Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists Rep's theater building taking up a city block in southwest Portland prior to 2019/20 renovations
Abbreviation	ART
Nickname	Artists Rep
Formation	1982
Founder	Rebecca Adams David Beetham-Gomes Joseph P. Cronin Amy Fowkes Vana O’Brien Diane Olson Annalee Purdy Linda Schneider Tim Streeter Peter Waldron Michael Welsh
Type	501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Location	1515 SW Morrison Street Portland, Oregon 97205
Region	Pacific Northwest
Managing Director	Aiyana Cunningham
Board of directors	Jeffrey Condit Marcia Darm Michael Davidson Paul Koehler Jill Lam Pancho Savery Michael Szporluk Josie Seid
Key people	Shawn Lee Leslie Crandell Dawes Luan Schooler J. S. May Melory Mirashrafi Aki Ruiz
Affiliations	August Wilson Red Door Project Hand2Mouth Theatre LineStorm Playwrights Portland Actors Conservatory Portland Revels Profile Theatre Portland Area Theatre Alliance Portland Shakespeare Project Fertile Ground Festival
Website	artistsrep.org

Artists Repertory Theatre (Artists Rep) is a professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The longest-running professional theatre company in Portland, since 1982 the company has focused on presenting the works of contemporary playwrights, including world premieres.

In addition to producing six to eight productions in Portland annually, the company runs special programming and collaborations. They tour productions nationally with the support and collaboration of partnering theatre companies and the National Endowment for the Arts. Operating on a repertory or stock company model, their artistic agenda includes the ArtsHub campus collective and Table|Room|Stage initiative for new work.

History

1982–1990

Chenoa Egawa portrays one of the ghost narrators in The Ghosts of Celilo

Rebecca Adams (as producing director), Peter Waldron (as designer), Joe Cronin, Amy Fowkes, David Gomes and Vana O'Brien formed Artists Repertory Theatre in 1982; their goal was to present contemporary playwrights' work in an intimate space. Through the early years of the theatre, they used the local YWCA's 110–seat Wilson Center for the Performing Arts as their performance area. In 1988, Artists Rep appointed Allen Nause to the position of artistic director; he would go on to hold the position for over 20 years.

1990–1999

Artists Rep creates an improvisation and role-playing program to teach life-skills named ART Reach (later renamed Actors to Go) in 1990. In 1991, Artists Rep began a development program, focused on creating new plays; and in its first year Artists Rep earned an Oregon Book Nomination for their world premiere production of Nancy Klementowski's After the Light Goes.

In 1995 they began a campaign to raise money for a new facility. After 2 years, Artists Rep was able to raise $1.2 million; with this money they moved into the Alder St. space, which included a 172–seat black box theater, administrative offices, a green room and dressing rooms, set–building shop, wardrobe room and rehearsal hall. In 1997, they were able to expand their presence in the world with an Artists Rep production at an international human rights play festival held on a tour of Pakistan.

2000–2009

To begin the new millennia, in 2000 Artists Rep chose to participate in the first-ever-reciprocal artistic collaboration between the United States and Vietnam, the Vietnam America Theatre Exchange. To accommodate demand, Artists Rep started a second Ssage season in 2002; these productions would take place at an off-site location as the Alder St. space was too small. In 2004 they were one of only six companies nationally to be selected to the largest-ever tour of Shakespeare in U.S. history. This would be a continuation of their previous US/Vietnam collaboration, but extended to a tour of the seven Western states through the National Endowment for the Arts'"Shakespeare in American Communities" initiative.

Later that year, Artists Rep began the expansion of their theatre space with the purchase of a 29,000 sq.ft. area of an entire city block for $4.8 million. The next year, 2005, Artists Rep opened an on-site location, the Morrison Stage, for their second stage productions; it would feature a more intimate setting with 164 seats. In 2008, Michael Mendelson, Vana O'Brien, Amaya Villazan and Todd Van Voris would become Artists Rep's first Resident Acting Company, and they all still remain members to this day. After opening the Morrison Stage in 2005, Artists Rep planned in 2009 to connect the two theatres with the construction of a staircase and the expansion of the Alder St. Stage's lobby.

