Refuge Dates
January 30th - April 24th 2021 (Extended to May 22nd 2021)
Thursdays - Saturdays 6pm, 7:30pm & 9pm
Sundays 2pm, 3:30pm & 5pm
January 30th - April 24th 2021 (Extended to May 22nd 2021)
Thursdays - Saturdays 6pm, 7:30pm & 9pm
Sundays 2pm, 3:30pm & 5pm
Refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble.
Enter into a sacred space, not unlike a church, or the center of the sacred ring of stones/monoliths, and reimagine a more desirable reality or alternate world by reaching as far down into history as we can go, so as to realign with the sacred feminine.
Refuge will allow itself to be experienced by one small group (germ pod) at a time.
The “audience” will walk into the center and be surrounded by 11 (8x4 foot) painted panels/installations and a soundscape.
Each panel/installation will represent a Goddess or sacred feminine principle. These Goddesses are modeled after the deities in numerous creation myths, allowing us to center, recalibrate, reconnect with the building blocks of the natural world, question our place within the universe, and contemplate how we can be a part of a more harmonious existence.
Shaking the Tree has commissioned a writer/performer for each panel. We are beyond thrilled to share their incredible collective work with you.
Refuge will allow itself to be experienced by one small group (germ pod) at a time.
The “audience” will walk into the center and be surrounded by 11 (8x4 foot) painted panels/installations and a soundscape.
Each panel/installation will represent a Goddess or sacred feminine principle. These Goddesses are modeled after the deities in numerous creation myths, allowing us to center, recalibrate, reconnect with the building blocks of the natural world, question our place within the universe, and contemplate how we can be a part of a more harmonious existence.
Shaking the Tree has commissioned a writer/performer for each panel. We are beyond thrilled to share their incredible collective work with you.
A note on booking tickets
- Tickets to Refuge are free. Donations are gladly accepted. You can book an appointment online.
- You will be able to experience Refuge alone or with members of your germ pod (up to 5 people max).
- The only people you will come into appropriately distanced contact with are the box-office attendant at the front door, and the stage manager (who will be running the show from the booth).
- Please wear a mask. If you do not have one, one will be given to you.
- The show will run a little over an hour. You will notice when you book a slot that your booking lasts for 90 minutes. This is so that we can sanitize before the next pod arrives.
- If you need help with your booking or have any questions, please contact our BOX OFFICE for help.
What people are saying about Refuge
"What I experienced at Shaking the Tree that night was no less than extraordinary. My dearest community members and I, alone, wandered the space and listened as tall panels that Samantha had elaborately decorated with goddess iconography were lit up and spoke to us. Every panel had been emboldened by a collaborator artist, someone who had created an additional soundscape to characterize the goddess that was addressing the audience. We walked in circles, just as hundreds of audience members had before us, and gazed into the face of this art. We received a nourishing reminder of imagination that night, something I hadn’t realized I needed until it was given to me." - Morgan Clark-Gaynor, CoHo Productions Blog. Read the full interview HERE
"Refuge was soul medicine, and I'm overflowing with gratitude for it." -Refuge Patron
"No genre, style or set of ideas can contain the mind of the company's founding artistic director, Samantha Van Der Merwe—she is a master of mind-expanding experiences that leave you discombobulated and intoxicated."
"With beauty, dreaminess, wrath and even wit, Refuge continues Shaking the Tree's tradition of untamed innovation. It is also a rare pandemic production that audiences can see in person."
-Bennet Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week
Read the full review HERE
"This idea of resurrection felt particularly relevant as I sat in a theater and watched a live production for the first time in over a year. After so much Netflix, which gives us complete control over what we watch and how we watch it, it felt gratifying to surrender to the goddesses of Refuge, to hear their challenges and warnings and to be an active participant in, and a witness to, their stories."
-Valarie Smith, Oregon Artswatch
Read the full review HERE
"A wonderful multi-sensory experience - beautiful art, moving words, and meditative soundscape! Thank you Samantha and all the artists. It was an amazing mini retreat."
-Refuge Patron
"hie yourself over to Shaking The Tree Theatre to see REFUGE, a wondrous dramatic journey conceived of and produced by Samantha Van Der Merwe (one of the city's most ingenious and often profound impresarios) and created with an astonishing constellation of artists. Envisioned with our interesting times in mind, Sam has found a way to allow us to safely be physically present at a performance, thereby restoring theater to its original purpose as a public forum with deep roots in spirituality. As such REFUGE feels like being initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis -- it's a visual and aural passage through the human psyche, both earthy and astral at the same time. In a word: transcendent.
Since only a maximum of five spectators can be in the theater during the same showing, this is no money-making endeavor for Shaking the Tree; in fact admission is free, though of course online donations are accepted. So the whole experience of REFUGE is a public service, and I urge you to take advantage of it. It's been extended through May 22, but of course everyone's going to try to pile in during the final week (I'm usually the worst offender that way), so now's the time to reserve your showing. Because you are probably going to want to see this more than once."
- Refuge patron, Mead Hunter
"Refuge was soul medicine, and I'm overflowing with gratitude for it." -Refuge Patron
"No genre, style or set of ideas can contain the mind of the company's founding artistic director, Samantha Van Der Merwe—she is a master of mind-expanding experiences that leave you discombobulated and intoxicated."
