Portland, July 26, 2013. Creative fires are burning brightly at the busy Artists Repertory Theatre facility. Recent arrivals to the building are Profile Theatre, Polaris Dance Theatre, The Red Door Project and Traveling Lantern Theatre Company. Artists Repertory Theatre is continuing its relationship with Portland Shakespeare Project, Portland Revels and Portland Area Theatre Alliance. The big red building at the corner of SW 15th and Morrison has become a bustling arts campus, housing a diverse group of eight complementary arts organizations that now make their home within Artists Rep’s red walls.
Artists Repertory Theatre at the corner of SW 15th and Morrison.
Over the past two years the goal of turning Artist Rep’s building into an important hub for both emerging and long-established arts organizations and artists has come to fruition. Relationships and activities that began informally, from long-term administrative residencies to rotating art installations featured in the Morrison Stage Lobby, to hosting a wide variety of performances by guest producing entities in its two spaces, has resulted in nearly non-stop activity and opportunity for artists and audiences alike. The development of the facility as a shared home for the arts has been embraced as a core value by the organization’s board of directors and staff.
“It’s thrilling to see this facility become a true community resource for the arts,” said Sarah Horton, Managing Director, “and I know we’ll all be stronger organizations for it.”
Recently appointed Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez continues, “These residencies yield not only practical benefits and creative opportunities for our resident companies, but for Artists Rep. The leadership of each of these carefully chosen organizations values an emphasis on partnership, synergy and collaboration. Over time, I expect we’ll discover countless ways for our organizations to share resources and further our individual missions.”Recent arrivals to the building are Profile Theatre, Polaris Dance Theatre, The Red Door Project and Traveling Lantern Theatre Company. We are continuing our relationship with Portland Shakespeare Project, Portland Revels and Portland Area Theatre Alliance.
Performing at Artists Rep:
Portland Shakespeare Project celebrates its third summer season performing two plays in repertory at Artists Rep.
Profile Theatre has newly relocated administrative offices in the building and will begin its 16th season profiling the work of Sam Shepard on Artist Rep’s stages in January.
Traveling Lantern Theatre Company will begin weekly Saturday morning performances of interactive theatre for children in the Alder Lobby on August 17.
Administrative offices at Artists Rep:
Polaris Dance Theatre has recently moved its offices to Artists Rep, but will continue to perform right up the street at Polaris Contemporary Dance Center at SW 15th & Taylor.
Portland Revels, longtime tenant on the East side of the building, will remain and continue to produce at the Scottish Rite building across the street.
The Red Door Project is a recent office space addition to the facility’s growing community.
Artists Rep’s 80,000 square foot building takes up a city block nestled between downtown and Jeld-Wen field in the emerging Goose Hollow district.
About Artists Repertory Theatre
Founded in 1982, Artists Repertory Theatre is the longest-running professional theatre company in Portland. Artists Rep is committed to world-class acting, directing, design and stagecraft that support new playwriting and aspires to embody great literature, moving audiences to truly feel— to experience —storytelling in a way that only the best live theatre can.
Portland’s premiere mid-size regional theatre company is led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez and Managing Director Sarah Horton. For the 2013/14 season Artists Rep will offer nine bold and entertaining new plays written by internationally acclaimed playwrights, and guided by esteemed directors. Artists Rep productions will feature the work of a core group of accomplished Resident Artists, each with a shared history and a shorthand for collaboration, working alongside guest artists from Portland and beyond.
Resident Artists include: Kristeen Crosser (scenic & lighting designer), Michael Mendelson (actor/director & artistic associate), Vana O’Brien (actor & co-founder), Rodolfo Ortega (sound designer & composer), Allen Nause (actor/director & former artistic director), Jeff Seats (scenic designer) and Todd Van Voris (actor & artistic associate).
Portland, January 30th, 2013. Fertile Ground 2013 is a 10-day arts festival running through February 3rd at 26 different venues. This city-wide festival showcaces new work including 90 live performances: staged readings, developing works and a myriad of other arts events from the Portland creative community. From fully staged world premieres, to ensemble and collaborative driven work, dance, comedy, visual art and film, the festival seeds the next generation of creation.
The Lost Boy Artists Rep Geoff Kanick, Elizabeth Houghton, Sam Dinkowitz (Photo credit, Owen Carey) *We’re having a ticket giveaway for The Lost Boy for PortlandSocietyPage.com highlight subscribers!
