PORTLAND, ORE.: Portland Center Stage (PCS) has announced its 2017-18 season, featuring twelve productions.
The season will kick off with Fun Home (Sept. 16-Oct. 22), with music by Jeanine Tesori, and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the musical follows a chain of events in Alison’s childhood growing up in a funeral home as the closeted lesbian daughter of a father with secrets of his own. Chris Coleman will direct.
Next up will be Every Brilliant Thing (Sept. 23-Nov. 5), by Duncan Macmillan and Johnny Donahoe, about a child who loses his mother and keeps a running list of brilliant things worth living for in her honor. George Perrin will direct.
Following will be Luis Alfaro’s Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Nov. 4-26), in partnership with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, about a group of immigrants in the United States staging a production of Euripides through the lens of Mexican folklore. Juliette Carrillo will direct.
Just in time for the holidays will be A Christmas Memory (Nov. 18-Dec. 31), by Truman Capote, an autobiographical recollection of Capote’s boyhood and memories of holiday traditions in rural Alabama. Producing associate Brandon Woolley will direct.
Running in repertory with A Christmas Memory will be the world premiere of Winter Song (Nov. 18-Dec. 31), created by Merideth Kaye Clark and Woolley, a collection of original songs that celebrate winter holidays. Woolley will direct.
The holiday season will continue with The Second City’s A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens (Dec. 5-31), by Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort, an adult comedy with zany holiday sketches, improvisation, and audience participation. Ron West will direct.
Next up will be the world premiere of Astoria: Part Two (Jan. 20-Feb. 18, 2018), adapted by Coleman from Peter Stark’s ASTORIA: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival. The play is a continuation of Part One, which told the stories of the expeditions by land and sea to establish trade routes to the Pacific Northwest, and will continue with the establishment of the first permanent U.S. settlement. PCS will present a few reprise performances of Part One.
Next up will be the world premiere of Adam Szymkowicz’s Kodachrome (Feb. 3-March 18, 2018), about a town photographer who takes the audience on a tour of the small town of Colchester. Rose Riordan will direct.
Following will be Andrew Hinderaker’s The Magic Play (March 3-April 1, 2018), about a young magician trying to get through a live show just hours after his partner has left him. Halena Kays will direct.
Next up will be And So We Walked (March 31-May 13, 2018), written and performed by DeLanna Studi, about a contemporary Cherokee women who goes on a six-week, 900-mile journey on the Trail of Tears with her father. Corey B. Madden will direct.
Following will be George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara (April 14-May 13, 2018), about an idealistic young woman whose efforts in helping the poor as a Major in the Salvation Army clash with her estranged father’s donations to the Salvation Army. Coleman will direct.
The season will close out with Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (May 26-July 1, 2018), by Lanie Robertson, about Billie Holiday’s life and career told through the lens of one of her final concerts. Bill Fennelly will direct.
Founded in 1988, Portland Center Stage is committed to bringing stories to life in unexpected ways for its Oregon audience.
