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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
The hand-painted layers and die-cut pages of Eric Carle’s illustrations have defined many young readers’ earliest conceptions of storytelling. From Feb. 26 through April 24, the Oregon Children’s Theatre will run its production of Carle’s most famous work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Stills from the production reveal puppets that remain true to Carle’s vivid and tactile aesthetics. In addition to the classic metamorphosis of Caterpillar, this hourlong play draws on Carle’s Brown Bear, Ten Little Rubber Ducks and The Very Busy Spider. Specific performances during the two-month run will be livestreamed, sign language interpreted, and performed in Spanish. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, octc.org. 11 am and 2 pm Saturday and Sunday, through April 24. Tickets start at $15, but $5 options are available for low-income patrons.
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism
The iconic eyebrows, torrid affairs and stray self-portrait can’t begin to tell the full story of how Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera spearheaded a Mexican art movement in the early 20th century. Now through June 5, the Portland Art Museum will place these legends and their craft in context with over 150 works from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Included is work from other key contributors to Mexican Modernism, such as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Miguel Covarrubias, Gunther Gerzso, María Izquierdo, Carlos Mérida, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Juan Soriano and Rufino Tamayo. This globe-trotting collection also features period clothing and photographs related to the renowned artists. Visiting the special collection does require the purchase of a timed ticket (which includes general admission). CSP. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org. 10 am-5 pm Wednesday-Sunday, through June 5. $22-$25.
NW Dance Project Spring Premieres
The second Portland show by NW Dance Project’s new company brings to the Newmark Theatre a trio of global premieres by far-flung choreographers. Joseph Hernandez, a Black-Indiginous-Latino choreographer residing in Dresden, incorporates a wide range of influences and playful sensibility within challenging, strenuous works. London-born, Zurich-based Ihsan Rustem has served as resident choreographer of NW Dance Project since 2015 and thrilled audiences around the globe with pioneering pieces that test the boundaries of contemporary dance. Pieces by Chinese native Yin Yue, founding artistic director of New York City’s YY Dance Company, draw upon her trademarked FoCo technique—an inventive blend of classical training and contemporary movement. JAY HORTON. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, nwdanceproject.org. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, March 4-March 5. $29-$65.
Leading Ladies
The Lakewood Theatre Company’s production of Leading Ladies promises to be a wonderful way to reimmerse yourself in the world of in-person entertainment. The play is set in 1958 York, Pennsylvania, where two struggling Shakespearean actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable, discover a sick older woman in search of her sister’s children. She plans to leave them a sizable inheritance, so naturally Leo and Jack masquerade as the children, taking on the roles of their lives for an all-or-nothing payday. The play was written by Ken Ludwig, the prankster behind the medieval satire Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood. RAY GILL JR. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 503-635-3901. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, March 4-April 10. Additional show 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 23. $34-$36.
Cinema Unbound Awards
The Portland International Film Festival may be postponed until 2023, but its awards centerpiece continues as normal this March. With the goal of honoring artists who transcend cinematic convention, the 2022 Cinema Unbound Awards will recognize Portland icon Carrie Brownstein, King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Greene, animators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, UTA Artist Space creative director Arthur Lewis, and filmmakers Roger Ross Williams and Shirin Neshat. The presenters are arguably even more recognizable, including Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Isabella Rossellini. Matinee screenings Feb. 26 through March 5 corresponding with the honorees’ work also mark the long-awaited reopening of the Whitsell Auditorium. On March 6, the Whitsell will also host a pay-what-you-wish screening showcasing artists from the 2021 NW Film Center Sustainability Labs. CSP. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org. In-person awards ceremony 6 pm Tuesday, March 8. $125-$2,500.
Duma, MSHR, Avola
Nairobi, Kenya, is increasingly looking like a major mover and shaker on the international music scene, boasting not only a thriving experimental scene (KMRU, Nyokabi Kariūki, Slikback) but a close-knit heavy metal community as well. Self-described “sinister force” Duma (“darkness” in Kikuyu) bridges both scenes, their shrieked vocals and relentless polyrhythms often ensconced in a layer of harsh, ragged noise. Fresh off an acclaimed self-titled album on Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Tapes, they’re stopping at Holocene for their first North American tour, with opening performances by local multimedia artist Avola and synth-sculptors MSHR. Portland, with its deep heavy-music roots and predilection for noise-influenced metal bands like the Body and Thrones, seems a good town for this band to touch down in. DANIEL BROMFIELD. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org. 8 pm Monday, March 14. $15.