"With beauty, dreaminess, wrath and even wit, Refuge continues Shaking the Tree's tradition of untamed innovation. It is also a rare pandemic production that audiences can see in person."
-Bennet Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week
Read the full review HERE
"This idea of resurrection felt particularly relevant as I sat in a theater and watched a live production for the first time in over a year. After so much Netflix, which gives us complete control over what we watch and how we watch it, it felt gratifying to surrender to the goddesses of Refuge, to hear their challenges and warnings and to be an active participant in, and a witness to, their stories."
-Valarie Smith, Oregon Artswatch
Read the full review HERE
"A wonderful multi-sensory experience - beautiful art, moving words, and meditative soundscape! Thank you Samantha and all the artists. It was an amazing mini retreat."
-Refuge Patron
"hie yourself over to Shaking The Tree Theatre to see REFUGE, a wondrous dramatic journey conceived of and produced by Samantha Van Der Merwe (one of the city's most ingenious and often profound impresarios) and created with an astonishing constellation of artists. Envisioned with our interesting times in mind, Sam has found a way to allow us to safely be physically present at a performance, thereby restoring theater to its original purpose as a public forum with deep roots in spirituality. As such REFUGE feels like being initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis -- it's a visual and aural passage through the human psyche, both earthy and astral at the same time. In a word: transcendent.
Since only a maximum of five spectators can be in the theater during the same showing, this is no money-making endeavor for Shaking the Tree; in fact admission is free, though of course online donations are accepted. So the whole experience of REFUGE is a public service, and I urge you to take advantage of it. It's been extended through May 22, but of course everyone's going to try to pile in during the final week (I'm usually the worst offender that way), so now's the time to reserve your showing. Because you are probably going to want to see this more than once."
- Refuge patron, Mead Hunter
Refuge Collaborators
Refuge Online Program
Our Lady of the Deep Interior Sanctuary
Writer:
Stephanie Adams-Santos is a Guatemalan-American writer whose work spans poetry, prose, screenwriting, and other swampy, hybrid forms. Her work is rooted in the crossroads of ritual, ancestry, and environment — with a penchant for the queer and uncanny. Stephanie's full-length poetry collection, Swarm Queen's Crown (Fathom Books) was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. She is also the author of Total Memory (Finishing Line Press), and The Sundering (Poetry Society of America) — winner of a New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her short story “Night Flowers” is forthcoming in Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology” (Ohio State University Press). Stephanie was a 2019 Project Involve Screenwriting Fellow and recipient of a Chaz Ebert Fellowship before joining the second season of Two Sentence Horror Stories as a Staff Writer. Her short script "La Gloria", a queer intergenerational story about family and unrequited love directed by Mary Evangelista, is currently screening at festivals internationally.
Sound Designer/Composer:
Robin Sola is an Oregon-based electronic sound designer and music composer. Their YouTube channel SOUND COVE offers a collection of original sonic meditations — stirring, cinematic soundscapes enhanced with binaural beats for emotional and spiritual exploration, deep sleep, and concentration.
Our Lady of the Primal Waters
Writer/Performer:
Currenly living in Portland, OR, Josie Seid is a creator of theater art internationally, who moves in several circles. As a proud member of the LineStorm Playwrights Collective, she is the author of Petite Dames, which was nominated for the Kilroy list in 2015 and was recently workshopped at Lewis and Clark’s Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Revolutionary Struggle. Other works include but are not limited to: Path of Glory, The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud, Jordan’s Wisdom, Overdue, Stand by Me, and This is Message Number 13. Her short play, A Wing and a Prayer was recently featured in the nationwide Play At Home project with Portland Center Stage. Additionally, she opened PCS’s Original Works season as the lead artist for Renaissance:Technically; a devised theatrical experience. As an actor and musical theater performer, she's been seen in shows on Portland area stages such as: An Octoroon with Artist's Repertory Theater with which she is a Resident Artist; as well as a member of the Mercury Company, Men on Boats with Theater Vertigo and Into the Woods with Broadway Rose. She is also an international arts envoy who has performed in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt.
Our Lady of the Infinite Night Sky
Writer/Performer:
Kristina Haddad (SAG-AFTRA) is an actor, writer and acting coach with more than 30 years of experience in film, television, and theater. Credits include: Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan”, "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", “A Big Love Story”, “Valley of the Dolls”, series regular on "The Exceptionals"; "Tracktown" starring Rachel Dratch, “Trinkets” (Netflix), “In the Vault” and a long list of independent films (Sundance, AFI).
She's performed in dozens of plays in Los Angeles, including the acclaimed “AmerWrecka” (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), “Mom” (directed by TV veteran Ellen Sandler) and is currently working to adapt her original play, "Miss. Ethnic Non-specific" for the screen. Additional L.A. stage credits include: ‘OJ Law,’ ‘The Maids,’ ‘Museum,’ ‘Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean,’ ‘Face Divided,’ ‘Luv,’ ‘Mom,’ and ‘The Glass Mendacity.’’ Most recently she performed in Profile Theater’s original play “Claudia, A Viral Love Story.” During the last several years she has performed her one person environmentally themed show “Save Sheldon!” throughout the United States. In addition, Kristina's voiceover work spans video games, radio, television, film and the web (Credits include Mafia II, Shari’s Berries, Ronzoni, Oregon Dept. of Transportation, AvoDerm). She stars in the recently released limited-run, socioeconomic thriller “Short of Breath” a podcast directed by award winning film Director Dustin Morrow. She is currently represented by agencies on both coasts.