2010–

Artists Rep kicked off its 2010/11 season with a co-production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night with the Sydney Theatre Company. The cast included Academy Award winning actor William Hurt, Australian star of stage and screen Robyn Nevin, Artists Rep Company Member Todd Van Voris, and Sydney Theatre Company Members Luke Mullins and Emily Russell.

In 2012, Artists Rep celebrated its thirtieth anniversary season. Allen Nause, the theatre's artistic director for twenty-five years announced his retirement, to be succeeded and Dámaso Rodríguez. The following season, Rodríguez expanded Artists Rep's resident artists to include not only actors but also directors, designers, playwrights, and small experimental ensembles. Artists Rep became an arts campus, housing initially eight arts organizations within its red walls, including the August Wilson Red Door Project, Portland Revels, Profile Theatre, Portland Area Theatre Alliance, and the Portland Shakespeare Project. While the Traveling Lantern Theatre Company and Polaris Dance Theatre are no longer members of the ArtsHub, as of 2019, Hand2Mouth Theatre, the LineStorm Playwrights collective, Portland Actors Conservatory, and the Fertile Ground Festival for new work are facilitated by the venue. This ArtsHub initiative won the 2016 Light A Fire Award for inspiring creativity.

Rodríguez has implemented a series of new initiatives to support theatre-makers from varied backgrounds and facilitate new work in addition to the ArtsHub. After the appointment of Luan Schooler as Director of New Play Development and Dramaturgy, the pair initiated Table|Room|Stage (T|R|S) that facilitates new work at a variety of stages–from refining pre-existing work to commissions new work and staging world premiers. A pilot program begun in 2014, notable successes have included Andrea Stolowitz's Oregon Book Award-winning Ithaka, about returning women combat veterans, and E.M. Lewis's Magellanica, a six-hour epic about scientists studying climate change in Antarctica that was recognized with an Edgerton Award from TCG. Also in 2014, in the wake of a $500,000 gift, Rodríguez dramatically increased the resident company to 20 members.

2018 saw a dramatic series of material changes at the theatre. In 2018, the company was hard-pressed to pay-off and IRS lien filed for lapses in its payroll tax filings going back to 2012 (paid off in early December). Property taxes and the expensive mortgage typical of Pacific Northwest urban centers remained the issue, so the company decided to sell half of its 2004 block-fixed, 29,000 square-foot property to an Atlanta-based developer. The buyer, Wood Partners, plans to build twenty-story mixed-use building with 296 housing units, 4,000 square feet of retail, and 206 below-grade parking spaces.

Shortly thereafter, the company received an unrestricted $7 million gift from an anonymous donor. Coming in at twice the theatre's annual operating budget, the gift was the largest donation in the company's history, and one of the largest gifts that has ever made to an arts institution in Oregon to date. While still maintaining the sale of half their headquarter property, Artist Director Rodriguez who was then also the interim Managing Director decided to use the funds to pay off the remaining mortgage and over half a million dollars in overdue bills to vendors, a line of credit and credit card bills. The remaining funds have been set aside in an operating cash reserve, a backfill a fund for specific programs, and $1.6 million for substantial renovations to the remaining portion of the building. The substantial gift was seen by the range of artists and companies who depend on the space as a city-changing act of generosity.

Amidst the changes, ART was also able to hire J.S. (John Stuart) May as the new managing director in the wake of Sarah Horton's departure. By mid-2019, architectural plans were released by May for the new two-theater complex with room for the ArtsHub companies, as well as a $10 million capital campaign. The company's 2019–20 season will be "On Tour", renting spaces across the city with Imago Theatre, Portland Opera, the Tiffany Center, Portland Center Stage, and Portland State University to put up the skeleton six-show season.

Ensemble

ART has operated on a repertory company model since 2008, meaning that they employ a dedicated stable of actors, playwrights, and other theatre-makers throughout a season rather than casting anew for each individual production. The company varies in size over time, sometimes as large as twenty-seven members. The resident artists contribute to programming decisions, education and community engagement, and develop new work for the theatre.

