Portland Stage Company

Last updated
Portland Stage Company
PortlandStage Logo1.jpg
Address25A Forest Avenue
Portland, ME
United States
TypeLORT
Opened1974
Website
www.portlandstage.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Portland Stage Company is a professional LORT (League of Resident Theaters) theater company in the state of Maine. [1] Founded as the Profile Theatre in 1974 as a touring theater company, the company made Portland its permanent location in 1976. In 1982, it moved to its current home of 25A Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine. [2] Anita Stewart has served as the Artistic Director since 1996, and in 2006 was made Executive Director.

Contents

History

Portland Stage Company was founded in 1974 as the Profile Theatre, a touring company of young theater professionals, with the mission to "entertain, educate, and engage its audiences by producing a wide range of artistic works and programs that explore basic human issues and concerns relevant to the communities served by the theater." The first Artistic Director, Ted Davis (1974-1976) initially led the company through performances in a wide variety of venues, but by 1976, Portland had become the company's permanent home. Davis was followed as Artistic Director by Michael Rafkin (1976-1977) and Frank Goodman (1977-1978), and in 1978, the company changed its name to Portland Stage Company.

In the years that followed, under Artistic Director Charles Towers (1978-1981), Portland Stage, became a member of LORT (the League of Resident Theatres) and TCG (Theatre Communications Group) and signed a letter of agreement with Actors' Equity Association. In 1982, under the leadership of Barbara Rosoff (1981-1987), Portland Stage moved to its current home, a former Oddfellows Hall at 25A Forest Avenue in Portland, which at the time had been newly renovated as the Portland Performing Arts Center.

Since the 1980s, Portland Stage has been committed to offering student matinees of every show in its mainstage season. Today, over 4,000 students from Maine and New Hampshire attend these performances each year. Under Artistic Director Richard Hamburger (1986-1992), the company launched the Little Festival of the Unexpected in 1990, a week-long annual festival that brings playwrights from around the country to develop new plays at Portland Stage. The Little Festival has helped writers such as Mac Wellman, Nicky Silver, Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and John Cariani land productions both on Portland Stage's Mainstage and in regional theaters around the country.

Hamburger was followed as Artistic Director by Greg Leaming (1992-1996), and then in 1996 by the team of Christopher Akerlind and Anita Stewart. Akerlind, a lighting designer, and Stewart, a set designer, were at the time the only designers to head a regional theater in the United States. Under their leadership, Portland Stage began a holiday tradition of producing Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol each December. Akerlind and Stewart also continued the theater's commitment to new work, launching the From Away festival in 1996, an annual collaboration with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa that brings authors from around the world to Portland each fall for staged readings of their work in translation.

In 1998, Christopher Akerlind left Portland Stage Company and Anita Stewart (1998–present) became the sole Artistic Director. In 2000, Portland Stage purchased the Portland Performing Arts Center where it is located. Since taking ownership of the building, Portland Stage has dramatically expanded its audience base, formed an Affiliate Artists group of local theater professionals, and launched a second season of productions, the Studio Series, which debuted in 2007.

At the end of their 2011–12 season Portland Stage Company had produced 332 plays and counting, including 45 world premieres.

Theater for Kids and Education

Theater for Kids opened its doors in January 2010 in one of Portland Stage's storefront spaces as the new arm of Portland Stage outreach. Geared at children ages 4–10, Theater for Kids' main offering is "Play Me a Story," where Affiliate Artists, a group of theater professionals connected with the theater, read and act out popular children's stories followed by acting workshops. Affiliate Artists help bring "Play Me A Story" on tour to local schools in the area, as well as work as instructors for summer and school vacation camps.

Portland Stage also seeks to educate the next generation of theater artists by hiring 10-11 interns every year. The interns are hired into different fields from production to administration and have intensive hands-on experience in each of their departments during a 7-show season. Interns from Portland Stage have gone on to work at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Manhattan Theater Club, Cleveland Playhouse and more.

New Work and The Clauder Competition

Portland Stage has shown a commitment to new work. Since 1990, the Little Festival of the Unexpected has performed readings of 3-5 new plays to the public every year. Plays workshopped here will sometimes be moved to Portland Stage's mainstage in coming seasons. Since 1996, in partnership with the International Writer's Program at the University of Iowa, Portland Stage has presented "From Away" every year to showcase work of international playwrights in translation.

Additionally, Portland Stage adjudicates the Clauder Competition for New England Playwrights. The competition was started in 1981 and has been adjudicated by Portland Stage since 1999 Portland Stage has adjudicated the competition on a 3-year cycle. Past winners have been: (2000) Laura Harrington "Hallowed Ground", (2003) Quiara Alegría Hudes "Yemaya's Belly", (2006) William Donnelly "Magnetic North", and (2009) Gregory Hischak "The Center of Gravity".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Vogel</span> American playwright

Paula Vogel is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive. A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Brown University, where she served as Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor in Creative Writing, oversaw its playwriting program, and helped found the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. From 2008 to 2012, Vogel was Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting and department chair at the Yale School of Drama, as well as playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Cleveland Play House (CPH) is a professional regional theater company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1915 and built its own noted theater complex in 1927. Currently the company performs at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square where it has been based since 2011.

