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I AM NOT YOUR TEACHER
By Kayodè Soyemi
Directed by Andrea White
​December 28th - January 31st

Featuring D'Vonte Robinson
Director of Photography/Editor- Rebby Yuer Foster
Production Manager- Natasha Stockem
​Dramaturg- Pancho Savery
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*Mature audiences only (Profanity)

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Artist Bios

​KAYODÈ SOYEMI is a Nigerian-American actor, writer and multi-faceted artist from Atlanta, Ga. Currently a graduate student at Yale School of Drama, he has worked regionally with several award winning theaters including Dallas Theater Center, Alliance Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Actors Express, and Aurora Theatre. His writing often deals with Afro-surreality and Afro-futurism. He's a dedicated actorvist and new works artist, who hopes to be a mirror to your soul.

Andrea White is a Portland native and  an Actor, Director, and Educator for 25 years. After returning from Los Angeles after a two year run of the musical HAIR, Andrea has been seen on many Portland stages in plays such as, Pericles Wet (Profile), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Portland Playhouse), Two Sisters and a Piano (A.R.T.), for which she won a Drammy Award. Andrea's recent directing credits include, Tommy J. and Sally, and Beirut. Andrea is currently a guest director at Oregon Children's Theater.

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D'Vonte Robinson was born and raised in Montgomery, AL. He graduated Jefferson Davis High School Class of 2013. Soon after graduating he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps serving as an Administrative Specialist/Embarkation Specialist. After the end of his contract he relocated to Portland, Or.  D'Vonte has acted in Advertising for brands such as Xbox, and Change.org. He also has television experience, acting and assisting in shows such as "The Wonderland Murders"(Investigation Discovery), "Shrill"(Hulu),"Trinkets"(Netflix), "The Birch"(Facebook Watch) and "Metal Lords"(Netflix).

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Rebby Yuer Foster (she/they) is a Portland based multidisciplinary artist & theatrical collaborator. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree Theatre. With StT: 抜け首 (Writer/Director), شاهماران (Art Director), The Edge (Director/Editor). Regional Theatre Acting: 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. @rebbyyuer 

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The Edge
By Max Yu
Directed by Rebby Yuer Foster
​December 14th - January 17th

Featuring Heath Hyun Houghton as Ah Sing & Claire Aldridge as Emily
Production Manager- Natasha Stockem
​Dramaturg- Pancho Savery
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Artist Bios

Max Yu is a writer and performer from the San Francisco Bay Area who is now based in Shanghai. He is featured in the New York Times for winning the 2019 Relentless Award for his play, NIGHTWATCH. He's participated in Horizon Theater's New South Young Playwright's Festival in Atlanta. His poetry and prose have been published in Spittoon and Babel. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rebby Yuer Foster (she/they) is a Portland based multidisciplinary artist & theatrical collaborator. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree Theatre. With StT: 抜け首 (Writer/Director), شاهماران (Art Director). Regional Theatre Acting: 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. @rebbyyuer 

Heath Hyun Houghton is a Korean American actor, writer and director. He is currently a M.F.A. Candidate in Dramatic Writing at Goddard College and holds a B.A. in Theatre Performance from Humboldt State University. He also studied Korean dance and performance styles in Jinju, South Korea with USD Modern Dance. His writing has appeared in The Pitkin Review, Springtime Magazine (2009-2010) and korea4expats.com (2010). He also contributed lyrics for Ultraviolet Hippopotamus album Background Music and The Turnips album Stop Watch Time Drop. His plays have been seen as staged readings in Portland, OR, California, Jinju, South Korea, and Michigan. He is currently an ensemble member with Theatre Vertigo. Portland credits include work with Northwest Children’s Theatre, CoHo Productions, Portland Shakespeare Project, Broadway Rose Theatre, Imago, and Oregon Children’s Theatre

Claire Aldridge is a queer dancer, physical theater artist and clown who loves to play with movement and spoken word. Having just come off of a year of study and training with Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater in Blue Lake Ca. she is now earning her degree in sociology; Working towards a career as a social worker in arts therapies, while creating her own work in abstract dance-theater. She aims to use her training to push the boundaries of form, creating work which stimulates abstract thought and conversation, inspired by styles such as Theater of the Oppressed, Playback, SFMimeTroupe, and the work of Pina Bausch. Most recently she has created Anatomy Of A Rabbit, a show which begs the question “when does a creature learn that she is prey?”. She has also been seen onstage with various companies in her hometown of Portland, Oregon: Shaking the Tree (Caucasian Chalk Circle, Head. Hands. Feet.), Oregon Children’s Theater (Charlotte’s Web), Red Balloon Theater Collective (4:48 Psychosis, YellowX3, The Ways We Cope), Anonymous Theater (Midsummer Nights Dream, Skin of Our Teeth)  and has had the privilege of training with Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble, American Conservatory Theater and Frantic Assembly. 

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#Matter
​By Idris Goodwin
Directed by James R. Dixon
December 7th - January 10th

Featuring Jasmine Cottrell as Kim & Jim Vadala as Cole
Production Manager- Natasha Stockem
​Dramaturg- Pancho Savery

Artist Bios

Idris Goodwin (Playwright) is a multidisciplinary arts leader and creative community builder. Across two decades he’s forged a multi-faceted career as an award-winning script writer for stage and screen, Break Beat poet, director, educator, and organizer. He is the new Director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. The author of FREE PLAYS: Open Source Scripts for an antiracist tomorrow, Goodwin is committed to using the arts to spark meaningful conversation. For more information about Idris Goodwin and his work, visit his website HERE. 