Artistic directors

• Jeanette Harrison, 2022– 2023
• Dámaso Rodríguez, 2013–2021
• Allen Nause, 1988–2012

Resident artists

• Linda Alper (actor, playwright), 2011–
• Ayanna Berkshire (actor), 2015–
• Bobby Brewer-Wallin (costume designer), 2016–
• Chris Harder (actor), 2014–
• JoAnn Johnson (actor, director), 2008–
• Kevin Jones (actor, director), 2008–
• Val Landrum (actor), 2002–
• Sarah Lucht (actor), 2013–
• Susannah Mars (actor), 2012–
• Michael Mendelson (actor, director), 2008–
• Amy Newman (actor), 2013–
• Vana O'Brien (actor), 2008–
• Rodolfo Ortega (composer, sound designer), 2014–
• Sharath Patel (sound designer), 2012–
• Gregory Pulver (costume designer), 2011–
• John San Nicolas (actor), 2011–
• Vin Shambry (actor), 2011–
• Andrea Stolowitz (playwright), 2017–
• Todd Van Voris (actor), 2014–
• Amaya Villazan (actor), 2014–
• Joshua J. Weinstein (actor), 2012–
• Megan Wilkerson (scene designer), 2014–
• Carol Ann Wohlmut (stage manager), 2008–

Productions

2022/2023 season

• The Hombres by Tony Meneses
• the ripple, the wave that carried me home by Christina Anderson a co-production with Portland Center Stage
• American Fast by Kareem Fahmy
• True Story by E.M. Lewis

2021/2022 season

• The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh
• The Great Leap by Lauren Yee a co-production with Portland Center Stage
• The Children by Lucy Kirkwood

2019/2020 season

• 1984 adapted by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan from the novel by George Orwell
• La Ruta by Isaac Gomez
• The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig
• School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh
• Indecent by Paula Vogel
• Looking for Tiger Lily by Anthony Hudson, world premiere

2018/2019 season

• Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau
• Unexploded Ordinances by Split Britches
• Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl
• Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
• It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play by Joe Landry
• Teenage Dick by Mike Lew
• A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath
• Wolf Play by Hansol Jung, world premiere
• The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson

2017/2018 season

• An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
• Caught by Christopher Chen
• The Humans by Stephen Karam
• Magellanica by E.M. Lewis, world premiere
• Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis
• The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse
• I and You by Lauren Gunderson

2017/2018 Frontier Series

• They, Themself, and Schmerm by Becca Blackwell
• The Holler Sessions by Frank Boyd
• White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour

2016/2017 season

• Trevor by Nick Jones
• American Hero by Bess Wohl
• A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration by Paula Vogel
• Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison
• Feathers and Teeth by Charise Castro Smith
• The Talented Ones by Yussef El Guindi
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

2016/2017 Frontier Series

• The Future Show by Deborah Pearson
• Winners and Losers by Marcus Youssef and James Long
• Rodney King by Roger Guenveur Smith

2015/2016 season

• The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck
• Cuba Libre by Carlos Lacámara and Jorge Gómez
• Broomstick by John Biguenet
• The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
• Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally
• We Are Proud to Present by Jackie Sibblies Drury
• Grand Concourse by Heidi Schreck
• The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder

2014/2015 season

• Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
• Exiles by Carlos Lacámara
• Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward
• Tribes by Nina Raine
• The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar
• The Price by Arthur Miller
• 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog
• The Liar by David Ives, adapted from the comedy by Pierre Corneille

2013/2014 season

• The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc
• Mistakes Were Made by Craig Wright
• Foxfinder by Dawn King
• The Reason for the Season by Matt Pelfrey
• The Night Before Christmas by Anthony Neilson
• The Monster-Builder by Amy Freed
• The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis
• The Quality of Life by Jane Anderson
• The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge

2012/2013 season

• And So It Goes... by Aaron Posner
• Seven Guitars by August Wilson
• Sherlock Holmes and Case of the Christmas Carol by John Longenbaugh
• The Lost Boy by Susan Mach
• Red Herring by Michael Hollinger
• The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn
• Ten Chimneys by Jeffrey Hatcher
• Ithaka by Andrea Stolowitz