Fertile Ground was launched by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance in 2009 to provide a platform for Portland theater companies to showcase their commitment to new work. Single tickets for all festival events are purchased directly through the producing companies. All-access Festival Passes are $50 and are available on the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org
For the most accurate and comprehensive information on locations, times and tickets is on the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org
Rebecca Lingafelter, Shelley Virginia, Paige McKinney, Cristi Miles (photo credit, Gary Norman)
Unlike a typical fringe festival, Fertile Ground features the finest new work of our local artists, performers and resident theater companies, ensuring that the artistic and financial benefits of the festival stay in Portland.
Living The Room, Sub Rosa Dance Collective (Photo Credit, Design By Goats)
Part Time Playhouse, a local black box theatre on live television at Metro East Community Media, broadcast a Fertile Ground 2013 Preview Special. The show featured performance excepts from RIBBONS OF WAR by Andrew Fridae, THE GODMOTHER by Sandra de Helen, FORTUNE COOKIES by Donna Barrow, HAIL! by Sally Stember, and interviews with Miriam Feder of PDXPlaywrights and Festival Director Nicole Lane.
Key producers this year include Artists Repertory Theatre, CoHo Productions, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Portland Playhouse, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, and more, along with many emerging theatre companies, individual playwrights and chorographer producers. For FG13, MilePost5 presents a group of theatre and visual art works under the title “Ripen,” Polaris Dance Theatre presents the “Groovin Greenhouse” again with a variety of choreographers and dance groups, and PDX Playwrights presents 17 staged readings.
Portland, December 6th, 2012. Artists Repertory Theatre announced that Dámaso Rodriguez has been selected as the next Artistic Director beginning in January 2013. Rodriguez takes the artistic reins of the 30-year-old Artists Rep from retiring Artistic Director Allen Nause, who has led the company for the past 25 years. Well known in Los Angeles for his daring, thrilling and visceral work as a multiple award-winning director, Rodriguez will direct the West Coast Premiere of Ten Chimneys, by Jeffery Hatcher, as his Artists Rep directorial debut in April.
Dámaso Rodriguez, photo credit Shawn Lee (2012)
To join Artists Rep in Portland, Rodriguez is leaving his position as Co-Artistic Director of Los Angeles’ Furious Theatre Company, known for its edgy, tightly-wound plays with a visceral aesthetic that he co-founded with an ensemble in 2001. From 2007-2010, Rodriguez served as Associate Artistic Director for Pasadena Playhouse when Artistic Director Sheldon Epps brought Rodriguez on as his protégé after working with him in his Artistic Director capacity with Furious, which began a residency at the Playhouse’s second stage in 2004.
Rodriguez was recently recognized as one of three finalists for the 2012 Stage Directors & Choreographers Society’s “Zelda Fichandler Award,” which is given each year to an “outstanding director who is transforming the regional arts landscape through theatre.” Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Artistic Director, Bill Rauch, won this year’s award.
The artistic leadership will transition over the next six months. Nause and Rodriguez will work together to select Artists Rep’s 2013/14 season and that time overlap will allow for both artistic and staff acclimation to the changeover.
Dámaso Rodriguez, incoming Artists Repertory Theatre Artistic Director offers this statement: “Artists Rep has been built from the humblest of beginnings into one of America’s great theatre companies by an exceptional group of artists, supporters and adventurous audiences. I am honored to follow Allen Nause in leading this extraordinary organization, and to partner with Managing Director Sarah Horton in building upon Allen’s inspiring legacy and Artists Rep’s boundless promise. I believe the company’s exquisite facilities with their intimate, yet expansive, performance spaces are among the most exciting in the world for the kind of visceral, immediate, heart-pounding and audience-moving theatre experiences on which Artists Rep has built its reputation – and those are the kinds of bold new plays I intend to keep producing. It is my intention to continue Artists Rep’s commitment to daring and challenging new work and to build the company’s reputation as a generator of provocative new plays and musicals. I endeavor to create a home for the region’s most talented writers and build an environment and process for nurturing new work that inspires writers from around the world to premiere their work in Portland. Additionally, I intend to expand over the months and years ahead Artists Rep’s Resident Acting Company into a larger Ensemble of Artists that will include writers, directors and designers, as well as actors. I hold a sincere, passionate belief in collaboration and that the ensemble model is the best way to form a community of artists, production staff and administrators. I am grateful to the Board for this opportunity and look forward to becoming a part of Portland’s world-class arts landscape and settling with my wife, Sara Hennessy, and our two children into this beautiful city and exceptional community.”
