STAGE

Antiques Improv Show

[IMPROV] You bring your white elephants to the Brody ensemble, and they make up appraisals and histories for them. The Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway., 224-2227. 8 pm Saturdays. Closes Dec. 5. $7-$10. Map

Ben Franklin: Unplugged

One morning, while shaving, monologuist Josh Kornbluth realizes he has lost enough hair and gained enough girth to resemble the man on the hundred-dollar bill and, at the urging of a particularly forceful aunt, considers creating a Franklin-centric stage show. He really gets interested in Franklin’s story only after he discovers ol' Ben had an illegitimate son, William Franklin, who was, contrary to his father’s wishes, the colonial governor of New Jersey. It’s not long before Kornbluth finds himself struggling to sort through academic rivalries, popular myth and Franklin’s own self-aggrandizement. Along the way he meets a mildly crazy Franklin scholar, gallivants around Manhattan in a Franklin costume, and gets revenge on Yale University. All this, delivered at considerable volume with much thrashing of arms and spraying of spittle by a short, pudgy bald man wearing black jeans and a terrible Hawaiian shirt adorned with blue sunflowers. Kornbluth’s persona is a schlemiel in the classic mold, but he is cannier than he looks, and his toying with the self-generated myth of Franklin is a blast to watch. BEN WATERHOUSE. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays, noon Thursdays, alternating 2 pm Saturday and 7:30 pm Sunday shows. Closes Nov. 22. $24-$45, $20 day-of-show rush tickets available. Map

Bingo With the Indians

Portland Playhouse presents Pulitzer finalist Adam Rapp's play about a desperate theater company's fundraising scheme—stealing the take of a church bingo game—that doesn't end well. Tim True directs. The Church, 602 NE Prescott St., 205-0715. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Dec. 13. $14-$19. Map

Brody Theater Open Mic Night

Watch your fellow Portlanders perform 10 minutes of comedy, music, magic or what have you. The Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway., 224-2227. 10 pm Friday, Nov. 20. $5 for nonperfomers. Map

Carl Banks

[STAND-UP COMEDY] Banks is described by just about everyone as "high-energy." That's apparently a synonym for "annoying to the sober, hysterical to the wasted." He makes funny noises, yells a lot and mocks gays, women and Alaskans in an almost amusing sort of way. Harvey's Comedy Club, 436 NW 6th Ave., 241-0338. 8 pm Thursday, 7:30 and 10 pm Friday, 5, 7:30 and 10 pm Saturday, 7 pm Sunday. $15. Map

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Why wait to expose the younger set to an adult world of unbridled marketing that sucks in a poor child to hope for his “Golden Ticket” reward while avaricious kids cash in easily? There’s a happy ending eventually in this 1964 Roald Dahl children’s tale about empathetic Charlie and four very different brats lucky enough to win a trip inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. And this production by Oregon Children’s Theatre generates a lot of giggles along the way to that end. The show is cleverly staged and darkly lit to convey the mysteries and dangers lurking in Wonka’s chocolate factory, without being too scary for young children. The play is too wordy in spots for kids 5 and younger, but there are enough sight gags and singalongs to get them through. The Oompa-loompas are damn cute. Cody Westphal as Charlie and Doren Elias as Willy Wonka both turn in strong performances. And an extra Golden Ticket to Devin White as a hilariously voracious Augustus Gloop. HENRY AND BEN STERN. Newmark Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway., 228-9571. 2 pm Nov. 15 and 22, 2 and 5 pm Nov. 14 and 21. $13-$24. Map

ComedySportz

[IMPROV] Fast-paced, competitive, family-friendly improv. ComedySportz, 1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays. $12. Map

Everyone Who Looks Like You

In my June review of the work-in-progress production of this pastiche of family life by Hand2Mouth Theatre, I advised readers to see the show with their siblings. I take it back. The current version of the work, which the company will tour to New York in January, is stripped of schmaltz, portraying family just as it is: the people to whom you happen to be related, who made you who you are, who loved you more and caused you more pain than anyone else ever could, and whom you will one day inevitably become. The material is drawn from the memories of the cast and crew and informed by interviews with one another’s parents and siblings: the time Mom came home with a terrible perm, the time the parents bungled a speech about the ills of masturbation, the time a sibling stormed out of the house and vanished for five years. Courageously, the actors have all invited family members to attend. Should you do the same, you may find yourself in the midst of involuntary oversharing after the show. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., boxofficetickets.com. 8 pm Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 6-22. $12-$15. Map

