Dorothy Velasco

A Raisin in the Sun is the gem of the spring season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Insightfully directed by Tim Bond, the Festival’s Artistic Director, this brilliant masterpiece by Lorraine Hansberry was the first play by a Black American woman to be performed on Broadway. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle named it the best play of 1959.

The exuberant production now playing at the Allen Elizabethan Theatre might be described as Shakespeare on steroids.

Fans of Westerns have revered Shane, both the book by Jack Schaefer and the 1953 film, for generations. And now, new fans can enjoy a highly original stage adaptation by Karen Zacarias at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. KLCC's Dorothy Velasco has a review of the west coast premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Although Quixote Nuevo, written by Octavio Solis, a playwright long affiliated with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, often seems too long and too jumbled, director Lisa Portes makes sure the surprises are impactful.

Dorothy Velasco reviews Fam Ham performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Dorothy Velasco reviews Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Now playing at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, this tender-hearted two-person drama by E.M. Lewis can juggle our emotions from laughter to tears in a matter of seconds.

The Last Yiddish Speaker, now playing at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, offers a chilling version of the near future. This thoughtful new play by Deborah Zoe Laufer is reminiscent of dystopian works by Sinclair Lewis, George Orwell and Philip Roth.

Coriolanus, now playing at the Shakespeare Festival’s Thomas Theatre, offers the chance to see a lesser known play by Shakespeare adapted to contemporary language that is easier to understand.