Artists Rep Artistic Director Allen Nause, who is retiring after leading the regional theatre company for past 25 years, says, “I am thrilled that Dámaso Rodriguez will be the next Artistic Director at Artists Repertory Theatre! I am absolutely convinced that he is the ideal person to lead our theater into the future. Dámaso has an artistic aesthetic that resonates beautifully with Artists Rep’s mission. His leadership experience combined with his collaborative nature will allow him to craft, inspire and guide Artists Rep for years to come.”
Pasadena Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps, in an interview with Los Angeles Times writer Charlotte Stroudt (published January 13, 2008) when Rodriguez was named Associate Artistic Director at Pasadena Playhouse, said, “You only learn this kind of work through on-the-job training. I had a similar opportunity at the Old Globe under Jack O’Brien when he hired me as Associate Artistic Director. I wanted to offer Dámaso the same chance, wherever he ends up.” Epps also said, “I’ve been very impressed with the quality of Dámaso’s work,” he says. “I appreciate his predilection for material that’s different than my own. His aesthetic is slightly off-kilter. But he always works with honesty and deep emotion. And he has a consistent ability to make actors soar.”
Sarah Horton, Artists Rep’s Managing Director, says, “I think Dámaso will help us answer the question that any organization faces when a founding vision leader leaves: How do we evolve and assert our continued relevance without straying from the heart of what’s always made us special?” Horton continues, “His respect for ensemble-driven work and his adventurous aesthetic are classic Artists Rep values. Those qualities are teamed with a drive and curiosity that extend beyond the stage and into the place where the theater lives. I’m very much looking forward to partnering with him.”
Kris Olson, Board Chair and Chair of the Artistic Director Search Team, speaking for Artists Rep’s Board of Directors, says: “We have been at this process since August of 2011, crafting the job profile, casting the net, winnowing the superb candidates to the best of the best, and bringing the top three (of over 100) to Portland for rounds of interviews and receptions with community members. Dámaso will be an outstanding addition to Portland’s artistic community and beyond. He brings the vision, energy and collaborative spirit to Artists Rep’s helm that our audiences have come to expect. I’m sure that in the years ahead, he will attract new audience members with his innovative theatrical sensitivity. We will all be proud to have played a part in bringing this extraordinary talent to our city.”
Dámaso Rodriguez Biography
Rodriguez is an award-winning director living in Los Angeles. He is a Co-Founder of Furious Theatre Company, an ensemble-driven theatre committed to daring, socially relevant new plays of visceral impact, where he served as Co-Artistic Director from 2001-2012. From 2007-2010 he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse, where he directed main stage productions and oversaw programming for the Playhouse’s second stage, including its Hothouse New Play Development Program. His directing credits include work at the Pasadena Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse, A Noise Within, The Theatre@Boston Court, Odyssey Theatre, The Blank Theatre, The Road Theatre and Furious Theatre.
Dámaso is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Back Stage Garland Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, and the Pasadena Arts Council’s Gold Crown Award. In 2010,
Furious Theatre (more) Company was named to LA Weekly’s list of “Best Theatres of the Decade.” In 2012, he was honored as a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Recent productions: Ruth & Augustus Goetz’ The Heiress (starring Richard Chamberlain), Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes (starring Kelly McGillis) and Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow (starring Sharon Lawrence) at the Pasadena Playhouse; the reading of Steven Drukman’s The Prince of Atlantis for the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Repertory, Clifford Odets’ Paradise Lost at Intiman Theatre; Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma at A Noise Within. Furious Theatre credits include the Los Angeles premieres of Craig Wright’s Grace, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Boom and Hunter Gatherers, Bruce Norris’ The Pain and the Itch, Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat, Richard Bean’s The God Botherers,
Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, and the world premieres of Alex Jones’ Canned Peaches in Syrup and Matt Pelfrey’s An Impending Rupture of the Belly and No Good Deed, among many others. His film directing credits include the darkly comic feature Pure Shock Value, which was selected as the Centerpiece Film of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and episodes of the web series A G.A.N.G. by screenwriter Matt Pelfrey (MTV’s Skins). More information at: http://www.damaso-rodriguez.com
Artists Repertory Theatre
Portland’s longest-running theatre company, Artists Repertory Theatre celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Over the past three decades Artists Rep has made a name for itself offering adventurous plays – comedies, dramas and musicals alike – that are supremely entertaining, thoughtful and provocative. Artists Rep feeds our community’s artistic soul with premieres, re-imagined classics, new play development and educational outreach. More information at www.artistsrep.org
The 2012/13 Artists Repertory Theatre season is presented by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Premiere season sponsors are Ronni Lacroute/WillaKenzie Estate and The Oregonian. Season hotel sponsors are Mark Spencer Hotel and Hotel deLuxe. The 2012/13 radio sponsor is KINK.FM. Other support comes from Regional Arts Culture Council, Work for Art, Oregon Arts Commission, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, All Classical and Maletis Beverage.
