About the Festival Artists

Alisha Adams ( playwright for John)

Alisha Adams is a poet turned playwright. Her plays include Epitaphs are Easy, produced by Padua Playwrights, and Little Fishes, a trilogy completed during a residency at The Department of Safety. She is co-creator of Chantravolta, a multimedia performance that debuted at LA’s Anatomy Riot, and a member the “dance democracy” bodycity. She blogs and collaborates on new media, installation, and publishing with her friends at Existential Media (www.existentialmedia.org). Her book of poetry, Ocean Barber, was recently published by Existential Media Press.   

auGi  (Co-writer and Performer for SexyNurd)

During a seven-year stint in L.A., auGi created, produced and performed in over 200 productions at both The Second City theater and the world famous Improv, and appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Since returning to Portland, auGi co-produced and starred in Talking Dogs at the Fertile Ground Theater Festival, appeared on the hit OPB radio show Live Wire, shared frightening lyrics from his teenage “Beast” songbook at Mortified, and has been a regular guest at Back Fence PDX events.

Bati Alon (playwright for Switch)

Bati Alon is a student at Lincoln High School. She was featured in the Visions and Voices Showcase at Portland Center Stage in 2009.

Susan Banyas

Susan is a dancer, storyteller, and writer whose artistic roots as an improviser, dancer, and experimental performance artist led to collaborations through SO&SO&SO&SO Inc. Her current performance project, No Strangers Here Today, is on tour in 2008. She recently presented Everyday Dancing, A Dance Lecture at the International Society for the Study of Time conference in Monterey, CA and is developing the work into a photography installation and dance/theatre piece. She has published essays on art and politics and is currently a member of the Maya Angelou Writers Guild in Portland. Music/spoken word CDs, visual books and image cards from her scripts, short stories, paintings, and photography emerge from the improvisation experiments at the heart of art practice. Her work fuses movement, language, and music into physical images that "speak" about the times we live in, the encounters we experience, and the memory places we inhabit.

Brad Bulchunos (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Brad Bulchunos wrote for years as a newspaper reporter in Colorado and Oregon and, for a glimmering time, as a humor columnist before landing his current role at the homeless youth clinic Outside In. He continues to write and act in Portland. Recently he appeared as a lunatic ghost in Twilight Tales (Northwest Children's Theatre), a wiggly innkeeper in The Three Musketeers (Lakewood), and various roles in The Dining Room (North End Players). Previously he also performed on stages in Cannon Beach and Astoria, where a few of the short plays he wrote garnered audience acclaim in competition. He is thrilled to see Death Wears Fishnets debut as his first staged work in Portland.

Rollin Carlson (co-creator for Bugged)

Rollin Carlson has acted and/or puppeteered with multiple Portland companies, including Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre, Fever Theater, Blue Monkey Theater Co., and Readers Theatre Repertory.  He studied theatre at Boston University's 4-year conservatory BFA program, and received a Portland Drammy Award in 2003 for his role in defunkt theatre's CART.  He will also be appearing in Superego Sketch Comedy's upcoming show this winter.

Meshi Chavez (Choreographer for light that lingers)

Meshi Chavez has been creating art in Portland, OR for the last 14 years. His most recent shows include  I want to stop wanting - Disjecta in May of 2009;  Between - Judson Church in New York City 2008; Sending a Voice - TBA’s 2008 Ten Tiny Dances; and Cocoon Bird in August of 2007.  Meshi is a student of Akira Kasai.  He is also Co-founder and teacher of Momentum: Conscious Movement, offering Soul Motion, Conscious Technique, and improvisational movement.

Arlie Conner ( co-creator for Fighter Girl: The Musical)

Fighter Girl: the Musical is Arlie’s first adventure in musical theater. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1978 with degrees in Music and Mathematics. He discovered the diverse music and culture of America while growing up – moving from Colorado to Louisiana to Maryland.  Arlie dabbles in electronic music, video art, holography but is most recently seen doing optical engineering and playing acoustic rock with  ‘Rock Paper Soul’.   Previously released original titles - “Animal Tea Party”, a co-written CD of kid songs and “Countin’ on You” a solo effort. Past projects include holographic art exhibits in Eugene and at Holos Gallery in San Francisco. For “Eggs in Orbit”, the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggled a dozen of Arlie’s ‘singing eggs’ in Ken Kesey’s barn.

Tina Connolly (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Tina Connolly (Moon at the Starry Diner) is a speculative fiction writer with a background in theatre.  She has three dozen published stories and poems in places such as Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Highlights, and the anthology Unplugged: Best Online SF 2008 (for which Publishers Weekly noted her as a "rising star".)  On the theatre side:  although she hasn't done a full-length production since Kansas City, she frequently reads with the inestimable Portland Theatre Works, and she has narrated many stories online for Escape Pod and Podcastle.  Her agent is shopping her first novel, a YA fantasy, and her website is tinaconnolly.com.