Michael Wilson is an American stage and screen director working extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at the nation's leading resident theaters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perseverance Theatre</span>

Perseverance Theatre is a professional theater company located on Douglas Island in Juneau, Alaska. It is Alaska's only professional theater and is particularly dedicated to developing and working with Alaskan artists and to producing plays celebrating Alaskan culture, history, and themes.

Seattle Rep is a major regional theater located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound and Theatre Communications Group. Founded in 1963, it is led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodríguez and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. It received the 1990 Regional Theatre Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin Theatre Company</span>

The Marin Theatre Company (MTC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and professional LORT D regional theater located in Mill Valley, California. Jasson Minadakis is the company's Artistic Director and Meredith Suttles its Managing Director / CEO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quiara Alegría Hudes</span> American playwright and composer (born 1977)

Quiara Alegría Hudes is an American playwright, producer, lyricist and essayist. She is best known for writing the book for the musical In the Heights (2007), and screenplay for its film adaptation. Hudes' first play in her Elliot Trilogy, Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Water by the Spoonful, her second play in that trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley)</span>

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is an American non-profit, professional theatre company based in Palo Alto, California, founded in July, 1970. The company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and employs Equity and non-Equity actors, directors, designers, and specialty artists. The company stages a year-round season of comedies, dramas, and musicals in the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and in the California Mission-style Lucie Stern Theatre complex in Palo Alto.

WP Theater is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater based in New York City. It is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ theater artists of all kinds at every stage in their careers. Currently, Lisa McNulty serves as the Producing Artistic Director and Michael Sag serves as the managing director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Round House Theatre</span> Theater company in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.

Round House Theatre is a nonprofit theater company based in Bethesda, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensemble Studio Theatre</span>

The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays.

David Grimm is an American playwright and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACT Theatre</span> Non-profit theatre organization in Seattle

ACT Contemporary Theatre is a regional, non-profit theatre organization in Seattle, in the US state of Washington. Gregory A. Falls (1922–1997) founded ACT in 1965 and served as its first Artistic director; at the time ACT was founded he was also head of the Drama Department at the University of Washington. Falls was identified with the theatrical avant garde of the time, and founded ACT because he saw the Seattle Repertory Theatre as too specifically devoted to classics.

Water by the Spoonful (2011) is an American play by Quiara Alegría Hudes and the second part of the Elliot Trilogy. This play is set seven years after the first section of the trilogy, Elliot A Soldier's Fugue. Featuring veteran Elliott Ortiz, the play is set in both the virtual and physical worlds of Philadelphia, United States; Japan, and Puerto Rico.

Ricardo Gutierrez is a Mexican American actor, director, and teacher. He had a recurring role as Alderman Mata on the first season of the Starz Network drama series Boss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Voices Theater Festival (Washington D.C.)</span>

In the fall of 2015, the Washington, D.C. region's professional theaters combined to produce the Women's Voices Theater Festival. The festival consisted of over 50 companies each presenting a world premiere production of a work by one or more female playwrights. The festival claimed to be "the largest collaboration of theater companies working simultaneously to produce original works by female writers in history". The Coordinating Producers of the Women's Voices Theater Festival were Nan Barnett of the National New Play Network (NNPN) and former NNPN General Manager Jojo Ruf. The honorary committee supporting the festival was chaired by first lady Michelle Obama and included actors Allison Janney and Tea Leoni and playwrights Beth Henley, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lynn Nottage.

Latino theatre presents a wide range of aesthetic approaches, dramatic structures, and themes, ranging from love, romance, immigration, border politics, nation building, incarceration, and social justice. Whether of a linguistic, ethnic, political, cultural or sexual nature, the plays often have a social justice component involving Latino people living in the United States. The Oxcart by René Marqués, Marisol by José Rivera, and In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda are examples of staged Broadway plays. There is also a strong tradition of Latino avant-garde and absurdist theatre, which double as political satires; prime examples include The Masses are Asses by Pedro Pietri and United States of Banana by Giannina Braschi.

Miss You Like Hell is a musical with book and lyrics by Quiara Alegría Hudes, and music and lyrics by Erin McKeown. The show follows a troubled teenage girl who embarks on a cross-country road trip with her estranged mother, who is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

Julia Jarcho is an American experimental playwright and director and professor of theater and performance studies. The NYC company Minor Theater produces and debuts her new works. She won the 2013 Obie for Best New American Play for Grimly Handsome. Chief theater critic for The New York Times Ben Brantley has called her "a queen of experimental mayhem". Jarcho is an Associate Professor and Head the MFA Playwriting Program at Brown University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dámaso Rodríguez</span>

Dámaso Rodríguez a Cuban American director who is the second Artistic Director of Artists Repertory Theatre, the longest-running professional theatre in Portland, OR. Before joining Artists Repertory Theatre, he was Artistic Director of Furious Theatre Company in Los Angeles, CA. He also served as the Associate Artistic Director under Sheldon Epps at the Pasadena Playhouse. He is one of four leaders of color leading a LORT theatre in the United States today.

References

  1. "Portland Stage Company offers innovative theater". New York Amsterdam News. 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  2. "This Month in Theatre History". AMERICAN THEATRE. 2022-05-10. Retrieved 2022-09-23.