The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage

This past Friday, I went to see The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage, running through April 1. The Magic Play follows a young magician (performed by actual actor/magician/illusionist Brett Schneider – this role was written for him) trying to get through a live show just hours after his partner (actor Sean Parris) has left him. As the performance progresses, he confronts the fact that the tricks of his trade don’t serve him as well when it comes to building truthful relationships. You the audience bear witness not just to a dozen demonstrations of magic throughout the show, but also the effects of a heartbreaking love story.
Brett Schneider as The Magician in The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage. Photo by Patrick Weishampel/blakeye.tv courtesy of Portland Center Stage at The Armory. Script By Andrew Hinderaker Directed by Halena Kays
Brett Schneider as The Magician in The Magic Play at Portland Center Stage at The Armory.
Photo by Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv courtesy of Portland Center Stage at The Armory. Script By Andrew Hinderaker Directed by Halena Kays

The play is different every night because there are multiple points where audience participation is called for that can affect the energy of the show and the ending. Here’s a bit of a hint/sneak peak of a scene early on that shows a bit of the magic of Brent’s prowess with cards while simultaneously interacting with an audience volunteer and telling a story and acting the emotional connection with his fellow actor/partner character.

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Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage

Last week was the world premiere of Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage. The production runs until March 18, 2018 at the downstairs intimate Ellyn Bye Studio. Kodachrome was developed from a submission to the 2015 JAW (Just Add Water): A Playwrights Festival,  an annual festival supporting new plays and helping to incubate new works. What was then a script named Colchester now has grown up, renamed Kodachrome, and is in full production a few years later.
Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage: poster for Kodachrome, Art by Mikey Mann

The story takes place in a small town called Colchester, and is narrated by Suzanne, the town photographer. We follow her through the interconnected stories of a dozen people in the town, with the townspeople played by the 6 fellow cast members doing double  or sometimes triple duty (well, all except for Suzanne). Kodachrome is a play that definitely has many parallels to Our Town with its snippets of longing, look at love in various stages, and appreciations for small moments that are universally recognizable to us all. I think the play does better then Our Town in that there are excellent use of certain props though – especially the super effective use of flowers and petals, and over-sized symbols of love like a ring or perfume bottle.

The backdrop of the basic stage scenery are multiple screens showing photos, and is the nod to Kodachrome, the special Kodak film. I definitely liked the idea where at some points we would see and hear Suzanne snap a photo of a particular detail of what was happening on stage, and we would see it appear on one of those screens, captured to remember the moment. It seemed to promise two art shows at once – performance art with the play and art gallery.

Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage, L-R: Lena Kaminsky as The Photographer, John D. Haggerty as The Perfume Maker and Tina Chilip as The Waitress. Photo by Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv courtesy of Portland Center Stage at The Armor
L-R: Lena Kaminsky as The Photographer, John D. Haggerty as The Perfume Maker and Tina Chilip as The Waitress in Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage at The Armory. Photo by Patrick Weishampel/blankeye.tv courtesy of Portland Center Stage

This action photography took place a few times, but I was expecting to happen throughout as a consistent theme, rather then mostly towards the beginning and at a couple fun interactions with the audience. Other times, the screens would switch to almost stock photos that helped establish the environment of the scene, from Perfume Lab to Diner or Hardware Store etc. But the photos didn’t noticeably connect to the interactions happening on stage with a new photo added to the repetitive stock mix representing the moment. So I was a little disappointed that wasn’t carried throughout, given the name of the play.

When it came to the various interactions of the character pairs falling in or through or out of love, you can totally believe the same actor or actress is embodying a different a character in the tow. This is true even as they interact with essentially the same castmate in multiple circular love triangles but as another character.

For particular standouts, Ryan Tresser draws a clear line between The Gravedigger and The Young Man and is able to demonstrate the humorous physical moments but also the poignant hurt of each of the men distinctly. Sharonlee McLean also wonderfully draws the perfect picture of the different kinds of yearnings, and how those yearnings change through the course of the play, in both her portrayals of her placid, still waters run deep Mystery Novelist, and in contrast with her passionate Florist. Even when she’s saying nothing at all, you know which character she is.

My favorite part was that love can be awkward – and Kodachrome doesn’t shy away from how crazy but adorable those moments can be. Love can be painful, and cause exquisite suffering, and as Kodachrome shows us, also tenderness, boldness, dwelling in the past, plans for the future, laugh out loud moments, questioning of what is the best way to live life and what kind of love is enough to be happy, and how it connects everyone.

As always, there are a couple additional events available related to Kodachrome at Portland Center Stage if you want to have a more active experience then just watching in the audience. Check the Upcoming Events Calendar for full listing of all events.

  • Tuesday, February 20 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Happy Hour with Blue Sky Gallery viewing photographs with some complimentary snacks and drinks. FREE
  • Sunday, February 25 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Happy Hour with Portland Darkroom FREE
  • Saturday, March 10 1 – 3 p.m. Film and Darkroom Printing Workshop is not free, but it’s $25 and each workshop attendee will have the chance to take a portrait, have a portrait taken of them, learn how darkroom enlarging works, and create their very own “The Armory” branded gelatin silver postcard to take home

Kodachrome runs for 90 minutes with no admission, and is performed Evenings: Tuesday – Sunday at 7:30 p.m Matinees: Saturday and Sundays at 2 p.m., Thursdays at noon, but check their schedule for exact times.

