Stage&Studio

Bonnie Ratner is a playwright, an educator and a mainstay for Portland nonprofit theater groups. Ratner has consulted with and worked with many of the latter either creating a play or helping with advice on management, fundraising and board development. … Read the rest

((L-R) Storytellers: Tim Seelig, choir director, Reid Vanderburgh, singer, Kathleen Saadat, poet/activist, Horatio Hung-Yan Law, visual artist and Host/Curator Sandra de Helen, writer.) Stories bring people together in shared humanity. Personal stories can uplift, move and connect. In 2025, Dmae … Read the rest

Kristina Wong, actor, playwright and performance artist is a Doris Duke Artist Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow and the first Asian American woman to be named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama. She’s brought three of her solo shows to Portland. … Read the rest

Stories bring people together in shared humanity. Personal stories can uplift, move and connect. In 2025, Dmae Lo Roberts embarked on a statewide storytelling experience focusing on personal stories from both artists and community members. These stories are a form of living oral histories.

Dmae Lo Roberts decided to focus on four female playwrights in the festival: Sandra de Helen, Josie Seid, Alisha Christiansen and Erin Rachel. 

Dmae Lo Roberts talks with Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and Portland author of about several novels including the New York Times bestseller Robopocalypse, as well as many nonfiction books, and countless short stories and graphic novels.

Portland Playhouse has been bringing this classic play back a non-traditional thoroughly multiracial and often cross gender adaptation for the last three years which feels timely and relevant to today. Dmae Lo Roberts met with director Charles Grant and actor La'Tevin Alexander who portrays Scrooge.

It is the second production in its 4th season, 21Ten Theatre presents the world premiere of “Madonna of the Cat” by veteran playwright Sue Mach. The storylines of  Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” are a jumping off point that explores the missing … Read the rest

Dmae Roberts opens up the audio vault with Talking With The Wind: The Mystery of Opal Whiteley. This half-hour documentary was first produced in 1986 with playwright Dorothy Velasco and tells the story of a young woman from Cottage Grove, Oregon who became the center of an international controversy when critics declared her diary a hoax.

Olga Kravtsova is a Russian-born movement director, performer, and interdisciplinary artist artist who lives in Portland. She is opening a new solo show called “Harvest of Woman” which she describes as a “raw excavation of women’s unseen labor, endurance, and survival.”

Donald Horn, the founder and managing artistic director of Triangle Productions brings back an encore production of "That's No Lady." The show is a loving tribute to the life and accomplishments of Walter Cole, otherwise known as his alter ego, the legendary Darcelle. The show also honors Cole's life partner for decades Roc Neuhart (Roxy).

When Scarlett Johansson took on an anime character role in a live action version of The Ghost In The Shell in 2016, Actor, writer and comedian got the spark to perform as Scarlett Johansson. Asian American groups instantly protested a white actress taking on the beloved character from  a Japanese cyberpunk story based on a manga series saying it was a "whitewashed" role. Johansson defended it sayi...

Laura Lo Forti and Damaris Webb have run the Vanport Mosaic Festival as co-directors for ten years which in itself is an admirable achievement built on trust, hard work and mutual friendship, each respecting the others desire for art, activism and community engagement.

Playwright Sara Jean Accuardi is about to set sail on her World Premiere production of The Storyteller. Accuardi has had her plays produced in Portland at Shaking the Tree Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, and more recently Artist Repertory Theatre.  She’s had productions in other parts of the country such as the Playmakers Repertory Company, The Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, and Victory Gardens to...

Dmae talks with Jane Vogel Mantiri (Indo writer/actor and founder of Advance Gender Equity) and Samson Syharath (theater artist and co-founder of Theatre Diaspora) about their journeys with cultural diaspora. Both are performing personal solo plays dramatizing their explorations into family secrets and the effects of war and myth on their own identities. They premiere their separate shows at the 2...

In 2015 famed playwright of verbatim” or “documentary” theater, Anna Deavere Smith created a solo show called “Notes From the Field.” Drawn from more than 200 interviews with students, parents, teachers administrators, Smith played multiple characters who talk about the school to prison pipeline. “Notes From the Field” is even more pertinent today

Simon Tam is one of the few, if any, rock musicians to have received a major award from the American Bar Association. Co-founded in 2006 as an all-Asian American dance band paying homage to 80's music, the Portland-originated The Slants were denied the right to trademark their name. Tam had to fight a case all the way to the US Supreme Court in order to get the band name trademarked.

Linda K. Johnson is a visionary dancer who has created more conceptual and site-relevant performances and projects for the last 40 years. She has been both an educator and curator bringing together artists of varied disciplines to create together. O

Sarah Jane Hardy has been the artistic director of Northwest Children’s Theater (NWCT) for a couple of decades. Since she left her native Liverpool, England, Sarah Jane has weathered many storms at the theatre and produced and directed many successful shows. She’s been a visionary theater leader and when many theaters had to scale back during the pandemic, NWCT actually obtained a long lease to op...

Chisao Hata, veteran artist, activist and community weaver and Roberta Wong longtime visual artist and curator both have personal and family histories connected to Portland’s historic Old Town. They are about to embark on Vanport Mosaic’s Coming Home project events September 25th through October 5th, 2024. Their project was one of 14 selected nationwide by Race Forward and Americans for the Arts.

Jessica Wallenfels, artistic director of Many Hats Collaboration and a longtime director and choreographer, is embarking on a new project. She calls it The Hatchery –a project dedicated to developing nontraditional new works using music and movement as an integral part of the storytelling and audience experience.

Oregon Children's Theatre is set to open two shows at Portland 5 after delays from recent snow and ice storms that have shut down most productions. Dmae Lo Roberts got a chance to speak with Jenn Hartman Luck, OCT's artistic director about (h)opening "Goodnight Moon" (based on the classic book by Margaret Wise Brown) in the Winningstad and "The Lightning Thief" (of the Percy Jackson series by Rick...

Black Nativity is back at PassinArt, A Theatre Company, the oldest Black theatre company in Portland. The show is a retelling of the Nativity as a celebration of gospel music, first created by famed poet Langston Hughes in 1961. It’s … Read the rest

Since 2020, Renegade Opera has been striving to produce operas in equitable ways that support and feature emerging artists while creating an immersive experience for their growing audience. Renegade Opera’s artistic director and founding member, Danielle Jagelski, talks with Jenna … Read the rest

Dmae Lo Roberts  first saw actress Regina Taylor on the television show “I’ll Fly Away” in 1991.  She admired her presence and the way she could command a scene with just a look and a feeling. That show went on … Read the rest