CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

Thursday, August 31, 2023

12:00 p.m.
Pioneer Courthouse Square

Portland, Oregon

An innovative program telling the story of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, entwining Shakespeare’s language with Charles Gounod’s gorgeous score for Roméo et Juliette.

This program presented in partnership with SoundsTruck NW.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

7:00 p.m.
Walters Cultural Arts Center

Hillsboro, Oregon

An innovative program telling the story of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, entwining Shakespeare’s language with Charles Gounod’s gorgeous score for Roméo et Juliette.

Monday, October 23, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Recital Hall

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

In this highly theatrical new work, Los Angeles’ theatre dybbuk weaves together elements of The Merchant of Venice with Elizabethan history and news from the 21st century, taking a kaleidoscopic view of the ways in which members of a society displace their fears on the “other” during times of upheaval. The piece explores issues of marginalization, assimilation, and power, both in the past and in our contemporary world.

This program funded in part by a Signature Grant from The Covenant Foundation.

Presented in partnership with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

12:00 p.m.

Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education

Portland, Oregon

Centered on Shylock’s famous speech about his humanity and persecution in The Merchant of Venice, theater dybbuk’s The Villainy You Teach explores how language becomes both overburdened with and stripped of meaning through heightened theatricality and repetition.

This program funded in part by a Signature Grant from The Covenant Foundation.

Presented in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

7:30 p.m.
Lincoln Studio Theater

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

How can live performance alter a play’s meaning, and what does The Merchant of Venice tell us about audience sympathy and antipathy in the theater?

In conversation with Prof. Pollack-Pelzner’s talk, theatre dybbuk will present excerpts from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

This program funded in part by a Signature Grant from The Covenant Foundation.

Presented in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

Friday, October 27, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Smith Auditorium, Willamette University,

Salem, Oregon

Saturday, October 28, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

2:00 p.m.

Monday, October 30, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Portland, Oregon

Experience the tragedy of Verona’s star-crossed lovers in selections from Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev’s fiery ballet score.

Elena Kats-Chernin

Dance of the Paper Umbrellas

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola

Sergei Prokofiev

Selections from Romeo and Juliet, Suites Nos. 1 & 2

Friday, November 3, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 5, 2 p.m.

Thursday November 9, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 11, 7:30 p.m.

Fir Acres Main Stage,

Lewis and Clark College

Portland, Oregon

Waylon Lenk directs Yvette Nolan’s translation of Henry IV, Part I. As King Henry IV prepares to defend his crown from the upstart Hotspur, Prince Hal is too busy languishing in taverns and brothels with the roguish Falstaff to bother with politics. Will Hal continue to wallow in dissolution or will he finally stand up for his inheritance and his family?

Saturday, November 4, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

2:00 p.m.

Monday, November 6, 2023

7:30 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Portland, Oregon

Antonin Dvořák

Othello Overture

Andy Akiho

A new piece inspired by the art of Jun Kaneko, an Oregon Symphony Co-commission and the West Coast Premiere

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”

Monday, November 6, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Baz Luhrmann directs Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet (1996), featuring star-crossed lovers who are children of rival gang families in Verona Beach. Romeo + Juliet is simultaneously a timeless and a quintessentially ’90s take on its immortal source material.

Prof. Rebecca Lingafelter of Lewis and Clark College will lead a post-show discussion of the film.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

11:00 a.m.

Lincoln Recital Hall

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

What is the cultural legacy of the First Folio, and how can a book that epitomizes human achievement also be an instrument of inhumanity?

This program sponsored in part by History at Portland State University.

Saturday, November 11, 2023

4:00 p.m.

Agnes Flanagan Chapel

Lewis and Clark College

Portland, Oregon

In this lecture, Mohegan theater maker and scholar Madeline Sayet will discuss the historical context of the Native American Theater Movement in the United States, and how it evolves in relationship to the practice of Indigenizing Shakespeare.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

2:00 p.m.

Monday, November 20, 2023

7:30 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Portland, Oregon

Mendelssohn transports us to Shakespeare’s fantastical world of fairies and magic spells, with puckish strings, chattering woodwinds, and brassy fanfares. Principal Guest Conductor Jun Märkl leads this enchanting work alongside Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration—an electrifying musical poem exploring the spiritual journey of passing lives.

Richard Strauss

Death and Transfiguration
Felix Mendelssohn

Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opp. 21 & 61

RESCHEDULED

Saturday, December 2, 2023

11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Lincoln Hall, Studio 7

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

This workshop is for anyone interested in Shakespeare and how actors awaken his words, including poets, writers, directors, actors, and researchers. We will do what theatre folk call “table work,” and apply voice, speech, and rhetorical tools to bring Shakespeare’s words to life. Prof. Allen has worked with Cicely Berry, O.B.E. (R.A.D.A, R.S.C.) for many years and is a specialist in acting Shakespeare.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

4:00 p.m. CST

Love Library South

University of Nebraska–

Lincoln

Lincoln, Nebraska

What is the cultural legacy of the First Folio, and how can a book that epitomizes human achievement also be an instrument of inhumanity?

