PAE at Lone Fir: Macbeth

Here's what I love about Lone Fir.  You've got a lot of people buried at the end of the nineteenth century.  But there are pockets of gravestones that have just been interred in the last decade or so.

We saw  Portland Actor's Ensemble's Hamlet at Lone Fir a few years ago.  It was a very good production and fun to return to the cemetery for this production.

Actors setting up their changing room.

I adored my dinner from Peacock Picnics.  Onion Bourbon spread, Salmon Dill spread, a half baguette and a very nice presentation all for $10.00.  Happily, you get to return the presentation part.

Some early plotting.

I'm not sure why this lady was attending this production as she was busy reading the comics while it was going on.

Taking advantage of a monument for seating.

Comic-reading lady shared a blanket with this disinterested couple.  All three left at intermission.

Macbeth and a nice shot of a gravestone.

I liked the wine glass holder.

Professional photographer.

I loved this green hat.

The actress playing Lady Macbeth (Cecily Overman) probably wouldn't be thrilled by this photo, but I love it.

The witches.

Overall, a very good production in an excellent setting.

PAE's Midsummer Night's Dream

I forgot my camera (pfffffttt!) and so these were quickly snapped with the cell phone.  

Pre-production we had music, a lovely roving accordion.  

Early on, we can see the players, and Hermia and Demetrius.  It was handy that Hermia/Lysander, Helena/Demetrius were color coded, costume-wise.  The players are being paparazzi, because the Theseus and Hippolyta were on stage.

This was a fun production with good players (always important) and an excellent disrobing/fight scene between Hermia and Helena.  Puck had a great costume too.

Portland Actor's Ensemble Anthony and Cleopatra

This was a much more elaborate set than I am used to with PAE.  Here is--you guessed it--Egypt.

We were sitting on the Rome side, so you can't see it quite as well.

These weights will become important later on in this post.

Though Rome was much more stark than Egypt, I did love these columns.

And the costumes!  Amazing! Kate Schroeder did a tremendous job.  The lady in the pink, mid-stage is Andrea White playing Cleopatra.

The music also added a lot to the play.  Behind the musician, you can see the stark grey of the Romans.  They had a really cool logo on their shirt.

That guy on the right is Enrique E. Andrade and, in addition to playing Mardian, he's also the Spanish Language voice of the Max train.

Again!  The costumes!

Here is the stage manager, who spent a lot of time wrestling with this part of the set, trying to get it to stay upright.

At times she had others assist her, including one dramatic moment when her quiet "Help!" brought several audience members to her assistance, before the actors could emerge from the tent.

Cleopatra had a lot of costume changes and here appears in a blue dress.

You can see a bit of the cool design on the t-shirt.

I'll say it again!  Costumes!

And another one.  I think this was my favorite, because the skirt was mesmerizing.

At the correct moment in the play, the drums of war were beaten.  It was very dramatic, and my favorite part that didn't involve costumes or music.

The moon overlooking the set.  At one point, one of the characters swears to the moon and it was handy that the moon had arranged itself in just the right location for doing so.

This is not my favorite play of Mr. Shakespeare.  I did enjoy the costumes and the music, as well as some of the stage direction.  The director, Elizabeth Huffman (who has directed shows for NWCTC) made the decision to have all the Egyptians speak with an accent while the Romans spoke without accents.  I found this incredibly distracting for the entirety of the play.  Also, I've never heard so many actors tripping over their lines.  This was their eighth performance, so I'm not sure what was going on.  Overall though, I enjoyed myself.

NWCTC: Macbeth

We took two of our friends to the last production in the Season of Kings.  It was a glorious production, with Jason Maniccia as a very good Macbeth.  We particularly like how the story line with the witches played out.  Also, the way the ghost at the banquet scene worked was rather genius.

Complete Works Project!

Great news!  Theater companies in Portland are going to perform every single Shakespeare play over the next two years.  It's called the Complete Works Project.  As Matt and I have been chipping away at the canon for several years now, this is very exciting. We have about 18 left to see, so we will keep our eyes out for those productions.  You can read more about the project, including interacting with the above (super awesome) graphic, where clicking on the title will give you information about the plays and their productions.  http://www.completeworksproject.org/

Huzzah!

For some time I've envisioned us 20 years later, still just waiting for that production of Henry VI, parts I, II & III.  But Opsfest is doing the first installment this summer!

NWCTC: King Lear

Ted Roisum was our Lear, while company regulars Melissa Whitney, Brenan Dwyer & Clara-Liis Hillier held down the roles of the daughters.  It was a grand production, overall.

NWCTC: The Lion in Winter

Here's another thing I love about the NWCTC.  They have this tiny space--aptly named the Shoebox Theater--and they change it so profoundly from play to play.  Let's look at what it looked like on October 11, when we saw Richard III.  (More photos here.)

Since that time another theater has put on a production from October 23 to November 23.  Then, beginning December 5, NWCTC began offering the Lion in Winter.  And look how cozy and warm everything looks:

 

 

I'm quite the fan of this play because you never can tell where the alliances will shift to next.  Marilyn Stacey  and Victor Mack (debuting) played Eleanor and Henry II while Clara-Liis Hillier took on the role of Alais and the triple threat of warring brothers John, Geoffrey and Richard were covered by Chip Sherman, Joseph Gibson and Ricardy Charles Fabre, all NWCTC first timers.  The tension was high and the drama skipped along.   John's Planet Hollywood vest was my favorite bit of costume.  You can see it, and other photos of the cast by clicking here.  All in all, it was a great evening at the theater.

NWCTC Richard III

We didn't set out to become Shakespeare fans.  Reading and watching all his plays was just another projects in the very long line of project ideas that have come and gone over the years.  The first play or two we read aloud ourselves and then watched movie versions.   But then we discovered Portland Actors Ensemble(PAE) and watched Henry IV part I one fateful July day.  That was a joint collaboration with the Northwest Classical Theatre Company and NWCTC continued the saga in the Autumn and so we took our place in the tiny Shoebox Theater and it was in the Shoebox Theater we became Shakespeare Fans.  We see Shakespeare other places, of course.  There are too many good companies here, and many of them provide us our Shakespeare on a donation basis.  But there is something about the intimacy of the setting, combined with the camaraderie of the company that hits a pleasure center in the brain hard and fast and keeps us coming back.  In fact, we haven't missed a show since our first foray.

All that is to say that the production of Richard III was incendiary.   This wasn't even the first time we've seen Richard III done.  PAE did a bonus performance in the autumn two years ago and we attended.  Matt won a shirt.  It was a good performance, and absolutely nothing like this.  Grant Turner, as Richard III had a raw physicality and intelligence that grabbed attention and held it.  The rest of the cast just kept going and I'm not a theater critic so I can't parse the whole show, but this was good stuff.  If you saw it, you know it to be true and if you didn't, well friend, you missed out.

The names of the dead were chalked on the wall as they fell.
 

We chose our side carefully...
 

We went with York.
 

Staged for the opening.
 

At intermission, you could see Richard's power grab.
 

These chains were important several times.  And they were stored right beneath my feet.
 

Our team.
 

After the show.
 

This was the only show I've seen evidence of the prop table.
 

PAE's Merchant of Venice

It's like we are angels, straight from heaven.
 

Portland Actor's Ensemble performed the Merchant of Venice.  This was a hard play to watch, because of all the uncomfortable Shylock parts.  That stew of antisemitism is peppered with all the fun comedy aspects of the play.  It's pretty uneven, and I thought the troupe did a good job managing the temperature changes of the story.

As you can see from this picture, the costumes were Italian via the "Jersey Shore."