Many people have noted that life’s path is seldom straight and that the twists and turns it takes are filled with unexpected events. Those people aren’t just purveyors of cliché; or, if they are, it’s because cliché is usually the result of, and by definition, a well-worn truth. In my case that path has brought me full circle to a place I haven’t been before. How’s that for a riddle? As the new marketing and communications director at Portland Center Stage, I’ve had an amazing first eight weeks settling in to the stunning home of PCS, the Gerding Theater at the Armory. I’ve also been getting to know the incredibly talented and committed staff that makes the place hum with vitality and ingenuity. And I’ve been getting reacquainted with a company that, twenty years ago, I was fortunate enough to help launch.

In 1988, I was the first marketing director for what was then saddled with the cumbersome name Portland Center Stage/Oregon Shakespeare Festival. *Phew!* (After one year of answering the phones that way, we decided it was best to be known as OSF Portland). I spent a rewarding ten years with the company, through several structural and leadership changes (the most significant being the “spin off” from OSF in 1994, to become the independent theater company Portland Center Stage). At the end of those ten years, I decided to make the leap to entrepreneur and left to start an internet marketing agency with another arts admin pal. Since 1998, I’ve had the good fortune to enjoy that experience, and move on to being an arts administration consultant in Portland; spend five seasons as director of marketing and communications at Seattle Repertory Theatre in, yes, Seattle; and make the move back to Portland last fall to join the city’s Office of Sustainable Development.

It was fascinating and exciting, mostly from my perch in Seattle, to watch PCS articulate the strong vision and do the hard work to make the Armory Project come to life, and to see this company realize a long held dream of having its own home.

And this past spring, serendipity! The company’s marketing director Kathy Budas (a much respected arts admin pro with years of experience from several Portland organizations) was off on a new adventure of her own in San Francisco, so the call was put out for a replacement.

So here I sit, at home in the Armory, practically ten years to the day from when I had a fantastic farewell party from PCS. Full circle, to a place I haven’t been before. Thrilled to be here, and looking forward to getting reacquainted with the audience patrons who have been key to the success of this company.

I think the filing cabinet in my office looks very, very familiar…

- Cynthia Furhman
Marketing Director
Portland Center Stage