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128 NW Eleventh Ave, Portland, OR 97209 · 503-445-3700 · www.pcs.org
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2021-2022 Season

The world is brighter when we gather together! Join us for a season that will swell your heart, lift your spirits, nourish your senses, and celebrate our collective resiliency. As always, health and flexibility are our top priorities. Check out the season below!

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October 9 – November 7, 2021

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

Frida … A Self Portrait

  • Written & Performed by Vanessa Severo
  • Directed by Joanie Schultz

Set on the eve of Frida Kahlo’s death, this intimate show plunges into the brilliant, nuanced world of Kahlo’s tumultuous, extraordinary life. Brazilian writer and performer Vanessa Severo cracks open a powerful portal between herself and the celebrated Mexican painter, bringing breathtaking physicality and raw honesty to this stunningly creative production.

“Colorful and imaginative … a deeply affecting drama that leaves an ineradicable imprint.”
–The Pitch

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November 27 – December 24, 2021

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

  • Based on the novel by Mark Haddon
  • Adapted by Simon Stephens
  • Directed by Marissa Wolf

Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Play!

This Broadway smash hit takes you inside the mind of Christopher, an exceptionally intelligent, neurodivergent 15-year-old boy. Now, it is seven minutes after midnight and Christopher is under suspicion of killing his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, with a garden fork. Determined to find the true culprit, Christopher carefully records each fact of the crime. Ultimately, his detective work takes him on a deeply personal quest that upturns his world.

“Dazzling, pulse-pounding and remarkable.”
–Time Out New York

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January 19 – February 13, 2022

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

The Great Leap

  • By Lauren Yee
  • Directed by Zi Alikhan

From the acclaimed playwright of Cambodian Rock Band!

San Francisco. 1989. Basketball standout Manford Lum is a fast-talking, dominating teenager on the street courts of Chinatown. But when he elbows his way onto a college team traveling to Beijing for a “friendship” game, the outcome isn’t what anyone expects. Lauren Yee uses her father’s basketball heroics and the student-led demonstrations that rocked the world as a springboard for this moving story that keeps the tension rising right up until the final buzzer.  

A co-production with Artists Repertory Theatre.

“A beautiful play with vibrant characters and rich history crackling with fresh dialog.” –BroadwayWorld

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January 22 – March 6, 2022

In the Ellyn Bye Studio

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

  • By John Cameron Mitchell
  • Music & Lyrics by Stephen Trask
  • Directed by Chip Miller

Winner of 4 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical

Brilliantly innovative, moving, and wickedly funny, this genre-bending, fourth-wall-smashing musical sensation tells the story of one of the most unique characters to ever hit the stage. Hedwig, a German emigrant, is out to set the record straight about her life, her loves, and the operation that left her with that “angry inch.” Part rock concert, part cabaret, part stand-up comedy routine, this one-of-a-kind musical proves time and again that an indomitable spirit can’t ever be tied down.

“This glam rock concert musical delivers the goods — it’s a kickass testament to self-acceptance.”
–BroadwayWorld

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March 5 – April 3, 2022

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean

  • By August Wilson
  • Directed by Chip Miller

An iconic story of freedom, justice, and salvation from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences.

Pittsburgh, 1904: Amidst boiling racial tensions, Citizen Barlow arrives at the home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old healer, who helps him seek redemption from a mistake that’s cost another man his life. Aunt Ester sends Citizen on a powerful, mystical journey to the City of Bones in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean — where he must understand the past in order to forge his own future.

Gem of the Ocean is the first chronological work in August Wilson’s 10-play, Pulitzer Prize-winning Century Cycle, dramatizing African American life in the 20th century.

“Wilson’s juiciest material. The play holds the stage and its characters hammer home, strongly, the notion of newfound freedom.”
Chicago Tribune

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April 8 – May 1, 2022

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

Freestyle Love Supreme

  • Conceived by Anthony Veneziale
  • Created by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Anthony Veneziale
  • Directed by Thomas Kail

Before Hamilton, before In the Heights, there was Freestyle Love Supreme. Now — direct from Broadway — the original hip hop musical phenomenon from Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Anthony Veneziale is coming to Portland.

“Just as you were thinking that life has no rhyme nor reason these days, along comes Freestyle Love Supreme to pump you full of hope.” –The New York Times

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June 1 – July 10, 2022

On the U.S. Bank Main Stage

Rent

  • Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
  • Directed by Chip Miller

Don’t miss this sensational, iconic musical hot off its 25th Anniversary! Rent took Broadway by storm with its deeply resonant look at a deadly virus, financial precarity, and love as a radical act. As a group of young artists fights for justice and visibility during the AIDS crisis, they revel in the beautiful bonds of friendship and chosen family. With its profound message of joy and hope in the face of uncertainty, this timeless musical reminds us to measure our lives with the only thing that truly matters — love.

Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Book & Best Original Score, 1996
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1996

Most productions at The Armory are recommended for high school age and up.


Pictured in Top Banner: Members of the cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at PCS, March 2020. Photo by Owen Carey.

Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).

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