Arts & Books Imagine a person is trapped inside a cloth sack and stretching the surface trying to get out from the inside. That's what the sculptures adorning the stage of Oslund's newest work Childhood Star look like. The show was commissioned by local dance presenter White Bird and premiered last night as part of Portland's Fertile Ground festival (read WW's big preview on the festival here). In constantly transitioning ...   More

News The first day of the Fertile Ground Festival of new play has come and gone. Here's what we saw on day one of ten: Truth and Beauty It's been a long time since Many Hats Collaboration's last full show—Lava Alapai's Mutt in 2005—and I had very high expectations for the company's latest project. Truth and Beauty is an adaptation (by Elizabeth Klinger, who also directs the show) of ...   More

News I only made it to one show on the second day of the Fertile Ground Festival (see our reviews from day one here): Hunt Holman's play Willow Jade, a social satire about a bunch of losers in a small Washington town that turns into something significantly stranger, which is getting a very short but very full production at Portland Playhouse. The play blends absurdity with despair in the best way. ...   More

News My last show from the first weekend of the Fertile Ground Festival was Dirty Bomb: A thoroughly perplexing world premiere, written and directed by recent New York transplant Rob Newton, in which a pair of despicable middle-aged siblings drink, scream and complain about their mother, who is rapidly falling into dementia, and the depraved young hustler who seems determined to destroy all their lives. ...   More

News After a short break for press day, we're back with more of the Fertile Ground festival of new performance art. Pulp Diction Presents: The Rewrite Man Everyone has something to hide in this occasionally mystifying reading of a new spy thriller, written by Oregon Book Award winner Steve Patterson and delivered with a splash of neo-noir. "There's cloak and dagger, and then there's crazy," announces ...   More