One of the best (and worst for the waistline) things about working or rehearsing at Portland Center Stage are the amazing cookies in the armory cafe. The smell of melting chocolate wafts upstairs and makes it impossible to concentrate on anything until you go get one.  This afternoon the cast of Doubt refused to continue rehearsing until they got a cookie. Guess what? They got a cookie.  I think it’s clear from the picture how much they enjoyed it.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our monthly readings, now is the time. We have only two more scheduled before we break for JAW, and this script will help get you into the JAW spirit. By the way, JAW turns 10 this year!

Portland Center Stage’s

NOW HEAR THIS

invites you to a concert reading of

FUBAR

a new play by Karl Gajdusek

*

May 17, 2008

Noon to approximately 2 pm

@ Portland Center Stage

128 NW Eleventh Avenue (between Couch & Davis)

in the Rehearsal Room

Admission is free, but space is limited

Please email Megan Ward at meganw@pcs.org

to reserve your seat

—————————–

Mary lives amid the boxes her abused mother left behind. Her husband David tries desperately hard to stay young and hip. Meanwhile, best-bud Richard is on the road not taken and Sylvia’s along for the ride. But when Mary is the victim of an unprovoked act of violence, it leads them each down different paths of addiction and realization. Four people trying to recognize the people they have become in a time that’s totally F.U.B.A.R.

Karl Gajdusek was born in San Francisco and now lives in San Diego with his wife and son. He writes plays, screenplays and television. He has taught Playwriting at San Francisco’s School of the Arts, UCSD, ISOMATA and The Playwrights’ Center. He has a BA in Literature from Yale University and an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego. Karl’s other plays include Fair Game, Silverlake, Minneapolis, Dr.S F.S in the Terminal Ward, Big Sun Setting Fast, The Gilded Garden of Patcheww, Malibu, and Waco, Texas, Mon Amour. Screenplays include Higher, 9 Days Wonder, Widow’s Walk, Reunion, Woderman, The Next Best Thing (not the one with Madonna), and the independent film 58, which he wrote and directed. Story Editor for the Showtime show Dead Like Me. He founded the script publication service Big Sun Publication. He is the recipient of the 1991 Jacob K. Javits fellowship, 1996-97 & 1998-99 Jerome Fellowships, the 1997 McKnight Screenwriting Fellowship, and the 2000 MAG fellowship. When not writing for the theater, Karl spends his time surfing So Cal breaks, writing movies for pro wrestlers, and lovingly changing diapers.

Our outstanding cast includes:

Brittany Burch, Mario Calcagno, Paul Glazier,

Natalie Knapp and Tom Walton.

Stage Directions by Ted Roisum

We would like to thank Oregon Cultural Trust for their support of this event.

more free events || more from Megan’s blog || support programs like this
script submissions || JAW playwrights festival

{Rose Riordan}

Department: Artistic
Position: Associate Artistic Director
Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

What do you love and/or miss about your hometown? tinfoil on bedroom windows to keep out the sun at midnite.

When you were young what did you want to be when you grew up? a single stewardess with man troubles.

Favorite part of your job: almost everything - except for the parts that aren’t my favorite.

Hobbies? apparently my job

Pet? Yes. Little Man. A hilarious french bulldog with an out sticking tongue.

What was your first job? Selling tupperware to housewifes.

What was the last book you read? The History of The Catholic Church.

What is something most people don’t know about you? I am an open book.

What sets PCS apart from other places you have worked? The people and the cool furniture.

Who is one of your biggest inspirations and why? My grandmother. She liked whisky, poker, cigarettes and embarrassing hats.

What is something you are absolutely passionate about? Thinking about infinity.

Read More Employee Profiles!

 

{Robert Welsh}
Department: Production
Position: Technical director

Hometown: Elementary school, Auburn, CA; Junior High, Altus, OK; High School, Boulder City, NV.

What do you love and/or miss about your hometown? Playing in the woods and in the creek behind our house in Auburn.

When you were young what did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor

Favorite part of your job: Seeing a two-dimensional drawing become a three-dimensional piece of scenery.

Hobbies? I am a big sports fan.

Pet? I have the best cat in the world.  Her name is Bella. She swats a little chime on the door handle to be let out and works the flap of the mail slot to be let in.

What was your first job? Sweeping and mopping a diner after hours in Boulder City.

What was the last book you read? Villa Incognito, Tom Robbins.

What is something most people don’t know about you? I had open-heart surgery when I was eleven.

What sets PCS apart from other places you have worked? The beautiful people with whom I work in the company.

Who is one of your biggest inspirations and why? Elwood Robinson was my first T.D. when I was a young carpenter.  He said, “You can only do what you can do.”  He also taught me how to juggle.

What is something you are absolutely passionate about? My family.

Read More Employee Profiles! 
 

{Chris Coleman}
Position: Artistic Director 
Hometown: Atlanta, GA

What do you love and/or miss about your hometown? Spring.  When it explodes (usually mid-march), the city is awash in pollen – but also an explosion of flowers and blooms.   Wild parties:  definitely a party town. 

When you were young what did you want to be when you grew up? A preacher; a teacher or an actor.

Favorite part of your job: Rehearsing the plays.  I love being in the rehearsal room, especially the process of staging the play.  I also love strategizing about new initiatives with our senior staff.

