ON-STAGE
IMAGO THEATRE
503.231.9581
17 SE 8th
Portland, OR 97214
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Zugzwang - Jerry Mouawad's fifth "Opera Beyond Words"
When a man is left with little time to make a life altering gamble in a game of poker, he pauses the game to journey with his gang to mysterious locales and discovers the unexpected.
Fifth in Mouawad series of "Opera Beyond Words" ZUGZWANG is part theater, part dance and a large part sweeping operatic movements - all without words. Read More
ZOOZOO
Imago Theatre internationally acclaimed for its special brand of vaudeville, comedy, acrobatics and illusions is most known for FROGZ which played to sold out audiences at the Elsinore in 2007. On May 22 the company returns with it's latest family hit ZooZoo. The production combines mime, dance, music and special effects to feature - Polar Bears, Bug Eyes, Anteaters, Frogs, Rabbits, , Hippos, and Penguins. Recommended for ages 3 and older. Read More
SPLAT - Written by Carol Triffle
"Splat" is a perfect Carol Triffle word, a cartoon word, what happens when Wily Coyote runs seven invisible steps past the cliff edge, tumbles like a shot into the abyss and flattens himself on the canyon floor. Splat!!! It's visceral and funny, but also matter-of-fact, maybe even a little macabre….It's one-part horror movie, one-part demented musical and one-part situation comedy with a little burlesque slapstick thrown in for good measure… pleasure is the acting company, which animates these characters, especially Vermette, whose moment-by-moment "fluctuations" are delicious. And, of course, Jerry Mouawad, as the Cleaner, who manages to manifest both "bombast" and "defeat" without losing his elasticity as a character.
Barry Johnson, Arts Dispatch
STAGE LEFT LOST
Jerry Mouawad presents the fourth and final installment of his live action silent movies, Opera Beyond Words. Previous productions in the series include Cuban Missile Tango, Apis. or the Taste of Honey and Tick Tack Type. Stage Left Lost takes the action backstage as both audience and actor are confronted by an offstage crisis that ensues when an actor playing the lead role of Othello murders his Desdemona. Has he been framed by Iago, his co-stars newlywed husband or his dictatorial director?
With Stage Left Lost Mouawad turns theatre on itself as the production follows two paths that converge. A company of actors present short plays on Othellian themes while offstage the mystery of actress's death is revealed. A cast of 14 move to Mouawad's choreography to serve up this visual brain twister.
DOUBLE FEATURE
It’s going to be a dark and humorous fall at Imago. The Father-thing (inspired by a Philip K. Dick Short Story) and Serial Killer Parents are the names of two one act dark comedies billed under the title Double Feature written and directed by Imago’s Jerry Mouawad. The pieces were inspired by science fiction, Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett.
Expect humor, oddity, metaphysics and vaudeville.
DOUBLE FEATURE - Written by Carol Triffle
Dodo is her nickname. She just met an unnamed "famous writer" whom she has invited for dinner. Her highly impetuous sister Lucy, her cynical mother, and an unexpected guest, Suzy, invade the house to meet the "famous writer." Her husband John supports and humiliates his wife while they read from Amy Vanderbilt's The Complete Book of Etiquette while setting the table. Dodo is both affectionate and hostile. She betrays her husband, wants to lock up her mentally challenged brother, and attempts to shuttle her mother away to a nursing home, all while preparing for the meal of her life.
VLADIMIR VLADIMIR - Written by Jerry Mouawad
Vladimir, a poor Yugoslavian magician, discovers the danger of magic, polarized clocks and tumbled worlds in a play that features Mouawad and co-stars Carol Triffle. The surreal comedy will be co-directed by Pat Patton, former Associate Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This matrix of a play incorporates comedy, drama, an innovative set design and quick costume changes to create a hilarious yet pathetic world that finds Vladimir in unusual confrontations with himself. Science fiction, fantasy and love tangle to conjure intrigue and charm in this highly visual and physically charged performance .
APIS - Written by Jerry Mouawad
APIS, or The Taste of Honey, is a new realization from the mind of Imago Theatre's Artistic Co-Director Jerry Mouawad. APIS is a strange and wondrous universe portrayed without words. Inmates, locked in an electrically charged prison,escape daily to return with hordes of money. Overseen by a mafia like godmother, the hive revolt against one another and prison guards in a power struggle over dominance in this not-so-human world.
What happens when humans take on the motivations of the insect world? An ensemble of ten actors perform a wordless-play that is visually arresting and romantically dark.
SIMPLE PEOPLE - Written by Carol Triffle
Triffle travels in an American suburban landscape that is falling off a cultural precipice. A trailer park couple longs for redemption by taking a trip to a casino in Hit Me in the Stomach. In The Dinner, Deloras seeks salvation from a famous writer (which she may have or may not have made love to in the closet at Powell’s books.) Simple People finds her latest herione Amy homeless after being laid off from Lehman Brothers. Amy, performed by Danielle Vermette, wonders into a soup kitchen where she discovers a horde of homeless Wall Street executives. Veteran Imago actress Danielle Vermette has played most of Triffle’s heroins by shaping her roles with different shades of a vulnerable yet resilient clown.
THE CUBAN MISSLE TANGO - Written by Jerry Mouawad
In his last production Apis, or the Taste of Honey, Jerry Mouawad crossed the world of the honeybee with that of a military prison. In The Cuban Missile Tango Mouawad crosses a halloween night dinner party with the Cuban missile crisis. Call it fusion theatre, call it explosive dance mime performance, call it opera beyond words - whatever you call it, it's still difficult to peg.
NO EXIT
A critic's choice and and audience hit, Imago's innovative No Exit is a fall-off-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. Tim True, JoAnn Johnson, Maureen Porter, and Bryce Flint-Somerville battle, twist and topple on Jerry Mouawad's award-winning set that tips and sways with every step.
TICK TACK TYPE
Imago's Artistic Co-director Jerry Mouawad continues his series of “Opera Beyond Words” with the premiere of Tick Tack Type.
Five men and four women are dropped from a chute into a stark empty room to discover themselves as participants in a strange typing academy. In this Becktian landscape Mouawad’s characters search for ways to compete and survive under the rule of a tyrannical typing instructor played by Artistic Co-director Carol Triffle. Not unlike his two previous works Apis, or The Taste of Honey, and The Cuban Missile Tango, Mouawad has fashioned theatre without words to explore comedic and tragic drama. However unlike the previous works the creator notes that Tick Tack Type will remain in a universe that is primarily abstract.
BACKS LIKE THAT
Backs Like That is the fourth play in Triffle’s series of whimsical, off-kilter plays that examine small moments and large tragedies in the comedic turmoil of the playwrights lead heroine. Chloe is Triffles’ newest heroine who battles to keep a new job while her father, brother and boyfriend invade the office where she works. Returning for her fourth lead in Triffle’s work is Imago company member Danielle Vermette. Triffle collaborates with Katie Griesar, Imago’s resident composer, on original songs.
BIGLITTLETHINGS
Amazing illusions Performed without words, an original score, Hitchhiking Rabbits, Bug Eyes,
Spies in Dresses, Insomniac Hippos, Acrobatic Worms, A Family of Polar Bears, Hungry Anteaters, Special Archery Beyond Belief, Schools of Electric Fish, a feast for the eyes and a twister for the mind.
A holiday family spectacle for ages 3 to 103. Biglittlethings has sold out for the last four years. Buy your tickets early for choice seats while they last. Special field trip shows for schools, call for details. 11 short pieces that mix mask theatre, illusionistic costumes, original music, special effect lighting and pure spectacle.