Portland Center Stage 2011-2012 Season
December 29, 2011 | No Comments | Portland City Tours, Uncategorized
2011-2012
Oklahoma!
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs
Original dances by Agnes de Mille
Main Stage
Sept 20 – Oct 30
Part charming love story, part stirring retelling of American history, and many parts beloved songs and stunning dance, Oklahoma! was the first collaboration by the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and was a milestone in the development of American musical theater for its fusion of song, story and dance. We are giving this boisterous favorite a new spin: in the 19th century Oklahoma Territory, there were over 50 all African-American towns; in that same period, one in three American cowboys was black. Chris Coleman’s production will feature an all African-American cast, generating fresh insights into a classic American tale.
The Real Americans
By Dan Hoyle
Ellyn Bye Studio
Sept 6 – Nov 6
Frequently described as an actor/journalist, Dan Hoyle has focused his form of “theater journalism” in this new piece on a months-long road trip to some of the not-on-the-coasts parts of the U.S. The idea, he says, was to get outside the “latte liberal bubble,” find out what people in rural America are thinking and savor some small-town cafe pie. Beneath the masterful humor that Hoyle brings to the piece—as he takes on the personas of the many people he encountered—a rich texture of human connections asserts itself. It surfaces in stories of unemployment and in the frenetic form of a Dominican from New York he meets on the road; it gathers heart-wrenching impact in a Vietnam vet’s reflections on the kids coming back from Iraq and one of his San Francisco friends’ concern for her sister in Alabama. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that The Real Americans should be seen in and outside every liberal bubble in this country, and that Hoyle “displays a gift for mime and vocal mimicry that recalls solo artists John Leguizamo, Sarah Jones or Lily Tomlin.”
A Christmas Story
By Phil Grecian
Based on the motion picture written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown & Bob Clark
Main Stage
Nov 20 – Dec 24
Based on the beloved movie, this classic holiday comedy is a funny and sweet tale of growing up in the 1940s, by an American master storyteller, Jean Shepherd. Ralphie pines for an official Red Ryder Model Air Gun for Christmas, and his machinations to try and make sure Santa delivers, while his father obsesses over his “major award” (an abominable lamp), guarantee that nothing about the family Christmas will be filled with heavenly peace.
The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris
Ellyn Bye Studio
Nov 29 – Dec 31
Based on the outlandish, and true, chronicles of David Sedaris’ experience as Crumpet the Elf in Macy’s Santaland display, this hilarious cult classic features comic encounters during the height of the holiday crunch. PCS brings a holiday favorite back to Portland as a special Studio Theater presentation.
World premiere!
The North Plan
By Jason Wells
Main Stage
Jan 10 – Feb 5
After a ruthless cabal seizes power in Washington, Carlton Berg, a bureaucrat for the State Department, runs off with the new regime’s top secret Enemies List. Unfortunately for Carlton, the chase has come to an end in a police station in the Ozark town of Lodus. With a pair of DHS agents on the way, Carlton’s last chance is in the people around him: An unsympathetic police chief, an ambivalent administrative assistant, and fellow prisoner Tanya Shepke, motor-mouthed recidivist and alcohol enthusiast, who appears to have attention-deficit disorder and thinks Skynyrd should be on the new money. Let the revolution begin.
World premiere!
Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline
A new adaptation by Chris Coleman
Ellyn Bye Studio
Jan 31 – Apr 8
Based on legends about early Celtic kings, Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s most fantastical creations—familiar Shakespearean themes of jealousy and innocence wronged are joined with divine intervention from the gods. A lovely princess, an evil queen, a misguided king and a thoroughly rotten clown inhabit this fairy tale-like story of life, and love, renewed. In his adaptation, Chris Coleman has introduced a new character, a pianist, who serves as a guide through the story and also takes on several characters himself. With this device, the complex tale that is Cymbeline has been opened up and, on several counts, streamlined, while preserving the poetry and language that we all love about Shakespeare.
Red
By John Logan
Main Stage
Feb 21 – Mar 18
An intense bio-drama of the renowned modern artist (and Oregon-raised) Mark Rothko, Red earned critical laurels in its New York run last season. Set in the 1950s, when Rothko was commissioned to create a series of large pieces of art for the new Four Seasons Restaurant, Red tackles big questions about art—what it takes to create it, and where it belongs in our world. But perhaps more importantly, the play invites us to experience a legendary artist through the lens of the assistant brought on to help him with a project Rothko is not so sure he can accept completing. The New York Times described it as “a portrait of an angry and brilliant mind that asks you to feel the shape and texture of thoughts…as much as any stage work I can think of, Red captures the dynamic relationship between an artist and his creations.” PCS and the Portland Art Museum are working together to celebrate Rothko during the run of this production.
World premiere!
Anna Karenina
Adapted from Tolstoy by Kevin McKeon
Main Stage
Apr 3 – Apr 29
Tolstoy’s classic story of love and marriage in Imperial Russia comes to our Main Stage in a new adaptation by Kevin McKeon, adaptor of Snow Falling on Cedars. This tragic love story has been called by some the greatest novel ever written—it certainly has one of the most famous first lines: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” When Anna’s husband refuses to release her from their marriage to pursue her love for Count Vronsky, the wheels are set in motion for the ultimate sacrifice. Anna Karenina isn’t concerned with observing the minutiae of social etiquette, like Jane Austen, nor with righting social injustices, like Dickens. It’s about uncontrollable passions, and emotional and sexual betrayal, set against one of the most romantic periods of world history.
Black Pearl Sings!
By Frank Higgins
Ellyn Bye Studio
Apr 24 – June 17
In 1935 Texas, Susannah, an academic and song collector for the Library of Congress, visits a high-security prison where she meets Pearl, an African-American woman imprisoned for murder who longs to leave prison and find her lost daughter. Hoping to record the treasure trove of spirituals and folk songs that only Pearl knows—and make her reputation on the discoveries—Susannah bargains for Pearl’s parole and arranges for several public performances. The two women soon find themselves walking a delicate line between exposure and exploitation. Featuring beautiful a cappella renditions of little-known African-American folk songs, Black Pearl Sings! chronicles a powerful story about being a woman in a man’s world, being black in a white world, and fighting for one’s soul in a world where anyone can be a commodity.
It Ain’t Nothin but the Blues
By Charles Bevel, Lita Gaithers, Randal Myler, Ron Taylor, and Dan Wheetman
Main Stage
May 22 – June 24
From African chants and Delta spirituals to the urban electricity of a Chicago nightclub, from dusty backroads bluegrass to the twang of a country juke joint, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues is a stirring retrospective of blues classics that summons the soul of American music. Over two dozen musical numbers are included, among them “I’m Your Hoochie-Coochie Man,” “Goodnight, Irene,” “Fever,” “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Let the Good Times Roll.” It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical, and has played to rave reviews all over the country. Through the music that is cherished as an original American art form, the standout group of musicians and singers on stage share a moving American story of troubles and triumph.
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