Portland, August 14, 2012. – Artists Rep begins its 30th Anniversary season on September 4 with the World Premiere of Aaron Posner’s And So It Goes…, directed by Posner. This quirky love letter to the human race flows from Kurt Vonnegut’s first collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House. The play runs through October 7 on the Alder Stage, 1516 SW Alder, Portland, OR 97205.
Can we ever protect ourselves from the idiocy of our hearts? Down a well-worn path, hand-in-hand, take a walk…through leaves and over bridges, breathe in the soul’s seductive moments through three love stories set in mythological small-town America. It’s 1962 New England when we join Tom, our tour guide, for a stroll with a host of hearts just like our own. Along the circuitous course of love we travel with our new friends hoping to catch a genuine glimpse of humankind’s most elusive sentiment in the wonderfully flawed characters muddling along before us.
Playwright and Director Aaron Posner wrote the first version of And So It Goes…, under the title Who Am I This Time?, in the 1980s while at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre.He said back then adaptation was often done in a strictly narrative style, that it was just a matter of “taking short stories and doing them on stage.”
25 years later, after several more incarnations of that production and an even deeper understanding and appreciation of Kurt Vonnegut’s work, Posner wrote And So It Goes….
“My imagination weaved the stories together in a more fluid, connective way,” he said at the production’s first rehearsal.
Posner referenced what Critic Robert Scholes said about the author of 14 novels including Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions and Cat’s Cradle: “Kurt Vonnegut puts bitter coating on sweet pills.” Posner said it is Vonnegut’s ability to “portray the difficulties of being human beings with optimism, hopefulness, love and texture” that enables his stories to come to life on the stage.
And So It Goes…
Written by: Aaron Posner
Adapted from stories by: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Directed by: Aaron Posner
Featuring: Tim True, Valerie Stevens, Andy Lee-Hillstrom, Kayla Lian, Alex Hurt, Leif Norby, Sarah Lucht
Performance Dates: Sept. 4 – Oct. 7
Wednesday through Sunday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2pm
Wednesday matinee – Sept. 26 at 11am
Opening Night – Friday, Sept. 7 at 7:30pm
Aaron is a freelance director and playwright, an Associate Artist at both the Folger Theatre in Washington DC and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and is a founding Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company. Aaron has directed at major regional theatres from coast to coast including Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, American Player’s Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Barrington Stage, Cal Shakes, Children’s Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Studio Theatre, Theatre J, Woolly Mammoth and many more. Aaron won Barrymore Awards for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Director), and The Chosen (Playwright), both at the Arden. He has won the Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director three of the last eight years, all for work at the Folger: Measure For Measure, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Cyrano. His many published and produced adaptations include The Chosen, My Name Is Asher Lev, Ellen Foster adapted from Kaye Gibbons, Third & Indiana adapted from Steve Lopez, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men adapted from David Foster Wallace, and Sometimes A Great Notion adapted from Ken Kesey. His musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (with James Sugg) was nominated for 10 Barrymore Awards and the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play.
His new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, entitled Stupid Fu*king Bird will premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in May of 2013. Aaron is an Eisenhower Fellow, holds a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, is from Eugene, Oregon, and lives in Maryland with his wife, actress Erin Weaver, and his tiny daughter, Maisie.
Artists Repertory Theatre
The 2012/13 Artists Repertory Theatre season is presented by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Ronni Lacroute/WillaKenzie Estate. The 2012/13 print media sponsor is The Oregonian and the radio sponsor is KINK.FM. Season hotel sponsor is Hotel deLuxe. Other support comes from Regional Arts Culture Council, Work for Art, Oregon Arts Commission, All Classical and Maletis Beverage.
Portland’s longest-running theatre company, Artists Repertory Theatre celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Over the past three decades Artists Rep has made a name for itself offering adventurous plays – comedies, dramas and musicals alike – that are supremely entertaining, thoughtful and provocative. Artists Rep feeds our community’s artistic soul with premieres, re-imagined classics, new play development and educational outreach.
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