On February 18th, Portland Center Stage is producing our first ever Visions & Voices Playwrights’ Slam. Kinda like a poetry slam. Kinda like an open mic. Kinda like an awesome evening of espresso, desserts and hot-off-the-presses, scenes and monologues being read out loud in the Armory Café. Come join us from 7:00pm to 9:00pm in the lobby of the Gerding Theater, and hear what is coming out of the heads of teens.

This winter, thirty-six theater students at Cleveland High School elected to enroll in Portland Center Stage’s Visions & Voices program. Initiated in 1999, the Visions & Voices program brings professional teaching artists into school classrooms to teach playwriting. Thirty-six students at one school is a record number of teens wanting to participate, so I joined master teachers Michael O’Connell and Matt Zrebski to help. For the past month, four days a week, I have gone over to Cleveland to teach in the afternoon. The experience has been fantastic. I have been impressed not only with the skill level of the students writing, but also their commitment and hunger. Every morning I open my email to find new drafts of plays which students are eager for me to respond to.

Visions & Voices is made available to Portland area public high schools without charge thanks to support from the Regional Arts and Cultural Council, the Oregon Arts Commission, Pacific Power Foundation, and our other generous funders. This year the program will be in residence at four schools: Cleveland, Lincoln, Madison’s FOCUS alternative program, and Wilson.