Category Archive: 2017

In Repertory

Experience these plays as never before produced: In rotating rep!

Both plays are staged on the same convertible set, share a cast of actors and focus on the central character of Elliot.  You need not see them in order, as each story stands on its own.  But do see them both for a fully rounded experience.

BUY TICKETS

November 1-19, 2017
Alder Stage

WATER BY THE SPOONFUL

Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from the war in Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond of support and love. In this fearless, heart-stirring Pulitzer Prize-winner, worlds virtual and real unfold onstage, challenging our notions of family, forgiveness, community, and courage.

A rich, brilliant montage of American urban life that is as dazzling to watch as it is difficult to look away from.Associated Press

ASL interpreted performance November 10th.

Play two of the Elliot trilogy.

 

THE HAPPIEST SONG PLAYS LAST

Iraq War vet Elliot has a bright new career: movie star. But shooting a film on location in Jordan, with the tumultuous Arab Spring rumbling nearby, he finds that his wartime nightmares have followed him into his new life. Back in Philadelphia, his cousin Yaz has her hands full cooking for the homeless and trying to keep her beloved community from crumbling. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this final play of Hudes’ trilogy chronicles a year in the life of these two kindred souls as they search for love, meaning and a sense of hope in a quickly changing world.

An intensely engaging new drama.Chicago Tribune

ASL interpreted performance November 17th.

Play three of the Elliot trilogy.

 

In Repertory

Experience these plays as never before produced: In rotating rep!

Both plays are staged on the same convertible set, share a cast of actors and focus on the central character of Elliot.  You need not see them in order, as each story stands on its own.  But do see them both for a fully rounded experience.

BUY TICKETS

November 1-19, 2017
Alder Stage

Evenings 7:30pm – Matinees 2:00pm

WATER BY THE SPOONFUL

Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from the war in Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond of support and love. In this fearless, heart-stirring Pulitzer Prize-winner, worlds virtual and real unfold onstage, challenging our notions of family, forgiveness, community, and courage.

A rich, brilliant montage of American urban life that is as dazzling to watch as it is difficult to look away from. Associated Press

ASL interpreted performance November 10th.

Play two of the Elliot trilogy.

 

THE HAPPIEST SONG PLAYS LAST

Iraq War vet Elliot has a bright new career: movie star. But shooting a film on location in Jordan, with the tumultuous Arab Spring rumbling nearby, he finds that his wartime nightmares have followed him into his new life. Back in Philadelphia, his cousin Yaz has her hands full cooking for the homeless and trying to keep her beloved community from crumbling. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this final play of Hudes’ trilogy chronicles a year in the life of these two kindred souls as they search for love, meaning and a sense of hope in a quickly changing world.

An intensely engaging new drama.Chicago Tribune

ASL interpreted performance November 17th.

Play three of the Elliot trilogy.

 

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

IN DIALOGUE EVENTS (Pre & Post show conversations and artists)

PRESS Reviews, Mentions & More

 

PRODUCERS CIRCLE FOR THESE PRODUCTIONS

Producer: Paul Duden

Associate Producer: The Standard

 

Evenings 7:30pm – Matinees 2:00pm

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26 Miles

Dates of Run: June 15 – 25, 2017
Directed by: Rebecca Martinez
Featuring: Jimmy Garcia*, Chris Harder*, Alex Ramirez de Cruz, Julana Torres*

A desperate midnight phone call spurs a spontaneous road trip for a brilliant teen and her estranged mother. The reunited pair runs fast and furious from the secrets in their lives. So what if reality’s nipping at their heels? Colliding together, they find connection, forgiveness and a part of their identities that has been missing all along.

Creative Team: Kristeen Crosser (Lighting Design), Sarah Gahagan (Costume Design), Daniel Meeker (Scenic Design), Sharath Patel (Sound Design)
ASL interpreted performance June 23rd.

*Member Actors’ Equity Association, the professional union of actors and stage managers.

 

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Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue

Dates of run: February 2-19, 2017
Directed by Alice Reagan

Featuring: Anthony Lam, Cristi Miles*, Jimmy Garcia* and Anthony Green*.

“Politically relevant, delicately balanced between drama and restraint”-Portland Mercury

“Recalls the kind of finely textured cultural detail that makes August Wilson’s plays so rich” -ArtsWatch

Nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal Elliot Ortiz, U.S.M.C. is a recently anointed hometown hero who returns from the Iraq War with a leg injury and a difficult question: Will he go back to war a second time? Tracing the legacy of combat service through three generations of a Puerto Rican family, this evocative, lyrical and often humorous tale explores how the landscape of the soul is transformed by war.

Creative Team: Kaye Blankenship (Scenic Design), Jenny Ampersand (Costume Design), Miranda Hardy (Lighting Design), Phillip Johnson (Sound Design), D Westerholm* (Stage Manager)

ASL interpreted performance Friday, February 10th.
Featured charity Do Good Multnomah. Read more here.