Kristina trained at the American Conservatory Theater and the Rob Reece Actors Studio in San Francisco. In Los Angeles she trained at the Actor’s Lab, the Brian Reise Acting Studio, the Mark Monroe Studio, Jeffery Passero Acting Studio and is a graduate of the intensive, two-year acting program at the Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio. She has also been a student of improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. She is a passionate lover of laughter, animals, trees, cooking, music and figure skating!
Sound Engineer:
Brett Rothfeld is an audio engineer living in Portland Oregon, as well as a certified public radio junkie. He does mixing and sound design for independent films, TV and radio commercials, and video games. He's also an accomplished recording and touring musician.
Our Lady of Essence and Exchange
Refuge is considered not a place to hide, rather a place to transform, purify, and strengthen the heart. Call to the mother of liberation for gifts of exchange and take what you need for your Outer, your Inner, your Secret."
1.Expel
2.Mend
3.Magnify
4.Recur
Creator/Performer:
Kayla Hanson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist with a BA in Theatre Arts, emphasis on performance and film studies from Boise State University. She is the current managing director and a founding member of the Red Balloon Theatre Collective. She’s been onstage in Portland with Third Rail Repertory Theatre, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Rutabaga Story Co., and Theatre Vertigo. She was last seen in The Red Balloon Collective’s Fertile Ground premiere of “The Ways We Cope” as an actor and its movement director.
Editor, Cinematographer:
Bryce Baxter, Writer / filmmaker. Writer on the winning short for the 2018 Portland 48 Hour Film Festival. Studied at George Fox University where he received his BA in English and Cinema with an emphasis in screenwriting. Has an affinity for surrealism, folklore and the American South. Influences include Sherwood Anderson, Masaaki Yuasa, and Raymond Carver.
Seamstress:
Angelika Maria Keil is a queer feminist dollmaker, and seamstress with an ever growing library of fashion history books. Her main obsessions are makeup, medieval queens and the color pink.
Our Lady of the Primordial Fire
Writer:
Sara Jean Accuardi is an award-winning playwright whose plays include The Delays, The Storyteller, < 3, Portrait of the Widow Kinski, Love Scenes, and BREAK. Her writing has been produced and developed across the country, including with Theatre Vertigo, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Something Marvelous, JAW Playwrights Festival, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatists, The Blank Theatre, Spooky Action Theater, and Portland Center Stage. The Storyteller was selected as the winner of the 2020 International Thomas Wolfe Playwriting Competition and The Delays received the 2019 Drammy Award for Outstanding Original Script. Sara Jean holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University, and is a member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights. www.sarajeanaccuardi.com
Performer:
Nicole Virginia Accuardi is a Portland actor, teacher, improviser, and diviser. She is also the little sister to Sara Jean who wrote this piece. Although this is not Nicole’s first time working at Shaking the Tree (previous shows here include Masque of the Red Death, Head Hands Feet, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings and The Bakkhai), it is the first time she has been able to perform her favorite playwright’s words in this creative space- for both that and for once again being invited to carve out space to be creative, she feels tremendous gratitude.
Our Lady of Lunar Reflection
Writer:
Rebby Yuer Foster (she/they) is a Portland based multidisciplinary artist & theatrical collaborator. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree Theatre. Regional Theatre: A Christmas Carol (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), Once (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), We’ve Come to Believe (Humana Festival ‘19), A Christmas Carol (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville), Dracula (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). Additional: Rebby is a former Acting Apprentice at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville ‘18-19. She grew up in Seattle, Washington and received her B.A. in Theatre & English at the University of Portland. She is currently an artistic collaborator with Portrait Party Club, an online platform for figure drawing & figure models. She recently received a scholarship from Theatrical Intimacy Education, and is studying to become an intimacy choreographer for theatre & film. @rebbyyuer
Video Credits:
Rowan Bradley - Director of Photography
Hanan Margoles - Stills Photographer
Bridge Donnelly - Production Assistant
Featuring:
Keesha Driscoll
Isabeau K. Waia’u Walker
Lisa Chiem
Zane Hanayneh
Rebby Yuer Foster
Xiaofeng Foster
Our Lady of Solar Magnificence
Writer/Performer:
Lauren Modica is a Portland born-bred-and beckoned-back Performer. Soon to be ‘seen’ in Profile Theater’s upcoming ‘Las Meninas’ (Louise), and last in PDX as Mrs. Jennings in Bedlam's 'Sense & Sensibility' and Mary Bennet in 'Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley' (Portland Center Stage) she has spent the last four years at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where recent roles include Titania/Hippolyta in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the Cheshire Cat ('Alice in Wonderland'), Widow ('All's Well That Ends Well'), and others. Other theaters include American Repertory Theater, Artist's Rep, Defunkt. She has performed in BackfencePDX’s Mainstage and Russian Roulette shows, and ‘Las Culturistas: I Don’t Think So, Honey’. Currently, Lauren is using this time to personally redefine, with humility and gratitude, what it means to be an Artist. Thank you to Sam and all involved, and, as always, deep thanks and love for her loved ones.
