Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan has just released the official selections for our 2009 JAW: A Playwright’s Festival. I’m very excited, both by the caliber of playwright this year’s JAW has attracted and the breadth of plays, ranging from the anthropomorphic to the existential to the just plain hilarious.

The core weekend will be Friday through Sunday, July 24th through 26th, with 6 playwrights participating and all the usual coterie of theater fairs, performance labs and site specific performances to go with. The Made in Oregon series of Oregon-bred pieces will return July 13th through 16th. As usual, all JAW events are FREE and open to the public.

A Few Highlights:

I’m really intrigued by Naomi Iizuka’s new piece (not least because the title is in Japanese) about the ways photography can both define and distort cultural exchange between East and West. Berkeley Rep is apparently also intrigued, because they have already picked the piece up for a world premiere in their 2009-2010 season. And since the last play to world premiere at Berkeley Rep ended up on track for a Broadway run, I’m delighted that Portland audiences will get first crack (so to speak) at this one.

Marc Acito’s piece about the gay penguins at the New York Zoo (and some hawks and some…other critters) should also be fascinating (and funny). I’ve been watching with interest the way documented forms of homosexuality and homosexual parenting in the animal kingdom are being used to frame (or reframe) the debate about gay marriage. It will be fun to see Marc’s take on the whole thing.
Plus, I can’t help but wonder if Marc and Floyd have ever considered adopting a little Tango of their own…

And I have it on good authority from our Promotions Manager (and recent Seattle transplant) Natalie Gilmore that Seattle-based playwright Stephanie Timm is one to watch- she’s been up to some darkly funny riffs on Grimm classics in the past… I’ll be interested to see what she’ll do with a play about a teen daughter de-volving her way back through the animal kingdom.

I’m also excited to have Pulitzer-prize nominee Will Eno in the house, and Jordan Harrison’s piece about typography sounds complex and fascinating (especially for the design nerds among us).

And last but not least, did I mention that there’s a play about F***ing a Swan??

There’s also some REALLY cool folks picked to head up our Made In Oregon series this year.

Check out the full JAW schedule to plan your festival experience.