See the program for Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue here.
See the media kit for Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue here.

*Member Actors’ Equity Association, the professional union of actors and stage managers.

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In Dialogue: Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue

Saturday, February 4th:
Opening Night Reception | Post-Show
Join us immediately following the performance for nibbles, drinks and music.  Catering provided by 2017 Season Partner Pambiche.
Morrison Lobby

Sunday, February 5th:
COMMUNITY EVENT: Know Your Neighbors: A Conversation with Local Veterans about Service, War and Coming Home  | 12:00pm

Mat Chat with the cast of  Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue | Post-show

Thursday, February 9th:
Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner: Family, History, Cooking, and Music: Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Stage Stew* | 6:55pm
Daniel recently interviewed Quiara for The New Yorker about the ingredients that go into her daring, funny, heartbreaking plays, drawn from her family’s Puerto Rican-Jewish heritage, her Philadelphia barrio, and her music training at Yale. As Profile Theatre starts her Pulitzer-winning Elliot Trilogy, Daniel will share what makes Quiara one of the most exciting, innovative, and community-minded playwrights working today.

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner holds the Ronni Lacroute Chair in Shakespeare Studies at Linfield College, where he teaches courses in literary history, drama, and gender studies. A Portland native, he received his B.A. in History from Yale and his Ph.D. in English from Harvard. His articles on Shakespeare and contemporary culture have recently appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times. A frequent speaker at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he is the scholar-in-residence at the Portland Shakespeare Project and a consulting scholar for Age and Gender Equity in the Arts.
Morrison Lobby

Friday, February 10th:
Sean Davis: A Baroque Soldier | 6:55pm
The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, and grandeur. This is how Mr. Davis tells his war stories. He says “Let’s talk about war and it’s affects on us as individuals, a society, and a nation.”

Sean Davis has fought in a revolution, a war, and helped save lives in New Orleans during Katrina. He is the author of The Wax Bullet War, a Purple Heart Iraq War veteran, and a community leader in Northeast Portland, Oregon. He is the winner of the Legionnaire of the Year Award from the American Legion in 2015 and the recipient of the Emily Gottfried Emerging Leader, Human Rights  award from the city of Portland, 2016. His stories, essays, and articles have appeared on Sixty Minutes, Story Corps, Human the Movie, and much more.
Morrison Lobby

Saturday, February 11th:
Madilynn Garcia: Protests to Pulitzers: A Look at Latinix theatre* | 6:55pm

Madilynn Garcia is a native Texan and greatly enjoying her transition to Portland. After studying at UT Austin, she did a Residency at Oregon Shakespeare Festival before moving to Portland. In addition to her work as a freelance production manager, she coordinates the Gateway Program for USITT which seeks to expand opportunities for under-represented designers and technicians in the industry. She’s passionate about Latinx theatre, new plays and promoting diversity (on stage and off) in theatre.
Morrison Lobby

Sunday, February 12th:
Mat Chat with the cast of  Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue | Post-show

Wednesday, February 15th:
Jenny Ampersand, Costume Designer for Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue | 6:55pm
Designer Jenny Ampersand shares her process and the inspirations for her designs on this production, including her original conversations with the director, collaboration with other designers and extensive research into specific combat uniforms and how they were and are worn.
Morrison Lobby

Thursday, February 16th:
Michinobu “Mitch” Iimori: Storytelling Through Musical Structure | 6:55pm

Mr. Imori, the flute coach on this production, will discuss musical fugues, major and minor keys and the other aspects of musical structure and theory that are woven into Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, not just as part of the story of the characters, but fundamental to the way that very story is told.

Mr. Imori is a graduate of the famed Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY in oboe performance, but teaches and performs all the woodwind instruments as well as guitar, banjo (5st, 4st), mandolin, and anything else. Locally, he has performed with Oregon Symphony, Third Angle Contemporary Music Ensemble, Salem Chamber Orchestra, numerous local musicals, and playing banjo with Molly Bloom. He has been an adjunct private music instructor at Lewis & Clark College, Corban College, George Fox University, Univeristy of Portland and Multnomah Arts Center as well as maintaining his own studio.
Morrison Lobby

Friday, February 17th:
Sean Davis: A Baroque Soldier | 6:55pm
The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, and grandeur. This is how Mr. Davis tells his war stories. He says “Let’s talk about war and it’s affects on us as individuals, a society, and a nation.”

