Top Things to Do This Weekend: Apr 7–10
ODC/Dance looks into the light.
Image: Courtesy of White Bird
BOOKS & TALKS
Portland Poetry Slam
8 p.m. Sunday, Gerding Theater
Every other Sunday, slam poets of all stripes gather for a fast-paced competition: contestants may perform up to three poems, each not to exceed three minutes in length. The entire audience gets to play judge.
Not running with scissors.
Augusten Burroughs
7:30 p.m. Friday, Powell's City of Books
The Running with Scissors scribe returns with seventh memoir Lust and Wonder, on life after rehab.
COMEDY
Jeff Dunham
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Moda Center
The stand-up comic and ventriloquist hits the stage with his large cast of politically incorrect puppets, including Walter the curmudgeonly Vietnam vet, Achmed the dead terrorist, and José the talking jalapeño pepper.
DANCE
ODC/Dance
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Newmark Theatre
A San Francisco modern dance company known for athleticism makes its Portland debut with works from choreographers Brenda Way, K. T. Nelson, and Kate Weare. “Fierce physicality” is how Weare describes her work. White Bird can take some credit: her ODC piece is the result of the dance presenter’s 2015 Barney Prize.
Pearl Dive Project
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, BodyVox
Would Warhol still have been genius if he’d practiced dance instead? The whimsical dance troupe enlists eight creative types—nondancers all—to choreograph original works for the BodyVox company.
FILM
Seijun Suzuki Retrospective
8 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Portland Art Museum
The B-movie director, now 92, has inspired Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, but his films—marked by wild visuals, operatic violence, and a frenzied narrative style—aren’t widely seen outside his native Japan. Here’s your chance to get to know the idiosyncratic visionary.
MUSIC
Tinashe
8 p.m. Thursday, Crystal Ballroom
Singer-songwriter and dancer Tinashe tours her latest album, Joyride, which features Chris Brown on lead single “Player.” Tinashe’s second record follows 2014′s dramatic Aquarius—a fresh take on classic R&B that brought her instant acclaim. Oh, and she was hand-picked by Janet Jackson to perform in a tribute to the “Rhythm Nation” superstar at the 2015 BET awards. Not bad for a 22-year-old.
Marco Benevento
8 p.m. Friday, Wonder Ballroom
The experimental keyboardist, raised in New Orleans and trained at Berklee, has a style that ranges from psych rock to jazzy jams to electro-pop. New album The Story of Fred Short drops just days before his Portland show.
The Shook Twins are just as confused about this egg as you.
Image: Courtesy of Fleming Artists
Shook Twins
8 p.m. Sunday, Doug Fir Lounge
Portland’s favorite singer-songwriter siblings have built a fervent local fan base in their six years here—testament to the sisters’ onstage charisma and blissfully odd Americana.
Elgar's Symphony no. 1
7:30 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
The composer’s first opus—based on the life of Crimean War hero Gen. Charles Gordon—was a hit from its 1908 London debut. It’s performed by the Oregon Symphony, with Augustin Hadelich on violin.
Murray Perahia
2 pm Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
With hand surgeries now behind him, the legendary pianist is back to perform Beethoven’s jaw-dropping masterpiece, 'Hammerklavier.' For more, read our preview of the show.
THEATER
OPENING Blue Door
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Artists Repertory Theatre
Tanya Barfield, the pen behind Profile’s 2016 season, won rave reviews for this 2006 tale of an insomniac mathematician confronting complex issues of black American identity. The Portland-raised playwright also writes for the screen, with credits in Starz’s upcoming series The One Percent and the new season of The Americans on FX.
OPENING The Pianist of Willesden Lane
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Gerding Theater
In a sort of musical memoir, Mona Golabek tells the story of her mother, a classical pianist who managed to escape Nazi-occupied Vienna at age 14.
Cool Ranch: Theatre Vertigo's favorite Doritos flavor.
Image: Gary Norman
OPENING Love and Information
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Shoebox Theatre
Theatre Vertigo presents Caryl Churchill’s racing kaleidoscope (57 separate plays in two hours), which features a cast of 15 playing more than 100 characters. The New York Times calls it a tender surrender to data overload that “teases, thwarts and gluts.”
OPENING A Doll's House
7:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday, Shaking the Tree
Samantha Van Der Merwe directs Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama of a wife who must decide whether to walk her own path—scandalous for audiences in 19th-century Norway.
OPENING The New Electric Ballroom
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Imago Theatre
In Enda Walsh’s wide-touring black comedy, three aging sisters in rural Ireland compulsively rehash a starry teenage night of near seduction.
VISUAL ARTS
Black Eagle, Nez Percé
Image: Edward Curtis
Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy
10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Portland Art Museum
Wendy Red Star, Zig Jackson, and Will Wilson engage with the early-20th-century photogravurist’s groundbreaking collection The North American Indian. Also on: Diné artist Will Wilson's Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange, which invites visitors to sit for portraits. Wilson uses a large-format camera and wet-plate collodion process, with a goal of "indigenizing the photographic exchange." He'll be in the Museum courtyard 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and will give a lecture Sunday at 2 p.m.
Rowland Ricketts
11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Museum of Contemporary Craft
From hand-grown indigo dye (“sukumo”) prepared the ancient Japanese way, Ricketts creates an immersive, site-specific installation featuring hand-dyed linen and historic textiles.
Esprit
11 a.m.–5 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Adams & Ollman
In this group exhibition, artists use everyday objects—ranging from old furniture to umbrella parts to house keys—to create emotionally charged, sculptural works.