Our Lady of Primeval Chaos
Writer/Performer:
ANTHONY HUDSON (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, performer, and filmmaker perhaps best known as Portland’s premier drag clown CARLA ROSSI, an immortal trickster whose attempts at realness almost always result in fantastic failure.
Together they have been featured at the Portland and Seattle Art Museums, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, the 2019 Portland Biennial, the Risk/Reward Festival, PICA's TBA Festival, Melbourne’s Yirramboi Festival, and more, in addition to regularly hosting and programming QUEER HORROR – the only LGBTQ+ horror film screening series in the United States – at the historic Hollywood Theatre. Anthony was named a 2018 National Artist Fellow from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a 2018 Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad Artist, and a 2019 Oregon Arts Commission Fellow, and has received project support and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, USArtists International, the Oregon Community Foundation, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Portland Art Museum & NW Film Center, Ucross Foundation, Caldera Arts Center, and more. Anthony also co-hosts the weekly queer feminist horror podcast Gaylords of Darkness with writer Stacie Ponder. Anthony’s first professionally produced theatrical play, LOOKING FOR TIGER LILY, adapted from Anthony’s solo show of the same name, will make its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre.
Our Lady of the Waters Beneath the Waters
Writer/Performer:
Michelle Ruiz Keil is a writer and tarot reader with an eye for the enchanted and a way with animals. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, All of Us With Wings, called "...a transcendent journey" by the New York Times and "...a fantastical ode the Golden City's post-punk era" by Entertainment Weekly, was released from Soho Teen in 2019. She is a 2020 Literary Lions honoree and the recipient of a 2020 Hedgebrook residency. Her short fiction is published or forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, The Buckman Journal, and the anthologies Color Outside The Lines and Dispatches From Anarres. Her second novel, Summer In The City of Roses, a remix of ancient Greek myth and The Brother’s Grimm, will be released in June, 2021. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Michelle has lived in Portland, Oregon for many years. She curates the fairytale reading series All Kinds of Fur and lives with her family in a cottage where the forest meets the city.
Our Lady of Majestic Abundance
Creator/Performer:
Amber Lux Archer began dancing at the age of three and at eleven years old she knew that she wanted to become a professional dancer. Thus, Amber trained primarily with the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education and upon graduation in 2010 she entered the professional world of dance. She has performed with Atlanta Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Ballethnic Dance Company, Staib Dance, and Fly on a Wall. Most recently, Amber has enjoyed dancing as a freelance artist which has allowed her to work with independent choreographers, theaters, as well as other artists. Whilst living in Portland, Oregon, she performed the lead role of Ava in Shaking the Tree’s production of Made to Dance in Burning Buildings.
Since quarantine began in March of 2020, dance has looked very different for Amber as the usual ways of creating are not as feasible. However, bringing dance to film has always interested her and she is excited to take on this new challenge. In August she danced and acted in a dance film, Even, by Anna Long. This is her first self directed dance film.
Amber currently lives in Yucca Valley, California with her husband and enjoys sunbathing, reading, and taking long walks. In addition to dancing, Amber is a yoga teacher, dance teacher, and a certified personal trainer.
Artist's Statement: Reclamation of a Self Forgotten
The creative process and direction of my short film was inspired by Nomkhulubwane, the Zulu goddess of rain, earth, and nature, and the rituals performed in her honor led by traditional healers, Izangoma. In my piece we follow a woman’s spiritual journey by way of ritualistic acts and the invocation of the goddess’s abundant essence. In a time when there is an apparent lack of respect for all people and a grossly unjust distribution of vital resources, I explore the idea of finding abundance within ourselves in a way that is intrinsically connected to the space and natural world around us. A space void of possession and coveted material nonsense.
Traditional Zulu culture believed that gods and goddesses lived in a realm not superior to us humans, rather parallel. It is my belief that we are all of this infinitely magical and mystical universe, tethered by an invisible chord, dancing our way towards be-coming by way of living. Thus, I implore you to ask yourself how you view your relation to the Divine? Are you separate or is there a connection? If the latter, how can abundance be actualized and embodied through the rituals of your everyday life.
Videographer:
Owen Scarlett
Long Island native Owen Scarlett is a photographer, visual designer and dancer based in LA. He attended Point Park University for Jazz Dance/Arts Management but also explored other areas of art and design. He was a founding member of Visceral Dance Chicago, and performed with the company for four seasons.
Owen has created works for several companies such as DanceWorks Chicago, Dance in the Parks and Visceral Dance Chicago. He has a great compassion for dance, and enjoys giving back to others in the dance community. In May of 2018, he traveled to Guatemala with Juntos Collective to bring dance and movement to underserved schools, hospitals and orphanages.
In 2015, he founded Owen Scarlett Productions, a digital media production company. This company has allowed numerous companies and independent artists to market themselves cost effectively with high-quality assets such as logos, social content, photography and web design. Through OSP, he’s been able to create digital works for non-profits such as BODYTRAFFIC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and The American Cancer Society.
OSP has allowed Owen to explore a plethora of creative endeavors. As a dancer, creativity and structure are instilled in him. Being well disciplined is key for dance and that translates completely to other areas of creativity. He treats all of his creative projects like a structured art-form. The goal of all of his work is to convey the client’s message while hopefully inspiring them.