2011/2012 season

• God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza
• No Man's Land by Harold Pinter
• Sherlock Holmes and Case of the Christmas Carol by John Longenbaugh
• (I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi adapted by Joseph Fisher from the play by John Webster
• Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker
• Race by David Mamet
• Standing On Ceremony by Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Mo Gaffney, Neil LaBute, Wendy McLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick, and Doug Wright
• Next To Normal by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt

2010/2011 season

• Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill
• Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill
• The Hillsboro Story by Susan Banyas
• Mars on Life – LIVE! by Susannah Mars
• Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts
• The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
• Jack Goes Boating by Bob Glaudini
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Richard Kramer

2009/2010 season

• All My Sons by Arthur Miller
• Becky's New Car by Steven Dietz
• Holidazed by Marc Acito and C.S. Whitcomb
• Design for Living by Noël Coward
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• Gracie and the Atom by McKinley

2008/2009 season

• Blackbird by David Harrower
• Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
• Speech & Debate by Stephen Karam
• Holidazed by Marc Acito and C.S. Whitcomb
• The Seafarer by Conor McPherson
• String of Pearls by Michele Lowe
• Distracted by Lisa Loomer
• Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Tracy Letts

2007/2008 season

• House and Garden by Alan Ayckbourn
• The Ghosts of Celilo by Marv Ross
• Mars on Life: the Holiday Edition by Susannah Mars and Grant Byington
• The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl
• Rabbit Hole by David Lindsey-Abaire
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• The History Boys by Alan Bennett

2006/2007 season

• Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman
• Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle
• Inspecting Carol by Daniel Sullivan
• Mars on Life: the Holiday Edition by Susannah Mars and Grant Byington
• Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Tom Wood
• The Retreat from Moscow by William Nicholson
• They Came from Way Out There by Beecham, Hillgartner and Hume
• Orson's Shadow by Austin Pendleton

2005/2006 season

• Enchanted April adapted by Matthew Barber from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim
• Bug by Tracy Letts
• Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant adapted by Jane Jones and Myra Platt from the novel by John Irving
• The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Joseph Fisher
• Frozen by Bryony Lavery
• Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman
• Theater District by Richard Kramer

2004/2005 season

• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute
• Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge by Christopher Durang
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones
• Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall
• Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg

2003/2004 season

• Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
• Nickel and Dimed by Joan Holden
• Appalachian Ebeneezer by Randi Douglas and Cheyney Ryan
• The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee
• The Drawer Boy by Michael Healy
• Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan
• The New House by Carlo Goldoni, adapted by Joseph Fisher

2002/2003 season

• The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams
• The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute
• Honey in the Horn by Michael Lasswell
• Proof by David Auburn
• Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz
• Touch by Toni Press-Coffman
• Copenhagen by Michael Frayn

2001/2002 season

• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage
• My Castle's Rockin': The Alberta Hunter Story by Larry Parr
• Art by Yasmina Reza
• Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies
• Killer Joe by Tracy Letts
• The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman

2000/2001 season

• The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh
• Ain't Misbehavin' by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr.
• Never the Sinner by John Logan
• The Weir by Conor McPherson
• Side Man by Warren Leight

1999/2000 season

• Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moises Kaufman
• Present Laughter by Noël Coward
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
• Master Class by Terrence McNally
• Wit by Margaret Edson

1998/1999 season

• How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel
• Having Our Say by Emily Mann, adapted from the book by Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
• Three Days of Rain by Richard Greenberg
• A Question of Mercy by David Rabe
• The Misanthrope by Molière, translated and adapted by Lauren Goldman Marshall

1997/1998 season

• A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee
• Chaps! by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner
• Sweet Phoebe by Michael Gow
• Indiscretions by Jean Cocteau
• Incorruptible by Michael Hollinger

1996/1997 season

• Travels with my Aunt adapted by Giles Havergal from the novel by Graham Greene
• Quilters by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek
• The Sea by Edward Bond
• Amazing Grace by Michael Cristofer
• Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally

1995/1996 season

• Abundance by Beth Henley
• Fortinbras by Lee Blessing
• Picasso in the Back Seat by D. Roberts
• Beast on the Moon by Richard Kalinoski
• Buried Child by Sam Shepard
• The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer
• The Destiny of Me by Larry Kramer

