The Profile Mission

Profile Theatre was founded in 1997 with the mission of celebrating the playwright’s contribution to live theater. To that end, Profile produces a full season of plays by or about a single playwright each season. The opportunity to study the work of each playwright through performances, study guides, lectures and talkbacks is unique in Portland.

Our Mission realized…

We are one of only three theater companies in the nation with this focus. If you want to see an entire season devoted to one playwright, you can go to New York or Chicago. Or you can come to Profile Theatre.

Profile’s featuring of a single playwright gives you the opportunity to enter a writer’s world for a full season of plays and events. This experience allows the audience to view each play as part of a flowing dialogue, and to see the important connections that help us to grow and learn and understand.

We believe that live theater begins with the playwright’s words. In honoring the playwright, Profile encourages its audience to recognize the creative dynamic between the playwright and live theater — the playwright as the springboard or primal seed from which everything else grows.

The dramatists we profile always have something significant to say about humankind, in all its variety, complexity, humor, tragedy, anger, and goodwill. They cast a light on the desires and demons that drive us, helping us seek a better understanding of who we are, where we are going, and why. We work to make that search deeply enjoyable, thought provoking and stimulating.

Join us for one evening, and you will find enough food for thought to inspire a dozen conversations. Join us for the full season, and you will share in a banquet of ideas and emotions rich enough to nourish you all year long.