Fat & Sassy II: One Size Fits

Have you ever wished you could recover an hour or two of your life? Sitting in the audience of BroadArts Theatre’s production about overweight women who thunder around either romanticizing or demonizing food will make you long for the blissful life you just put on hold. While the cast has an admirable energy, the desperate grabs for chocolate bars and Krispy Kremes are not entertaining. Nor is a tune a Caucasian sings about wanting to become a heavy black woman. Instead of examining the emotional struggles of overeaters, the deceitfulness of the weight-loss industry, or the superficiality of society, cheap, outdated humor simplifies the issues and reaffirms stereotypes of heftier people. SASHA INGBER. Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, 1907 NE 45th Ave., broadarts.org. 8 pm Thursdays-Fridays. 8 pm Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays at Urban Grind East, 2214 NE Oregon St. Closes Nov. 22. $10-$12. Map

Fool for Love

Chris Harder and Val Landrum, a real-life married couple, play at emotional abuse and infidelity in CoHo’s production of a lesser-known work by Sam Shepard. Eddie (Harder), a rugged, cheatin’ stunt man, has come to fetch May (Landrum), his lover of 15 years, from her squalid motel room, hoping she’ll return to live with him again in his windblown trailer. She doesn’t want to go, but she doesn’t want him to go, either. So they bicker, he pleads, she threatens to murder him, they get drunk, they fling one another against the walls, and we watch, hopelessly fascinated. So does the Old Man (Tim Stapleton), a mysterious ghost sitting onstage in a rocking chair and bad wig, sucking down whiskey. So, too, does Martin (Spencer Conway), a handsome but none-too-bright townie who shows up to court May. Seeing Harder and Landrum go at it is a bit like overhearing a couple’s role-playing fantasy, uncomfortable and awkward, but it works well for this show. As usual in Shepard’s work, the plot doesn’t quite follow—Eddie is pursued by an unexplained Countess—but it doesn’t really matter. We’re in this for the fight. Don Crossley’s lighting trickery lends a strong sense of realism, which is unfortunately undermined by the set’s lack of walls. Mimed door slams with sound cues are a sorry excuse for the real thing. BEN WATERHOUSE. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 205-0715. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Nov. 21. $20-$25. Map

The Garden of Curious

[IMPROV] The Curious Comedy ensemble performs an interactive, highly inappropriate kids' show for grown-ups, with the characters from the company's actual children's production, The Curious Garden. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., curiouscomedy.org. 11 pm Friday, Nov. 20. $5. Map

Hats!

What do a tutu, chocolate and bad wigs have in common? They all make an appearance in Triangle Productions’ musical about middle-aged women learning to accept life and all of its affronts. Mary Anne (Adair Chappell) is indignant over turning 50, and her mother’s “menopausal pep squad” convinces her that aging is not as bad as it looks. The singing and dancing are not exactly Broadway caliber, with the only melodious voice coming from Duchess (Shawn Price), but the others have a certain charm. One disappointment is that the actors deliver intimate monologues in areas of the set where some of the audience members can’t see them. But the performers’ delight in inhabiting quirky roles comes through, furnishing plenty of humor—particularly for older audiences who know of and would join the Red Hat Society. SASHA INGBER. Brunish Hall, 1111 SW Broadway., tripro.org. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Nov. 15 and 22. No show Nov. 19. Closes Nov. 22. $15-$35. Map

Henry IV

Northwest Classical Theatre Company presents the second half of the saga of Henry of Bolingbroke, with incidental humor by Falstaff, as told by Wm. Shakespeare. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 971-244-3740. 7 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Nov. 22. $15-$18. Map

