Savoir Faire

Portland’s burgeoning burlesque and vaudeville community has an ever-increasing need for venues and productions ready to host the variety of groundbreaking acts our city has to offer. The incline of quality cutting-edge entertainment in the City Of Roses has been a steep one, and our city has been blessed with a myriad of upstart performers and showcases.

The Hawthorne Theatre Lounge has hosted a weekly Thursday burlesque showcase since October of 2007, and we have seen some of Portland’s most spirited acts grace it’s stage since. As the revue’s mastermind (theatre owner/manger Nicholas Yannariello) relocated his residence this fall, he passed the torch over to founder of SinnSavvy Productions and local promoter, Rayleen Courtney. It was within this exchange that Portland’s newest weekly burlesque revue, “Savoir Faire”, was born.

Since the onset of Autumn 2009, Courtney has charged herself with revising and updating the Savoir Faire format to include an array of alluring entertainment from all over Oregon. Some of the region’s most popular burlesque entertainers have been featured on the Hawthorne Theatre Lounge stage since, and the revue shows no signs of slowing. Recently called “sinfully innovative” by Just Out Magazine, Savoir Faire promises it’s weekly audience only the classiest and most artfully inspired burlesque and vaudeville performances. With a weekly-changing lineup, the revue’s resident host, “The Emceeiam”, leads a workout for the laugh muscles in between acts of satirical and sultry choreography.

Thursday evening patrons of the Hawthorne Theatre Lounge have been very pleased with what has taken shape, and the audience grows each week. Moving into Winter 2010, the showcase lineup is already filling with some of the biggest names in Oregon burlesque and vaudeville. A feast for all the senses, Savoir Faire has the potential to be the next big thing to grace Portland’s avant-garde entertainment scene.