PCS Presents: PETE's a seagull
From Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (PETE), a seagull is a love letter, an elegy, the building of a play, the striking of a set, the putting on and taking off of roles and hats and moments.
It seems to be asking us to reckon with our role as artists in the world. It is begging you to continue to put on your shoes and walk out the door and come to the theatre to be with us in the darkened room with lights.
It hopes you will like it, and will probably offer you tea, or a moment of temporary madness or reprieve.
There will be dead birds and beating hearts.
This project builds on 10 years of PETE working on new translations of Chekhov plays. Drawing on Štĕpán Šimek’s translation of Chekhov’s The Seagull and the writing of company member Chris Gonzalez, PETE will render a new play that asks: what are we all really doing here?
PETE has been making performance as an ensemble since 2011. Together we have created eight original devised works (Song of the Dodo, Drowned Horse Tavern, All Well, Deception Unit, Fronteriza, Weather Room, The Americans, and Cardiac Organ), four new plays ([or, the whale] by Juli Crockett and Procedures for Saying No, How To Learn, and Our Ruined House by Robert Quillen Camp) and six revivals (R3, a new adaptation of Richard III, Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and Cherry Orchard, Maria Irene Fornes’ Enter the Night, and Beckett Women, an evening of Beckett short plays). Our work has been produced at Northwest New Works at On the Boards, Summerfest at CoHo Theatre, Risk/Reward, Caldera, and PCS’s JAW Festival. Our work has been supported by grants from the Oregon Community Foundation, The Kinsman Foundation, The Miller Foundation, The Collins Foundation, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Oregon Cultural Trust, the Mental Insight Foundation, the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and the Oregon Arts Commission among others. As part of our training institute, we offer community classes in the Viewpoints, Suzuki, Devised performance, Linklater Voice, Alexander and other performance trainings. Our year-long certificate program in performance (Institute for Contemporary Performance) offers 20 hours a week of training over 10 months culminating a festival of new works each spring. 2024 marks our tenth cohort of new performance makers. Learn more at petensemble.org.
PCS Presents: PETE's a seagull
- Created by PETE
- Text by Chris Gonzalez
- Adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, translated by Štĕpán Šimek
- Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter
-
Performers:
Jacob Coleman
Cristi Miles
Maureen Porter
Damaris Webb
Roo Welsh
Amber Whitehall
Ken Yoshikawa -
Design:
Jenny Ampersand
Miranda K Hardy
Peter Ksander
Trevor Sargent
Mark Valadez - Stage Management: Kristina Mast
- Production Management: Molly Gardner
Assistive listening devices are available for all performances.
We are committed to making our performances and facilities accessible to all of our patrons.
PCS presents PETE's a seagull June 29-July 13,2024, in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Read what critics have said about PETE's previous productions.
Praise for The Cherry Orchard (2022)
“This play is filled with so many moments of love and laughter, it is remarkable.” —Oregon ArtsWatch
“…positively stuffed with meaning, movement, and energy” —Portland Mercury
"I’ve never seen a production perform as wild a balancing act as this one" —Oregon ArtsWatch
"PETE pushes situations to the boundaries of absurdity (and often beyond) to reveal deeper truths about human nature" —Broadway World
Praise for Uncle Vanya (2018)
“PETE brings their [Vanya] to life with live music and imaginative staging… Instead of treating Uncle Vanya with either too much or too little reverence, PETE’s production simply attacks Chekhov’s text with gleeful enthusiasm.” —Willamette Week
“…this new adaptation of Uncle Vanya from PETE is much better, more visually interesting, and funnier than the agèd workhorse of Sad Russian Plays has any right to be, thanks to a new translation, wise casting, inventive staging that includes almost-continuous live music […] and an ambitious set design.” —Portland Mercury
“PETE makes the case for the comic version [of Vanya] in the best possible way, which is to say on stage, with real actors taking real chances in front of a live audience. World weariness is easy; comedy is hard… It’s easier when you have a solidly updated script, a sharp jazzy trio […], and a cast in tune to the inner logic of the farce inside Uncle Vanya…” —Oregon ArtsWatch
“Surpassed my very high expectations… Coleman’s performance as Vanya is remarkable. Director Cristi Miles has crafted a punishing role that brings Vanya’s inner torture into the physical realm… Ultimately, it’s funny and gut-wrenching, and it perfectly captures the anxiety of boredom, the irresistible allure of shiny things, and the hopelessness of realizing that this is it.” —Broadway World
Praise for Three Sisters (2014)
“The acting company functions as a wonderfully wrought symphony. Each actor gives us a uniquely envisioned character but they are all skillfully blended within the whole.” —The Oregonian
“These elements—a new translation, an excellent cast, and unique staging—present a vibrantly blooded, breathing portrait of House Prozorov and its three sisters. The production is so fully in its world, and so obviously respects its characters, that the actual plot seems incidental, by which I mean inevitable. It can't help but happen, and you can't help but watch.” —Portland Mercury
“This production might do for you what it did for me: Turn my thinking about The Three Sisters upside down in the most unexpected, telling, clever, and hilarious ways. Maybe that’s not how you think you want your Chekhov?” —Oregon ArtsWatch
“Masterful. A living, breathing theater for the ages. Another knockout from PETE… Outstanding ensemble and fresh translation give Chekhov’s characters clear trajectories. Immersive staging utterly transforms new Reed studio. Unmissable.” —Portland Theatre Scene
“The show has the company’s visceral, iconoclastic stamp all over it, from the inventive staging to the tension between stillness and motion… this production is immediate and alive.” —Willamette Week
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