In the Name of Forgotten Women
The most recent stage work from the pen of Portland playwright and educator Cindy Williams Gutierrez pays gripping testament to female resilience in the face of oppression from unyielding forces around the globe by examining women at the center of 15 separate incidents in as many countries. Adapted from her award-winning poetry collection Inlay With Nacre, In the Name of Forgotten Women takes the form of a choreopoem blending music and dance with spoken word and projected footage to deepen the theatrical experience via multimedia flourishes. Presented by Coho Theatre in conjunction with Gutierrez’s Grito Productions, the play’s harrowing reflections on actual tragedies are intended to spur activism among observers. A series of engagements open to the public will follow each performance. JH. CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 503-220-2646, cohoproductions.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, March 25-April 16. Pay what you will.
Bowling With Heart
Big Al’s Bowling With Heart fundraiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital always offers a great time for a good cause, but this seventh annual bowlathon teases a newfound level of artistic engagement. For this year’s silent auction held at the Beaverton bowling alley, local creative consultancy and brand management agency Industry donated its imagineering talents to realize the visions of children receiving inpatient care at Doernbecher for a series of alebrijes: wildly colored, fantastical creatures that have become a staple of Mexican folk art. In a true collaboration, the beasties were shaped according to kids’ specifications, designers further personalized the alebrijes to highlight aspects of their young creators’ personalities, and PDX-based visual artist Tekpatl hand-painted the resulting toys for eventual sale to the highest bidder. JH. Big Al’s, 14950 SW Barrows Road, Beaverton, 503-748-6118, ilovebigals.com. 10 am-2 pm Sunday, May 1.
Queens Girl in Africa
Postponed from last autumn as a result of COVID, Queens Girl in Africa returns director Damaris Webb and star Lauren Steele to Clackamas Community College’s Osterman Theatre following their triumphant 2019 run of Queens Girl in the World. This second installment in Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ semi-autobiographical trilogy of one-woman shows again asks Steele to embody dozens of distinct characters, as titular teen heroine Jacqueline Marie Butler goes on a coming-of-age journey from a racially divided homeland to a new life (and new loves) in war-torn Nigeria. Reed College professor of English and humanities Pancho Savery will speak about the era’s politics and pop music before each Friday and Sunday performance. The production is a collaboration with CCC’s theater department. JH. Osterman Theatre, 19600 Molalla Ave., Oregon City, 503-594-6047, clackamasrep.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2:30 pm Sunday, March 31-April 24. $30-$40.
Art
Have you ever looked at an abstract expressionist painting in a museum and thought to yourself, “I could do that”? Art, of course, is as much about context as it is technical skill, but in Yasmina Reza’s play, which kicks off the Ten Fifteen Theater’s Mainstage Series, the question of what is art confounds a group of friends after one of them buys an all-white painting with white diagonal lines to the point that their arguments turn from theoretical to personal and threaten to destroy their friendships. SOPHIA JUNE. The Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria, 503-298-5255, thetenfifteentheater.com. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3:30 pm Sunday, March 18-26. $20.
To Survive on This Shore
The most powerful art is often found where no one is looking, and that’s exactly where Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre went. The two spent more than five years traveling across the United States, seeking to capture the lives of older transgender and gender-nonconforming seniors, daring to create what could be one of the most cathartic and enlightening exhibitions of the season. RGJ. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 1855 SW Broadway, 503-725-8013, pdx.edu. 11 am-5 pm Tuesday-Saturday through April 30. Free.
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
There will soon be another reason besides the Nike store to visit Beaverton. The city is about to get a massive arts center: the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, which is the first space of its kind to be built in the Portland area in more than three decades. We’re talking about a major arts center, which will open this spring, with a 550-seat theater, art gallery, rehearsal, workshop and meeting space, a lobby covered in quintessential Doug fir and an outdoor plaza…let’s just keep our fingers crossed for low COVID numbers so we can enjoy it all. The grand opening season begins Friday with the free gallery artist reception Celilo, Never Silenced, which will feature the work of Indigenous artists Don Bailey, Rick Bartow, Joe Cantrell, Jonnel Covault, Ed Edmo, Joe Fedderson, Analee Fuentes, Sean Gallagher, Lillian Pitt, Pah-tu Pitt, Richard Rowland, Sara Siestreem, Gail Tremblay and Richard York. SJ. 12625 SW Crescent St., Beaverton, 971-501-7722, thereser.org.