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Commission! Commission! is an auction to benefit JAW.
Come to Portland Center Stage for drinks, dinner & auction with your friends. Bid to commission your very own play. While dining, your play will be written, cast & directed by the finest playwrights in America from the past 10 years of JAW. After dessert, see it performed.
The finished performance will be open to the public at 9:00 pm.
Date: July 18
Time: 6:30 pm
Tickets $75 {includes dinner}
$250 opening bid
RSVP to Jessy Friedt, 503.445.3744
Hurry —Tickets going fast!
Featured Playwrights
Which of These Commission! Commission Playwrights will you buy for the night?
MARC ACITO‘S comic debut novel, HOW I PAID FOR COLLEGE: A NOVEL OF SEX, THEFT, FRIENDSHIP and MUSICAL THEATER won the Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for the Novel. It was also selected as an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times, has been optioned for film by Columbia Pictures and is translated into five languages the author cannot read. Its much anticipated sequel, ATTACK OF THE THEATER PEOPLE caused Godspell and Wicked creator Stephen Schwartz “gasps of appalled recognition and frequent laughing out loud. It’s the kind of book where you read passages to friends and they laugh too.”
Acito’s warped Christmas comedy, HOLIDAZED, which he wrote with Hollywood screenwriter C.S. Whitcomb, will have its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre this November. Acito is also regular commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He blogs about his Quixotic quest to do something new every day at www.MarcAcito.com.
DAVID ADJME‘S play THE EVILDOERS was developed at MCC, the Royal Court (UK), and Sundance; it received its world premiere in January at Yale Rep. STUNNING was developed at NYTW and Manhattan Theatre Club; it premiered in March at the Woolly Mammoth and is currently under consideration for production both at Lincoln Center and the Royal Court for 2009. Other plays include MARIE ANTOINETTE (JAW/West, Soho Rep, Sundance residency at the Public/NYSF), CALIGULA (Soho Rep’s Studio Series), ELECTIVE AFFINITIES (Royal Shakespeare Company/Stratford-on-Avon , Soho Theatre, London), STRANGE ATTRACTORS (Empty Space; Seattle Weekly Top 10 of 2003), WOODY ALLEN’S FALL PROJECT and 3C. Upcoming : RED ELVIS, BONIFACIUS (OR, THE DO GOODERS), WASHINGTON SQUARE and BROADWAY BOOGIE WOOGIE: a trilogy loosely based on Doblin’s BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.
David has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rockefeller commission from Lincoln Center Theatre, commissions from the Royal Court, Yale Rep and Berkeley Rep, nominations for the Kesselring, Weissberger and Barrie Stavis Prizes, a McKnight Advancement Grant, the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Award, a Jerome Fellowship, a Royal Court Residency, the Helen Merill Award, Jon Robin Baitz’s Ovid Grant for New Writing, a Soho Rep W/D fellowship, a NYTW/Dartmouth Residency, the Lecomte du Nouy Award, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project Fellowship (w. Craig Lucas), an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency (w. Paula Vogel), and multiple fellowships from The MacDowell Colony. He was recently appointed as a panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts. David is a member of New Dramatists, the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights Coalition, Rising Phoenix Rep and Vinegar Tom Players.
