Welcome to “the festival within the festival!” We at PDX Playwrights are honored to uphold our reputation for robust creativity with an outstanding offering of new staged readings for Fertile Ground. Scroll down to venture into an enchanting garden, an array of work taking root. With more than two dozen plays of varying lengths and an assortment of topics and forms, PDX Playwrights offers something for nearly everyone. Many productions feature more than one showing. Locavores with an appetite for creativity should consider a Festival Pass – and designating PDX Playwrights in the pulldown menu at the end of the pass purchase lends support to our talented participants without any extra cost to you!
Plays are listed below in order of performance. Sink your toes into this rich dramatic soil and you’ll get a sense of the impressive variety of voices sprouting in our work. Events will appear appear Friday, January 31, through Sunday, February 9, 2020.
All PDX Playwrights performance events are only $10 and and all will appear at our familiar venue, Hipbone Studio, 1847 E Burnside.
Tickets will be available at the door and are now available in advance via the PDX Playwrights Presents (PDXP Presents) page via Box Office Tickets! Once there, simply scroll down the page to locate the show and date you want. You may also order by phone: 800-494-8497 (TIXS). We look forward to seeing you!
7 p.m. Friday, January 31
Daisy Dukes Shorts Night: 20/20 — by Katie Bennett, Gary Corbin, John McDonald, Sean Morgan, Nancy Moss, Lindsay Partain, John Servilio, and Louise Wynn
Produced by Brad Bolchunos
Directed by William Barry
Tickets: $10 | Online
Back for the sixth year by popular demand, PDX Playwrights offers a juried selection of “very short shorts” (hence the name) performed by an ensemble cast. These eight plays explore the theme “2020” in wildly different, compelling ways. Don’t miss this urgent and thoroughly modern collection of fresh work from Portland’s finest playwrights! Works featured are: Detained, by Nancy Moss; Everything We Can Do, by Gary Corbin; Penny for Your Trauma, by Lindsay Partain; Perfect 2020, by John Servilio; Ping Pong Bro, by John McDonald; Spank, by Sean Morgan; Suicide in the Garden, by Katie Bennett; and The Dating Zone, by Louise Wynn.
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9 p.m. Friday, January 31
Crazy Dukes Instant Play Festival Kickoff — by … YOU!
Produced by Adam Harrell
Tickets: Free | Online
The kickoff of PDXP’s fourth annual Crazy Dukes Instant Play Festival! This Festival-within-the Festival-within-the-Festival is guaranteed to be the very newest, freshest work performed at Fertile Ground 2020. How do we know this? Because the work is getting created DURING the festival!
Think of it as theatre on a highwire with no net. Six talented playwrights will obtain 3-4 prompts and will be randomly assigned 2-6 cast members on the night of PDXP’s Daisy Dukes Shorts Night and afterparty. The playwrights will then write, rehearse, produce and perform 10-minute plays within 48 hours.
Come help kick off the creative process by offering your suggestions of actions, themes, lines of dialog, or props that MUST be included in all six plays. Then audiences can come back and see the results.
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7 p.m. Saturday, February 1
Olding — by Johanna Courtleigh
Tickets: $10 | Online
Four original monologues explore various aspects of aging. Clairie reflects on the last stages of her mother’s life and death. Ranya shares about her life as a refugee and caregiver so the people in the facility where she works will feel less threatened by her. Gloria resists her daughter’s desire to have her interned in said facility. And Harry, a 90-something year-old Jewish man, looks back on his life on Atonement Day. Written and performed by Johanna Courtleigh.
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9 p.m. Saturday, February 1
Daisy Dukes Shorts Night: 20/20 — by Katie Bennett, Gary Corbin, John McDonald, Sean Morgan, Nancy Moss, Lindsay Partain, John Servilio, and Louise Wynn
Produced by Brad Bolchunos
Directed by William Barry
Tickets: $10 | Online
Back for the sixth year by popular demand, PDX Playwrights offers a juried selection of “very short shorts” (hence the name) performed by an ensemble cast. These eight plays explore the theme “2020” in wildly different, compelling ways. Don’t miss this urgent and thoroughly modern collection of fresh work from Portland’s finest playwrights! Works featured are: Detained, by Nancy Moss; Everything We Can Do, by Gary Corbin; Penny for Your Trauma, by Lindsay Partain; Perfect 2020, by John Servilio; Ping Pong Bro, by John McDonald; Spank, by Sean Morgan; Suicide in the Garden, by Katie Bennett; and The Dating Zone, by Louise Wynn.
