76. Laurelhurst Theater And Pub
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 232-5511
Address: 2735 East Burnside St.
Description: This classic neighborhood movie house offers pizza, wine, and microbrew beer with second-run films, independent films, and classics at $3 per show for adults 21 and older. On weekend afternoons, children accompanied by an adult can see the matinee shows; children’s tickets are $1. (All shows after 3 p.m. are for ages 21 and older.) Check it out for its neon swirl out front and along the ceiling.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Address: 1219 Southwest Park Ave.
78. Literary Arts, Inc.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 227-2583
Address: 224 Northwest 13th Ave., #306
Description: In addition to the Portland Arts and Lectures Series, this busy bunch sponsors Oregon Literary Fellowships, Writers in the Schools, and the Poetry in Motion project. Portland was the first city on the West Coast to launch a Poetry in Motion program, and ours also includes poetry from local schoolchildren. Literary Arts also sponsors the Oregon Book Awards at which writers and their friends gather every year to watch as book awards are presented for poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama, and work aimed at young readers.
79. Mountain Writers Center
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 232-4517
Address: 2804 Southeast 27th Ave., #2
Description: Since 1973 Mountain Writers has been sponsoring readings, lectures, and classes for writers. Its invited speakers have included Nobel Prize–winning writers as well as brand-new voices, from all over the world and from the Portland Metro area. Programs include readings at local colleges and universities—as well as regular readings at the Press Club—outreach to high school students, residencies in Portland for visiting writers, and sponsorship of visits by writers to rural areas. But it is most well known for its eight-week workshops and short-term master classes. These are open to emerging writers.
80. Powell’S City Of Books
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 228-4651
Address: 1005 West Burnside St.
Insider Pick:
Description: The preeminent venues for literary readings in the Portland area are arguably the three Powell’s bookstores: the Mothership on Burnside, the Eastside store on Hawthorne (3747 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd., 503-235-3802), and the store in Beaverton (8725 Southwest Cascade Ave., 503-643-3131). All three have authors’ readings in the evenings throughout the week. Expect everything from writers who are on the top-10 list to those who are just starting their careers or causing a hubbub with offbeat books. Schedules are available at all stores and advertised in local newspapers and magazines. Often, while the novelist, poet, or journalist is signing books after the reading, you can have a chat with these intriguing scribes.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
82. Oregon Repertory Singers
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 230-0652
Address: 909 Southwest Washington St.
Description: The 60-plus voices of the Oregon Repertory Singers present neglected classics as well as contemporary pieces to international acclaim. Directed by versatile conductor Gilbert Seeley, the group often joins the Portland Baroque Orchestra to reinterpret work by Handel, Mozart, and Bach. They also have an extremely well-run youth choir program, with 170 children in 6 choirs.
83. Oregon Symphony
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 228-1353
Address: 923 Southwest Washington St.
Insider Pick:
Description: This ensemble of world-class performers and conductors routinely delivers outstanding music. The sensitive and exciting principal conductor of the Oregon Symphony is the European-trained Carlos Kalmar, who also serves at the helm of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. He has won the hearts and ears of Oregonians, aided by concertmaster Jun Iwasaki. In addition to playing classic symphonic music, the Oregon Symphony keeps it fresh with innovative events such as playing a live accompaniment to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho.
84. Portland Baroque Orchestra
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 222-6000
Address: 1020 Southwest Taylor Ave.
Description: The Portland Baroque Orchestra is devoted to the performance of classical and baroque music on original instruments (or replicas) to provide an authentic experience of the great composers. It is worth attending a concert to hear them play music written between 1600 and the mid-19th century on these instruments. To enhance this time travel, visiting soloists on violin, cello, and harpsichord join the orchestra to render historical versions of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart.
85. Portland Chamber Orchestra
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 771-3250
Description: Music for the chamber orchestra, a group that numbers about 35, is intimate but powerful—the size of the group allows greater flexibility compared with ensembles that are bigger or smaller. And Portland Chamber Orchestra takes full advantage of this in their repertoire; for example, their interpretation of Handel’s Messiah is stunning. Also, they will often accompany stand-out soloists, such as pianist Mei-Ting Sun. This nimble group sometimes pairs with the ballet or other groups to increase the fun.
86. Portland Youth Philharmonic
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 223-5939
Address: 421 Southwest Hall St.
Description: Portland Youth Philharmonic has a long history as the country’s first youth orchestra. In 1912 Oregon’s first children’s orchestra was christened as the Sagebrush Symphony. This group turned into the Portland Junior Symphony in 1924 and then in 1930 it settled into its current title. The Youth Philharmonic has two full symphony orchestras, as well as a strong orchestra for younger students.
87. Artists Repertory Theatre
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 241-1278
Address: 1515 Southwest Morrison St.
Description: A charming black-box theater is home to this company, known for taut performances of new plays and classics. A good example is Metamorphoses, by Mary Zimmerman—a recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship. ART’s beautiful space has two separate theaters; both are intimate and actor-focused—the ideal environment for its cutting edge performances that include many West Coast and world premieres.
88. Do Jump!
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 231-1232
Address: 1515 Southeast 37th Ave.
Description: This one-of-a-kind physical theater and dance troupe has been celebrated since its beginning in 1977 for its distinctive choreography, which also features aerial acrobatics and live music. Do Jump! now regularly performs at the downtown Newmark Theater and tours the nation, but its home is still the unpretentious Echo Theater just off Hawthorne Boulevard. That’s also the home of its wonderful camps and classes that teach stilt walking, trapeze flying, aerobatics, and other gravity-defying tricks to children and adults. Do Jump! has become a classic Portland experience.
89. Imago Theatre
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (503) 231-9581
Address: 17 Southeast 8th Ave.
Description: Imago Theater blends physical comedy, acrobatics, and pathos, and somehow brings all of these characteristics together to perform award-winning shows that have traveled as far as Broadway. This boundary-blurring company performs new works as well as adaptations of classics. They are best known for their comedy Portland’s most avant-garde theater ensemble, Imago tackles edgy drama and comedy that slice across theatrical history from Japanese Noh to Sartre’s No Exit to contemporary works by emerging playwrights. When Imago is not touring the globe, Portlanders line up to see their newest, strangely captivating performances.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Shopping
Address: 425 Southeast 6th Ave.