CONSTANCE CONGDON has been called “one of the best playwrights our country and our language has ever produced” by playwright Tony Kushner in Kushner’s introduction to her collection TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS AND OTHER PLAYS. In addition to TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS, which has had more than 200 productions, world-wide, Congdon’s plays include: CASANOVA, DOG OPERA, both produced at the Public Theatre, LOSING FATHER’S BODY (Portland Stage (Maine), LIPS, (Primary Stages), NATIVE AMERICAN, (Portland Stage (Maine), (Lyric Hammersmith Studio). Her latest play, PARADISE STREET, is being developed at Portland Center Stage, Oregon. A MOTHER, starring Olympia Dukakis, and a new verse version of THE MISANTHROPE, both commissioned and produced by American Conservatory Theater. Most recently, her adaptation of Moliere’s THE IMAGINARY INVALID, was commissioned and produced by the American Conservatory Theater. Congdon’s adaptation of this play has gone on to productions at The Seattle Rep and The Asolo Theater. Also at ACT: MOONTEL SIX, a commission by the A.C.T. Young Conservatory and subsequently performed at London’s National Theatre, followed by another production of the two-act version at San Francisco’s Zeum and directed by Young Conservatory Director, Craig Slaight. THE AUTOMATA PIETA, another YC commission, received its world premiere at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in 2002; NIGHTINGALES went to the Theatre Royale Bath’s Youth Theatre. Congdon’s NO MERCY, and its companion piece, ONE DAY EARLIER; were part of the 2000 season devoted to Congdon at the Profile Theatre. She has also written a number of opera libretti and seven plays for the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Congdon’s plays have been produced throughout the world, including Cairo and Berlin. Her plays are published, mainly, by Broadway Plays Publishing. Samuel French published DOG OPERA. A collection of four of her plays has been published by TCG, Inc. Her new verse version of TARTUFFE will be included in the next Norton Anthology of Drama, as well as in a single-volume Norton Critical edition. She’s been writing a long time and can thank the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Arnold Weisberger Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, and, most recently, The Helen Merrill Award for making this more possible. She’s an alum of New Dramatists, member of The Dramatists Guild and of PEN. Congdon has been teaching playwriting at Amherst College for twelve years.
JOSEPH FISHER is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where he received his BFA in Playwriting. In 2004 Joseph finished his fourth and final year as playwright-in-residence at Stark Raving Theatre where they produced world premieres of his plays PROMETHEUS BOUND, TUNDRA, CUPID & PSYCHE, and FAUST. US. In May of 2004, Joseph received productions of his plays THE NEW HOUSE at Artists Repertory Theatre and THUNDERBIRD at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. In January of 2006, Joseph returned to Artists Repertory Theatre where they produced his adaptation of Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL. Joseph’s plays have also appeared at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, Portland Center Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Players Club in New York, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Joseph is a recipient of the Playwrights First Award, the Charlotte Woolard Award, a 2002 grant recipient from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays and has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists in New York since 2002. Joseph currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Karen and their son, Dashiell.
WILLIAM S. GREGORY is the recipient of the 2007 Oregon literary Fellowship, Walt Morely Award for Drama. His most recent Portland production was “Chateaux Joyeux” at CoHo Theater in 2007. He is an emeritus member of PlayGroup at Portland Center Stage, and graduated from Southern Oregon State University in 1990.
The note came from “Commission/Commission”
from a person of charm and position
“Please dig in your mines
for a few witty lines
which we’ll put in this season’s edition.”
Said he “I might as well try-o
with this request to comply-o.
‘I write verse and plays
in a kind of a daze,
and that’s the extent of my bio.’”
LAUREN GUNDERSON is a NYC playwright/author/poet by way of Atlanta. Her award-winning plays have been produced off, off-off Broadway, and nationally; and she has been commissioned by South Coast Rep (twice), Synchronicity Performance Group, The Alliance Theatre, and Actors Express Theatre. She speaks and writes about science-arts and arts-activism as a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship at NYU where she is pursuing her MFA. Her newest play EMILIE will premiere at South Coast Rep April 2009, her newest crazy play CLASS will premiere at Dad’s Garage Theatre this October, and she is a proud alumnus of JAW. www.LaurenGunderson.com
STORM LARGE is incredibly honored and excited to be invited to this years JAW festival . Since her smashing theatrical debut as Sally Bowles in last season’s CABARET, she is, once again, taking on a completely new challenge… writing and producing a one woman show. Her piece, CRAZY ENOUGH will be debuted at the festival with the help of, as she puts it, “Veteran geniuses.”
