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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Artsy Onstage this Weekend

Posted by Alison Hallett on Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 2:39 PM

•Anonymous Theatre is a funny little annual thing, organized by Theater Vertigo, in which local actors are cast in a play without knowing who their castmates are—they never rehearse as a full cast, and they don't find out until the night of the production who they're working with. I've never seen one of these shows, but the idea is immensely appealing in that it places a high value on the inherent riskiness of live theater: No one knows what's going to happen. Anything could happen. But not in a cringe-y improv way—you're dealing with actors who've rehearsed their parts one-on-one with the director, just not with each other. This year they're tackling Macbeth, in what has to be the most ambitious endeavor so far. That's at the Armory on Sunday, details here.

•Action/Adventure Theatre deals in a similar brand of risk-embracing live theater—their serialized show about a group of twentysomething housemates features improvised dialogue within a pre-determined plot structure, with a new episode each week. Plus, it features the dramatic stylings of one PATRICK ALAN COLEMAN! (Who, when I reviewed the show long before Patrick came on board as our food writer, I described "affable but clueless." For posterity's sake, I hereby amend that to "affable.") Episode 1 opens tonight.

•Who else's parents just discovered texting? My mom sent me these last night [sic, natch]:


"i'm hooked on this stanby thing... i am in front row seat at pcs! yikes!"

and when i asked her what she saw:

"grey garden tonite. i was a little disappointed altho i liked the acting. i saw storm last nite.. Wow"

So, translation, rush tickets at Portland Center Stage landed her front row tickets to Grey Gardens, which she did not like as much as Crazy Enough, which she also snagged rush tickets to. Rush tickets are $15 and go on sale 10 minutes before showtime, but get there early—there's usually a line. (Though if the Twitter is to believed, the only available tickets to Crazy Enough are on June 27 & 28.)

•Lunacy Stageworks, a new company out of Sellwood, opens Sight Unseen, about which I know absolutely nothing except that our hard-to-please theater critic Temple Lentz called their first show, Jack and Jill, "remarkable."

•If you're hitting First Thursday tonight, consider dropping by the Brody Theater's Artwank, an hour of art-themed improv comedy that tonight features guests Yuri Kinugawa from Japan and Yann Van Den Branden from Belgium; that's 9:30 pm at 16 NW Broadway.

•Coho Productions' excellent The Uneasy Chair runs two more weekends—I liked this show. A lot.

•And don't forget about the Drammy's on Monday! No need to actually attend—I'm reluctantly forgoing my Monday night card game to get drunk and blog the ceremony. Anyone want to start a betting pool? I'll put up some predictions before the ceremony.

As always, we got yer performance listings right here.

 

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Oh my god. Anonymous theatre sounds awesome, even moreso because they're going for MacBeth; that'll make the awkwardness even funnier.
Posted by Will Radik on June 4, 2009 at 5:43 PM · Report

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