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.^[1] 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

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.^[2]

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,^[3] 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.^[4] Also in 2014, in the wake of a $500,000 gift, Rodríguez dramatically increased the resident company to 20 members.^[5]

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).^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[6]

Shortly thereafter, the company received an unrestricted $7 million gift from an anonymous donor.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[10] The substantial gift was seen by the range of artists and companies who depend on the space as a city-changing act of generosity.^[11]

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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14]

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.^[2] The resident artists contribute to programming decisions, education and community engagement, and develop new work for the theatre.

Artistic directors

• Jeanette Harrison, 2022– 2023 ^[15]
• Dámaso Rodríguez, 2013–2021^[16]
• 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),^[17] 2017–
• Todd Van Voris (actor), 2008–
• Amaya Villazan (actor), 2008–2011
• 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^[18]
• 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 seasonedit

• 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 seasonedit

• 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 seasonedit

• 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 seasonedit

• 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 seasonedit

• Enchanted April adapted by Matthew Barber from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim
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