Holidazed

Artists Rep says it has revived "by popular demand" Marc Acito and C.S. Whitcomb's show about Susannah Mars teaching a homeless teenager the joys of Christmas. Here's what I wrote about it in 2008: "By tackling the holidays as a feminist issue, Acito and Whitcomb do indeed find a new angle on the Christmas show, and the play does include a few moments of genuine hilarity—most notably a tense Thanksgiving with Julia’s right-wing in-laws and a yuletide drag routine by Todd Van Voris as her gay college friend. But the script gets bogged down not by Acito’s corniness (the man never met an alliterative quip he didn’t like) but by the writers’ refusal to jettison the right Christmas tropes. Why, if you want to escape the shadow of Scrooge, do you include a cautionary ghost? The saccharine supernatural scenes derail the otherwise well-paced comedy." Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays. Closes Dec. 20. $20-$47. Map

Hopeless

Melanya Helene revives her one-woman show derived from the writings of American Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön, which ran to largely positive reviews in June. The Brooklyn Bay, 1825 SE Franklin St., Bay K., 772-4005. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 3 pm Sundays. Closes Nov. 22. $12-$15. Map

Keep Portland Funny

[STAND-UP COMEDY] Cheap laughs with Richard Bain, Virginia Jones, Jim Willig, Phil Schallberger and Jimmy Newstetter. Kelly's Olympian, 426 SW Washington St., 228-3669. 8 pm Wednesday, Nov. 18. $5. Map

The Lying Kind

Third Rail Rep wishes the world an unhappy Christmas with this yuletide farce by English provocateur Anthony Neilson. A pair of bobbies lie to an elderly couple on Christmas Eve, launching a madcap cascade of misfortune involving a chihuahua, a vicar and panties. World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon St., thirdrailrep.org. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Dec. 13. $15-$29. Map

The Man Who Came to Dinner

Tobias Andersen plays Sheridan Whiteside, a New York cultural personality who has dinner with an Ohio couple, then slips on their icy doorstep, breaks his hip, and settles down as a very unpleasant house guest. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego., 635-3901. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and Dec. 2; 7 pm Nov. 22, 2 and 7 pm Nov. 15, 2 pm Nov. 29 and Dec. 6 and 13. $24-$26. Map

MarkofMystery

[MAGIC] Close-up sleight of hand and mentalism with MarkofMystery. Jake's Grill, 611 SW 10th Ave., 241-2125. 6-9 pm Fridays. Free. Map

Meet Your _______

[SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION] Super Project Lab's super-fun series of improvised sketches inspired by stories told by notable Portlanders returns for one weekend. "Notable" is maybe too strong a term: Friday it's "Meet Your Mad Men" with Jerry Ketel and Kelly Baker, and Saturday is "Meet Your Critic" with Oregonian music writer Ryan White and yours truly. A teaser: my stories all involve emus. BEN WATERHOUSE. Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway., superprojectlab.com. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Nov. 20-21. $12. Map

Nosferatu

Atomic Arts, the group that performed the Star Trek episode "Amok Time" at Woodlawn Park over the summer, reenacts the 1922 silent film that spawned the vampire movie genre. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 927 5699. 10 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes Nov. 21. $15. Map

Open Court

Curious Comedy invites the audience to take the stage for Whose Line Is It Anyway?-style team comedy games. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., curiouscomedy.org. 8 pm Thursdays. $5. Map

The Order of Ostara & That Party Crashin' Pervert!

The latest opus of Charles Augustus Steen III is "a two-act dramatic representation of Easter 1954). It "contains Coarse Language, Mature Content, Intellectual Snobbery, Demonic Possession, Shock & Awe, Strobe Light, Violence, Lewd Behavior, Drinking & Nudity!" Sounds like a good time. The Hostess, 538 SE Ash St., 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays. Closes Nov. 22. $10-$20. Map

PHAME Academy Winter Gala

[FUNDRAISER] The 25-year-old nonprofit that creates theater with developmentally disabled adults holds its annual music-and-hors-d'oeuvres party and silent auction. Acadian Ballroom, 1829 NE Alberta St., 546-6800. 4-7 pm Sunday, Nov. 22. $45. Map

Razzle Dazzle Die!

