Meet the Cast and Creative Team of Blue Door
What an amazing group of artists have come together to build Blue Door!
CAST
Victor Mack*
Lewis
Victor’s Portland credits include: Ralph D. in The Motherfucker with the Hat and Odysseus/Jacob in the World Premiere of Ithaka at Artists Rep; Kenny in Detroit and Turnbo in August Wilson’s Jitney for Portland Playhouse; Henry in The Lion in WInter at NWCTC. Other local credits include: Seven Guitars, Top Dog/Underdog, Superior Donuts and Take Me Out at Artist Rep.; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Drammy Award for Actor in a Lead Role), Radio Golf (Drammy Award for Actor in a Supporting Role), King Hedley II and Gem of the Ocean for Portland Playhouse; Hamlet and Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune at Coho Rep.
Seth Rue
Simon/Rex/Jesse
Seth is overwhelmed to make his debut at Profile with this powerful show. To be working with two of his artistic idols in Victor and Bobby is a dream come true. He is humbled to be trusted to give voice and shape to Simon, Jesse and Rex and to tell this story, celebrating self-love and acceptance, family, our journeys of identity, ancestral and spiritual vitality, and of the depth, diversity and beautiful – and often painful – complexity of Blackness in America. He is supremely grateful to Bobby and Profile for this opportunity, and to Tanya Barfield for her incredible work. Look for him in the upcoming production of Cottonwood in the Flood with the Vanport Mosaic Festival.
CREATIVE TEAM
Bobby Bermea
Director
Bobby is a director, a playwright, and an actor and has performed in theatres from New York, NY to Honolulu, HI. He is co-artistic director of the Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, artistic director of BaseRoots Theatre Company, a company member of of Sojourn theatre, and a company member of Badass Theatre. Recent directing credits include My Soul Grown Deep with BaseRoots Theatre, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents with Theatre Vertigo, and Wait Until Dark at Northwest Classical.
Megan Wilkerson
Scenic and Props Design
Megan is a resident artist at Artists Repertory Theatre, the Resident scenic designer for Bag&Baggage Productions, and a member of the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Her design work has been recognized by The Chicago Tribune, The Oregonian, The Austin Critics Circle and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Regionally Megan has worked with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The New Conservatory, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Broadway Rose, Teatro Milagro, deFunkt Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, Northwest Classical Theatre, Next Act Theatre, Skylight Opera, First Stage Children’s Theatre, Michigan Opera Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, Portland Center Stage and the Portland Opera. She is a member of United Scenic Artists and holds an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Ruth Nardecchia
Lighting Design
Ruth happily returns to Profile Theatre’s design team. Past lighting designs include The Call and Blood Knot at Profile, Cinderella at Northwest Children’s Theatre and Christmas Unplugged at Artists Repertory. She thanks Profile for another opportunity of collaborative art.
Sarah Gahagan
Costume Design
Sarah is a designer for costume and set designer theatre, dance, festivals and stop-motion animation film as well as being adjunct theatre instructor at Portland Community College. She has done theatre design and collaboration work with many of Oregon’s beloved arts organizations including: Artist Repertory Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Miracle Theatre Group, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Michal Curry Design. Sarah has received Drammy Awards for her costume design work on Eurydice, James and The Giant Peach, Trojan Women, El Quijote, and A Year With Frog and Toad.
Rodolfo Ortega
Sound Design, Music Direction, Additional Compositions
Rodolfo received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Arizona and his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied piano and composition. He has composed music and designed sound for the recent productions of Artist Repertory Theater’s The Miracle Worker, The Liar, and Broomstick. He has composed several musicals for Northwest Children’s Theater including Snow White, Pinocchio, El Zorrito, and Peter Pan. He has also composed many of the productions at Santa Cruz Shakespeare including their recent productions of Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Man in the Iron Mask and Henry V. Additionally he has composed the music for Denver Center Theater Company’s productions of Three Musketeers and Romeo and Juliet. For the Oregon Shakespeare Festival he composed the music for Tenth Muse.
Kristin Mun
Fight Choreographer
Kristen is happy to be back at Profile as fight choreographer. She has worked for over half a dozen theatre companies in the Portland area including Third Rail Rep, Action Adventure, Post5, Milagro, and Anon it Moves. She is the recent recipient of the Leslie O. Fulton fellowship has won Drammy Awards for her work on Danny in the Deep Blue Sea, Oedipus El Rey, and Henry IV Part 1. Outside of Portland she has worked at Utah Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Repertory Theatre, and was the assistant fight choreographer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 2 seasons (09-10). She is an officer and a recognized fight instructor with Dueling Arts International.
D Westerholm*
Stage Manager
Portland Stage Management credits: The Call; Orlando; Fall Festival: Passion Play Parts 1+2; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; Dead Man’s Cell Phone; True West; Fall Festival: Festival of One Acts; Buried Child; Eyes for Consuela; The Road to Mecca (Profile Theatre); The Light in the Piazza (Portland Playhouse). Oregon Shakespeare Festival, non-equity Assistant Stage Manager: The Unfortunates (2013), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013), Troilus and Cressida (2012), The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa (2012), Julius Caesar (2011), The African Company Presents Richard III (2011). BA in Theatre Management from Western Washington University, MFA in Stage Management from Columbia University. Active member of Actor’s Equity Association
Natasha Stockem
Production Assistant
Natasha is glad to be back at Profile Theatre and a part of Blue Door. Her previous credits include co-stage managing Far Away, assistant stage managing Romeo and Juliet, stage managing Last Summer at Bluefish Cove and most recently with Profile Theatre and Shaking the Tree, Passion Play. She has worked as part of rig and focus crews for a verity of productions, was the blood maven for Macbeth, and the properties mistress for The Importance of Being Earnest and Romeo and Juliet, all at Portland State University, where she received a Masters in theatre studies with a focus in tech. She also works with Prismagic, a local production company that develops mixed medium shows.
*Member Actors Equity Association, the professional union for actors and stage managers.
Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar and poet. She is the editor of two anthologies, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements (AK Press/IAS, Spring 2015) and Another World is Possible (Subway Press, 2002). Imarisha is also the author of the nonfiction book focused on criminal justice issues, Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison and Redemption (AK Press/IAS, 2016) and the poetry collection Scars/Stars (Drapetomedia, 2013). She was a nominated for Oregon’s Poet Laureate, and was awarded one of two 2015 James Tiptree Jr. Fellowships for her science fiction writing that explores the intersections of identities. Imarisha teaches in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department. For the past six years, she has presented all over Oregon as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project.