Betsy Cross (performer/collaborator in Truth and Beauty)

Betsy Cross is a Virginia native who moved to Portland in 2006 to join the PDX theatre scene after nearly a decade performing, directing, and teaching throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico. She has attended theater programs at Virginia Tech, Harvard, and Dell’Arte International, where she received an MFA in Physical and Ensemble-based theatre. Like other soulful do-it-yourself-Portlanders, her fascination with ornamentation led her to design jewelry under the moniker, betsy and iya. Apart from being a full-time designer, Betsy plays music in a rowdy all-girl band, paints for Georgetown University, keeps a blog showcasing her photography, and lovingly stares at her shiny new husband.  In Portland, she’s worked with many awesome folks, including: Many Hats Collaboration, Nomadic Theatre Company, NWCT, The Young Players and Young Audiences.

Sandra de Helen

Sandra de Helen’s Blue Roses was presented in the PlayLab at the Great Plains Theatre Conference, May 2009. Her solo play  Copperheads and Common Women was presented as part of the Lunchbox series at Fertile Ground 2009. It also played at CoHo in their Endless Summer series. Her one-act Murder at Chez Rouge was performed at the Winterhaven 24 hour play festival May 2008; Her 10 minute play The Thing Is was produced as part of the Spotlight Program at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, June 2008. Her libretto Alberta was published in the July 2006 issue of Oregon Literary Review. de Helen is currently part of a multi-cultural playwriting group in Portland Oregon. Her website is www.SandradeHelen.com

John Ellingson (playwright for Don’t Let the Pigeons Ride the Bus)

A resident artist with NWCT, John Ellingson has performed for tens of thousands of young children on the NWCT stage.  Recent roles at NWCT include The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland), The Tin Man (The Wizard of Oz), The Cat in the Hat (Seussical), MC Dog (Go Dog Go), Gumdrop (Hansel and Gretel), and Bobby Child (Crazy For You). John spent three years studying acting in Canada, where he appeared in several shows, including Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses at the University of Victoria, and as Dean in the Studio Series Playwriting Festival’s production of In Transit.  For nine years John studied clowning and physical performance with Rusty Nails.  His clowning skills include stilt work, juggling, skating, and mime.  In addition to acting, John is a teacher at NWCT, where his most popular classes are for the very young.  He is a favorite reader and storyteller at area elementary schools where he regularly volunteers his time as an ambassador for NWCT. 

Miriam Feder (playwright for The Only Way Out Is Through)

Miriam Feder is producing her play through the generosity of a Celebration Foundation grant. She has produced 3 one-woman shows at HipBone Studio: Big Words (2008), About Love (2008) and The Vestibule (2007), which also toured New Mexico. She posts her thoughts, writings and pod casts weekly at: http://miriamfeder.com  She has published writings in VoiceCatcher 2, 3 and 4 by the Portland Women Writers. She’s also written a couple of musicals for student production (In Portland and Even to the Western Ocean) which she directs regularly around town. Miriam sings Lead with Pride of Portland chorus and holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Humanities from the University of Minnesota and a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Jason Ferte (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Jason Ferte has worked his ass off in Portland theatre since the late 70s, but not so much the past ten years or so.  Favorite memories: working the build/run of the West Coast premiere (non-Broadway produced, or maybe it was only the Portland first-run...?) of Chicago; stage managing Stan Foote's very first kid's show in town, Snow White at the Circus; designing lights for the opera Hansel and Gretel; and being honored with a Technical Achievement award for Something's Afoot, all at the old Lake Oswego Community Theatre.  Recent stints include stage managing the fifth season of Action/Adventure's Fall of the House (love those guys!), producing/directing/designing the original musical Whatever Girl (co-written with the amazing Rachel Sakry) at Echo Theatre, and designing Dia de los Muertas at Miracle Theatre a few years back (love those guys too!).

 

Rebecca Frost Mayer (playwright for O’Flannery’s Pub)

Rebecca Frost Mayer holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from Boston University, and is a playwright, actress, choreographer, and theatre teacher.  Her most recent stage appearance in Portland was as the tap-dancing, wise-cracking, Spanish-singing Mae Catrina in Miracle Theatre’s Canta y no llores, a collaborative theatrical event observing the Day of the Dead.  Other Portland credits include Action/Adventure Theatre’s Fall of the House (Camille) and A Midsommer Night’s Dreame with the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival.  Rebecca has been a member of Portland Gallery Playwrights’ Group since last year’s Fertile Ground festival.  She is also a writing mentor with PlayWrite, Inc, working with marginalized youth to create autobiographically-inspired works for the stage.  In addition to writing plays, Rebecca is working on a series of short stories and a novel, and earns her living as a copy writer for a market research firm.