Hobbies? Reading (political history; biography); cooking: obsessed with chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream (yes, made from scratch); hiking; biking; movies; meditating.

Pet? Nope.

What was your first job? Slinging burgers at Wendy’s on Buford Highway.

What was the last book you read?  Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA.  Movie?Elizabeth:  The Golden Years; Movie? TV:  John Adams

What is something most people don’t know about you? That in 1979 I won the Georgia Baptist Youth Speaker’s Tournament.  My topic was, “The Faith Factor”.

What sets PCS apart from other places you have worked?

Every afternoon around 3 pm, the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies wafts into your office.

What is something you are absolutely passionate about? PCS.  Duh.

Read More Employee Profiles! 

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Sister James (Jen Taylor) in her rehearsal bonnet.

Kelly Cullom (assistant stage manager) and Jamie Hill (stage manager) get a feel for the bonnet.

buy tickets || bring a group || more blogs about Doubt

We just completed our second week of rehearsal for Doubt. The first week was spent at the table wrapping our brains around all kinds of questions: faith vs reason, what do we really believe versus what we were taught to believe, who were we in 1964 - how does the zeitgeist of the time impact  our personal decisions. Other than a few references in the text and you knew the exact dates of certain events; the Kennedy assassination the year prior, the dates the Vatican II council took place - nothing on stage would tell you where we are in time (except maybe the telephone that is amazingly heavy!) From the Civil Rights Act to candy cigarettes, America was going through changes as transforming as the Catholic Church. The old school of thought clashing against the new was evident everywhere - marching on the streets, in the news, magazine covers - leaving fountain pens for ball points. Looking back at that time has helped us find the world in which our play lives.

buy tickets || bring a group || more blogs about Doubt

So The Little Dog Laughed is finally up and running - and if our first four audiences are an indication - we are in for a wild, wild ride.  First night out was a benefit last Sunday evening for Basic Rights Oregon, and Antoinette (who plays Diane, the ruthless agent) was so startled at how vocal the responses were that she got tickled a few times.  After one particularly long and hearty response from the audience, she said she literally had to bite her tongue to keep from cracking up.  It’s one thing to perform a role like Diane, where much of your interaction is with an audience.  It’s quite another to do so in the round, with audience members’ feet literally sticking out onto the stage from time to time.  It is a gas.

{Mitchell (Brik Berkes) and Alex (Dennis Flanagan) find an unexpected moment of connection after a hook up turns into something deeper.}

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about how audiences would respond to the relationship between the two guys, and in particular the evolution of their passion for each other.  So far - folks seem to be taking the ride in stride.  They just get involved with the story - and walk out smiling.  Helen Raptis, the anchor for A.M. Northwest, interviewed Antoinette on Thursday morning - and went on and on about the ‘health and vitality’ of the two guys in the play.  LOL.

{What are you THINKING? Diane (Antoinette LaVecchia) tries to get her client off of the “raft made of rent boy”}

It’s also fun to hear the audience putting the pieces of the puzzle together along the way.  When one particular plot point was revealed on Wednesday night, I saw heads nodding and heard a few, ‘ohhhhhhhhhhhs’.  Very fun.

{Some romantic evening indeed. Mitchell (Brik Berkes) and Alex (Dennis Flanagan) prove that a kiss is not always just a kiss.}

buy tickets || bring a group ||read blogs about Little Dog

YOU’RE INVITED!

Please join us for the Vera Katz Park Dedication & Community Celebration

We’re closing the street to celebrate!

Please join us for a community event celebrating the Honorable Vera Katz featuring a tribal blessing, music and dance, your favorite food carts and complimentary beer from Deschutes Brewery, our new neighbor. The event is free, public, and should be fun for the whole family!

Here’s the details.

What: Vera Katz Park Dedication & Community Celebration

When: Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Time: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Where: NW Davis between 10th & 11th

Also: PCS has a surprise announcement and some great news to share. We’ll see you there!

Ali Ippolito (of Heroes and Villians, Nick Jaina fame) writes music with a haunting poetry and quiet authority that simultaneously tugs, pulls, coaxes, vexes, and inspires. A mezmerizing singer, Ippolito accompanies herself on piano, accordion, and the curious banjolele, giving us fading, sepia-tinged sonic postcards of love and loss.

Her simmering music–as captivating as Tom Waits’ universe of tattooed,angel-headed sinners and hipster saints, Carlos Gardel’s tango-longing or Edith Piaf’s fragile lyric ache– to paraphrase the poet Mina Loy, “infects us with unendurable ease/touching nerve-terminals.” That’s a good thing.

The Good News from on High is that you can hear Ms. Ippolito for the low-low-cost of FREE in the Lobby of the Gerding Theater at the Armory on First Thursday, May 1, 6-7:15 pm.

Held Over: A mini-expo of iconic paintings by award-winning Northwest artist Michael Brophy, presented in conjunction with the extension of our run-away hit Sometimes A Great Notion.

“A painter of anti-heroic subject matter on a heroic scale, wittily and effectively chronicling the fate of our environment.”
—Art in America

Coming mid-May: Bullseye Gallery presents the exuberant chromaticism of glass artist Ted Sawyer; and selections from the Charles Froelick Gallery.