1994/1995 season

• A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner
• Joined at the Head by Catherine Butterfield
• Park Your Car in Harvard Yard by Israel Horowitz
• Keely and Du by Jane Martin
• A Perfect Ganesh by Terrence McNally

1993/1994 season

• The Marriage of Bette and Boo by Christopher Durang
• The Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard
• Marvin's Room by Scott McPherson
• Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore
• Birdsend by Keith Huff
• A Pirate's Lullaby by Jessica Litwak

1992/1993 season

• The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
• Escape from Happiness by George F. Walker
• A Texas Romance by Ellsworth Schave
• Ballerina by Arne Skouen
• A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
• The Artificial Jungle by John Ludlam

1991/1992 season

• The Swan by Elizabeth Egloff
• Love Letters by A.R. Gurney
• Three Ways Home by Casey Kurtti
• The Gift of the Magi adapted by Peter Ekstrom
• Sharon and Billy by Alan Bowne
• Autumn Elegy by Charlene Redick
• Gossip by George F. Walker
• An Evening with Scott Parker by Scott Parker

1990/1991 season

• Italian American Reconciliation by John Patrick Shanley
• Orphans by Lyle Kessler
• Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing
• The Subject was Roses by Frank D. Gilroy
• After the Light Goes by Nancy Klementowski
• Same Boat, Brother by Earl Robinson
• The Tony del Mar Show by Jon Newton
• Lurain Penny's Christmas Story by Leigh Clark
• Lurain penny: Hung Over by Leigh Clark

1989/1990 season

• The Voice of the Prairie by John Olive
• Visions by Dorothy Velasco
• Holiday Voices devised by the ART company
• Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally
• Six Women with Brain Death by Cheryl Benge, Christy Brandt, Rosanna E. Coppedge, Valerie Fagan, Ross Fresse, Mark Houston, Sandee Johnson, and Peggy Pharr Wilson
• Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
• Lloyd's Prayer by Kevin Kling
• Two-Two, Four-Four by Gary Philpott
• Smart Aleck by unknown

1988/1989 season

• Pump Boys and Dinettes by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann
• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
• Dear Liar by Jerome Kilty
• Red Noses by Peter Barnes
• Independence by Lee Blessing
• We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! by Dario Fo
• The Fox by Allan Miller

1987/1988 season

• In The Sweet Bye and Bye by Donald Driver
• The Four Mickies by Ted Savinar
• The Majestic Kid by Mark Medoff
• The Country Girl by Clifford Odets
• The H2iner by unknown
• Daughters of Eden by Jan Baross
• Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley
• On the Edge by unknown
• Jesse and the Bandit Queen by David Freeman
• The Diviners by Jim Leonard Jr.

1986/1987 season

• Strange Snow by Steve Metcalfe
• Terra Nova by Ted Tally
• Childe Byron by Romulus Linney
• Passion by Peter Nichols
• Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music by Lee Blessing
• Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn
• The Miss Firecracker Contest by Beth Henley
• Graceland by unknown
• Sea Marks by Gardner McKay

1985/1986 season

• Quilters by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek
• The Nutcracker adapted by unknown
• Baby with the Bathwater by Christopher Durang
• Serenading Louie by Lanford Wilson
• Ofoti by Jack Wheatcroft

1984/1985 season

• Plenty by David Hare
• The Haunting of Hill House adapted by F. Andrew Leslie from the book by Shirley Jackson
• Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn
• Toys in the Attic by Lillian Hellman
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Top Girls by Caryl Churchill
• Educating Rita by Willy Russell
• Private Wars by unknown
• The Madness of Lady Bright by Lanford Wilson

1983/1984 season

• The Dresser by Ronald Harwood
• Jack and the Beanstalk adapted by unknown
• Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson
• Lysistrata by Aristophanes
• A Lesson from Aloes by Athol Fugard
• To Grandmother's House We Go by Joanna McClelland Glass
• The Ice Wolf by unknown
• My Room by unknown

1982/1983 season

• Loose Ends by Michael Weller
• Butley by Simon Gray
• The Mound Builders by Lanford Wilson
• Aladdin by unknown
• Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton
• Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You by Christopher Durang
• The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang

External links

• Official website
• List of complete production history