[DINNER THEATER] Interactive murder-mystery musical dinner theater. Food by Timothy Fuhrman, murder by Eddie May. Pine Street Bistro, 221 SW Pine St., 524-4366. 7:30-9:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays. $69 per person. Map

Reed McClintock

[MAGIC] The heavily tattooed local magician holds down a weekly gig at Voleur. Voleur, 111 SW Ash St., 227-3764. 8 pm Fridays. Free. 21+. Map

Rumpelstiltskin

This tale told in puppetry of what befalls a maiden who cuts a deal with a dwarf to spin straw into gold will make you chuckle if you’re an adult and enthrall your children enough to keep them in their seats. The Grimms fairy tale has a couple of scary moments that might make kids 5 and younger grab an adult’s elbow. But Tears of Joy puppeteers Aaron Lathrop and Kathleen Reid are strong performers who carry the show with a combination of clever accents and energy. Make sure to arrive early enough so your kids can cut out paper puppets in the lobby. And plan to stay after the show so your children can ask questions of the oh-so-patient puppeteers. HENRY AND BEN STERN. Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway., 248-4335. 7:30 pm Friday, Nov. 13; 11 am Saturdays, 2 and 4 pm Sundays. Closes Nov. 29. $14-$16. Map

Theatresports

Live competitive improv games from the Brody ensemble. The Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway., 224-2227. 8 pm Fridays, 10 pm Saturdays. $7-$10. Map

We Bombed in New Haven

Third Eye Theatre presents a 1968 play by Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22. The reflexive tone in which the characters acknowledge they are acting makes the line between reality and make-believe grow hazy. The major (Chandler Adams) barks orders and Capt. Starkey (Simeon Denk) summons his troops to bomb places like Constantinople. The soldier-actors comply until the prospect of dying is upon them. The plot is relevant to today, and derisive humor shades the dialogue, especially from Sgt. Henderson (Jeff Gardner). But more emotional complexity is required. The strongest motivator in most of the actors is anger, but it would prove more powerful juxtaposed with weakness and vulnerability. SASHA INGBER. The Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 970-8874. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays. Closes Nov. 21. $10-$12. Map

Winter Wonderettes

A Christmas revue set at a 1968 holiday party at a hardware store. It's Broadway Rose, so you can count on phenomenal singing. Broadway Rose New Stage Theatre, 12850 SW Grant Ave., 620-5262. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Dec. 20. $20-$30. Map

CLASSICAL

La Stella Baroque

The city’s fledgling Baroque music ensemble comprises local early music experts who’ve been impressive in various other settings, including Portland Baroque Orchestra. Violinist Mary Rowell, Zoe Tokar on recorders, Max Fuller, baroque cello and bass viola da gamba, and Hideki Yamaya on theorbo, will perform smaller-scale gems by Telemann (a cantata featuring soprano Irene Weldon) and Vivaldi as well as by should-be-better-known earlier composers Dario Castello and Solomon Rossi. First Presbyterian Church, 1200 SW Alder St., 228-7331. 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 22. $8-$10. Map

Lamentatio

The eyes will focus on the dancers and multimedia elements, but the excellent Portland composer Jack Gabel’s new score will tantalize audiences’ ears. A sequel of sorts to the Laska Dancers’ previous music-theater-dance-current events piece, the searing The Fall ‘01, Lamentatio combines voices and cellos (conducted by Keith Clark) in music. It takes as sources revenue figures from the five largest U.S. military contractors, a setting of soldier-poet (and former Oregonian) Brian Turner’s “Eulogy,” about a soldier’s death he witnessed during the second Iraq war, isotope numbers of depleted uranium (used in American weapons that contaminate the area for decades, causing birth defects and cancer), The Odyssey and more. Composers from Bach to Shostakovich have done this kind musical encoding for centuries, and, as with Jack Gabel, have proved that emotional commitment invigorates rather than impedes their musical vision. When audiences complain—too often accurately—that contemporary art doesn’t reflect real world, here-and-now concerns (or on the other hand lapses into preachiness or didacticism), it’s great to see justified passion transformed into urgent, compelling art, as Gabel and Laska have demonstrated before. Don’t miss this American premiere. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 800-757-7384. 8 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, Nov. 18-22. $15-$20. Map

Oregon Symphony

After a stretch of—take your pick—audience broadening, innovative crossover/crass sellout programming (acrobats! video game music and projections! washed up rockers!), the orchestra returns to—take your pick—traditional/stodgy actual classical music featuring its own fine musicians in overtures by Berlioz and Mendelssohn. They also will perform two works surprisingly new to the band: Mozart’s less often heard yet still charming Sinfonia Concertante (this one featuring wind soloists), and a welcome 20th-century piece, 93-year-old Henri Dutilleux’s Symphony No. 2, making its OSO debut a mere half-century after it was written. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway., 228-1353. 7:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, 8 pm Monday, Nov. 21-23. $15-$100. Map