James R. Dixon (Director) is excited to return to Shaking the Tree for #Matter! James focuses on creating through an equity lens in an effort to bring communities closer to the stories that display the beauty of the human condition. His favorite directing credits include Matter with Many Hats Collaborations and Portland Playhouse, Bootycandy with Fuse Theatre, The Mysterious Affair At Styles with Linestorm Playwrights, Gender-fication with 360 Labs, and as a Cultural Advisor for Hair with Staged. James is also a Fuse Theatre Ensemble Member and a current Associate Member of the SDC Society with a primary focus on Black queer theatre, all Black lives and facilitating the artistic needs of the LGBTQ2IA+ community. Welcome to the revolution! jamesrdixon.com

Jasmine Cottrell (Kim) is delighted to make her Shaking the Tree debut with this phenomenal crew of artists! Recent credits include Bliss! Or Emily Post is Dead (defunkt), Evolve (August Wilson Red Door Project), Jump (Confrontation Theatre and Milagro), The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud (LineStorm Playwrites), Cottonwood in the Flood (Vanport Mosaic), and Sibling Rivalry (Confrontation Theatre). Cottrell is an Alabama native, earning her B.S. in Theatre Education from TROY University. Her work focuses on the use of art as an educational tool and a catalyst for liberation.

Jim Vadala (Cole) (he/him) is an artist, clown and storyteller who transplanted to Portland in 2012. Born and raised in Philadelphia Jim received his BA in Theatre from West Chester University in 2012 and he is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA! Jim has toured nationally with Imago as Sam Stoke in La Belle and has performed locally with PCS, Third Rail, Anonymous Theatre, Defunkt,  P.E.T.E., Portland Shakespeare Project, Portland Playhouse, Profile Theatre and many more. Jim is also a regular of the irreverent sketch group Spectravagasm. Jim is humbled to be working on #Matter with this group of artists. 

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شاهماران
Shahmaran
​Film Adaptation by Melory Mirashrafi

A note from writer/director Melory Mirashrafi

This adaptation of Shahmaran (شاهماران) came, in part, out of a set of conversations about the many different impacts of colonization on storytelling. The ancient tale of Shahmaran is shared amongst many different cultures and regions, but is Persian and Kurdish in its origin and set in the Mardin Province of modern-day Turkey. However, since Turkey has expelled and erased much of its Kurdish population through a systematic eradication of their language, cultural practice, and right to land, the story of Shahmaran has in recent history shifted to be considered a Turkish one -- a direct impact of colonization and pan-Turkism on the cultural memory of both a land and people. It's appropriate, as well, that the story itself touches on humanity's constant betrayal of and disregard for one another and the natural world in favor of greed and personal gain. Turkey's Mardin Province, while primarily of Kurdish population, is also home to Syrians, Yazidis, and more. This collaboration between me and Paige, a first-generation Iranian and Syrian, respectively, is then a recognition of our shared history, and acknowledgement of the countless ways in which these traces of history live in the stories we think to know, and how we tell them. ​

Film Credits

Writer/Director    Melory Mirashrafi
Writer/Actor       Paige A. Hanna
Art Director       Rebby Yuer Foster
DP                 Lake
​Dramaturg          Pancho Savery
Production Manager Natasha Stockem

Melory Mirashrafi is an Iranian-American dramaturg, actor, and director from Hillsboro, Oregon. Melory was the 2019-20 Literary Apprentice at the Huntington Theatre Company, and has recently been a Y.C. Intern with American Conservatory Theater, Directing Fellow with Aquilon Music Festival, dramaturg with Speakeasy Stage, Harvard Divinity School, and Fresh Ink Theatre, director with Bag&Baggage Productions and Opera Theater Oregon, and has been seen as Sally Bowles in Cabaret (Linfield University), and Veronica in Heathers: The Musical (Funhouse Lounge). Melory’s writing can be found at Howlround Theatre Commons, Oregon ArtsWatch, Public Books, in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, and upcoming in The Next Act: Approaches to the Theatrical Canon. ​

Paige A. Hanna is thrilled to be working with Shaking the Tree Theater for this exciting project. Paige has been seen as Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show (Lakewood Theater), Heather Duke in Heathers (Funhouse Lounge), and Jade in Dancing with July (Lakewood Theater). She would like to thank her mother and brother Parker for their constant support. @lethallygoth. ​

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抜け首
​Flying Head Down, The Story of The Nukekubi  
​(A Japanese Folktale)
Film Adaptation by Rebby Yuer Foster

A note from writer/director, Rebby Yuer Foster

I was reading supernatural tales from China & Japan, and I thought the story of the Nukekubi was the most insane. There were many stories about this creature, but each story was very different. In some stories, the creature’s necks would extend & they would drink oil from lanterns. In other stories, they would only feed on bugs & plants. In some, their internal organs were attached to their necks while they’re flying so they can digest their food. In others, they hold the food in their mouths until they return to their bodies at sunrise. I really liked one story that spoke of a village near Mt. Yoshino in Japan where it seemed like a normal town by day, but at night every person in the city (children included) would transform in to the Nukekubi. 
More info about the Nukekubi can be found ​HERE

Film Credits

Writer/Director     Rebby Yuer Foster 
Actor               Kai Hynes 
DP                  Lake 
Dramaturg           Pancho Savery 
Production Manager  Natasha Stockem

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). Rebby is a former Acting Apprentice at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville ‘18-19. 

​Kai Hynes (he/him) is a very recent university graduate with majors in Theatre and English. He believes in empathy and the unifying powers of performance and storytelling.