Pamplin Media Group – Daily Life: Here are photos to get hyped for ‘tick, tick … BOOM!’

Check back here for daily updates on happenings in the Metro Life entertainment and cultural world.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24

‘tick, tick … BOOM!’— The Portland Center Stage play, a precursor and origin story by the late Jonathan Larson for “Rent,” gets underway with opening night Friday, Aug. 26. It shows through Sept. 18 at The Armory .

Larson wrote it as an autobiographical rock musical and he performed it as a solo rock monologue in 1990. He died in 1996 from an aortic aneurysm, just before his 36th birthday, but “tick, tick … BOOM!” was revamped by playwright David Auburn as a three-actor piece with vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Stephen Oremus.

It premiered Off-Broadway in 2001, followed by a London production in 2005 starring Neil Patrick Harris. The musical was made popular again with Lin Manuel Miranda’s 2021 Netflix movie.

It features a rock score and offers a proverbial backstage tour of the love and sweat Larson put into making his Broadway musical dreams a reality, PCS said.

The play shows how Larson feels the pressure as he approaches his 30th birthday, trying to work his way into the theater, seeking his big break. Will he sell out to keep the lights on? Will he lose the love of his life? Will he finally write the soaring song that can change everything? And if he does, will anyone be there to see it?

PCS put on “Rent” in the spring.

For more see www.pcs.org. Here are some photos:

Stumptown Stages — The musical company has announced its 2022-23 season:

october 7-30, “Little Shop of Horrors”; Jan 20-Feb 12, 2023, “Cabaret”; June 2-June 25, 2023, “The Full Month.” Each will be staged at Winningstad Theatre.

For more: www.stumptownstages.org.

MONDAY, AUG. 22

Upcoming events — Some events to consider attending in the next week:

• The Immigrant Story and Oregon Historical Society, along with photographer Jim Lommasson and conceptual artist Roberta Wong, present a new exhibit, “I Am An American: Stories of Exclusion and Belonging.” It includes photographs, collected objects and narratives from Asian Americans, and shows Aug. 26-Jan. 8 at the Oregon Historical Society.

For more: www.ohs.org.

• Imago Theater goes galactic on stage — a rarity in theater — with “Lumen Mystery,” Aug. 26-Sept. 17. It marks playwright Jerry Mouawad’s first venture into a different type of science fiction — an allegorical realm incorporating existential inspection, spiritual redemption and familial tensions as a mother and daughter rocket to distant galaxies.

For more: www.imagotheatre.com.

• Across the Columbia River, the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival features plenty of music (and wine), Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28, at Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington.

For more: www.vancouverwinejazz.com.

• Upcoming Moda Center shows include Kendrick Lamar, Aug. 26, and Alicia Keys, Aug. 31.

For more: www.rosequarter.com.

• McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale lists Bonnie Raitt (Aug 26) and Robert Plant/Alison Krauss (Aug 27) as sold out, but tickets remain for Maren Morris (Aug 28).

For more: www.edgefieldconcerts.com.

• The 93rd annual dahlia show, put on by the Portland Dahlia Society, takes place at Oaks Amusement Park’s Historic Dance Pavilion, noon-5 pm Saturday, Aug. 27, and 10 am-3 pm Sunday, Aug. 28.

For more: portlanddahlia.com.

• The Hawthorne Street Fair takes place Sunday, Aug 28.

For more: www.hawthorneblvd.com.

• At the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, the exhibit “The Art of Food,” from the Collections of Jordan B. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, showcases how some of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries have considered the universal object of food. It shows Aug. 30-Dec. 3.

For more: www.pdx.edu/museum-of-art.

• At RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington, it’s Sammy Hagar and the Circle and George Thorogood, Sept. 3.

For more: www.ridgefieldamphitheater.com.

Janie Lowe — Friends of the Columbia Gorge and Maryhill Museum of Art collaborate on a contest each year that sits at the intersection of art and conservation and attracts artists from around the country.

This year, a Portland artist won a big prize. Janie Lowe earned the Columbia Gorge Award at the “Pacific Northwest Plein Air in the Columbia Gorge” paint out and exhibition, which took place at Maryhill Museum just outside Goldendale, Washington.

Her oil painting, “Westcliff Glow,” is a stunning piece capturing a summer sunset in the gorge on a windy vantage near Westcliff Lodge.

“I will never forget painting ‘Westcliff Glow.’ It wasn’t just a plein air painting, it was adventure painting,” she said. She and another artist thought the winds would die down, but they seemed to get stronger. “But with weighted easels from our backpacks and large stones around the feet, we continued on battling the 30- to 40-mile-per-hour winds and sun glare.”

Artists were judged on how they illustrated and celebrated the natural beauty and sense of wonder of the gorge.

For more: www.gorgefriends.org, www.maryhillmuseum.org.

New season — NW Dance Project has announced its 2022-23 season, which includes the return of its “In Good Company” shows choreographed by dancers.

It starts with “Bolero+” at Newmark Theatre, Oct. 14-15, followed by: “In Good Company” at NW Dance Project Creative Center, Dec. 16-18; “Common Ground” at Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton, March 17-18, 2023; “Stravinsky” at Newmark Theatre, June 2-3, 2023.

For tickets and more: www.nwdanceproject.org.

Mental health — MediaRites Production and Oregon Children’s Theater are partnering on “The —Ism Youth Files,” a project focusing on writings and interviews with youth ages 12-21 about mental health.

It comes in the wake of devastating isolation felt by youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers said.

The interviews will be used to create a collection of monologues, personal essays, poetry and short graphic novelettes; MediaRites also will produce four 30-minute podcasts of youth stories, interviews and performances.

It’s meant to focus on youth self-care in BIPOC and disability communities.

For more: www.mediarites.org, www.octc.org.

Theater release — A new Portland film company, Barnegat Studios, will release its debut feature film, “Where’s Rose,” in a couple of metro-area theaters starting Aug. 26: Regal Division Street Theater and Regal Movies on TV theater in Hillsboro.

The story: A social-horror film, it focuses on Eric (Ty Simpkins), a popular, bright, college-bound football team star from a “nice” middle-class family. However, Eric’s future is put on hold when his little sister Rose (Skyler Elyse Philpot) goes missing. When Rose returns, Eric starts to suspect something else monstrous has returned in her place.

For more: www.barnegatstudios.com.

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