Padam Padam

Another entry in the neo-cabaret sweepstakes: singer Lisa Berkson Platt, violist/guitarist/cuatro player Barbara Bernstein on viola, accordionist Kathy Fors on accordion and bassist/pianist Jaime Leopold play lilting originals and songs by Kurt Weill, Frida Kahlo (!), Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf and more. TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont St., taborspace.ning.com. 7:30 pm Saturday, Nov. 21. $7-$10. Map

Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra

Shakespeare’s the common element that loosely ties these seldom heard pieces together. Along with recitations of related Bardian passages by local actors, the program features music from Weber’s opera Oberon (based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Verdi’s Otello, Elgar’s Falstaff (based on the Henry IV plays) and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, inspired by a passage from The Merchant of Venice. First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson St., 234-4077. 7:30 pm Friday, Nov. 20. $10-$30. Map

Revalia, Oregon Repertory Singers, Pacific Youth Choir, University of Oregon Chamber Choir, Unistus

During the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, the tiny, powerless Baltic states maintained a kind of psychological resistance through choral music. Drawing on a long tradition of sacred and folk vocal music, choirs, particularly in Estonia, have maintained a vital creative connection to the community, and continue to be a powerful outlet for new music. One of the finest is Revalia, led by renowned conductor Hirvo Surva. Abetted by local vocals, they’ll sing rarely heard (hereabouts, at least) contemporary sounds from the Baltics and Scandinavia, including the austerely beautiful music of the great contemporary Estonian composer Veljo Tormis. First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson St., 541-346-3766. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Nov. 18. $8-$12. Map

Sound-Minds Fortress, Travis Johns, Scott Stobbe and Ensemble

San Francisco-based Johns wields electric bass and laptop to create dark, static, sometimes ominous electronic soundscapes. PSU student Stobbe’s guitar-centric compositions draw on Asian and East European influences. Other than that they play strings and harmonium, we don’t know exactly what Sound-Minds Fortress sounds like because local musicians Mary Sutton, Warren Lee and Gabriel Will just formed it. That’s why these Portland New Music Society concerts are so valuable—they give us a chance to hear homegrown new music just as it’s sprouting. Enterbeing, 1603 NE Alberta St., 808-0385. 8 pm Thursday, Nov. 19. $5. Map

DANCE

Bandage a Knife

For the past decade, the home base for Linda Austin has been a barrel-ceilinged former Romanian Orthodox church in the Foster-Powell ’hood dubbed Performance Works NW. It’s the space where she’s hosted everything from her own quirky multimedia works to the annual Richard Foreman Mini-Festival and talent show Cabaret Boris Natasha. Austin’s latest project, Bandage a Knife, a wild stew of video footage, power struggles and slo-mo death scenes, is actually a collaboration with experimental musician Seth Nehil, who is also hard at work developing Pacific Northwest College of Art’s first sound art class. The inspiration is Seijun Suzuki’s absurdist 1967 cult Japanese yakuza film Branded to Kill—a flick in which contract killers shoot bullets through water pipes and rice is used as a sex aid. “A couple of years ago, Seth mentioned, ‘Oh, this movie reminds me of you,’” Austin says, grinning. Now the pair is deep into rehearsal, Nehil tinkering with a new, live-audio mix of fight-scene grunts while Austin experiments with the work’s five dancers. KELLY CLARKE. Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 777-1907. 7 and 9 pm Friday-Saturday, Nov. 13-14 and 20-21. 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 19. 7 pm Sunday, Nov. 15 and 22. $10-$15 sliding scale. Reservations or advance tickets required. Map

