The North Plan
January 10 — February 5, 2012
On the U.S. Bank Main Stage
A world premiere comedy
By Jason Wells
Directed by Rose Riordan
After a ruthless cabal seizes power in Washington, Carlton Berg, a bureaucrat for the State Department, runs off with the new regime’s top secret Enemies List. Unfortunately for Carlton, the chase has come to an end in a police station in the Ozark town of Lodus. With a pair of DHS agents on the way, Carlton’s last chance is in the people around him: an unsympathetic police chief, an ambivalent administrative assistant, and fellow prisoner Tanya Shepke, motor-mouthed recidivist and alcohol enthusiast, who appears to have an attention-deficit disorder and thinks Skynyrd should be on the new money. Let the revolution begin.
The North Plan was an audience favorite at JAW 2010.
Warning: The North Plan contains strong language, loud gunfire, and may inflame your belief in conspiracy theories.
Performance times:
Tuesday - Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Thursday matinees at noon
A full list of performances and dates will appear when you enter the ticketing section of the website.
The North Plan runs approximately one hour and 45 minutes with one intermission.
View the cast and creative team bios
View the playbill for The North Plan
Learn more about accessibility options at PCS
Performance Times
Evenings: Tuesday - Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Matinees: Saturday and Sundays at 2 p.m.,
Thursdays at noon
*Note: These are general performance times. Certain productions may have exceptions. View the season calendar for more information.
This show's run time will be posted below the synopsis at left near the date of the first performance.
Production blog
Greetings from Camp FEMA!
27 January 2012 & Posted by Kinsley Suer
The North Plan, currently running on the Main Stage, takes place in the not-so-distant future. And that’s probably what makes it so extra creepy and goose bump-inducing – the ripped-from-the-headlines idea that the revered U.S. Constitution could be thrown out so quickly and easily, under our very noses. This has gotten us thinking. Could such a breakdown and seemingly seamless regime changeover really happen?
MoreBehind-the-Scenes: On the Set of The North Plan
17 January 2012 & Posted by Kinsley Suer
Our world premiere production of Jason Wells’ The North Plan opened here on our Main Stage last week. For the past several weeks everyone at PCS has been busy preparing for the production - and we’ve got the photos to prove it! Before you see the show, come check out these behind-the-scenes photos and read up on some insider tidbits detailing the production’s rehearsal process, set construction, costume design process and more.
MoreThe North Plan: An Interview with Playwright Jason Wells
10 January 2012 & Posted by Kinsley Suer
Jason Wells participated in our annual JAW: A Playwrights Festival in the summer of 2010 with the workshopped reading of his newest play, The North Plan; this week, the production opens in its world premiere here at PCS, and we couldn’t be more excited to see the play’s characters, costumes and set fully materialize onstage. Recently, we asked Jason a few questions about his writing process and the inspiration and research that went into writing and developing The North Plan.
More- 26 Dec 2011
- On the Precipice of a Revolution?
- 15 Dec 2011
- The North Plan: All in Theory?
- 14 Dec 2011
- The North Plan: Cast and Creative Team
Reviews and Features
Marty Hughley | The Oregonian [Review 26 Jan 2012]
The revolution will not be televised. But it will have a soundtrack: Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Then again, maybe it’s less a revolution than a resistance, a desperate attempt to preserve liberty, a people’s pushback against secretive, conspiratorial forces bent on oppression.
read moreAlison Hallett | The Portland Mercury [Review 26 Jan 2012]
The North Plan is an office comedy with the stakes ratcheted high—the office in question is a police station, where the police chief and an administrative officer debate the proper handling of prisoners in the face of a crumbling government infrastructure and shady interference from the Department of Homeland Security.
read moreBarry Johnson | Oregon ArtsWatch [Review 25 Jan 2012]
Both Portland Center Stage and Artists Repertory Theatre started the year off right with sharp, boundary-pushing world premieres. They both starred women, and what women they are — powerful, revolutionary women with enough sass and moxie to kick back and kick back hard.
read moreChloe Hagerman | Be Portland [Review 25 Jan 2012]
Friday was the opening night for Jason Wells’s The North Plan at Portland Center Stage. A fan favorite of the PCS Jaw Playwrights Festival in 2010, PCS was very excited about the world premiere of The North Plan, and Wells himself was in the audience at Gerding Theater for the opening night of his work.
read moreBen Waterhouse | Willamette Week [Review 19 Jan 2012]
It’s a terrifying time: The president of the United States has been granted legal authority to hold anyone deemed a threat to the nation indefinitely, without trial, and even to order the assassination of U.S. citizens. In Congress, some legislators have seriously discussed the possibility of turning off the Internet in the name of national security. Reports surface daily of innocents kidnapped by U.S. agents and tortured in secret military prisons. And that’s just this morning’s RSS feed.
read more
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