JAW Play Reading: Fires, Ohio
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View Upcoming EventsBy Beth Hyland
Directed by Marissa Wolf
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As a climate crisis threatens a small Ohio college town, the mopey grown children and second wife of a sort-of-mediocre professor must choose: stay and smolder, or leave and burn. When a visiting scholar comes to stay for a few days, love and hatred flare and jeopardize the family’s fragile equilibrium. Chekhovian and totally modern, Fires, Ohio brings an old story into our painfully funny present.
JAW New Play Festival FREE! July 28-30
A week-long assembling of artists and audiences to create new plays! Artistic teams, including playwrights, directors and actors, come together to rehearse — and a lot of times rewrite! — a play. The final piece of the process happens during the weekend, when we share “music stands readings” with audiences so the playwrights can hear their work, often for the very first time!
Beth Hyland is a playwright and screenwriter based in Southern California. Her plays and musicals include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, FIRES, OHIO, SEAGULLS, KILLED A MAN (JOKING), GRIPPY SOCK VACATION, ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER’S PLAY, CLEARING, FOR ANNIE, and RED BOWL AT THE JEFFS. Her plays have been produced and developed regionally at the Geffen Playhouse, Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series, Goodman Theatre’s New Stages, Know Theatre, Provincetown Theatre, B Street Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Octagon Theatre Bolton; in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club and The Hearth; and around Chicago at Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, The Story Theatre, Bramble Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, The Sound in collaboration with Joe Swanberg, and others. Her play SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA was the 2024 recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival's Weissberger Prize and Jay Harris Commission, as well as the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting. Her play FIRES, OHIO was the 2023 recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Prize and the Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting. She co-founded The Sound, an itinerant Chicago storefront theatre, with artistic director Rebeca Willingham. Her short film CLAMBAKE, directed by Sammy Zeisel, was an official selection of the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and the Santa Monica Film Festival. She is a rising third-year MFA student at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. BA: Kenyon College. Representation: Jamie Kaye-Phillips, Paradigm. bethhyland.com
Current & Upcoming
Improvisation Classes for Beginners
Whether you're looking to get more confident in social situations, think quicker on your feet, or get in touch with your imaginative side, these "one-off" improv classes will set you on the path to success!
Adult Class : TWELFTH NIGHT, Before & After
Join veteran actor Joe Costa for a unique opportunity to take a “deep dive” into both Shakespeare’s text of Twelfth Night, and the PCS Production. Participants will read the play out loud as a group, with “intermissions” provided for lively discussion of themes and content. Interested participants will have a chance to act in selected scenes, guided by the instructor.
Improv Comedy: Love, Shakespeare
Witness the Magic of unscripted Elizabethan comedy! Step into the offbeat world of Love, Shakespeare, where seasoned Portland comedians attempt something audacious: performing a fully improvised Elizabethan play based on your suggestions!
Albina Music Trust presents A Brown Branch Christmas
Celebrate this holiday season with A Brown Branch Christmas at Portland Center Stage. Now in its fourth season, this two-night big band celebration features directors Domo Branch and Charlie Brown III guiding a heavy 15-piece lineup of regional and national musicians.
BIPOC Affinity Night DJ Party with ALoSo
Join us for a double feature BIPOC Affinity Night, featuring a live DJ set by ALoSo, plus holiday craft market vendor tables, art exhibits by Albina Music Trust Wall to Wall Sound and Jason Hill's Favorite Things, with complimentary select drinks provided by Multnomah Whiskey Library and Deschutes Brewery while supplies last.
Winter Teen Academy: Scene Work
Calling all teens! Are you looking to expand your acting skills and be the best scene partner you can be for your fellow actors? In this class, we will dig deep into scene study, character motivation, and active listening, while learning the necessary questions to ask in every rehearsal situation. You'll develop fuller characters and deeper relationships on stage by partnering in scene work — and have lots of fun too!
Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).
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