Our Lady of Rebirth
Writer/Performer:
MK Chavez is the award-winning author of Mothermorphosis and Dear Animal. She is curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, Poetry Editor for Rivet Literary Journal and guest editor at Nomadic Press. Chavez has been a visiting instructor at Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Mills College, and Hedgebrook. She is the recipient of an Alameda County Arts Leadership Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. You can find her most recent publications in bags of coffee from Nomadic Coffee and on the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series.
Writer:
Stephanie Adams-Santos is a Guatemalan-American writer whose work spans poetry, prose, screenwriting, and other swampy, hybrid forms. Her work is rooted in the crossroads of ritual, ancestry, and environment — with a penchant for the queer and uncanny. Stephanie's full-length poetry collection, Swarm Queen's Crown (Fathom Books) was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. She is also the author of Total Memory (Finishing Line Press), and The Sundering (Poetry Society of America) — winner of a New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her short story “Night Flowers” is forthcoming in Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology” (Ohio State University Press). Stephanie was a 2019 Project Involve Screenwriting Fellow and recipient of a Chaz Ebert Fellowship before joining the second season of Two Sentence Horror Stories as a Staff Writer. Her short script "La Gloria", a queer intergenerational story about family and unrequited love directed by Mary Evangelista, is currently screening at festivals internationally.
Sound Designer/Composer:
Robin Sola is an Oregon-based electronic sound designer and music composer. Their YouTube channel SOUND COVE offers a collection of original sonic meditations — stirring, cinematic soundscapes enhanced with binaural beats for emotional and spiritual exploration, deep sleep, and concentration.
Our Lady of the Primal Waters
Writer/Performer:
Currenly living in Portland, OR, Josie Seid is a creator of theater art internationally, who moves in several circles. As a proud member of the LineStorm Playwrights Collective, she is the author of Petite Dames, which was nominated for the Kilroy list in 2015 and was recently workshopped at Lewis and Clark’s Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Revolutionary Struggle. Other works include but are not limited to: Path of Glory, The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud, Jordan’s Wisdom, Overdue, Stand by Me, and This is Message Number 13. Her short play, A Wing and a Prayer was recently featured in the nationwide Play At Home project with Portland Center Stage. Additionally, she opened PCS’s Original Works season as the lead artist for Renaissance:Technically; a devised theatrical experience. As an actor and musical theater performer, she's been seen in shows on Portland area stages such as: An Octoroon with Artist's Repertory Theater with which she is a Resident Artist; as well as a member of the Mercury Company, Men on Boats with Theater Vertigo and Into the Woods with Broadway Rose. She is also an international arts envoy who has performed in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt.
Our Lady of the Infinite Night Sky
Writer/Performer:
Kristina Haddad (SAG-AFTRA) is an actor, writer and acting coach with more than 30 years of experience in film, television, and theater. Credits include: Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan”, "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", “A Big Love Story”, “Valley of the Dolls”, series regular on "The Exceptionals"; "Tracktown" starring Rachel Dratch, “Trinkets” (Netflix), “In the Vault” and a long list of independent films (Sundance, AFI).
She's performed in dozens of plays in Los Angeles, including the acclaimed “AmerWrecka” (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), “Mom” (directed by TV veteran Ellen Sandler) and is currently working to adapt her original play, "Miss. Ethnic Non-specific" for the screen. Additional L.A. stage credits include: ‘OJ Law,’ ‘The Maids,’ ‘Museum,’ ‘Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean,’ ‘Face Divided,’ ‘Luv,’ ‘Mom,’ and ‘The Glass Mendacity.’’ Most recently she performed in Profile Theater’s original play “Claudia, A Viral Love Story.” During the last several years she has performed her one person environmentally themed show “Save Sheldon!” throughout the United States. In addition, Kristina's voiceover work spans video games, radio, television, film and the web (Credits include Mafia II, Shari’s Berries, Ronzoni, Oregon Dept. of Transportation, AvoDerm). She stars in the recently released limited-run, socioeconomic thriller “Short of Breath” a podcast directed by award winning film Director Dustin Morrow. She is currently represented by agencies on both coasts.
Kristina trained at the American Conservatory Theater and the Rob Reece Actors Studio in San Francisco. In Los Angeles she trained at the Actor’s Lab, the Brian Reise Acting Studio, the Mark Monroe Studio, Jeffery Passero Acting Studio and is a graduate of the intensive, two-year acting program at the Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio. She has also been a student of improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. She is a passionate lover of laughter, animals, trees, cooking, music and figure skating!
Sound Engineer:
Brett Rothfeld is an audio engineer living in Portland Oregon, as well as a certified public radio junkie. He does mixing and sound design for independent films, TV and radio commercials, and video games. He's also an accomplished recording and touring musician.
Our Lady of Essence and Exchange
Refuge is considered not a place to hide, rather a place to transform, purify, and strengthen the heart. Call to the mother of liberation for gifts of exchange and take what you need for your Outer, your Inner, your Secret."
1.Expel
2.Mend
3.Magnify
4.Recur
Creator/Performer:
Kayla Hanson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist with a BA in Theatre Arts, emphasis on performance and film studies from Boise State University. She is the current managing director and a founding member of the Red Balloon Theatre Collective. She’s been onstage in Portland with Third Rail Repertory Theatre, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Rutabaga Story Co., and Theatre Vertigo. She was last seen in The Red Balloon Collective’s Fertile Ground premiere of “The Ways We Cope” as an actor and its movement director.