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12 p.m. Sunday, February 2
The Roosevelts’ Women — by Thomas and Craig Mason with Annie Leonard
Tickets: $10 | Online
No two people could be more complex than Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their personal relationships, both marital and extra-marital, took place against a background of two world wars, the Great Depression, and Franklin’s debilitating disease, which keep him in a wheelchair from 1921 to his death.
Franklin’s relationship with Eleanor has been well portrayed. They were probably the most well know married couple of the 20th Century. However, aside from Lucy Mercer, only recently have Franklin’s relations with other women been examined. Likewise, only recently have Eleanor’s relationships with other women been exposed candidly. Based on known historical incidents, The Roosevelts’ Women dramatizes the very real, human sides of one of the most famous couples in U.S. history.
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2 p.m. Sunday, February 2
The Bride of Bellagarten — by Robb Piggot
Tickets: $10 | Online
An isolated hunting lodge. An ancient gypsy’s curse. And some very carnivorous eels. Who knows what other dire dreads await nervous newlywed, the fetching Fern Fairthistle, when she is introduced to her eccentric in-laws for a whirlwind weekend of sinister celebrations, perilous parlor games and perhaps a ritual sacrifice if time allows. From the twisted imagination responsible for last summer’s campy cult classic Bed, Bath and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, comes a ridiculous new comedy which promises to make you think twice before attending your next family reunion.
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5 p.m. Sunday, February 2
Osho Returns — by Ajai Tripathi
Tickets: $10 | Online
He has been called spiritually incorrect, the sex guru, Bhagwan, and master of masters. He was wanted by the U.S Attorney and the government. Countless accounts of his influence on his followers, and development of Rajneeshpuram have been detailed. The legal system of Oregon, his followers and detractors, and former assistant Ma Anand Sheela have all spoken at length about him. Now on the thirtieth anniversary of Osho’s ultimate transcendence, once leaving the physical body to unite with the galaxy, his soul and personhood begins once more to replicate. Taking refuge in a local actor, Osho will return once more to speak of his life and his truth.
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7 p.m. Sunday, February 2
Crazy Dukes Instant Play Festival
Produced by Adam Harrell
Tickets: $10 | Online
Back for a fourth crazy year, this Festival-within-the-Festival-within-the-Festival is guaranteed to be the very newest, freshest work performed at Fertile Ground 2020. How do we know this? Because the work is getting created DURING the festival!
Think of it as theatre on a highwire with no net. Six talented playwrights will have obtained 3-4 prompts and will have been randomly assigned two to six cast members on the night of PDXP’s Daisy Dukes Shorts Night and afterparty (Friday, Jan 31). The playwrights will have written, rehearsed, and produced 10-minute plays in 48 hours ready for performance. Guaranteed crazy and guaranteed amazing!
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7 p.m. Friday, February 7
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism: A Comedy — by Maria Choban & Brett Campbell
Tickets: $10 | Online
Homeless people riot, underpaid workers strike, thousands starve but the one percent prosper. Conservatives discredited, liberals divided…sound familiar? In 1906, England is ripe for revolution or fascism. But a rising movement has a plan to save democracy if four famous wack jobs quit philandering, fix their friendships…and get their sh*t together. It’s Free Money vs. Free Love!
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9 p.m. Friday, February 7
Fly Away, Breath — by Karen Polinsky
Tickets: $10 | Online
In this wacky gothic comedy about success and intolerance in America, Jonica Wolf, an aspiring comedian, on his way to Hollywood with his fiancé Sandra, drops in on his home village of Fallowfield, PA to stop his creepy Mom from reopening the family coal mine and unleashing an ancient curse. However, when the family secret is outed along with a colony of threatened long-eared bats, Jonica must decide between good and evil, a choice which could determine the future of the town, the nation, the Cosmos but more importantly, his income stream. This eerie play, both serious and fun, with audience participation, asks the question: in today’s world, who is the real vampire?
