Search Portland Theater
Dramatic offerings in Portland range from big productions to edgy independent works.
Looking to catch a play? You’re in for a treat: Portland has a well-established network of venues and theater companies and an increasingly dynamic and diverse small theater scene. Large downtown theater houses offer full-scale, world-class shows; smaller independent houses take creative risks and scout new talent; a few collectives even cater their seasons to a particular ethnic identity or special niche-like comedy, mime or puppetry. There’s really something for everyone. Read on to learn more about the city’s vibrant theater scene, then head to our events calendar to discover even more things to do on your next visit to Portland.
Major Theaters
A great starting point for theater explorations is Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, an umbrella organization that handles booking and promotion for several of Portland’s biggest venues. In Portland’5 online calendar, you’ll find touring Broadway productions, opera, ballet and big-name solo appearances by prominent actors and comedians. The major halls are Antoinette Hatfield Hall, Portland’5 headquarters, and the three theater spaces within it: Dolores Winningstad Theatre, the Newmark Theatre and Brunish Theatre. Other locations include the Keller Auditorium, Lincoln Hall (at Portland State University) and Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Portland Center Stage, the city’s largest theater company, puts on full-scale musicals and other productions on the main stage and more stripped-down avant-garde plays in its intimate basement space, the Ellyn Bye Studio — both in The Armory, a historic building in the Pearl District.
With performance space inside of The Armory, Artists Repertory Theatre favors tense dramas from contemporary playwrights as well as hosting Profile Theatre, a company that devotes each of its seasons to a single playwright.
Third Rail Repertory Theatre has a penchant for dark comedies and a take-no-prisoners acting style and splits its season between the Winningstad Theatre at Portland’5 and CoHo Theatre in Northwest Portland.
Pre-Show Bites
These lauded local eateries are all within walking distance of their respective theaters.
Children’s Theater
Northwest Children’s Theater offers vibrant, accessible productions that can be enjoyed by kids as young as 4, while Oregon Children’s Theatre aims a bit older, dabbling in rock opera and exploring world affairs. The beloved kids’ show at Imago Theatre features acrobatic actors dressed as frogs, cats and a menagerie of other creatures who dance, mime, delight and surprise.
Shakespeare
Portland hosts plenty of Shakespeare — especially in the summer through outfits like the Portland Shakespeare Project, which performs at Artists Rep, and Willamette Shakespeare and Original Practice Shakespeare, which offer free, open-air performances.
But for diehard followers of the bard, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, goes on nearly year-round in Ashland, 4.5 hours south of Portland.
Multicultural Offerings
Portland Playhouse undertakes critically acclaimed modern works, especially though not exclusively about the African American experience. The “Milagro” or Miracle Theatre Group gives voice to the pan-Latino experience with bilingual productions.
Small and Emerging Theaters
Longstanding small Portland companies like Theatre Vertigo and CoHo Productions tackle everything from Dickensian classics to Beckett-esque absurdity, while in adjacent towns Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Lake Oswego upstarts Bag&Baggage and Chapel Theater, and veteran Lakewood also bring new twists to the classics.
Several newer theaters are scattered around Portland, and their productions often prove worth the trip. Working Theater Collective brings polish to the postmodern and the absurd and workshop new scripts. Curious Comedy Theater, which most often hosts standup and improv, shows a few plays, favoring minimal staging, spoof and solo work.
Upcoming Theater Performances
Dive into Portland's thriving theater scene at one of these upcoming shows.
Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really
Bouncing between horror and humor, Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s seminal novel is a thrilling play that questions who the true monsters are. Fierce, feminist, and frightening, Dracula is a revenge fantasy worth sinking your teeth into. The Wall Street Journal called this play “a fresh, theatrically potent spin on the novel … Hamill…
Liberace & Liza Holiday at the Mansion (A Tribute)
Don’t miss this exhilarating parade of musical and comical fireworks. Local favorites David Saffert and Jillian Snow have dazzled audiences from New York to Portland. Get ready for nonstop glamor and glitz as they take the stage as Liberace and Liza Minnelli. Featuring rousing musical numbers, enchanting costumes, and unforgettable laughs, this cheeky and delightful…
Black Nativity
PassinArt: A Theatre Company presents Black Nativity by poet and playwright Langston Hughes. Based on the traditional Nativity story, the spirit-filled, inspiring gospel songplay features traditional Christmas carols performed in a gospel style with a few new songs specifically for the show. Directed by Jerry Foster
Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn
Jim and his new friend, Linda, turn a Connecticut farmhouse into an inn with spirited performances to celebrate each holiday. But when Jim’s best friend Ted tries to lure Linda to Hollywood to be his new dance partner, will Jim be able to salvage his latest chance at love? A joyous musical featuring Irving Berlin…
It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s A Wonderful Life is an award-winning musical adaptation of Frank Capra's classic film, with book and lyrics by Janet Mouser, and music and lyrics by Michael Allen Harrison, Alan Berg and Julianne R. Johnson-Weiss. It’s A Wonderful Life is a holiday favorite for all ages. An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman…
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer LIVE
The holiday classic soars off the screen in this musical adaptation of the beloved television special. Because of his shiny nose, Rudolph doesn’t feel like he belongs in Christmastown and sets off to find a place that accepts him. He encounters fellow misfits along his journey, only to realize that home is where he has…
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant
The game's afoot. A giant is dead, and his body lies at the base of a great beanstalk. The police believe young Jack is responsible. But the boy insists that he's innocent and begs the help of the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his colleague, Dr. Watson. Can they untangle this magical mystery? In this…
O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy
Fans of Monty Python, Mr. Bean, and Dr. Seuss… Grab your teacups. Off-Broadway Comedians and 3-time IMPRESARIO Award-Winners (London) James & Jamesy present their outrageously funny and brilliantly inventive Christmas comedy classic O Christmas Tea—an astonishing show that delights thousands of hearts every holiday season. When catastrophe strikes at James and Jamesy’s Christmas tea party,…
Great White Gives It Up
Great White Gets Off follows on a single night between Snakecharmer and Great White, two men who meet on a hook-up app. Looking for some fun, they embrace their dom/sub tendencies and start into roleplay, but what starts as tantalizing fun leads them into rocky ground as real life racial inequities seep into each scene…
George Balanchine's The Nutcracker
A treasured holiday tradition continues as Oregon Ballet Theatre returns George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® to the Keller Auditorium. Brave toy soldiers battle mischievous mice, snowflakes dance, and we are carried away to a magical Land of Sweets, all to Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable score! This year, make Oregon Ballet Theatre’s production of Balanchine’s Nutcracker a part of…
Love, Shakespeare
Fresh, fully improvised Elizabethan Comedy. Love, Shakespeare is a fresh and fully improvised Elizabethan Comedy. Featuring a rotating cast, including Rose Bonomo, Stacey Hallal, Jake Hull, Kristen Schier, Tyler Quinn, Andy Perkins, Peri Ahmadi and Rachel Rosenthal. Directed by Kristen Schier Design by Tyler Quinn
I’m In Control Which Means Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Me
An alt-rock expressionist, concert-play featuring Elsa Dougherty performing original music with a roaring four-piece band. I’m In Control revels in trying too hard, making a mess, and fleeting flashes of feeling completely alive. Come for the music, stay for the raucous high-wire act.
Talk of the Town: Improv Show
Talk of the Town – improvised comedy inspired by Portland’s movers and shakers. Looking for cool things to do around Portland? Curious Comedy has your back. Every third weekend of the month at 7:30 in the Annex Theatre, Talk of the Town invites special guests to tell everyone about the amazing things they are up…
Catalyst: NWCT's Youth Company presents Annie JR.
With equal measures of pluck and positivity, Annie is determined to find the parents who abandoned her on the doorstep of a New York City orphanage in the 1930’s. Confident that “the sun will come out tomorrow,” she finds a new home with billionaire Oliver Warbucks and his personal secretary, Grace — but will the…
Detective Comedy and Masquerade Party
Черной-черной ночью… В черной-черной часовне… Некто в черном плаще разложил на столе 60 черных масок и зажег “Фиолетовый огонек”. Как мотыльки слетались на него эмансипированно-костюмированные зрители. Они хотели потеряться и раствориться в толпе людей и масок. Кто актер? Кто зритель? Кто таинственный убийца? Какие свободы и опасности несет в себе анонимность? Что мы можем открыть…
The Lion King
Giraffes strut. Birds swoop. Gazelles leap. The entire Serengeti comes to life as never before. And as the music soars, Pride Rock slowly emerges from the mist. Over 100 million people worldwide have experienced the awe-inspiring visual artistry, the unforgettable music, and the uniquely theatrical storytelling of this Broadway spectacular — one of the most…
¡HUELGA!