Monday, December 11, 2023

6:30 p.m.
Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Akira Kurosawa directs Ran (1985), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Set in samurai culture of sixteenth-century Japan, the film is a sweeping epic following the warlord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) after he decides to divide his empire amongst his three sons. The highest budgeted Japanese film in history at the time of its release, Ran employed 1400 extras and 200 horses during production and took Kurosawa 10 years to storyboard.

Prof. Elizabeth Williamson, formerly of Evergreen State College, will lead a post-show discussion of the film.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Lincoln Hall, Studio 7

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

This workshop is for anyone interested in Shakespeare and how actors awaken his words, including poets, writers, directors, actors, and researchers. We will do what theatre folk call “table work,” and apply voice, speech, and rhetorical tools to bring Shakespeare’s words to life. Prof. Allen has worked with Cicely Berry, O.B.E. (R.A.D.A, R.S.C.) for many years and is a specialist in acting Shakespeare.

Friday, January 12, 2024

7:30 p.m.
Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Following the ’90s trend of retelling classic stories with high school teens, 10 Things I Hate About You turns The Taming of the Shrew’s Katherina into Kat (Julia Stiles), an abrasive teen girl at Seattle’s Padua High School. Her father (Larry Miller) won’t allow Kat’s younger sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), to date until Kat does, so Bianca’s beau Cameron (Joseph Gordon Levitt) enlists bad boy Patrick (Heath Ledger) to melt Kat’s icy heart.

Prof. Alexis Butzner of Chemeketa Community College will lead a post-show discussion of the film.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

When does music appear in Shakespeare’s plays, and how does it help to create layers of meaning during performance?

Saturday, January 27, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

How do Shakespeare’s plays represent food and drink, and what are the connections between Renaissance culinary practices and our own?

Friday, February 2, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 3, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, February 4, 2024

2:00 p.m.
Friday, February 9, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 10, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

2:00 p.m.
Hampton Opera Center

Portland, Oregon

A program of 20th-century operatic selections inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, exploring transformation, love, and magic, with featured artist Katrina Galka.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

12:00 p.m.

Lincoln Recital Hall

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

Prof. Darrell Grant curates a musical encounter with Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Featuring faculty and student composers and performers from the School of Music, the recital transports 400-year-old language into modern musical contexts and styles.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

12:00 p.m.

Lincoln Studio Theater

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

How can examining early modern recipes and food traditions help us discover a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s plays and their cultural contexts?

Sunday, February 18, 2024

7:00 p.m.
Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Taking Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth and setting it in a ’70s fast-food burger joint, Scotland, PA. transforms a grim tale of unchecked kingly ambition and murder into a modern story of young passion, madness, and aspirations to be general manager—all with a side of fries. Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn) has a revolutionary idea to turn his failing restaurant around: the drive-through window. But when Duncan passes over Joe “Mac” McBeth (James Le Gros) for a promotion, he and Pat McBeth (Maura Tierney) get rid of Duncan and take over his restaurant. Can Lieutenant McDuff (Christopher Walken) get to the bottom of this grisly, greasy murder?

Prof. Jeffrey Todd Knight of the University of Washington, Seattle, will lead a post-show discussion of the film.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

How has the work of editing Shakespeare’s plays perpetuated racial stereotypes, and what can contemporary scholars do to dismantle editorial commentary that has, for centuries, espoused objective authority while practicing unexamined racism?

This program sponsored in part by Black Studies, Judaic Studies, and World Languages and Literatures at Portland State University.

PREVIEW: Thursday, February 29, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 1, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 8, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

2:00 p.m.
Lincoln Performance Hall Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

Prof. Karin Magaldi directs Aditi Brennan Kapil’s translation of Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure, which explores the corrupting influence of power, even for the most virtuous of individuals.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

How did Shakespeare highlight visual art in his plays, and in what ways have they inspired visual artists over the last four centuries?

This program sponsored in part by Art History at Portland State University.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

12:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

7:00 p.m.
Lincoln Recital Hall

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

A selection of songs from Shakespearean plays, performed on original instruments by a five-piece ensemble.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

What place did women occupy in Shakespeare’s culture, and how was speech a defining characteristic of gender?

This program sponsored in part by Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Portland State University.

Sunday, March 31, 2024

6:00 p.m.
Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Adapted and directed by Julie Taymor, Titus (1999) sets Shakespeare’s crowd-pleasing revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus in a surreal, anachronistic world of gold and gore. Anthony Hopkins plays the Roman general Titus, returning from war, with Tamora, Queen of the Goths (Jessica Lange), as his prisoner. After Titus sacrifices Tamora’s eldest son, he finds his family embroiled in an escalating cycle of revenge—and Tamora, newly empowered in marriage to Emperor Saturninus (Alan Cumming), pledges to “find a day to massacre them all.” Titus is a spectacular epic that is as stunning, disturbing, funny, and revolting as the electrifying performances of its legendary leads.