Chronos/Kairos

The new BodyVox retrospective is a strikingly accessible show. Like a children’s TV program, it is easy to follow along and feel as though one “gets it,” even with no dance background. Introducing dance to a wider audience is a notable goal, except when the dance in question seems to rely on not particularly amusing humor to cover up poorly executed movement. Since Chronos/Kairos re-stages works from BodyVox’s entire 12-year career, it was inevitable that some of the dancers would be more familiar with certain pieces than others. It showed. At times, newer dancers seemed so unfamiliar with the choreography that it was uncomfortable to watch. The brand new piece Shed was one of the strongest pieces of the evening. Lighthearted and playful, it showed off the company’s strong classical training along with just enough story line to be uniquely BodyVox. If only the entire show had been the same. KATE WILLIAMS. , 1300 NW Northrup St., 3rd floor., 421-7434. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, Nov. 19-Dec. 5, 2 pm Saturday, Nov. 28 and Saturday, Dec. 5. $36-$48. Map

ExpecTUtion

Katrina O’Brien isn’t just playing with what her dancers do onstage—she’s tearing up the surface they move on…with help from Montavilla’s Mr. Plywood. The local choreographer worked with seven carpenters to construct a massive, skateboard-parklike floor for her curiously named new work ExpecTUtion, which will take over IFCC this November. A flock of movers will explore the 12-foot dips, rises and slopes of their new world—answering the question of how “our actions depend on the delivery of what we do or do not expect” in the process.  KELLY CLARKE. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 4 pm Sunday, Nov. 19-22. $12-$15. Make reservations at pdxcc.net. Map

House of Dreams: A Night of Music & Dance for Cats

Local no-kill cat shelter House of Dreams, which takes in medically challenged and feline leukemia positive kitties, hawks up a fancy furball of entertainment to benefit their 50-plus cats. The show includes everything from new school movement from Origin Belly Dance and Znama Dance Co. to “world-beatnik” beats from Negra and dance fusion from Boom Boom Bollywood. KELLY CLARKE. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. 8 pm Sunday, Nov. 22. $5-$20 sliding scale. Map

Lamentatio

Some people make dances; others obsess over an idea until they birth a whole stage experience months or years later. Local choreographer Agnieszka Laska would be of the latter persuasion, and her Lamentatio is an big multimedia undertaking, centered on movement and music inspired by “poems of detainees from Guantanamo, soldiers from the Iraq war and mothers of victims from all sides of the global war of terror.” She says the 70-minute show features 50 performers onstage at one point or another, while some music comes courtesy of Portland composer Jack Gabel. It’s not the first time she’s taken on the damage of war, either. Her 2006 multimedia/dance/Web work The Fall of ’01, has been screened worldwide. Performance is free for veterans, refugees and people with disabilities. KELLY CLARKE. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 231-3959. 8 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, Nov. 18-22. $20, $15 students and seniors. For tickets call 715-1866 or visit artixpdx.com. Map

Pastie Parade Burlesque Show

How did Portlanders ever survive our drizzly Northwest winters without a new set of bespangled tits to gawk at each week? Miss Frankie Tease and the Girl Parties PDX crew inaugurate yet another new, weekly burlesque review—this one calls the oddball Northwest 21st Avenue bar Virgo & Pisces home. Blaze the contortionist is on the bill for the first of the third Thursday shows, as well as Sadie Heartbreaker and Tyger the Juggler. 21+. KELLY CLARKE. Virgo and Pisces, 500 NW 21st Ave., 517-8855. 8 pm every Third Thursday of the month. $7. 21+. Map

Savoir Faire

Portland’s roster of barroom burlesque shows swells to accommodate Savoir Faire, a tweaked version of the Hawthorne Theatre’s current weekly nudie show, which promises even more scantily clad, vaudevillian madness. This event is 21 and over. KELLY CLARKE. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 9 pm Thursdays. Admission varies, usually $7-$10. 21+. See hawthornetheatre.com/calendar.php for details. Map

Sinferno Cabaret

A fiery combo of striptease, jugglers, magicians and, yes, fire dancers, doused with a bit of classic rock-’n’-roll sleaze. Because, c’mon, it’s Dante’s. Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. 8:30 pm Sundays. $7. 21+. Map

So You Think You Can Dance

The best TV dance show since Solid Gold returns to Portland with a live night of modern, hip-hop, tango, salsa and Broadway pieces danced by Season 5’s crazy-talented finalists. KELLY CLARKE. Rose Garden, 1401 N Wheeler Ave., 235-8771. 7:30 pm Friday, Nov. 20. $38.50-$56. For tickets call 877-789-7673 or visit comcasttix. Map