Sean Davis has fought in a revolution, a war, and helped save lives in New Orleans during Katrina. He is the author of The Wax Bullet War, a Purple Heart Iraq War veteran, and a community leader in Northeast Portland, Oregon. He is the winner of the Legionnaire of the Year Award from the American Legion in 2015 and the recipient of the Emily Gottfried Emerging Leader, Human Rights  award from the city of Portland, 2016. His stories, essays, and articles have appeared on Sixty Minutes, Story Corps, Human the Movie, and much more.
Morrison Lobby

Saturday, February 18th:
Professor Roy Perez: Elliott, War, and Latina/o Theater* | 6:55pm
Elliott, A Soldier’s Fugue begins a trilogy about life after war for the Ortiz family. Maybe this is why it sets the most somber tone of the three plays: before we can watch Elliott and his extended family, especially the women, start to heal and thrive, we need to understand how deeply the roots of numerous wars reach into the lives of generations of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S.  Indeed, Puerto Rican men and women have served disproportionately in battle since WWII. In this short dialogue before the show, we’ll talk about the legacy of Puerto Rican men and women serving in the U.S. military in order to provide some historical context for the story.  But we’ll also talk about the ways in which Elliott, A Soldier’s Fugue transcends some of the conventions of Latina/o theater and uses a history of tragedy to envision new avenues for recovery, family, and artistry.

Roy Pérez is an assistant professor of English at Willamette University. His research and teaching concentrate on literature, art, and performance by Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. He has published numerous poems, essays, and a short film, and is currently working on a book about relationships among Latina/o, Indigenous, and Asian American artists in the U.S., titled Proximities. He lives in Portland, Oregon

(*): These In Dialogue events are one aspect of Profile’s commitment to engaging with our community in conversations about equity, diversity and inclusion, and are a part of our Diversity and Inclusion Initiative.

To see past In Dialogue Events, go here.

2017 Quiara Alegría Hudes Season

“The long arc of a body of work is vital to a thriving American theater, and I’m both honored by and enthusiastic about Profile’s unique focus. Here’s to a season of reflection and looking forward!” – Quiara Alegría Hudes.

The work of Quiara Alegría Hudes immerses us in the complexities and contradictions of community, legacy and family. Steeped in music – from classical to jazz to Latin to hip-hop – the plays of Ms. Hudes introduce us to characters ripe with humor whose tragic flaws, bone-deep loyalties and grit determination hook us and draw us into their stories. Her language – a high-wire act between poetry and contemporary conversation – illuminates the souls of her characters; soldiers, addicts, divorcees, music teachers, estranged parents, ghosts, stuntwomen – a band of misfits who, through her artistry, find a kind of healing in plays full of laughter, tears and a fierce passion for living.

Profile is pleased to present four of Ms. Hudes’ award winning plays, including the entirety of the Elliot Trilogy: Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (Finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama); Water By the Spoonful (Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and The Happiest Song Plays Last. And in one of the most ambitious projects in Profile history, the final two titles will be performed in a rotating repertory for an immersive experience with these electrifying plays.

2017 Quiara Alegría Hudes Season

On Saturday November 18th, Quiara visited Portland and spent the day with Profile Theater!

Read more here: https://profiletheatre.org/uncategorized/in-conversation/

Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue
February 2-19, 2017
Nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal Elliot Ortiz, U.S.M.C. is a recently anointed hometown hero who returns from the Iraq War with a leg injury and a difficult question: Will he go back to war a second time? Tracing the legacy of combat service through three generations of a Puerto Rican family, this evocative, lyrical and occasionally humorous tale explores how the landscape of the soul is transformed by war. (Play one of the Elliot trilogy)
Click here for an ASL interpreted description.

26 Miles
June 15 – 25, 2017
A desperate midnight phone call spurs a spontaneous road trip for a brilliant teen and her estranged mother. The reunited pair runs fast and furious from the secrets in their lives. So what if reality is nipping at their heels? Colliding together, they find connection, forgiveness and a part of their identities that has been missing all along.
Click here for an ASL interpreted description.

Water By the Spoonful
Plays in rotating repertory with the Happiest Song Plays Last.

November 1-19, 2017
BUY TICKETS
Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from the war in Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts forge an unbreakable bond of support and love.  In this fearless, heart-stirring Pulitzer Prize–winner, worlds virtual and real unfold onstage, challenging our notions of family, forgiveness, community and courage.  (Play two of the Elliot trilogy)
Click here for an ASL interpreted description.

The Happiest Song Plays Last
Plays in rotating repertory with Water by the Spoonful.

November 1-19, 2017
BUY TICKETS
Iraq War vet Elliot has a bright new career: movie star. But shooting a film on location in Jordan, with the tumultuous Arab Spring rumbling nearby, he finds that his wartime nightmares have followed him into his new life. Back in Philadelphia, his cousin Yaz has her hands full cooking for the homeless and trying to keep her beloved community from crumbling. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this final play of Hudes’ trilogy chronicles a year in the life of these two kindred souls as they search for love, meaning and a sense of hope in a quickly changing world. (Play three of the Elliot trilogy)
Click here for an ASL interpreted description.

In Dialogue Staged Readings
In Dialogue Staged Readings include new and contemporary plays in conversation with Quiara Alegría Hudes’ body of work, as well as readings of Hudes plays not in the Main Stage season.  Staged Readings will be announced throughout the season.


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