Peter Ksander News

Portland's newest opera company, OrpheusPDX, kicks off its second season on August 3 with Mozart's charming and irresistible opera, The Royal Shepherd (Il Re Pastore). All performances will take place in Portland State University's Lincoln Performance Hall, hailed by Opera News as the best venue for opera in the city.

CARDIAC ORGAN is excellent fun – not the good, clean type, but the vastly superior creepy, twisted type. Slither up to the bar for a Red Rabbit and enjoy the show.

Portland Center Stage will present William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, beginning performances on June 3.

OrpheusPDX General and Artistic Director, Christopher Mattaliano, has officially announced the details of the 2023 season, the company's  second. Performances of Mozart's masterwork The Royal Shepherd (Il Re Pastore)  and Nico Muhly's compelling Dark Sisters will take place in Portland's 475-seat  Lincoln Hall, where opera is experienced at its best—up close and personal. 

PETE presents THE AMERICANS a co-production with the Historic Alberta House runs January 19 - February 4 at Alberta House.

What did our critic think of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at Portland Center Stage? It's the theatrical equivalent of hot cocoa with whipped cream.

Funny, poignant, weird – Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s new take on THE CHERRY ORCHARD, translated by Štĕpán Šimek, is a vehicle to showcase what both Chekhov and PETE do best.

Mallory Catlett’s OBIE award winning This Was The End will return to Mabou Mines this time as an installation where the audience becomes the actor.  At once an artifact and an experience, Archive: this was the end is the afterlife of a performance as an interactive sculpture.

Weather is universal. It's the safest (blandest) conversation starter. It's a part of the common human experience, open to regular, mundane, acts of prognostication.

Portland Opera continues the 2019/20 season with the premiere of a new production entitled An American Quartet: Four One-Act Operas. Each of these pieces, written by American composers, will be presented in the intimate black box theatre at Portland Opera's Hampton Opera Center.

Examining the geopolitical through the lens of the interpersonal, Our Ruined House summons a world in which the audience's perception becomes the principal arbiter of what is 'true'. Featuring a giant octopus, a tiny meatloaf, and the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, Our Ruined House investigates a world driven more by the appearance of winning than any central truth. By contrasting the slippery, subjective narratives of both romantic and geopolitical relationships, we point at the sacrifices made in order to 'win' in both arenas. What narratives will we create and what secrets will we bury in order to come out on top, in both love and war? What are we willing to ruin on the road to victory?

Directed by Tea Alagic, Emma Stanton's NO CANDY reveals the power and fortitude of the human spirit. At times, it gave me chills. At times, it's also quite funny.

Kicking off with two shows in September, Artists Rep's 2018/19 season features seven compelling contemporary plays in their subscription series, plus two bonus shows. These plays are highly entertaining theatrical experiences, written by some of the nation's most acclaimed playwrights.

Since 2004, director Mallory Catlett has worked across disciplines to expand the boundaries of theater. Through original works with her own company, Restless NYC, and collaborations with some of today's leading artists-composer Mika Karlsson (The Echo Drift), Dread Scott (Decision), Aaron Landsman (City Council Meeting & Perfect City)-Catlett creates theater that The New York Times calls "lurid, feverish and powerful." She has been called a "downtown treasure" by Time Out New York.

PROFILE THEATRE presents a production of the comedic drama 2.5 Minute Ride by Pulitzer and Tony-winning playwright Lisa Kron. Riding the rails of humor and horror, this solo performance features NYC-based actor Allison Mickelson, who recently impressed audiences at Portland Center Stage in Lisa Kron's award-winning musical Fun Home. It will be directed by Jane Unger, Profile's founding artistic director, and marks the first full (double!) season for Profile's ambitious new Artistic Director Josh Hecht, as well as the third year of the Diversity and Inclusivity Initiative.

PROFILE THEATRE presents a production of the comedic drama 2.5 Minute Ride by Pulitzer and Tony-winning playwright Lisa Kron. Riding the rails of humor and horror, this solo performance features NYC-based actor Allison Mickelson, who recently impressed audiences at Portland Center Stage in Lisa Kron's award-winning musical Fun Home. It will be directed by Jane Unger, Profile's founding artistic director, and marks the first full (double!) season for Profile's ambitious new Artistic Director Josh Hecht, as well as the third year of the Diversity and Inclusivity Initiative.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill (based on the classic Jane Austen novel). The production is directed by Taibi Magar, in her PlayMakers directorial debut.

Peak Performances will kick off its 2017-18 season-which consists entirely of works by women-with a visionary production of The Merchant of Venice from director Karin Coonrod and her Compagnia de' Colombari.