Prof. Lezlie Cross of the University of Portland will lead a post-show discussion of the film.

Friday, April 5, 2024

7:30 p.m.
Walters Cultural Arts Center

Hillsboro, Oregon

In this lush evening of song, Portland Opera’s Resident Artists present a variety of selections sure to satisfy every Shakespeare-loving musicophile. From art song to aria, Shakespeare has inspired a plethora of tunes as unforgettable as the words that inspired them.

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

12:00 p.m.
Lincoln Studio Theater

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

How do Shakespeare’s plays depict bubonic plague and other diseases, and what can they teach us about our own public health crises such as Covid–19?

PREVIEW: Thursday, April 11, 2024

7:30 p.m.

OPENING NIGHT: Friday, April 12, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 14, 2024

2:00 p.m.

Thursday, April 18, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Friday, April 19, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

2:00 p.m.

21ten Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Michael Mendelson directs Lisa Peterson’s modern verse translation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which weighs the balance between grief and betrayal, love and duty, divine providence and human action, and between justice and revenge.

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Studio Theater

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

How have modern directors reimagined Shakespeare’s plays for the silver screen, and what kinds of meaning does the technology of film make possible? Prof. Magaldi will be in conversation with Prof. Emerita Sue Brower from PSU’s School of Film.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

2:00 p.m.

Academic and Student Recreation Center, Room 001

Portland State University

1800 SW 6th Avenue

Portland, Oregon

A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison is a documentary film by Bushra Azzouz about a production of Shakespeare’s play at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Oregon. Actors who are in the film, Aaron Gilbert, Celeste-Destiny Handler, and Josh Underhill, and the play’s director, Johnny Stallings, will be in attendance for a post-show conversation.

April 6–May 19, 2024

Central Library

801 SW 10th Avenue

Portland, Oregon

An exhibition in the Collins Gallery at Central Library in downtown Portland, Shakespeare’s First Folio: 1623–2023 explores the modern legacy of Shakespearean plays. Gallery sections include “Folio Centennials,” “Shakespeare for Young Readers,” “Shakespeare on Film,” and “Shakespeare in Popular Culture.”

April 20—May 19 2024
Wednesdays–Sundays, 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays–Sundays, 2:00 p.m.
Select Thursdays, 2:00 p.m.

U.S. Bank Main Stage

Portland, Oregon

Rosa Joshi directs Sean San José’s modern translation of Coriolanus. In Shakespeare’s rarely performed, unique tragedy, civil unrest stirs political upheaval. The war hero Coriolanus is driven to defend and then destroy his own country. This modern translation lifts the story’s core and is fueled by a dynamic female and non-binary ensemble, and a muscular, movement-focused staging.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

11:00 a.m. PST
Webinar

How did people in Shakespeare’s era think about sex and sexuality, and what similarities do they share with our own contemporary sexual identities?

This program sponsored in part by Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Portland State University.

April 6–May 19, 2024

Central Library

801 SW 10th Avenue

Portland, Oregon

An exhibition in the Collins Gallery at Central Library in downtown Portland, Shakespeare’s First Folio: 1623–2023 explores the modern legacy of Shakespearean plays. Gallery sections include “Folio Centennials,” “Shakespeare for Young Readers,” “Shakespeare on Film,” and “Shakespeare in Popular Culture.”

April 20—May 19 2024
Wednesdays–Sundays, 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays–Sundays, 2:00 p.m.
Select Thursdays, 2:00 p.m.

U.S. Bank Main Stage

Portland, Oregon

Rosa Joshi directs Sean San José’s translation of Coriolanus. In Shakespeare's rarely performed, unique tragedy, civil unrest stirs political upheaval. The war hero Coriolanus is driven to defend and then destroy his own country. This modern translation lifts the story's core and is fueled by a dynamic female and non-binary ensemble, and a muscular, movement-focused staging.

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

6:30 p.m. PST
Webinar

In a land ravaged by strife and violence, actors and poets search for hope and inspiration in Shakespeare’s language. In this short film, Yemeni actors and actresses perform some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines, and a Yemeni poet recites a qasidah inspired by a Shakespearean sonnet. Why Shakespeare? Why Yemen, and why now? Come watch and find out.

This short film was created by Katherine Hennessey, Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Global Literature at Wenzhou-Kean University, in collaboration with Yemeni director Amin Hazaber and Yemeni videographer Mohammad Moneer. After the screening, Dr. Hennessey will speak about the making of the film and about the surprising history of Shakespearean performance in Yemen and the Arabian Gulf.

This program sponsored by The Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University.

Pictured above: Yemeni actor Amani Al-Dhammari, from the film Shakespeare in Yemen. Image credit: Mohammad Moneer.

Thursday, May 30, 2024

5:00 p.m.
Lincoln Studio Theater

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

What is the connection between Shakespeare and Cervantes, and what can these important figures teach us about the mind and mental health through their immortal characters Hamlet and Don Quixote?