For the fifth year in a row, Portland Shakespeare Project and Proscenium Journal are hosting the

2019 Proscenium Live Festival of New Work

August 3 and 4

Portland State University, Lincoln Hall, Boiler Room Studio Theater – LH 55

In keeping with our shared mission to create access and offer new plays to the widest possible audience, once again

ALL PERFORMANCES ARE FREE!

No ticket reservations are necessary and
seating is general admission.

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Saturday, August 3 @ 7:30 pm

The Best Worst Place by Linda Alper
Directed by Jane Unger^

Part of Artists Repertory Theatre’s Table|Room|Stage New Play Development Program

Cast: Claire Rigsby* (Eva Broder), Jason Glick* (Leo), Foss Curtis* (Helene), Barbie Wu* (Song Pei), Joshua J. Weinstein* (Benjamin Wundermann), Jamie Rae* (Stage Directions)

Written for family and young adult audiences, this play is part coming-of-age, part adventure story, and part exploration of a fascinating, nearly forgotten piece of history. The play follows Eva Broder, a European adolescent refugee who grows to maturity as her family joins 18,000 other European Jews who fled from Europe to Shanghai in 1837 to 1947.

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Sunday, August 4 @ 2:00 pm

Water From Fire by Susan Mach
Directed by Michael Mendelson^

Cast: Kelly Godell* (Hermoine), Lolly Ward* (Paulina), Sharonlee McLean* (Shepherd’s Wife), Murri Lazaroff Babin (Leontes), Agatha Olsen (Perdita), Steve Rathje (Stage Directions)

At end end of the trial scene in The Winter’s Tale, Apollo’s oracle states that “the king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found.” At this point in the play, Hermione appears to both Leontes and the audience to have died, but she is actually whisked into hiding by Paulina. Perdita, the lost child, is rescued by a shepherd. At the beginning of Act IV, Time describes the sixteen years of Perdita’s childhood as “growth untried” (4.1.6). This play imagines what happens during those years.

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Sunday, August 4 @ 7:30 pm

Mercer Island Misalliance by Carl Sander
Directed by Michael Mendelson^

Cast: Sharonlee McLean* (Julia Tarleton), Olivia Weiss (Jean Tarleton), La’Tevin Alexander Ellis (Bunny Summers), Kelly Godell* (Hypatia Tarleton/Patsy), Jason Glick* (Carl Tones), Dave Bodin* (Coop Summers), Jim Vadala (Ally Youngren), David Sikking (Jeremy Birdwell), Steve Rathje (Stage Directions)

An adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Misalliance updated to the 2016 election, and moved to the lakeside estate of Mrs. Julia Tarleton of Mercer Island, Mercer Island Misalliance uses the quaint rituals of America’s sincerely liberal but largely oblivious West Coast upper middle class in the 21st century to explore questions of national identity laid bare by the election of Donald Trump.

^Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
*Member, Actors’ Equity Association, the professional union of actors and stage managers

 

“Them That Are Perfect” by Amy Freed at Proscenium Live! 2016. Photo by David Kinder.