Editor, Cinematographer:
Bryce Baxter, Writer / filmmaker. Writer on the winning short for the 2018 Portland 48 Hour Film Festival. Studied at George Fox University where he received his BA in English and Cinema with an emphasis in screenwriting. Has an affinity for surrealism, folklore and the American South. Influences include Sherwood Anderson, Masaaki Yuasa, and Raymond Carver.
Seamstress:
Angelika Maria Keil is a queer feminist dollmaker, and seamstress with an ever growing library of fashion history books. Her main obsessions are makeup, medieval queens and the color pink.
Our Lady of the Primordial Fire
Writer:
Sara Jean Accuardi is an award-winning playwright whose plays include The Delays, The Storyteller, < 3, Portrait of the Widow Kinski, Love Scenes, and BREAK. Her writing has been produced and developed across the country, including with Theatre Vertigo, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Something Marvelous, JAW Playwrights Festival, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatists, The Blank Theatre, Spooky Action Theater, and Portland Center Stage. The Storyteller was selected as the winner of the 2020 International Thomas Wolfe Playwriting Competition and The Delays received the 2019 Drammy Award for Outstanding Original Script. Sara Jean holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University, and is a member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights. www.sarajeanaccuardi.com
Performer:
Nicole Virginia Accuardi is a Portland actor, teacher, improviser, and diviser. She is also the little sister to Sara Jean who wrote this piece. Although this is not Nicole’s first time working at Shaking the Tree (previous shows here include Masque of the Red Death, Head Hands Feet, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings and The Bakkhai), it is the first time she has been able to perform her favorite playwright’s words in this creative space- for both that and for once again being invited to carve out space to be creative, she feels tremendous gratitude.
Our Lady of Lunar Reflection
Writer:
Rebby Yuer Foster (she/they) is a Portland based multidisciplinary artist & theatrical collaborator. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree Theatre. Regional Theatre: A Christmas Carol (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), Once (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), We’ve Come to Believe (Humana Festival ‘19), A Christmas Carol (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville), Dracula (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). Additional: Rebby is a former Acting Apprentice at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville ‘18-19. She grew up in Seattle, Washington and received her B.A. in Theatre & English at the University of Portland. She is currently an artistic collaborator with Portrait Party Club, an online platform for figure drawing & figure models. She recently received a scholarship from Theatrical Intimacy Education, and is studying to become an intimacy choreographer for theatre & film. @rebbyyuer
Video Credits:
Rowan Bradley - Director of Photography
Hanan Margoles - Stills Photographer
Bridge Donnelly - Production Assistant
Featuring:
Keesha Driscoll
Isabeau K. Waia’u Walker
Lisa Chiem
Zane Hanayneh
Rebby Yuer Foster
Xiaofeng Foster
Our Lady of Solar Magnificence
Writer/Performer:
Lauren Modica is a Portland born-bred-and beckoned-back Performer. Soon to be ‘seen’ in Profile Theater’s upcoming ‘Las Meninas’ (Louise), and last in PDX as Mrs. Jennings in Bedlam's 'Sense & Sensibility' and Mary Bennet in 'Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley' (Portland Center Stage) she has spent the last four years at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where recent roles include Titania/Hippolyta in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the Cheshire Cat ('Alice in Wonderland'), Widow ('All's Well That Ends Well'), and others. Other theaters include American Repertory Theater, Artist's Rep, Defunkt. She has performed in BackfencePDX’s Mainstage and Russian Roulette shows, and ‘Las Culturistas: I Don’t Think So, Honey’. Currently, Lauren is using this time to personally redefine, with humility and gratitude, what it means to be an Artist. Thank you to Sam and all involved, and, as always, deep thanks and love for her loved ones.
Our Lady of Primeval Chaos
Writer/Performer:
ANTHONY HUDSON (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, performer, and filmmaker perhaps best known as Portland’s premier drag clown CARLA ROSSI, an immortal trickster whose attempts at realness almost always result in fantastic failure.
Together they have been featured at the Portland and Seattle Art Museums, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, the 2019 Portland Biennial, the Risk/Reward Festival, PICA's TBA Festival, Melbourne’s Yirramboi Festival, and more, in addition to regularly hosting and programming QUEER HORROR – the only LGBTQ+ horror film screening series in the United States – at the historic Hollywood Theatre. Anthony was named a 2018 National Artist Fellow from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a 2018 Western Arts Alliance Native Launchpad Artist, and a 2019 Oregon Arts Commission Fellow, and has received project support and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, USArtists International, the Oregon Community Foundation, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Portland Art Museum & NW Film Center, Ucross Foundation, Caldera Arts Center, and more. Anthony also co-hosts the weekly queer feminist horror podcast Gaylords of Darkness with writer Stacie Ponder. Anthony’s first professionally produced theatrical play, LOOKING FOR TIGER LILY, adapted from Anthony’s solo show of the same name, will make its world premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre.
