Current Season

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE 2008-09

FALL 2008

Marivaux's THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

Directed by Karin Magaldi
Costume Design by Kim Decker
Scenic Design by Bruce Keller
Lighting Design by James Mapes

Performs Friday, Nov. 21 - Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008
at 7:30 p.m. on Tues - Sat. performances
and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23
(no performance on Nov. 27)
at Artists Repertory Theatre - Morrison Stage.

Part commedia dell'arte, part feminist fairy tale, Marivaux's The Triumph of Love is as sharp as a thorn and charming as a rose. In this tale of mistaken identities, an accidental princess masquerades as a young man to woo her prince charming and precipitates the ravelling and unravelling of not one, but three amours.

The plot is both deviously simple and complicated. The feisty Princess Leonide has fallen in love, at a distance, with Agis and sets out to woo him. She has to do this in secret because her uncle usurped the throne on which she sits, and Agis would reject her outright if he knew who she was. Agis meanwhile, has been hidden at the home of the bookish siblings Hermocrates and Leontine, who raised him to despise love and hate Leonide. Leonide is accompanied by her servant, Corine also disguised as a man. Completing the cast are the commedia dell’arte inspired character Harlequin and the siblings' hapless gardener, Dimas.

In its original form, The Triumph of Love, written in 1732, is an elegant romantic comedy that cleverly sends up the pomposities of the Age of Enlightenment as it examines the follies of romantic love and the pitfalls in store for the self-satisfied man of reason. In this sparkling new translation by Stephen Wadsworth, the play is about how love transforms those who experience it. Don't miss it!

WINTER 2009

BURN THIS by Lanford Wilson

Performs January 9 - 17, 2009
Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30
Sunday matinee at 2:00
in the New Studio Theater

Seating is general admission. Doors open 1/2 hour before performance.

Set in the bohemian arts world of downtown New York, this vivid and challenging drama explores the spiritual and emotional isolation of Anna and Pale, two outcasts who meet in the wake of the accidental death by drowning of a mutual friend. Their determined struggle toward emotional honesty and liberation--by no means guaranteed at the play's ambiguous end--exemplifies the strength, humor, and complexity of all of Lanford Wilson's work and confirms his standing as one of America's greatest living playwrights.
Commissioned by the Circle Repertory Company, Burn This first appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 1987 to near-universal praise. More recently, it had a successful revival in 2002 at the Signature Theatre Company.

"From his earliest plays to his last, Burn This, Lanford Wilson has been firmly committed to the free expression of the individual spirit, no matter how nonconformist or even prodigal that spirit may seem to be...In the sense that it deals with lonely and displaced characters, Burn This is in the Wilson tradition. Where it breaks dramatic ground for the author is in its passion...Mr. Wilson exposes deep uncauterized emotional wounds--and offers no salve."--Mel Gussow, The New York Times

"The play [Burn This] has a voracious vitality and an almost manic determination to drive right into the highest voltage that life can register."--Jack Kroll, Newsweek

A thesis project in Acting by Sarah MacGregor and William Goblirsch in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA in Theater Arts.

FESTIVAL OF NEW WORKS

Student dramatic writing projects in day and evening workshop performances in November, February and May in the New Studio Theater. Free.

FESTIVAL OF SHORT PLAYS

Student Projects From Directing II at Noon and 7:30 in the New Studio Theatre. Free.

Sophocles' ELECTRA

The northwest premiere of a new adaptation by Frank McGuinness

Directed by Devon Allen
Scenic and Lighting Design by Glenn Gauer
Choreography by Carolyn Holzman
Costume Design by Kim Decker

Performs Friday, Mar. 6 - Saturday, Mar. 14, 2009
at 7:30 p.m. on Tues. through Sat. performances
and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 8
at
Artists Repertory Theatre - Morrison Stage

"Shall there be killing after killing forever?"

The children in the House of Atreus, Electra and Orestes, are the offspring of King Agamemnon who, when the gods demanded human sacrifice if he was to move his stalled ships forward during his war against Troy, killed his own daughter - their sister -Iphigenia. Agamemnon was in turn murdered by his wife (and Iphigenia's mother) Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. This left the oldest sister, Electra, his chief mourner and sworn avenger. To insure that vengeance (the murder of their mother and stepfather), she hid her young brother Orestes away from harm in the care of a loyal servant to return when he was old enough to do the bloody deed. In the meantime, Electra lives as an embittered exile within the palace, baiting and battling her mother, while her sister Chrysothemis represents the conquered who is willing to compromise with the conqueror.

As adapted in 1997 by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness, Sophocles' s 2000-plus-year-old story of revenge is grounded in the world of ancient Greece and our modern day war-torn counterparts, and stripped down to a plain-spoken ninety minutes. Accessible to mature audiences of any stripe, the tale of this most dysfunctional of all families plays out to a bitter end - justice, as Electra sees it, must be done.

SPRING 2009

Tom Donaghy's MINUTES FROM THE BLUE ROUTE

Performs April 10 - 18, 2009

Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30
Sunday matinee at 2:00
in the New Studio Theater

Seating is general admission. Doors open 1/2 hour before performance.

An atmosphere of panic, deprivation, mortality, and loneliness saturates Minutes from the Blue Route like the smell of mothballs. The story unfolds over one weekend as this sad, funny family packs and unpacks their home. They fill the silences with mundane chatter about weddings, microwaved meals, and childhood memories as the family members wrestle with their fears and defend their definition of home.

NY Times’ Ben Brantley praises Tom Donaghy’s skillful use of language, calling it “naturalisitic,” but also “a collision course of evasions, non sequiturs and spastic monologues that only occasionally connect in ways an outsider would perceive as rational conversation.” Minutes from the Blue Route will strike a chord in all people who have sought solace but found desperation in the most intimate of institutions: the family.

Directed by Josh Spencer, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MS in Theater Arts

Moliere's THE IMAGINARY INVALID
In a New Translation by Constance Congdon

Directed by Glenn Gauer
Scenic Design by Glenn Gauer
Lighting Design by Bruce Keller
Costume Design by Kim Decker

Performs Friday, May 28 - Saturday, June 6, 2009
at 7:30 p.m. on Tues. through Sat. performances
and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 30
at
PCPA - Winningstad Theatre

DANCE AND MOVEMENT PERFORMANCES

Student dance and movement projects in day and evening performance, in early June. Free.

Ticket Information

PSU BOX OFFICE: 503-725-3307

Ticket Prices for Mainstage Productions:
*PSU Students: $8.00 ($5.00 tickets available for Tuesday, Wednesday night shows ONLY)
*Students/Seniors/PSU Staff: $8.00
*Adults: $10.00
*Groups of 15 or more: $7.00
(*Includes Service Charge)

Parking free in PSU Lots after 7 p.m. and on Sundays

Festival of Short Plays, Festival of New Works, and Dance/Movement Performances Series: Free of Charge