Shaking the Tree melds the boundaries of theatre and visual art by presenting audiences with unconventional theatrical experiences in our non-traditional warehouse space. Founded in 2003, Shaking the Tree uses innovative ways to inhabit space, and positions itself at the intersection of innovation, activism and groundbreaking theatricality to allow audiences to experience a deeper, more active connection to the work. 

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How did the name Shaking the Tree originate?

​Shaking the Tree's name comes from a mishmash of mythology and fairytale: The Bodhi Tree, The flowering Apple Tree, the Silver Pear Tree, but mostly the Golden Apple Tree from the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, Mother Holly. In this tale the young heroin comes up to a tree laden with apples. The Tree says "Shake me. Shake me. We apples are all ripe." So she shakes the tree until the apples fall as though it were raining golden apples. When there are none left in the tree, she gathers them into a pile, and then continues on her way.

"I love this idea of the young heroine doing her soul work in the underworld of Mother Holly. The important and necessary work of imagining and creating." ~Samantha Van Der Merwe

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Shaking the Tree Leadership

Samantha Van Der Merwe (she/her) - Founding Artistic Director

"She creates lush, often dark and fantastical, environments that bring home the hard issues we need to face but are often unwilling to do on a daily basis. It’s a vision that needs to be supported because in her hands, some plays can be transformative."
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Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Samantha Van Der Merwe is the founding Artistic Director of Shaking the Tree Theatre. 
Founded in 2003, Shaking the Tree Theatre is known for melding the boundaries of theatre and visual art by presenting thrilling and unconventional theatrical experiences.

"Every time I see a Samantha Van Der Merwe show at Shaking The Tree Theatre, it's like I'm watching the very boundaries of the live theatre medium get pushed in some bold new direction."

​Directing projects: Blood Wedding (Federico García Lorca), Forbidden Fruit (various), Fucking A (Suzan-Lori Parks), Chick Fight (Devised/words by Sara Jean Accuardi), Family (Celine Song), REFUGE (Art Installation/Devised), 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), Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (Athol Fugard).

Talk & Lectures
“We all have a private mythology. We all stand with one foot on either side of the looking glass. How do we preserve that wilderness and share our unique terrain with the outer world?”
​Creative Mornings: https://creativemornings.com/talks/samantha-van-der-merwe

Awards and Affiliations
Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Member of Theatre Communications Group, Drammy Award for Outstanding Devised Work: Head. Hands. Feet, Devised, Drammy Award for Outstanding Set Design; We're All Mad Here, Devised, Drammy Award for Special Achievement as a Producer: Passion Play, Sarah Ruhl, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation SEED Grantee, Drammy Award for Special Achievement as a Producer- The Tripping Point, Drammy Award for Outstanding Direction- Statements After an Arrest..., Athol Fugard

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Shaking the Tree Associates

Rebby Yuer Foster (they/them) - Summer Festival & Residencies Coordinator
Rebby Yuer Foster is a Chinese American artist & director. 
Recent pieces with Shaking the Tree include, We Wrote This With You In Mind (director), In A Different Reality She's Clawing At The Walls (director), Forbidden Fruit (Alice), MODELMINORITY (director), Chick Fight (Her), Family (Alice), 家人: A Self Portrait (director/editor), Refuge: Our Lady of Lunar Reflection (director/editor), The Edge (director/editor), 抜け首 (director/editor). Recent acting credits include Once (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), We’ve Come to Believe (Humana Festival ‘19), Dracula (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville), & Xiaoyen (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). Rebby is a former Acting Apprentice at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville ‘18-19. They grew up in Seattle, Washington and received their B.A. in Theatre & English at the University of Portland. 

Kai Hynes (he/him) - Box Office Manager, Grant Writer, Accessibility Coordinator & Instructor
Kai Hynes is a theatre and performance artist and educator. Onstage credits with Shaking the Tree include Forbidden Fruit, MODELMINORITY, Family, Short Flix, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Interested in making outside of traditional frameworks, he teaches devised theatre pedagogies through Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble and Hand2Mouth Theatre, and has recently been self-producing projects with friends/collaborators. He holds a B.A. in Theatre and English from the University of Portland and is a graduate of Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s Institute for Contemporary Performance. ​

Kayla Hanson (she/her) - Administrative Associate
Kayla Hanson is an interdisciplinary artist and administrator. Credits with Shaking the Tree include Canary Mary in Fucking A, She in Chick Fight: A Reckoning in Nine Movements, Our Lady of Essence and Exchange in Refuge, and grand-mere in ___the wolf. She’s also worked with Third Rail Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, and was a founding member of the Red Balloon Theatre Collective. She received her BA in acting and a minor in communications film and media from Boise State University in 2016. She’s passionate about art that is movement-based, experimental, and aims to rethink modes of storytelling.

Sammy Rat Rios (They/She) - Marketing Associate
Sammy acts, writes, directs, and composes for theatre and film. Select stage credits: The Brother and the Bird; Blood Wedding (Shaking the Tree), Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really; Young Americans (Portland Center Stage), Amélie; A Christmas Carol (Portland Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Anonymous Theatre), We're Gonna Die (AT&T Performing Arts Center), In the Next Room...or the Vibrator Play (River & Rail Theatre), Se Llama Cristina (Kitchen Dog Theater). Sometimes Rios will try to sell you a credit card or cheese in a commercial to pay for their cats' vet bills. Other times, they write, produce, and perform music for their electronic solo project 'Rat Rios.' When they are not in the throes of artistic creation, you will find them playing video games or staring at a random leaf and crying about its beauty. Education: B.F.A. in Playwriting and Directing from Southern Methodist University, Conservatory Acting graduate from British American Drama Academy in London, UK.

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Shaking The Tree Board of Directors

Samantha Van Der Merwe (President)
Scott Wiggers (Treasurer)
Jessie Jonas (Secretary)
Dorothy Davis
Kerry Erdenberger
Rebecca Harrison
Belinda Green
​Michele Ruiz Keil

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General Press Quotes & Articles of Interest

(Specific show reviews and interviews can be found on our archive pages)

“Few of the city’s theater artists are bolder or cleverer than Shaking the Tree’s artistic director, Samantha Van Der Merwe." -Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Willamette Week
Read full article here

​K.B. Dixon continues his series with five fresh photographic portraits of people who help define the shape of Portland's culture.
​The Cultural Landscape: Part 3

The Low-tech Solution: Dracula and Grusha- Stephen Legawiec

5 Portland Performances you shouldn't miss this Spring -R.Mitchell Miller, Willamette Week

​Shaking the Scene: Their New Season Proves that Shaking The Tree is Portland’s Most Daring Theater Company -Robert Ham, Portland Mercury

Spotlight on: Samantha Van Der Merwe and'Caucasian Chalk Circle'
-Bobby Bermea, Oregon Artswatch

​"Among Portland's best theatre companies, putting on a wonderful mix of classic and contemporary with an emphasis on the visual." ~DeAnn Welker, the Oregonian

​Theater Director Samantha Van Der Merwe
A theatrical worldbuilder with equal tastes for the sinister and the fanciful.
​-Rebecca Jacobsen, Willamette Week