You may also want to book tickets for a new exciting play coming up called The Magic Play running March 3 – April 1 that promises a hybrid of a play and a magic show, literally with the cast including an actor who is also a magician and illusion designer!

 

 

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Portland Center Stage Fun Home

Portland Center Stage is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this season! Congratulation! The first productions for this new season are Fun Home running September 16 – October 22 on the US Bank Main Stage and in the downstairs intimate Ellen Bye Theater will be Every Brilliant Thing, running September 23 – November 5, 2017. Both plays have moments of comedy and joy, but also have a dark lining: suicide and depression, the gap between the face one wears to the world and the mental well being inside. On stage and in the audience, you will be laughing and crying together.

Portland Center Stage: Fun Home Publicity Photo Left to right: Medium Alison (Sara Masterson), Alison (Allison Mickelson), Bruce Bechdel (Robert Mammana) and Small Alison (Aida Valentine) in Fun Home at The Armory. Photo by Kate Szrom
Portland Center Stage: Fun Home Publicity Photo Left to right: Medium Alison (Sara Masterson), Alison (Allison Mickelson), Bruce Bechdel (Robert Mammana) and Small Alison (Aida Valentine) in “Fun Home” at The Armory. Photo by Kate Szrom.

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Spring Musicals at Portland Center Stage

The dressing rooms, hallways, and stages are alive with music at PCS! This past weekend, Portland Center Stage debuted the world premier of of two new shows both featuring music: Wild and Reckless: A New Concert Event with Blitzen Trapper (running until April 30, 2017) and Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (running until April 30, 2017).

I attended both and here’s are my thoughts on the Spring Musicals at Portland Center Stage.

Wild and Reckless: A New Concert Event with Blitzen Trapper

Portland Center Stage and Wild and Reckless: A New Musical Event from Blitzen Trapper. Written and Performed By Blitzen Trapper, Directed by Rose Riordan and Liam Kaas-Lentz Poster Design by Michael Buchino Photo by Kate Szrom

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Events First Week of March 2017 in PDX

If you read this blog, you probably love food – it’s mostly what I write about. But once in a while I review a book, or a theater production. This post is a heads up about one performance show and one movie, both are limited engagements, both events first week of March 2017 in PDX already have tickets online if you are interested.

Cuisine and Confessions

The first is about a combination of food and theater: namely, the production of Cuisine and Confessions that is coming to the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland in a few weeks Thursday March 2 – Saturday March 4, 2017. This is a visiting show from the company 7 Digits from Montreal.

I haven’t seen the production yet, so I can’t review it, but the high level overview is that it is a combination of Cirque du Soleil (which if you haven’t seen before, is itself a combination of circus and dance theater – some of the original founders of 7 Digits were originally performers from Cirque du Soleil!) and takes place in a setting that actually is a working kitchen and the stories/settings behind the performances are themed around food and family and food memories.

One of the descriptive lines of the show promises “acrobats who cook and bake before your very eyes”.  Members of the cast are from all over the world, and I look forward to seeing how despite different languages and upbringings, food can bring everyone together while also being witness to amazing feats of athleticism and visual beauty.

The performance is for all ages, and includes evening shows at 7:30 on the three nights and a matinee on Saturday at 2 PM. The doors open 30 minutes before the show, which some reviews highly recommended you get there when doors open as performers are already on the stage having discussions and interacting with the audience before the show itself begins. The show itself is about 90 minutes – and there will be freshly baked banana bread at the end!

You can purchase tickets from White Bird with a range from $26-$64. I bought my own tickets to the show and was not asked to promote it, but I thought this was a fun event to share.

The Movie Kedi

The other future event that I am really looking forward to is the movie Kedi, a subtitled Turkish Documentary about the cats in Istanbul. also playing that timeframe of Thursday March 3- 9. I like how this review by Todd VanDerWerff at Vox summed it up,”Kedi, a documentary about cats in Istanbul, is expectedly adorable and unexpectedly wise. Cats. Cities. God. Life. Humanity. This new film covers it all in just 80 minutes.”

By the end of its trim, 80-minute running time, Kedi is asking questions like “How do we live in society without destroying each other?” and “Could you ever prove God exists?” without straining under the burden of those questions — a remarkable feat for a movie that spends so much time on cute kitten footage. Our relationship with the animals around us that we can destroy casually and easily, the film suggests, is our relationship with everything.

There is also a much detailed longer review from RogerEbert.com here though it had more spoilers of what you’d see. “What (Ceyda) Torun really captures in her unexpectedly powerful film is kindness in its purest form.” You can also look at the original movie site to see when and where it is playing near you in your city. You can purchase advance tickets to the Cinema 21 screenings now.

What upcoming shows or movies are you looking forward to?

 

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