Artists Repertory Theatre Explained

Artists Repertory Theatre
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
Leader Title2:Managing Director
Leader Name2: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

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 by 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

Resident artists

Productions

2022/2023 season

2021/2022 season

2019/2020 season

2018/2019 season

2017/2018 season

2017/2018 Frontier Series

2016/2017 season

2016/2017 Frontier Series

2015/2016 season

2014/2015 season

2013/2014 season

2012/2013 season

2011/2012 season

2010/2011 season

2009/2010 season

2008/2009 season

2007/2008 season

2006/2007 season

2005/2006 season

2004/2005 season

2003/2004 season

2002/2003 season

2001/2002 season

2000/2001 season

1999/2000 season

1998/1999 season

1997/1998 season

1996/1997 season

1995/1996 season

1994/1995 season

1993/1994 season

1992/1993 season

1991/1992 season

1990/1991 season

1989/1990 season

1988/1989 season

1987/1988 season

1986/1987 season

1985/1986 season

1984/1985 season

1983/1984 season

1982/1983 season

External links

Notes and References

  1. . 2018-02-02 . National Endowment of the Arts Announces Grant Recipients . American Theatre . Theatre Communications Group . 2019-05-26.
  2. Jacobson . Rebecca . 2016-10-10 . Artists Repertory Transforms Its Home into an Incubator for the Future of Local Theater . Portland Monthly . Portland, Oregon. Sagazity Media . 2019-05-26.
  3. . Andrea Stolowitz Wins Third Oregon Book Award . Today@Willamette . Salem, Oregon. Willamette University . 2019-04-24 . 2019-05-26 .
  4. News: . Artists Rep Awarded $119K For MAGELLANICA From Oregon Community Foundation & Edgerton Foundation . Broadway World News Desk . 2017-11-02 . 2019-05-26 .
  5. News: Johnson . Barry . 2014-05-23 . Damaso Rodriguez is rethinking Artists Repertory Theatre . Oregon ArtsWatch . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  6. News: Baer . April . 2018-02-02 . Artists Repertory Theatre To Sell Half Its Building; Parts With Managing Director . Oregon Public Radio . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  7. News: Jaquiss . Nigel . 2018-02-01 . Struggling for Survival, Portland’s Oldest Major Theater Company Is Preparing to Sell Part of Its Property . Willamette Week . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  8. News: Baer . April . 2018-02-01 . Artists Repertory Theatre Receives $7 Million Gift . Oregon Public Radio . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  9. . 2018-02-02 . Artists Repertory Theatre Receives Anonymous $7 Million Gift . American Theatre . Theatre Communications Group . 2019-05-30 .
  10. News: Baer . April . 2018-02-01 . How To Spend $7 Million: Artists Rep’s New Reality . Oregon Public Radio . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  11. News: Wang . Amy . 2018-02-01 . Artists Repertory Theatre receives $7 million gift . The Oregonian / OregonLive . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  12. News: Hughley . Marty . 2018-09-27 . Artists Rep picks J.S. May as new managing director . Oregon ArtsWatch . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  13. News: Johnson . Barry . 2019-04-22 . Theater news: Artists Rep prepares for another leap . Oregon ArtsWatch . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  14. News: Vondersmith . Jason . 2019-04-29 . Artists Repertory Theatre's next act begins . Portland Tribune . Pamplin Media Group . Portland, Oregon. 2019-05-30 .
  15. Web site: Hughley . Marty . 2022-09-20 . Artists Rep welcomes its new leader Oregon ArtsWatch . 2022-09-26 . en-US.
  16. Dámaso Rodríguez to Step Down as Artists Rep Artistic Director . American Theatre . 2021-09-14 . 2022-01-15.
  17. . 2017-03-21 . Artists Repertory Theatre names Andrea Stolowitz playwright-in-residence . American Theatre Magazine . Theatre Communications Group . 2019-05-26.
  18. News: Bermea . Bobby . 2018-01-19 . Spotlight on: E.M. Lewis and ‘Magellanica’ . Oregon ArtsWatch . 2019-05-26.

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