Our Lady of the Waters Beneath the Waters
Writer/Performer:
Michelle Ruiz Keil is a writer and tarot reader with an eye for the enchanted and a way with animals. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, All of Us With Wings, called "...a transcendent journey" by the New York Times and "...a fantastical ode the Golden City's post-punk era" by Entertainment Weekly, was released from Soho Teen in 2019. She is a 2020 Literary Lions honoree and the recipient of a 2020 Hedgebrook residency. Her short fiction is published or forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, The Buckman Journal, and the anthologies Color Outside The Lines and Dispatches From Anarres. Her second novel, Summer In The City of Roses, a remix of ancient Greek myth and The Brother’s Grimm, will be released in June, 2021. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Michelle has lived in Portland, Oregon for many years. She curates the fairytale reading series All Kinds of Fur and lives with her family in a cottage where the forest meets the city.
Our Lady of Majestic Abundance
Creator/Performer:
Amber Lux Archer began dancing at the age of three and at eleven years old she knew that she wanted to become a professional dancer. Thus, Amber trained primarily with the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education and upon graduation in 2010 she entered the professional world of dance. She has performed with Atlanta Ballet, Columbia City Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Ballethnic Dance Company, Staib Dance, and Fly on a Wall. Most recently, Amber has enjoyed dancing as a freelance artist which has allowed her to work with independent choreographers, theaters, as well as other artists. Whilst living in Portland, Oregon, she performed the lead role of Ava in Shaking the Tree’s production of Made to Dance in Burning Buildings.
Since quarantine began in March of 2020, dance has looked very different for Amber as the usual ways of creating are not as feasible. However, bringing dance to film has always interested her and she is excited to take on this new challenge. In August she danced and acted in a dance film, Even, by Anna Long. This is her first self directed dance film.
Amber currently lives in Yucca Valley, California with her husband and enjoys sunbathing, reading, and taking long walks. In addition to dancing, Amber is a yoga teacher, dance teacher, and a certified personal trainer.
Artist's Statement: Reclamation of a Self Forgotten
The creative process and direction of my short film was inspired by Nomkhulubwane, the Zulu goddess of rain, earth, and nature, and the rituals performed in her honor led by traditional healers, Izangoma. In my piece we follow a woman’s spiritual journey by way of ritualistic acts and the invocation of the goddess’s abundant essence. In a time when there is an apparent lack of respect for all people and a grossly unjust distribution of vital resources, I explore the idea of finding abundance within ourselves in a way that is intrinsically connected to the space and natural world around us. A space void of possession and coveted material nonsense.
Traditional Zulu culture believed that gods and goddesses lived in a realm not superior to us humans, rather parallel. It is my belief that we are all of this infinitely magical and mystical universe, tethered by an invisible chord, dancing our way towards be-coming by way of living. Thus, I implore you to ask yourself how you view your relation to the Divine? Are you separate or is there a connection? If the latter, how can abundance be actualized and embodied through the rituals of your everyday life.
Videographer:
Owen Scarlett
Long Island native Owen Scarlett is a photographer, visual designer and dancer based in LA. He attended Point Park University for Jazz Dance/Arts Management but also explored other areas of art and design. He was a founding member of Visceral Dance Chicago, and performed with the company for four seasons.
Owen has created works for several companies such as DanceWorks Chicago, Dance in the Parks and Visceral Dance Chicago. He has a great compassion for dance, and enjoys giving back to others in the dance community. In May of 2018, he traveled to Guatemala with Juntos Collective to bring dance and movement to underserved schools, hospitals and orphanages.
In 2015, he founded Owen Scarlett Productions, a digital media production company. This company has allowed numerous companies and independent artists to market themselves cost effectively with high-quality assets such as logos, social content, photography and web design. Through OSP, he’s been able to create digital works for non-profits such as BODYTRAFFIC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and The American Cancer Society.
OSP has allowed Owen to explore a plethora of creative endeavors. As a dancer, creativity and structure are instilled in him. Being well disciplined is key for dance and that translates completely to other areas of creativity. He treats all of his creative projects like a structured art-form. The goal of all of his work is to convey the client’s message while hopefully inspiring them.
Our Lady of Rebirth
Writer/Performer:
MK Chavez is the award-winning author of Mothermorphosis and Dear Animal. She is curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, Poetry Editor for Rivet Literary Journal and guest editor at Nomadic Press. Chavez has been a visiting instructor at Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Mills College, and Hedgebrook. She is the recipient of an Alameda County Arts Leadership Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. You can find her most recent publications in bags of coffee from Nomadic Coffee and on the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series.
Creative Team (in Alphabetical Order)
Spencer Fork (Assistant Scenic Carpenter)
Spencer Fork is a student at the University of Oregon, studying theatre and public policy. His main focus is lighting design and hopes to make a career as a designer. This is his third year working with the Shaking the Tree crew, and he couldn't be more thrilled to help with another production.
