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News & Notes leaves the house!

By Barry Johnson
February 26, 2014
News & Notes

The weekend starts early this week! Tonight, assuming the crick don’t rise, I’ll be in the audience for White Bird’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet concert at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, because Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter and Alexander Ekman dances are on the program, and I’m in the mood. And tomorrow night, again crick levels allowing, I’ll be at Imago to watch the Allen Nause-Jerry Mouawad collaboration in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker. There’s a whole lot of Pinter knowledge packed into that pairing, expressed in very different ways, so the meeting (or collision) should be enlightening.

But enough about me! Arts news is afoot…

You really must subscribe to our eNewsletter. That is all.

The company is in the middle of Reveal, a program that continues this weekend in Keller Auditorium, and that’s a good time for Oregon Ballet Theatre to announce its 2014-15 season, the company’s 25th.

  • OBT25, October 11-18: Duets by James Canfield, Trey McIntyre, and Christopher Stowell; a world premiere by Nicolo Fonte; the return of Balanchine’s Agon
  • The Nutcracker, December 13-27
  • Cinderella, February 28-March 7, 2015: Ben Stevenson’s version set to Prokofiev’s score
  • Impact, April 16-25: Nacho Duato’s Rassemblement, Dennis Spaight’s Crayola, a new work by Darrell Grand-Moultrie (who has choreographed for Beyoncé, among others)

Ticket info is available online.

Profile Theatre has started a video blog on YouTube, and the first one features artistic director Adriana Baer talking about the company’s new In Dialogue series (the next event is a reading of Amy Claussen’s Hungry on March 15). The first installment is quite enjoyable!

Jessica Jackson Hutchins continues her conquest of London (where she showed first in 2010) with a new exhibition at the Timothy Taylor Gallery. If you’re headed for London, it runs through March 8, and if not, Artforum’s Sherman Sam included it in a London gallery round-up.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Jessica Jackson Hutchins at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Portland arts writer Mark Feldman has started a new blog, Art And, that offers bite-sized examinations of single works of art. Feldman explains: “The goal is to deliver accessible, attentive, and thought-provoking takes on selected works of contemporary art. The menu is heavily skewed towards art that has something to say about our relationship to or our place in nature – because that’s where my interests run. Some of the featured works comment and meditate while others intervene more directly. Most of the works discussed can be seen in and around Portland.”

Alfred Monner, Tree Presence, Portland Art Museum

Alfred Monner, Tree Presence, Portland Art Museum

The most recent installment discusses the great Oregon photographer Alfred Monner’s Tree Presence, on display at the Portland Art Museum.

ArtsWatch’s A.L. Adams interviewed Sam Dinkowitz, the comic brains behind Portland’s late-night “Spectravagasm” franchise. They talked about sketch comedy, what you CAN’T make jokes about, and pulling a good show out of a hat and an empty wallet.

The second part of playwright Amy Freed’s conversation with Portland Architecture’s Brian Libby about modern architecture is almost as entertaining as her play, The Monster-Builder, now playing at Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre. Libby, an ArtsWatch contributor, will lead a panel discussion about the play and the issues it brings up with local representives from the American Institute of Architects, Restore Oregon, and the theater at ART after this Sunday’s matinee performance.

And we’ll leave it at that!

Oregon ArtsWatch Archives