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7 p.m. Saturday, February 8
Everywoman and Cloning the Colonel — by Louise Wynn
Tickets: $10 | Online
Two plays by Louise Wynn explore the nature of death and immortality.
Wynn’s comedy Cloning the Colonel explores issues of nature vs. nurture and comes out firmly on the side of the ultimate goodness of humanity. The Colonel wants to be remembered forever, even though most of the people around him wish to forget him—or maybe even see the end of him. But when he arranges for three clones to be created, will this help or hinder his legacy? And, more importantly, can his clones turn out better than him?
In Everywoman, Nora, helped by God, Death and Time, has a chance to confront her past and prepare for what comes next. What will she say to her ex-husband, her daughter, and a former boss? And who will comfort her as she faces death?
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9 p.m. Saturday, February 8
Christmas with Truman — by Alisha Christiansen
Tickets: $10 | Online
Alisha Christiansen adapts for the stage two of Truman Capote’s best holiday tales, “One Christmas” and “Christmas Memory.” Young Buddy and his elderly friend Sook, two unlikely companions, indulge in Christmas magic as they come to terms with the myths, idealized notions of holidays, and family relationships that society teases them to believe in. Ultimately their disenchantment gives way to genuine human love and connection. Illustrator Beth Peck’s nostalgic watercolor backdrop brings warmth and life to these stories while setting the stage at the bottom of the Depression in the south.
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12 p.m. Sunday, Febuary 9
Fly Away, Breath — by Karen Polinsky
Tickets: $10 | Online
In this wacky gothic comedy about success and intolerance in America, Jonica Wolf, an aspiring comedian, on his way to Hollywood with his fiancé Sandra, drops in on his home village of Fallowfield, PA to stop his creepy Mom from reopening the family coal mine and unleashing an ancient curse. However, when the family secret is outed along with a colony of threatened long-eared bats, Jonica must decide between good and evil, a choice which could determine the future of the town, the nation, the Cosmos but more importantly, his income stream. This eerie play, both serious and fun, with audience participation, asks the question: in today’s world, who is the real vampire?
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2 p.m. Sunday, February 9
Jephthah’s Daughter — by Katie Bennett
Tickets: $10 | Online
Young time traveler Tali befriends Isaac on the day he is spared sacrifice at the hands of his father, Abraham. They become convinced that the curvatures in the time roads are becoming straight due to the destruction of Yahweh’s feminine counterpart, Asherah. Soon they may not be able to travel in time at all. As the world becomes more linear and patriarchal, Tali fears that her name will be forgotten and that she will be sacrificed by her own war-mongering father, Jephthah.
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5 p.m. Sunday, February 9
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism: A Comedy — by Maria Choban & Brett Campbell
Tickets: $10 | Online
Homeless people riot, underpaid workers strike, thousands starve but the one percent prosper. Conservatives discredited, liberals divided…sound familiar? In 1906, England is ripe for revolution or fascism. But a rising movement has a plan to save democracy if four famous wack jobs quit philandering, fix their friendships…and get their sh*t together. It’s Free Money vs. Free Love!
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7 p.m. Sunday, February 9
5×3: A Collection of Short Plays — by Lisa Collins, Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman, and Brad Bolchunos
Tickets: $10 | Online
PDX Playwrights presents five short plays from three diverse and accomplished playwrights. Lisa Collins presents two short romantic comedies. In Lunch Room, an executive is trapped with a subordinate, and they are both forced to examine what has been avoided for a long time. In Big Brother or Big iPhone, Anna discovers what her iPhone does with the data it collects—and how technology takes control of her daily life by managing days, times, places and even person-to person connections. In Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman’s Girl in the Leather Jacket, a young lovesick woman finds herself in a bar looking to drown her sorrows after a break-up with her girlfriend. Much to her surprise she gets a lesson in love and life. Two quirky comedies percolate from Brad Bolchunos. In The Curse, a dispute about misplaced affection takes a dark turn with the arrival of an unexpected visitor. In Waterways, a gamer and a naturopath trapped near a dangerous dam desperately strive to understand the nature of reality— and how to cope with doom.
Thank you for your interest and support of new work through the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, Fertile Ground, and PDX Playwrights. We can’t wait to see you at our “festival within the festival!”
