We have two exciting new programs for resident artists

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​The Open space Residency is for devised work that needs a container for exploration and play, a place to move and test out the work on your feet. Shaking the Tree offers artists an open space and a platform for sharing the work that has been created.

The Grove Residency is for writers who need to hear their work out loud so that they can clearly decide the next steps in their play's evolution. Shaking the Tree offers playwrights the raw materials to make this happen, as well as a platform for sharing their work and receiving the feedback they need. 
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Open Space Resident Artists for 2019/20

Devan Wardrop-Saxton- You my Love at Home Again
​November 18th - 23rd

Ticket info coming soon

YOU MY LOVE AT HOME AGAIN is a play with songs about Liria, a young woman who was once a wolf, and her mother-in-law Menna as they reach across barriers of language, fear, and pride to cope with an unthinkable loss. No longer fully a wolf and not really fully human, Liria must decide where she belongs: with Menna, a human who may never truly understand her? Or with the wolf pack that has been circling closer and closer and is howling at the door? The Open Space Residency will allow Devan to focus on the movement elements of the piece and give those intrinsic components the time they deserve.

Devan Wardrop-Saxton is a Portland-based playwright & songwriter originally from the City of Subdued Excitement (otherwise known as Bellingham, WA). Raised in the Pacific Northwest folk music community, she writes intimate, fantastical works that engage the full breadth of live performance’s imaginative possibilities to explore tensions of cross-cultural communication, personal identity, and what it means to belong to a community. A graduate of Lewis & Clark College’s Theatre and German programs, she is a grateful recipient of a 2018 artist residency at Hungary’s D’Clinic Studios and a proud associate artist of String House Theatre. www.devankws.com
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Infinit_Indigos- Eleusis
Dec 16th-21st

Ticket info coming soon

The Mysteries of Eleusis are considered to many historians/anthropologists the world's most secretive and difficult code to unfold from ancient Greece. To this day many can only speculate what happened at Eleusis. This state of unknown possibility opens a door to a path that tests our mere notion of what it means to be human in the 3rd dimension.
Join us for a two-night experience as we dive into our fears, our passions, our desires, and journey through the psyche, pondering the questions: Who are we? Why are we here? Is there something more?

Infinit_Indigos is a mindful collective with the intention of raising the conscious vibrations of planet earth through combining spiritual excavation, intentional activism, and modern art/entertainment. The Indigo tribe creates a space for individuals and artists to fully express and challenge themselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. Our hopes are not to create a concrete rhetoric or dogma, but to allow the artist and viewer an opportunity to explore their limits/constructs in our modern world. This is achieved through art performance and discussions on topics ranging from current news/events to philosophical contemplation from ancient and current knowledge.

To experience more from Infinit_Indigos, please visit and like our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram (@infinit.indigos)
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​Sam Reiter and Kelli Crump - Ghost Girls
April 20th-29th

Ticket info coming soon

For decades, the honeycombed bones of the radium girls have softly glowed beneath the soil. Even once fully reduced to dust, their remains will be radioactive for over 1,400 years. Similarly, the legacy of lead poisoning in the children of Flint, Michigan will also deteriorate the bodies and minds of their children and their children's children. In "Ghost Girls", Sam Reiter and visiting artist Kelli Crump (Flint Repertory Theatre) will use verbatim text from the true story of the Radium Girls to illuminate the continued urgency of the Flint water crisis and the human cost of corporate greed.

​Sam Reiter is an actor/creator and teaching artist who has devised and performed several original works in the last few years (Baba Yaga, Manifesto, and coming this August, yellow yellow yellow with red balloon theatre collective). They cannot wait to collaborate with Kelli on this haunting and urgent play.
Kelli Crump is a guest artist traveling from Flint, Michigan, where she works with Flint Repertory Theatre. She holds an MFA in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory, and she is a winner of The National Partners of the American Theatre's Classical Acting Award and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association's Vocal Excellence Award. Kelli also has many years of experience on the administrative and artistic side of professional theatre for some of our nation's most critically acclaimed and award-winning regional performance venues.

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Grove Resident Artists for 2019/20

Jeffy Denight - adaptation of The Bacchae by Euripides
October 16th at 7:30pm
All tickets are Pay-What-You-Will

BOOK TICKETS

Jeffrey "Jeffy" Denight will write / devise a one-act adaptation of The Bacchae by Euripides, retold as a queer revolution romp. The daemon of Dionysus has arrived to blur the artificial lines that society creates: lines between ‘female’ and ‘male’; ‘ruler’ and ‘servant’; ‘beauty’ and ‘ugly’; and ‘theatre’ and ‘real-life’. As a new queer anti-hero, Dionysus will pull long-standing societal structures down into the gutter, creating equity through destabilization. The chorus of Dionysus’ followers, the Bacchae, will take the form of a wild meta-theatre cabaret, lifting up self-love, gender euphoria, and the new god xyrself.

​Jeffrey "Jeffy" Denight (they/them) is a playwright & educator. Currently, they are the 2019 playwright for Orphic. Previously, they are a two-time writer for the Teen West Project with Playwrights West, through which they wrote L O S T_F O R_W O R D S | 失われた言葉 (2018) and Curtain Call is What Follows Act V (2019). They are also a two-time Waukegan Theatre Festival fellow with Three Bros. Theatre, where they developed Pictorial Anatomy of an M----- (2014) and Daddy Daughter Dance (2015). Jeffy lives in Portland, OR. Jeffy received their BA in theatre and BFA in creative writing at Truman State University.
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Jenni GreenMiller - An Island
October 23rd at 7:30pm
​All tickets ar Pay-What-You-Will

Book Tickets

In 1949, seeking isolation from the rest of the world, Arthur and Nan Kellam purchased a 550-acre island off the coast of Maine.  Arthur was an engineer for Lockheed Martin and it was rumored that he was on the team that engineered the Atomic bomb. Nan Kellam was an economist.  The Kellam's were conservationists before their time; dedicated to the preservation and privatization of an island they felt could only be appreciated by its true inhabitants. The Kellam's lived on Placentia Island for nearly 40 years, essentially cut off from the rest of the world. The play is a portrait of their lives, the mental and physical toll of such an unusual lifestyle, and yet a beautifully devoted relationship that endured and prospered in isolation.

Jenni GreenMiller is a native Oregonian, company member at Hand2Mouth Theater. Formerly with Sowelu Theater Company. (And Brainwaves) She has been writing plays for twelve years; 3 full length, 4 short, 3 devised pieces, and 1 in process.  Two short plays were performed in Los Angeles in workshop with Burning Wheel and SITI Co., Locally, she has received workshops, readings, and staged readings independently and in collaboration with various theater companies.
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Aubrey Jessen - Velvet
May 4th-6th

Ticket info coming soon

Velvet is the story of a woman finding herself caught up in a thrilling, boundary-pushing new friendship. The growing body count is probably unrelated...

Aubrey Jessen is a Portland-based performer, director, and writer. She acted in and wrote for Action/Adventure Theatre's popular serialized comedies Fall of the House, Sidekicks, and Mars One&Two. Also for Action/Adventure, she wrote the original script Ghost Town, and co-wrote/directed Hawthorne, which was nominated for a Drammy award for original script. Aubrey's scripts have also been seen at LiveOnstage, Profile Theatre, and Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. Additionally, Aubrey has worked as a teaching artist for Oregon Children’s Theatre, where she is helping to pilot programming for students with disabilities.