{photo: Brooke Bloom takes center stage in A Feminine Ending, a play which was developed as part of Portland Center Stage’s JAW festival.}

Sometimes people ask me, “What is this, ‘JAW‘ anyway?” Allow me to fill you in.

Just Add Water (affectionately known as JAW, and sometimes referred to – incorrectly – as JAWS) is a new play development festival that began here at PCS ten years ago. Liz Huddle, my predecessor, felt that Portland Center Stage needed to make a leap into the creation of new work, and had the brilliant foresight to call Jim Nicola at New York Theater Workshop. NYTW is one of the most adventurous theaters in the world, and has developed a robust methodology for creating deep relationships between artists and institutions – and for helping nurture the creation of new work.

New York Theater Workshop was already doing a festival of new works that they called Just Add Water – so the Portland incarnation began life as Just Add Water/West (JAW/West). Creative staff from NY worked alongside PCS staff for the first three years, until they said, “Hey – you guys know how to do this on your own. Go for it!”

The festival is a veritable kaleidoscope of original playwriting, with a regional series (“Made in Oregon”), site-specific pieces, labs for writers, and much more (consult the JAW calendar for the full roster). But its centerpiece offerings have always been four new full-length works. From about 150 scripts, four are selected, and the writers are paired with a team of professional directors, actors and dramaturgs. For a quick ten day period the team works feverishly in the rehearsal hall, while the playwright reworks material overnight and brings it back in the next day. At the end of the ten days, a staged version of the script is shown before an audience – and a feedback session happens afterward.

The process can prove invaluable for the playwright. As you can imagine, the writer has been sitting in front of a computer for months banging the draft into a shape they are happy with. But until you hear live actors speaking the story in front of an audience, it can be difficult to truly understand what you have created, and what is communicating.

{photo:A quiet moment in the world premiere of Sometimes a Great Notion, which was workshopped at last year’s JAW. Pictured top to bottom: Andy Patterson and P.J. Sosko as Hank and Joe Ben, Karl Miller as Leland, Sarah Grace Wilson as Vivian and Tobias Andersen as Henry.}

At PCS, each year that I’ve been here – we’ve subsequently produced one of the scripts from JAW in our subscription season (Flesh and Blood, Outrage, Another Fine Mess, O Lovely Glowworm, Celebrity Row, Act a Lady, A Feminine Ending and Sometimes a Great Notion).

And scripts from JAW have gone on to find productions at Third Rail Rep, Stark Raving Theatre and Sand and Glass Productions here in Portland; Actor’s Express in Atlanta; the Illusion in Minneapolis; South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, CA; the Long Wharf and Yale Rep in New Haven; Actor’s Theater of Louisville; Interact and The Wilma in Philadelphia; and Cherry Lane, Playwrights Horizons and New York Theater Workshop in Manhattan.

This year in addition to the four readings of new plays, we are adding a musical component as we workshop Crazy Enough, Storm Large’s new show. Join us! All events are free.

more blogs about JAW || About Jaw || Complete JAW Schedule || Made in Oregon || Big Weekend || Other Events

Check out the local coverage from the Oregonian and Willamette Week, and definitely don’t miss Alison Hallett’s blow by blow “Live at the Drammys” blog- the best way to get the flavor of the event if you weren’t able to attend.

Want reactions from performers who won after the show? Eric Bartels interviewed several winners in his coverage of the evening.

Here are the highlights on the record-breaking number of awards Chris had to lug into the theater this morning:

Darius Pierce and Brent Harris (pictured below) won for their delightfully bawdy portayal of the Bard and Edward DeVere in The Beard of Avon.

Michele Mariana secured an award for her work as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret.

Jessica Wallenfels’ logger ballet choreography for Sometimes a Great Notion picked up an award, as did Tony Cisek’s set design and Dan Covey’s glowing, mist strewn lighting design.

Deborah Trout snagged a Costume Design accolade for her brilliantly hued pumpkin pantaloons in Twelfth Night.

The favorite of the evening, Twelfth Night also garnered an award for outstanding production and a nod to Jane Jones for her masterful direction. Dueling Kenneth Albers and Brad Bellamy took home awards for their supporting actor performances.

Rounding out the awards for Twelfth Night, William Bloodgood was honored for his multipurpose Elizabethan scenic design.

It was a beautiful evening, and we were honored to provide opportunities for so many outstanding artists and performers to shine!

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.

Check out this behind the scenes video with some incredibly insightful interviews with the Notion cast and creative team.

And then drag your Oregon loving friends down to one of the extension performances.

Want to play hooky with Kesey? The best seats (and the best deals) are available for our Friday 2:00 pm matinee performance on May 2nd. See the show and you’ll be out in time to order your flying lumberjack drink at happy hour…

read blogs about Sometimes A Great Notion || buy tickets || bring a group

After a weekend of packed-to-the-rafters houses, we are delighted to announce that Sometimes a Great Notion will extend for yet another week!

Tickets are now on sale for the extra extension week, which will run through Saturday,May 10.

There’s been an extraordinary amount of interest in this production from around the region, with the Seattle Times weighing in for a review, and our own patrons sharing their thoughts about the show and their remembrances of Ken Kesey here on our website.

Check out what people are saying, and then we hope you can gather a group and join us for this “gorgeously executed” exploration of the Oregon Experience.

read blogs about Sometimes a Great Notion || buy tickets || bring a group