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Stage&Studio

L-R clockwise: (seated)Shani Harris-Bagwell, Shareen Jacobs, Sherita Trent, Dmae Lo Roberts, Leslie Gregory and Kathleen Saadat (seated). Photo: Richard Jensen.

Special Series: -Ism Storytellers: Black Femme

In Dmae Lo Roberts' latest Stage & Studio podcast, five Black Oregon women leaders tell their stories about personal courage, race-based health discrimination, community activism, and the power of art to heal.

A Timely Christmas Carol

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.
Olga Kravtsova

Olga Kravtsova’s Harvest of Woman

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.”

That’s No Lady-Remembering Walter Cole

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).

Chris Grace As Scarlett Johansson

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 saying that an actor had a right to play any role. And that’s the premise of actor Chris Grace’s new show Chris Grace As Scarlett Johansson 

Exploring Personal Diasporas

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 2025 Fertile Ground Festival, a city-wide festival starting April 4-19th featuring all local theater works.