The very popular Blue Man Group is coming back to Portland kind of.
Blue Man Group has teamed up with Boston Childrens Museum and others to put on a touring exhibit, Making Waves, that will be open at the Portland Childrens Museum from Sept. 26 through Jan. 10.
The 3,000-square-foot exhibit at Portland Childrens Museum, 4015 S.W. Canyon Road, will bring together science and art with multisensory exploration and music. Children will get to experience the Slide-u-lum, Build-u-lum, Sand Drum and Theremin, and at the PVC Station visitors will get to play the unique Blue Man Group instruments and learn about the groups elements of sound.
The childrens museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is free for museum members, $10.75 for ages 1
to 54, and $9.75 for 55-and-older and military. For info: www.portlandcm.org.
Creative Heights
Yussef El Guindi, a Seattle playwright who had a successful run of Threesome at Portland Center Stage, has been named the first recipient in the Artists Repertory Theatres new play development program, called Table/Room/Stage.
The program was established by a $125,000 Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights grant. The two-year pilot program will commission eight new plays four that go to women, four for people of color and one will be written for young adults. Another will be a special comission, the Oregon Play Prize, awarded to an Oregon writer.
El Guindi will get support to develop his play The Talented Ones. It will be read and workshopped at Artists Rep during the 2015-16 season. Its about the thwarted dreams of immigrants eager to make it in their adopted country.
Busy Currie
The Oregon Symphony is touting the arrival of international percussionist Colin Currie as its new Artist in Residence, and putting him right to work.
His three-year tenure begins with a solo concert and a kids concert at Newbergs Chehalem Cultural Center (Sept. 22-23), a performance and readings with Grimm star Claire Coffee and two others at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel (Sept. 24), a performance with the symphony percussion section at Portland State Universitys Farmers Market (Sept. 26), and a solo marimba performance at Coava Coffee/Bamboo Revolution (Sept. 27). Then hell perform James MacMillans Veni, veni, Emmanuel with the symphony at the
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (Sept. 26-28). All have free admission.
Currie also will be performing at St. Marys Home for Boys and working with students at David Douglas High School and PSU.
As Artist in Residence, Currie serves as the symphonys ambassador. As the Artist in Residence at Londons Southbank Centre, he has performed several times with the Oregon Sympony.
For more: www.colincurrie.com and www.OrSymphony.org
Honoring vets
Its a bit of a drive away from Portland, but the 12th annual Celebration of Honor takes place Sept. 23 through 27 at Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, honoring active-duty personnel, military veterans and families. For info: www.chinookwindscasino.com.
Artist exhibit
Around the KPAM studios, Richard Melloy is known as the artist who paints the cheerful posters for the annual Operation Santa Claus fundraising drive to help veterans, which was started by former talk-show host Bob Miller.
But Melloy has been a practicing artist in Portland for more than 30 years, and many of his more adventurous works are currently on display at the new Ford Gallery, located along the recently opened MAX Orange Line at 2505 S.E. 11th Ave. Compared with the almost Norman Rockwell-style of the Operation Santa Claus posters, many of these paintings border on the surreal. Some of his early commercial works also are featured.
Richard Melloy: Thirty Years and Painting continues through Oct. 23. For info: www.fordgallerypdx.com.
The Who postpones
Because of Roger Daltreys illness (diagnosed as viral Meningitis), The Who has postponed the remaining dates on its North American tour, including Sept. 24 at Moda Center (for info: www.rosequarter.com). The band says its rescheduling the shows for spring 2016.