Stephanie Malaspina (Technical Director)
is excited to be working on her first production at Shaking the Tree. A native New Yorker, she spent the last year on the Jersey Boys National Tour and is thrilled to be a part of the theater community here in Portland. Other works of hers include Scenes from an Execution, Next to Normal, Side Show, Man of Mode, Impressions de Pelléas, La Cenerentola (UNCSA) Richard III, You Can’t Take It With You, Love’s Labours Lost, Cyrano de Bergerac (CSF). Stephanie received her BFA in Scenic Technology at University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Josh Meyers (Scenic Carpenter/Master Electrician)
Trevor Sargent (Lighting Design/video Engineer)
Trevor is a stage media and integrations designer based in Portland Oregon, and is delighted to return to Shaking the Tree for Refuge. He has had the inimitable pleasure of working with many local companies - recent collaborations in include Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (Weather Room, Beckett Women; Our Ruined House, Uncle Vanya, and Deception Unit), Shaking The Tree Theatre (BAKKHAI; Escaped Alone; Made to Dance in Burning Buildings; _____ The Wolf; SALT; Macbeth), Theatre Vertigo (The Delays), Milagro Theatre (La Segua, Alebrijes!), Corrib Theatre (How To Keep an Alien, Quietly), The Holding Project (CRANE), Rutabaga Story Co. (An Interlude In Birdsong), and Salt & Sage Productions (The Lovers Project; Brilliant Playground; Meet Me In the Dark), as well as Lewis & Clark College (Cabaret, The Arsonists). He has also had the pleasure of serving in lead technical roles for Third Rail Repertory Theatre (Melancholy Play (a chamber musical); Arlington [a love story]; Kiss; John; Revolt, She Said, Revolt Again!) He received his BA in Design & Technical Theatre from Lewis & Clark College in 2016. trevorsargent.me
Pancho Savery (Dramaturg)
Pancho Savery is Professor of English, Humanities, and American Studies at Reed College, where he teaches courses on modern and contemporary drama, African-American literature, American literature and culture, and American Indian fiction. He has published essays on Ralph Ellison, Saunders Redding, James Baldwin, Adrienne Rich, Robert Creeley, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, Paula Vogel, Tennessee Williams, Sarah Ruhl, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Mike Lew, Lucas Hnath, Euripides, and others. He serves on the Board of Directors of Artists Repertory Theatre (vice chair), Boom Arts (chair), Coho Repertory Theatre, Confrontation Theatre, Corrib Theatre, Original Practice Shakespeare, P.E.T.E. (chair), PHAME (chair), Portland Playhouse, The Red Door Project, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, and Our Children Oregon. He has worked as dramaturg at Artists Repertory Theatre, Clackamas Repertory Theatre, Corrib Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Profile Theatre, Shaking the Tree Theatre, and Third Rail Repertory Theatre. Additionally, he is Literary Dramaturg at Artists Repertory Theatre, Literary Manager at Corrib, and Third Rail, and Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree. He is a member of the Mercury and DNA:Oxygen theatre companies, and is a member of The Modern Language Association, LMDA, TCG, and the Jazz Journalists Association.
Madelyn Southard (Lighting Assistant)
Madelyn Southard (she/her) is a third year theater student at the University of Portland. She is grateful for the opportunity to intern with Shaking the Tree this season. Her recent projects include Scenic Design for Wolves Eat Elk and Dramaturgy for The Penelopiad (UP). Madelyn has also done technical theater work with Mock’s Crest Theater and Broadway Sacramento. She is currently working on a devised piece on housing, displacement, and injustice in Portland through the University of Portland.
Natasha Stockem (Stage Manager)
Natasha is ecstatic to be at Shaking the Tree for Refuge. Her previous theatre credits include Our Town, Far Away, Romeo and Juliet, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth (PSU), Passion Play, Blue Door, After the War Blues, Head. Hands. Feet., We’re All Mad Here, Miss Julie, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Macbeth (STT), Salt, _____ the wolf, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings, Escaped Alone, and most recently with Shaking the Tree, Bakkhai. She has a Masters in theatre studies with a focus in tech. She has worked with the Portland State University Theatre, Profile Theatre, Theatre Diaspora, and Shaking the Tree Theatre in various roles including but not limited to construction, properties, painting, and directing.
Samantha Van Der Merwe (Paintings and Set Design)
Samantha Van Der Merwe is the founding Artistic Director of Shaking the Tree Theatre in Portland, OR. Founded in 2003, Shaking the Tree Theatre has become known for melding the boundaries of theatre and visual art by presenting thrilling and unconventional theatrical experiences. Samantha is a proud member of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), and TCG (Theatre Communications Group). Recent directing projects include: BAKKHAI (Euripides/Anne Carson), Escaped Alone (Caryl Churchill), _____ the wolf (devised), SALT (devised), Macbeth (William Shakespeare), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Bertolt Brecht), Come to the Table, Mike Pence (Devised), Miss Julie (August Strindberg, adapted by Craig Lucas), We're All Mad Here (Devised), Venus and Adonis (William Shakespeare), Head. Hands. Feet. (Devised & Edna O’Brien), Orpheus and Eurydice (Devised), A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Frank McGuinness), Passion Play (Sarah Ruhl), Suddenly Last Summer (Tennessee Williams), Masque of the Red Death (Featuring Playwrights West), One Flea Spare (Naomi Wallace), Wilde Tales (Oscar wilde, adapted by Karin Magaldi), Far Away (Caryl Churchill), The Tripping Point (Featuring Playwrights West).
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Shaking the Tree Theatre is located at 823 SE Grant St.
Portland, OR 97214
Oue main office is located at 2136 SE 8th Ave
Portland, OR 97214
For our theatre: Look for the Big Blue Warehouse on the corner od SE 9th and Grant and enter through the gate.
For our main office: look for the beautiful mural on the corner of SE 8th and Grant. Entrance is on SE 8th.
Major Funding provided by
The Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Multnomah County, the Arts Education & Access Fund, Prosper Portland, the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, the Oregon Community Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Rose and David Dortort Foundation, supporting organization of the California Community Foundation, Portland Events and Film, and the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition.
