​The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht
Translated by Eric Bentley
Directed by Samantha Van Der Merwe
​​|October 6th - November 4th 2017|

Nominated for Best Director, Best Ensemble, and Best Musical Direction in the 2018 Drammy Awards

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What Audiences and Critics are saying:

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Read: The International Brecht Society Interview & Review of the "Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Margaret Setje-Eilers

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"This! Amazing! Show! This is a lovely production of an all too rarely produced play. I love new plays, but this is an old rare gem that keeps me thinking a week later...gorgeous work." - Patron

"The payoff is that the intimate is truly intimate, and sweeps the audience not just into its embrace, but also into a kind of active partnership. As the tales spin out things become clearer and clearer. The quieter moments take precedence, and an emotional gravity grabs hold." -Bob Hicks, Oregon Artswatch
READ MORE HERE
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"With weighty dialogue about political revolution, cheeky humor and abstract staging, Chalk Circle is a lot to make sense of. But it's also lively and often hilarious, and there are moments that are as imaginative as they are emotionally effective." - Shannon Gormley, Willamette Week
READ MORE HERE

"I got to see a preview of Caucasian Chalk Circle last night, and I highly, highly recommend it. Ambitious, visually stunning, THEATRICAL. It is an experience, and you shouldn't miss it." - Patron
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"Would highly recommend going to see The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Shaking the Tree Theatre in Portland. Not only a great show, but an awesome theatre experience!" -Theatre Student

"I had a rich marathon theatre experience last night with The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Shaking the Tree. The play is a monster of parable, history, commentary, story, law, injustice, and basic human emotion--you know, all the stuff we have to reckon with before breakfast. It's played, dance, strummed and sung out energetically, artfully, intensely. In other words ensemble theatre at it's very best. This is "why theatre?" Thank you talented cast, crew, Tech, supporters, and especially Samantha Van Der Merwe for a rare production." -Patron

Photos by Gary Norman

I, Bertolt Brecht, am from the black forests.
My mother carried me, as in her womb I lay,
Into the cities. And the chill of the forests 
​Will stay within me to my dying day.

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The Caucasian Chalk Circle is concerned with a woman’s epic journey of love and risk, a parable inspired by the Chinese play Chalk Circle. Written at the close of World War II, the story is set in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, and retells the tale of King Solomon and a child claimed by two mothers. A chalk circle is metaphorically drawn around a society misdirected by its priorities. Brecht's statements about class are cloaked in the innocence of a fable that whispers insistently to the audience. This play retains the most astonishing relevance to the major issues of today by transporting us to a world which, for all its exotic externals, is nothing other than the world we live in, our world, the world of Unreason, of disorder, of injustice.
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Ensemble
Claire Aldridge, Clara Hillier, Clifton Holznagel, Kai Hynes, Heath Koerschgen, Carlos Adrian Manzano, Samie Pfeifer, Luisa Sermol*, Will Sievertsen, Joellen Sweeney, Jessica Tidd, and Briana Ratterman Trevithick

*Member of Actors' Equity Association

Creative Team
​Director & Scenic Design - Samantha Van Der Merwe
Musical Director- Joellen Sweeney (All songs were conceived by the members of the ensemble)
Technical Director & Design Collaborator - Ted Gold
Lighting Design - Trevor Sargent
Costume Design - Alanna Hylton
Stage Manager - Natasha Stockem
​Assistant Stage Manager- Lexie Quandt
Master Carpenter- Kyra Sanford
​Props Assistance- Anne Witt

Special Thanks to
Steven Cantor, Charmian Creagle, ​Kathy Fishler, Marty Kinsella, Kate Mytron, postalcentral.com, Matt Pavik, Kay Olsen, Scott Stephens, Jeff Sweeney, Ben Sweeney, & Buddy Weber of Bud's Lights

              Photo by Lexie Quandt

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The Caucasian Chalk Circle is generously supported by Ronni Lacroute, Ellyn Bye, The Autzen Foundation, and members of Shaking the Tree's Board, as well as many other individual supporters. More info here
Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc.