Light Opera of Portland is listed as offering Arts for All and to contact them for ticket arrangement. I emailed and received an email back they were passing my information on to someone so they could arrange a ticket. After 2 weeks, the event was getting closer. I emailed again stating that I had heard anything... crickets... I was going to the symphony next door at Arlene Schnitzer. I figured I would just go to the box office... however, they informed me that Arts for All tickets were not available, per Light Opera of Portland until 2 hours before the show. She also said she just turned away another disabled person for the same things. She said LOOP what's aware that the only seats remaining for the shows were ADA, that those exact seats were $27 versus $5 and that they realize those of us with disabilities are not able to jump through the gauntlet of crowded will call lines or get to a show 2 hours ahead to sit around very unfriendly seats, praying we can get a seat to a show... maybe or if the trek of trying to find parking downtown or walking blocks from public transportation just to get into the venue. Those of us with disorders like MS, Lupus and a long list of varying tissue disorders swell and suffer from pain when stresssed. The arts are healing but not when we are made to feel this unwelcome. If you are not going to actually offer Arts for All tickets, please don't. Do not sign up stating that you are welcoming to people with disabilities, including income when it is clear, very clear that you are not welcoming.

We saw A Christmas Carol here on December 21st 2017 and it was a cute little play. A Christmas…read moreCarol is one of my favorite holiday movies and plays to see during the holiday season and my family and I have made it a tradition. Let me start off by saying if you have kids or don't like sitting through a long show this is PERFECT! There was only one act and there really isn't a bad seat in the theater. The people who volunteer or work here are very pleasant and greeted us with big smiles. The seating is ok. I would not be comfortable in these seats for very long. Take into account I also have Chronic Illnesses so I get more uncomfortable than most, HOWEVER they actually were not that bad, there was plenty of room in front of you which I LOVE! And even though the theater is small they don't pack you in there, so you definitely don't feel cramped in. Again if you are on the fence about bringing your kids to a play here this is something that is a plus. Also they do have WONDERFUL accommodations for the disabled. This is something I take notice of because of my illness, so when I notice these things I always try to include them. One thing to keep in mind is that because the theater is small some of the "effects" can be more overwhelming such as the smoke, or laser lights. The smoke used in some of the scenes definitely bothered me and some of the others I was with. But not a big deal. The sound is INCREDIBLE! Dont worry about not hearing, again because it is a smaller space you are really right there, but they do have a good sound system that really makes you feel as if you are right in with them. I thought that was pretty cool! Now as for the actual play, I personally thought it was about a C+. It was definitely a cute, and the acting and singing was fun! However being such a big fan I noticed a lot of stuff that was off, Ebenezer Scrooge was definitely different. No top hat! Lol but that totally ok! New and different are always good! The actor who played him did a great job! Same with Bob Cratchet. The ghost of Christmas past had a really good voice, and the ghost of Christmas present was cool, but I wish they would have spent more time with Christmas present as he is the most fun! Marly was extraordinarily talented! In fact probably one of the more of the bunch. Someone made a comment that they felt that the parts didn't necessarily fit the characters, that the people choose their parts. I could see that. Even though they were all very talented some of them just didnt seem to fit that part. But I suppose that isnt something you would notice unless you are a theater geek, or professional (like the person in our group who made that comment) All in all I would recommend this if you are looking for something cool to do with kids during the Holidays. I'm not sure if I would go back to see this again, but I am definitely glad I went to see it. I would recommend seeing it at least once! Its a CHRISTMAS CAROL! with that said Merry Christmas, to one and all!!

The Christmas Revels were one of the true highlights of our holiday season…read more But, for context I should point out that my son and I are their target audience... Exhibit 1: We attend every renaissance faire in the state (repeatedly) Exhibit 2: We love musical theatre Exhibit 3: We are history buffs When we were attending a holiday show at Portland Center Stage, I was fortunate to see an advertisement for this production. This was the 20th anniversary of the Christmas Revels show in Portland and there are similar revels productions throughout the U.S. [1] One of the elements that makes this show unique is the level of audience participation. Each year they create a new show that has elements of choral and instrumental music, as well as Morris, sword and country dancing, storytelling and comedy (including a Mummers play). Before the show began, the director walked us through the program, highlighted the sections where the audience would sing (typically in Latin) and we had a little mini-rehearsal. The cast is comprised of around a dozen children, who were great fun during the dancing segments, a handful of members in their teens and 20s and then a larger contingent in their 30s - 60s and beyond. This year's production had a modern teenager transported back in time during a tour of the Tower of London to celebrate the holidays with families who were prisoners there in the 17th century. All of the acting and the story were beautifully done, with many comedic moments. But, I have to say the dancing was particularly fine. And the costumes were stunning. We attending the last show of the season and the venue (St. Mary's Academy) was packed. In many cases families were attending with grandparents and children. There were 30 songs/dances in the performance, but it really moved along and there was a brief intermission. The content is suitable for all ages, but it might be a little much to keep young children seated for that long. However, my son had a ball and with any luck he'll join their merry troupe next season. [1] The first show was in Cambridge, MA in 1971.

We attended the 2018 Christmas Revels production - "Highland Voyage, A Scottish Celebration of the…read moreWinter Solstice" last weekend, and I have mixed feelings about the performance. Much of the singing was lovely, and the trio of performers who told the story were very entertaining. My main issue, though, was the length of the show - it was close to 3 hours long! Compare this to a movie - I'd expect anything over 2 hours to be extraordinary - think Schindler's List, Titanic, The Godfather. The Revels is community theater, and in my opinion should have been edited down to 2 hours, max.

Great Event At A New Venue in Portland…read more SITREP Last year when I was passing through Portland this same time of season, I enjoyed the event ShadowPlay at the venue known as The Fez. Unfortunately, that venue shut down in the last year. THE SETUP @ NEW VENUE However, DJ Carrion has found a new home for ShadowPlay in the very eclectic venue The LoveCraft Bar ("LoveCraft"located on SE Grand Avenue in Portland's Eastside. I was meeting my awesome friends Marvin W. and Michelle B. - recent transplants from Sacramento to Portland - who already had an intimate knowledge of the music & dance scenes that we all love up & down the West Coast, from San Diego to the Bay Area and up through Seattle. THE VIBE Though much much smaller than The Fez was as a dance venue, LoveCraft has an immediate eccentric charm with it's physical layout, wall decor & accessorization that matches quite well the dark wave vibe that ShadowPlay sets out to establish. The attention is immediately drawn to the large open area (as you first walk in) that served first as the concert stage for the two (2) music acts - that started the night off at 9pm as soon as we arrived, and performed until 10:15pm - and then graciously tranformed into the main dance floor through the rest of the night. THE MUSIC The format focuses on such stalwart anthems ranging from VNV Nation, Covenant, StromKern, to some truly noteworthy German Industrial bands like Das Ich, and others I can't name at the moment. But whether you want to swirl or stomp on the dance floor, there was always seemed to be a song in the queue you would dance to with a couple of songs or so. THE BAR Our lovely bartendress made the best mixed drinks, had the most reasonable canned domestic beers available, and the most pleasant smile & demeanor to share with all her patrons. THE LOWDOWN A terrific time to dance & drink on Portland's East Side!

Regrettably, despite the signs indicating it was open, the club was closed when I tried to visit. I…read morehad planned to arrive earlier, but I struggled to locate the entrance. I may attempt another visit during my next trip to Portland. This establishment is reputed to be the trendiest club around and it certainly lives up to its reputation. If you are a tourist, be sure to pay a visit!

I see a lot of performances but last month was my first visit here. The Juliet Letters was…read moreperformed by PDX Opera and Papermoon Opera. I very much enjoyed the space and the staff were incredible especially since I went through it to get there. I left WAY early knowing rain + cars bad. The disclaimer here is that Google is now corrected because I reached out to Artists Repertory Theatre when I discovered the issue and they got Google to correct it. I had never been to the venue before but knew about where it was and I am downtown several times a week in different areas. I've lived here forever and also traffic gets weird off 405 so it is not uncommon to be tossed onto offramps when an accident or something happens. I was using Waze.. address saying 1515 SW Morrison. Coming from Beaverton, I am almost to the tunnel when the freeway STOPS and GPS adds a LOT of minutes. While stopped in the far left lane waiting for traffic to move, I had my window down for a spot of fresh air. A car HITS a pocket of water rolling down the other side of the freeway and my car gets a tidal wave of gray water. So I was VERY awake and DRENCHED... The second I am through the tunnel, FINALLY, there is no traffic. I was pretty annoyed since the horrific traffic ate a half hour and I was now going to be barely in time. I was so hyper focused on getting there that I was not really registering that I was in NW, not SW. I pull up to the Armory. I was so pissed at myself. I was JUST at the Armory for a Portland Center Stage show and thought I must have absent minded typed The Armory into Waze. But Waze was genuinely saying I was at 1515 SW Morrison. FYI - Someone had 'tagged' Artists Repertory Theatre in a photo they too of a fundraiser for Artists Repertory Theatre, held at The Armory resulting in Google having Artists Repertory Theatre IN The Armory. I had to manually enter the address and am doing that AT start time for the opera. I was having an anxiety attack and thinking about just going home but NO, DAMN IT I WILL MAKE IT. I will be late but I did not just go through this for nothing. And I genuinely was excited to see this venue I had never seen. I am so grateful I stuck it out though my adventure was not over yet! Driving the blocks from NW to SW, I was green lights all the way. BUT people randomly would just walk in front of me for zero reasons. Then a Max train genuinely just drifted slowly straight in front of my car when I was green light and they were not... my 5 minutes turned to 10 minutes... But I see an empty parking spot out front which is so great since I am ADA and walk with a cane but see no ADA spots. Everything is covered in wet fall leaves which can be a bit scary for my walking. As I pulled up, the space in front is just being taken. I parked around the corner, in front of a bar next to a truck that pared like they pregamed before hitting the bar. While getting out of the car, in sideways rain with zero light on that street (hysterically there was a light that was on when I came out after the performance but when I arrived it was pitch black) I see a perfect banana peel right where I would step to stand up getting out of my car?? And who says the universe does not have a sense of humor?!? I arrived and security came at me like I was dying because I probably looked like I was! Everyone was AMAZING. The lovely person with the will call list found me so easily and they tucked me right in like a mysterious diplomat with a folding cane who clearly walked into a lake and fought ninjas to get there. I, again, am ADA and try to just tuck in away from people at an end seat. There were five seats marked reserved for us ADA folks (the kind people from the venue had told me the whats what when I got my ticket) and they were all empty. As it was, right before I popped in to rush to my seat, they were apologizing to me that it had already started. I was shocked as I was mortified I was so late! I did make note of the great bar area with some tables and chairs to the right of the performance area for people to be social before and after with vendors selling wares. As I am taking a seat, I see an end one in the very front which I sit behind as the person seated directly to its right left a napkin with something...on it... that looked like chewed food. I was a bit distracted the whole show by that napkin because ewww. When the show ended, I took my program and political sign I was handed during the show as part of the show to get a photo. I chatted with an usher about the opera while I was taking my pictures and I was VERY surprised when I noticed the genuine blood stains on the wood floor next to me. Innocent probably but also MAYBE MURDER (had to).

Seats on the first floor theater are incredibly uncomfortable - they're basically foldup chairs…read morewith a cushion. The show was good minus the loud sneeze I had just as the actor was about to start their monologue :p My apologies to the audience!

My daughter has been getting into the Cure lately and so we went to see a Cure cover band called…read moreThe Lovecats. The opening band was a Depeche Mode cover band called Hiding from Love (lots of "love" in the air tonight). My daughter has been on restriction, but we took a break from it as tribute bands are my guilty pleasure. I used it as an excuse to dive deeper into both bands beforehand. I know most of the hits although not always by name. My daughter and Sarah went up front to dance at the show and we had fun. Something interesting i found out was that Personal Jesus by Depeche is not even in their top 2 songs on Spotify currently. The other two songs are hits that i've heard, and i understand Depeche Mode is not a one hit wonder, but i was shocked to find out their song Enjoy the Silence has twice as many plays as Personal Jesus. Personal Jesus in my experience has always been the stand out hit, even at the show the crowd loved that one the most. Also Personal Jesus was released first as b-side in 1989, and was later released on a studio album the following year. The other big hits on the studio album (Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth, and World in my Eyes) although very 80's sounding, were released in 1990, which i had forgotten. Weird, i think of them as 80's songs. Not only that, but Depeche Mode, I learned very recently, has multiple other great songs that sound like they are from the 80's but were released years or decades after the 80's ended. Last note: They have an album (at least on streaming and it's listed as a "single" even though the collection is 3 hours long) of remixes called Violator: The 12 Inch Singles, and although i generally dislike remixes there are quite a few good ones on there. Many of them could fit well in a movie score.

My boyfriend and I came here to see Margaret Cho for a Saturday night late show. Tickets were super…read moreeasy to buy online. Tbh, that's always a bonus so I can pick my seats that I want. I'm an aisle girl. I will say parking around here is kind of hit or miss. But you can find parking like we, about a few blocks away from the theater We had seat tickets up in the balcony and because it's a smaller theater it was pretty decent seats in my opinion. The actual seats themselves are old and uncomfortable. Just wanted to note that if you have problems like me. We ordered some drinks from downstairs and prices were typical theater prices. They do have a full bar and cider and beer draft. Also have bathrooms upstairs. Overall, I'll probably be back to see another show

As has been said by many reviews prior to mine, this is an intimate theater. That can be very good…read moreand also, have a few negatives. I am going to address the ADA situation here first so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and you know what you're getting into. The ADA spaces are a chair which can be removed but the chairs they have are something from the 90s - a half moon wrap around situation which is possibly one of the worst things I've sat in. I was looking around at all the other seating and their normal seats seem to be velvet have several inches more room than the monstrosity I was in + cup holders! I saw another device user (she had a walker versus my cane) sitting in a normal seat and I was very envious. The same lady accidentally triggered the screen on her cellphone which illuminated much of the theater for a solid 20 minutes until she was finally prompted by one of her party the situation. I was not in the mood to scream to the other side of the theater but seriously folks... the screen is at floor level though so you really feel immersed in the production. I cannot imagine any seat in the theater being bad for the view! Warning that this area doesn't have the best parking options so you are gonna want to factor in that. I was closer to the start time, then I would have liked especially since they seem to have a really happening snack bar! I smelled and saw popcorn! The bad part about the intimacy is when you get an audience like the one I did. I have misophonia so you wrestling around your bag or trying to open your candy makes me twitch. I am used to it and I power through but this was a bit much. Let's talk... we were in it together - the London production of Dangerous Liaisons. FYI - this is not a play about good people & is about a lot of sex, grooming and people being absolutely horrible to each other! There's a warning out front! Have you not seen the very well known movie... apparently the whole row behind me had not so I was immersed in listening to them, clutch their pearls through the entirety of the production. When they were not audibly sharing their disapproval of behavior, a man off to the side of me was making very odd throat sounds. A dear friend went to the same production a few days later (we couldn't align our schedules to go together). I was so glad she did not have my audience experience at all. Hysterically during the intermission I could hear the group talking about Aiden Turner, who is one of the main bad people. They were saying that they were used to seeing him as Poldark and as good... umm, that character pines after a married woman while being abusive and gaslighting his wife the whole series. That's not my idea of a good guy, but you do you. ANYHOO... I needed to restroom and waited. I personally don't mind that there's a very open urinal next to the ADA stall but it did surprise me a moment as a gentleman came in to use the urinal when I was washing my hands. So, just an FYI if you are uncomfortable in a bathroom situation with open stalls.

I saw a performance at the coho recently. It's a cute little theater in a good location.read more

I love this park we come here fairly often. The free games like giant chess and jenga, board&card…read more games are super fun and the people watching is interesting. Never a dull moment here. The place has its own security so it feels safe and the attendants are helpful and quick on clean ups. The fountain is great for littles as it never gets over 3inches deep.

After walking or driving past this park usually once a week minimum since a close friend lives in…read moreone of the buildings over looking it. It looks so 'tidy' and I love the giant chess set which just calls you in to us the space or just sit around it. I finally was able to experience it for the Indigenous People's Fry Bread Festival though I showed up later so zero Fry Bread at the Fry Bread Festival (sad face). What a great event though with a lot of vendors. Just talking with an artist who creates works from wool she harvests and dyes herself using native techniques. But the park had the vendors set up creatively and because of how open the park is you can fit a lot of vendors without it feeling crammed and having an also stage space for the spoken word and music. It was really great yet also felt intimate - like you could experience all the activities without missing things. It was a great time and I look forward to other events too. For such a long time the only real outdoor park space was Pioneer Courthouse Square so it is nice having another smaller space that is not as overwhelming.

Cute intimate theater with a bar. Did not order drinks so cant speak to that, but liked the venue…read more We had a great time!

I was given two complementary VIP tickets to a burlesque show. I was excited because I've never…read morebeen to this venue before. Street parking is available around the Alberta art District. So just know that you may have to look a little bit harder to find a spot when it's busier. It's nice though since parking is free in this area. The overall staff this venue were really nice and helpful. There is food and drinks available and prices are typical of theaters. The theater itself is quite large inside. The seats are roomy with legroom available.

My first dive into Profile Theater was their recent presentation of Tiger Style. I had the pleasure…read moreof seeing it at the studio space in The Armory. With such creative and dramatic use of the space, it did not feel small at all. I look forward to seeing another production from them!

I auditioned for them a year or two back and the writer, Christopher Oscar Pena, of the play was…read moreusing the auditions as his own personal dating service, contacting actors and bringing them out to see who he could sleep with (before casting was announced). Management was clearly very aware of the pattern.