This “Super Acto”, inspired by Teatro Campesino, will travel back in time to 1962 with Dolores Huerta to the farmworkers movement and share her co-founding of the UFW with Cesar Chavez. There will be Social Justice theater workshops that will inspire students to become more involved in helping their communities. The Dolores Huerta Foundation has…
What the Constitution Means to Me
Filled with humor and history, this Pulitzer Prize finalist asks what the U.S. Constitution truly means. As a 15-year-old, Heidi Schreck won debate competitions defending the Constitution nationwide. As an adult, she resurrects her teenage self to investigate its profound effect on four generations of women in her family. This exhilarating show culminates in a…
Verónica Princesa
Verónica is a pre-adolescent who, faced with traditional tales, questions the roles of different "princesses" as she learns to put herself in the shoes of others, especially those of her mother. Workshops will focus on celebrating family through personal interviews with inspiring role models, and students will create their own modern-day fairy tales. Community events…
Peter Pan
Throw open the window and escape to Neverland with Wendy, John, Michael, and the one and only wild child, Peter Pan. Trey McIntyre’s highly praised take on the boy who refused to grow up is a playful and thrilling interpretation of J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novella that juxtaposes childhood whimsy with the weighty responsibilities of adulthood….
Quixote Nuevo
The story of Don Quixote comes alive with a modern twist. In the fictional town of La Plancha, Texas, a brilliant professor battling dementia imagines himself as Cervantes’ titular hero. Enlisting his own Sancho, he embarks on a journey for his long-lost love — tilting at border patrol drones rather than windmills. Featuring vibrant, Spanish-infused…
Kinky Boots
Kinky Boots is the big-hearted musical extravaganza that won six Tonys, including Best Musical, the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre album and London’s Olivier Award for Best Musical. Kinky Boots features a joyous, Tony-winning score by pop icon Cyndi Lauper and a hilarious, uplifting book by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein. Billy Porter won the…
Nassim
From Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (creator of the Off-Broadway smash hit White Rabbit, Red Rabbit) comes an audacious new theatrical experiment. Each night, a new, unrehearsed local performer joins the playwright on stage while the script waits, unseen, in a sealed box… Touchingly autobiographical yet powerfully universal, NASSIM is a striking theatrical demonstration of how…
Beetlejuice
It’s showtime. Based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film, this hilarious musical tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes. With an irreverent book, an astonishing set, and a score that’s out of…
Fertile Ground Festival
Local art enthusiasts know Fertile Ground Festival is where you go to see Portland’s newest performance works first. Produced by the nonprofit Portland Area Theater Alliance (PATA), this festival returns to Portland every January. Fertile Ground is distinct from other cities’ “fringe” fests because it only features local producers and non-juried, waving creators through an…
Coriolanus
Famine threatens Rome and hunger fuels the tensions between the country’s elite and the deprived masses. As civil unrest stirs political upheaval, the war hero Coriolanus is driven to defend and destroy his own country. Shakespeare’s rare and unique tragedy will be fueled by a dynamic female and non-binary ensemble and a muscular, movement-focused staging….
Legally Blonde The Musical
A fabulously fun award-winning musical based on the adored movie, Legally Blonde The Musical follows the transformation of Elle Woods as she tackles stereotypes and scandal in pursuit of her dreams. Action-packed and exploding with memorable songs and dynamic dances – this musical is so much fun it should be illegal. Elle Woods appears to…
Borderline
Borderline is set in the cotton fields of Socorro, Texas, where four Latino teens threatened by a mysterious creature must rely on each other to escape the desert alive. It will take made-up myths, stories of the past, and a rendition of La Llorona to defeat the very real monster stalking children in the borderlands….
Puccini: In Concert
One hundred years after he died in 1924, we celebrate a one-night-only concert featuring Giacomo Puccini’s enduring compositions. Experience the drama and passion of these cultural touchstones, brought to life by an exciting ensemble of featured guest artists. Treat yourself, get fancy with friends, and enjoy a brilliant night out. We’ll cherish the iconic music…
Clyde’s
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage serves up this delicious comedy that centers laughs, redemption, and restorative justice. The formerly incarcerated kitchen staff at Clyde’s are navigating their new lives on the outside and their tough-as-nails boss — all while on a quest to create the perfect sandwich. The menu features loveable characters, big dreams, and…
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