SUE MACH has an MA in Playwriting from Boston University. Her first play, MONOGRAMS, was produced at Theatre for the New City in New York, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Portland Repertory Theatre, and the Icaras Theatre Ensemble in Ithaca, New York. The script, published by Rain City Press, also received a Drammy Award. Her second play, ANGLE OF VIEW, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and received readings at Portland Repertory Theatre and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. For her third play, THE SHADOW TESTAMENT, she received a Woman Writers Fellowship from Literary Arts, Inc. This piece has been workshopped by Artists Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, and JAW/West. Her play, THE DIFFICULT SEASON, a collaboration with renowned jazz pianist and songwriter Dave Frishberg, was workshopped at Artists Repertory Theatre. She was recently awarded a fellowship from Literary Arts Inc. for her latest play, THE LOST BOY.
STEVE MURRAY is an award-winning Atlanta-based playwright and journalist. His comedy MANNA was workshopped at JAW/West 2002 and was produced at Atlanta’s Actor’s Express in 2003. Other plays include HUNGRY TO BED and the record-breaking RESCUE AND RECOVERY, both directed by PCS’s Chris Coleman at Actor’s Express; LOST, MILEAGE and BODY POLITIC at Theater Emory; THE ALGAE EATERS, THIS PASSION THING and CUPID’S BONES at Horizon Theatre Company; and ROGUE at PushPush. Portland Center Stage commissioned Murray to write THIS WONDERFUL LIFE, the one-man version of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE conceived by Mark Setlock, in 2005. The play has subsequently been produced by San Jose Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Boston Lyric Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and other companies. For more information on Murray and his work: www.stevemurrayplays.com.
CARLOS MURILLO is a playwright and director. He’s pleased to return to PCS where his play MIMESOPHOBIA appeared in the 2004 JAW West Festival. His most recent play, DARK PLAY, OR STORIES FOR BOYS premiered at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2007, and has been produced in numerous cities since. Carlos’ other plays include: UNFINISHED AMERICAN HIGHWAYSCAPE #9 & 32 (OR THE BROKEN TRACTOR GRAVEYARD), MIMESOPHOBIA (OR BEFORE AND AFTER), A HUMAN INTEREST STORY (OR THE GORY DETAILS AND ALL), OFFSPRING OF THE COLD WAR, THE PATRON SAINT OF THE NAMELESS DREAD, SCHADENFREUDE, NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES WITH LENI RIEFENSTAHL, NEVER WHISTLE WHILE YOU’RE PISSING and SUBTERRENEANS. He is a member of New Dramatists and teaches playwriting and performance at The Theatre School of DePaul University in Chicago where he lives with his wife Lisa Portes and their two children Eva Rose and Carlos Pablo.
STEVE PATTERSON has written over 25 plays, with works staged in Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Tampa, and other cities in the U.S. as well as in Canada and New Zealand. His full-length works include WAITING ON SEAN FLYNN, MALARIA, ALTERED STATES OF AMERICA, THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF MR. GRANDAMNUS, TURQUOISE AND OBSIDIAN, BOMBARDMENT, and DELUSION OF DARKNESS. In 2006, his play LOST WAVELENGTHS was a mainstage selection at Portland Center Stage’s JAW/West festival. THE CENTERING, a one-man play he co-wrote with Portland actor Chris Harder, has been featured at the Edmonton Fringe Festival and the Boulder Fringe Festival, and, in 2007, Mr. Harder won a Drammy Award for Best Actor for his work in the play. Mr. Patterson’s play LIBERATION was published by Original Works Publishing in 2008. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Portland Center Stage’s PlayGroup playwriting workshop.
EVAN THOMAS is a student of theatre at University of Oregon working toward a Bachelor of Arts in dramaturgy and playwriting. At 19, Evan is still just entering the Portland theatre world, and is thrilled to be returning to JAW for his 3rd year to pursue higher understanding of this wonderful craft in a professional venue. Evan thanks JAW and the PCS staff for all the support they have provided throughout the years, “You have taught me that if the sky’s the limit to shoot for the moon.” He also thanks Mike O’Connell and Matt Zrebski, his friends and mentors, who have “spent many gruesome hours encouraging me and coaching me in their search for ‘new blood.’ I never fully understood how blood has anything to do with theatre… until I witnessed the blood, sweat and tears that goes into the creation of Commission! Commission! each year!”
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