In a former church in Portland’s historically Black King neighborhood, Portland Playhouse has built one of the city’s most joyful stages. Since 2008, the company’s productions — from August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle to exuberant musicals — center Black stories and neighborhood voices while welcoming the whole city in.
The pews stayed, the spirit soared: audiences sit close enough to feel every breath of performances celebrated for their energy and heart. The Fall Festival of Shakespeare brings hundreds of local students to its stage each year, many performing Shakespeare for the first time to packed, cheering houses.
Playhouse is proof that a theatre can be both excellent and rooted — art that knows its neighbors’ names.
