Associate Artistic Director

Rose Riordan

Associate Artistic Director
Rose just completed her thirteenth season at Portland Center Stage, where she serves as Associate Artistic Director. Last season Rose directed The Receptionist at Coho Productions (which won a Drammy for Best Actress) and How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found which won four Drammy’s. Previously at PCS she has directed Frost/Nixon,  Doubt, The Underpants,The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and The Thugs by Adam Bock, which won four Drammy Awards including Best Ensemble and Best Director. Born and raised in Alaska, Rose began her career in theater before she had acquired a lexicon for describing the work. Prior to the age of ten, she wrote, directed and produced plays, most of them backyard productions for family, friends and neighbors. Her first ‘professional’ full-length play, an intense examination of six stewardesses and their ‘man troubles,’ was presented at Eagle River Elementary School. A defining moment for her, it solidified Rose’s commitment to a pursuit of theater with the sole desire to illuminate and be illuminated.

A theatre gypsy, she has been an actress, writer, producer and director and has directed plays in Alaska, Seattle, Miami, New York – finally landing in Portland which she officially calls home. Rose has an extensive background in writing, directing and new play development. For five years she worked at GeVa Theatre (Rochester, NY) which produced Reflections, a summer festival premiering three new plays in rotating repertory under the artistic direction of Anthony Zerbe. In 1999 she founded Portland Center Stage’s annual JAW A Playwrights Festival, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary next summer. JAW has been instrumental in developing new work for the PCS repertory: Outrage, Flesh and Blood, Another Fine Mess, O Lovely Glowworm, Celebrity Row and last season’s Act A Lady and The Thugs. She directed staged readings for the JAW festival – The Thugs (2005), Telethon (2006) and A Story about a Girl (2007), Enchantment (2008). She enjoys being part of a company committed to new work and having a beautiful building to do the work in.