Profile Theatre was founded in 1997 with the mission of celebrating the playwright’s contribution to live theater. Since its founding by Jane Unger (2012 Special Achievement Drammy Award-winner), Profile has grown to be one of the most significant theater companies in Portland, with a reputation for bringing intelligence, excellence, and passion to the stage. Each year, we feature a single playwright, giving our audiences the opportunity to enter the writer’s world for a full season – to experience each play as part of a dialogue, seeing and hearing the important connections that help us to grow and learn and understand.

We believe that live theater begins with the playwright’s words. Over the last 15 years, our featured playwrights have included Arthur Kopit, Tennesee Williams, Constance Congdon, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Romulus Linney, Terrence McNally, Lanford Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, John Guare, Neil Simon, Horton Foote, Lee Blessing and Athol Fugard. Profile is one of only three theaters in America that offer this approach.

 

2012-2013 – Athol Fugard

“Master Harold”… and the Boys
The Road to Mecca
Blood Knot
My Children! My Africa!
Staged Readings: A Lesson from Aloes, Valley Song, Nothing But the Truth*
One Night Stands: Coming Home, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, Knowing Cairo*, Playland
*part of our In Dialogue Series

2011-2012 – 15th Anniversary Season

Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrence McNally
At Home at the Zoo by Edward Albee
A Lesson Before Dying by Romulus Linney (an adaptation of Ernest Gaines novel)
Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson
One Night Stands: Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music by Lee Blessing, Take Me to the River by Constance Congdon, The Actor by Horton Foote, The American Clock by Arthur Miller, The Goddess Speaks Readings from Shiksa Goddess by Wendy Wasserstein, Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams
Staged Readings: Lake Hollywood by John Guare, BecauseHeCan by Arthur Kopit, Old Times by Harold Pinter, The Prisoner of Second Avenue by Neil Simon

2010-2011 – Lee Blessing

Great Falls
Chesapeake
Thief River
Fortinbras
Staged Readings: When We Go Upon the Sea; Independence; A Walk in the Woods
One Night Stands: Patient A; Going to St. Ives; A View of the Mountains; Two Rooms; Cobb

2009-2010 – Horton Foote

The Trip to Bountiful
The Carpetbaggers Children
The Young Man from Atlanta
Staged Readings: Orphan’s Home Cycle; To Kill a Mockingbird; Dividing the Estate
One Night Stands: Courtship; 1918; Tender Mercies; An Evening of One-Acts; The Last of the Thorntons

2008-2009 – Neil Simon

Fools
Biloxi Blues
Jake’s Women
The Sunshine Boys
Staged Readings: Lost in Younkers
One Night Stands: Plaza Suite; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Broadway Bound; God’s Favorite; The Good Doctor

2007-2008 – John Guare

Six Degrees of Separation
A Few Stout Individuals
Landscape of the Body
The House of Blue Leaves
Staged Readings: Bulfinch’s Mythology; Bosoms and Neglect

2006-2007 – Wendy Wasserstein

An American Daughter
The Heidi Chronicles
The Sisters Rosensweig
Uncommon Women and Others
Staged Readings: Isn’t It Romantic; Old Money; Third

2005-2006 – Lanford Wilson

Talley’s Folley
Talley & Son
Burn This
Redwood Curtain
Staged Readings: Fifth of July; Sympathetic Magic

2004-2005 – Terrence McNally

The Stendhal Syndrome
The Lisbon Traviata
It’s Only a Play
Staged Readings: Three from Column A; Corpus Christi

2003-2004 – Romulus Linney

2
Klonsky and Schwartz
Silver River
Staged Reading: Gint

2002-2003 – Edward Albee

The Zoo Story/The American Dream
Seascape
Three Tall Women
Staged Reading: Fragments

2001-2002 – Harold Pinter

The Homecoming
Ashes to Ashes
The Birthday Party
Staged Readings: The Dumb Waiter; One for the Road

2000-2001 – Arthur Miller

The Price
All My Sons
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
Staged Reading: Broken Glass

1999-2000 – Constance Congdon

Tales of the Lost Formicans
Lips
No Mercy/One Day Earlier

1998-99 – Tennessee Williams

Suddenly Last Summer
The Glass Menagerie
Blue Roses

1997-98 – Arthur Kopit

Wings
The Road to Nirvana
Indians