Panel Discussion: Being First-Gen
Learn about the life and lived experiences of first-generation American theater artists in this online panel discussion with members of The Great Leap cast and creative team. The conversation will feature Zi Alikhan (Director), Sami Ma (Connie), Mac Schonher (Understudy, Manford/Wen Chang), Nicole Wee (Costume Designer), and moderator Melory Mirashrafi (Associate Director of DNA: Oxygen at Artists Repertory Theatre).
Special thanks to Barbie Wu (Associate Director for The Great Leap) and Melory Mirashrafi for coordinating the panelists and co-creating this event as part of a collaboration with Artists Repertory Theatre's series Highlight Night for The Great Leap. For the safety of our audiences and artists, this event will be a virtual (online) offering around the first-generation American experience.
Melory Mirashrafi (they/she) is a first-generation Iranian-American theater artist from Hillsboro, Oregon, and Associate Director of DNA: Oxygen at Artists Repertory Theatre. Melory was a 2019 Young Conservatory Intern with American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and 2020 Literary Apprentice with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, where they currently serve as co-facilitator of the Huntington Playwriting Fellowship program. Selected credits: <<when we write with ashes>> and Layalina (dramaturg; National Queer Theatre’s Criminal Queerness Festival), Abundancia (director; Matchbox Theatre Company), Shahmaran (director; Shaking the Tree Theatre). Melory’s writing can be found in the Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays and Routledge’s Troubling Traditions: Canonicity, Theatre, and Performance in the US.
Current & Upcoming
July First Thursday with Pablo Rivarola
July First Thursday will feature live music by the Pablo Rivarola Trio, along with art installations by Krystal Perez and Orlando Almanza, and complimentary beer from our partners at Deschutes Brewery!
JAW Play Reading: The Sugar Hole
By Virginia Baeta and Amy Driesler
A rent increase for a legendary lesbian bar threatens its existence, and Darcy has a plan to save it. Is the 90's-themed Lesbian Pageant she dreams up as a fundraiser the answer? Or do the lesbians around her have different ideas about what needs to be saved? The Sugar Hole skips through time and space - real and imagined - exploring what it means to be a lesbian in a lesbian community, the importance of spaces for queer people, and what makes someone feel they belong.
JAW Play Reading: Teen Playwrights Showcase
Don’t miss this chance to experience some of the newest voices in theater! Four young playwrights have been commissioned by PCS to write short scripts for JAW. This showcase will feature the dynamic short scripts they’ve developed, performed by professional actors.
JAW Play Reading: Out There
Created by William Carlos Angulo, Isaac Gómez & Michelle J. Rodriguez
Music & Lyrics by Michelle J Rodriguez
Book by Isaac Gómez
When MJ, a once-great musician turned recluse, summons his best friends to his beach house with a "code red," old tensions and buried secrets resurface as the characters confront their shared pasts and uncertain futures. A PCS Commission, Out There is a richly layered story about family, love, and redemption told through the intersecting lives of three lifelong best friends—MJ, David, and Lars—and the people bound to them: Marcus, Feli, Joe, Dayana, and Kahliah. Set against storm-lashed coastlines, intimate hotel rooms, and bustling cityscapes, Out There invites audiences into a surreal world, portraying an unprecedented portrait of a modern family that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.
JAW Play Reading: Say Gay Plays
Conceived in response to the 2022 passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Voyage Theater Company Founding Artistic Director Wayne Maugans’ SAY GAY PLAYS offers royalty-free short plays by queer playwrights to not-for-profit theatre companies, arts organizations, and educational institutions for local activism and fundraising for LGBTQ+ communities across America. In a collaboration between Say Gay Plays, Fuse Theatre Ensemble and Portland Center Stage, JAW will feature an evening of these short plays, sharing work from playwrights across the country and a brand new commission by Portland playwright Carlos-Zenen Trujillo.
Improvisation Classes for Beginners
Whether you're looking to get more confident in social situations, think quicker on your feet, or get in touch with your imaginative side, these "one-off" improv classes will set you on the path to success!
Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).
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