Tony Fuemmeler (co-creator for Bugged)

Tony Fuemmeler is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist.  His work spans mask theatre, puppetry, ensemble works and devised performance. He is a company member of Nomadic Theatre Co, and he also serves as the Coordinator of the Puppetry Lab at Tears of Joy, which focuses on the development of new works in puppetry.  In addition, Tony teaches residencies and after-school programs in puppet and mask theatre to youth across the city.  He has enjoyed working with many Portland companies, including Tears of Joy, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Insight Out Theatre Collective and Many Hats Collaboration. He is a graduate of Dell’Arte International and the University of Kansas.  He is thankful to be surrounded by amazing people.

Catherine Garvin (co-creator for Fighter Girl: The Musical)

Catherine Garvin holds an Art/Music Degree from University of Hawaii.  She lived for 11 years on Oahu, one year in San Jose, Costa Rica as a Playboy bunny and 8 years in New York City as an actor and singer. Portland is her place of birth, she grew up in Yamhill County milking cows and riding horses. A longer work in progress is the life and times of Josephine de Beauharnais aka 'Bonaparte.'

William S. Gregory

Since graduating from Southern Oregon State University in 1990 William S. Gregory has written over 36 plays including an ongoing six-play cycle on the life of Cardinal Richelieu. Mr. Gregory’s plays are praised for their beautiful language, aggressive plotting, and the unexpected humanity of their humor.

Stacey Hallal (creator of Sugar and Spice)

Stacey Hallal is Artistic Director of Curious Comedy Theater which she founded in 2008. Stacey has performed, taught, and directed improv and sketch comedy for over 10 years. In Portland, Stacey performed with acclaimed comedy duo All Jane No Dick and in Chicago at the world famous Second City - training grounds of such talents as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. Stacey has performed and taught at over 25 international comedy festivals, created an animated TV series pilot that was sold to Aniboom in 2008, and works as a character consultant with blue chip corporations such as Walmart, McDonalds, Verizon, and more.

Courtenay Hameister ( collaborator for Road House: The Play)

Bio TBA

Sarah Jane Hardy (playwright for Don’t Let the Pigeons Ride the Bus)

NWCT Artistic Director Sarah Jane Hardy (MFA Directing) was born in Liverpool, England where she received Advanced Certification through the International Dance Teachers Association in Ballet, Tap and Modern Dance.  Recent NWCT directing credits include: Narnia (2004 and 2009), Go Dog Go!, The Wizard of Oz, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Hansel and Gretel and Alice in Wonderland.  Sarah Jane is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and has been employed as a dramaturge, director, literary manager and playwright.  Her playwriting credits for young audiences include:  for NWCT Hansel and Gretel, and Alice in Wonderland,(both 2009 Parent’s Choice Award Winners) and regionally, adaptations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Lafcadio (Unicorn Children’s Theater), and Have you Ever Heard Jazz Music? (Rocky Mountain Theatre Association Winner). 

Nate Harpel (playwright for __not__ )

Nate Harpel does a bunch of things, and hangs out a lot, and really tries his best not to regret anything.  He likes beer and vegan nachos.  And bicycles.  And girls.  And sad songs.  He breaks laptops. 

Chisao Hata

TBA

Matt Haynes (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Matt Haynes has worked in Portland theatre for over 5 years. As an actor his roles have included Frankenstein's Creature (Northwest Children's Theatre), The Boy in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Oregon Children's Theatre), A Big Black Woman (Brooklyn Bay), Little John (Blue Monkey Theatre) and El Maestro in La Carpa Del Maestro (Miracle Theatre). He currently is touring in Teatro Milagro's bi-lingual ecodrama, El Ultimo and serves as VP on the PATA board.

Melanya Helene and Marc Otto (creators of The Gentle People)

Melanya Helene and Marc Otto are the creators of Play after Play, interactive arts for kids. This mom and pop theater program has been offering regular events to a devoted following for over 5 years. Play after Play emerged from a combination of the mindfulness-based approach to performance they inherited from the late Scott Kelman and training with O. Fred Donaldson PhD in Original Play, a way of promoting non-aggression and connectedness through physical play.  Melanya has an extensive background in early childhood education. Marc is a creative arts therapist trained in somatic psychology.  Both are graduates of  Naropa University in Boulder, CO. They have two children who help out with the family business running lights and selling concessions.

Hunt Holman (playwright for Willow Jade)

Willow Jade received a staged reading in the JAW Festival at Portland Center Stage in July 2008. Other plays include Spanish Girl, which premiered off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in their New Plays Uptown Series, and was published by Smith & Kraus books in their anthology New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2003; Gun Club, which was developed in Cherry Lane Theater's Obie award-winning Mentor Project, and later premiered at Hypothetical Theater, NYC; and The Dawn Patrol, which received a staged reading at Williamstown Theater Festival. His play The First Time I Slept with Rosemary was the second production by Printer's Devil Theatre (Seattle, WA), of which he was also a co-founder. For the past three years he has taught creative writing to public high school students with the WITS program through Literary Arts. He earned an MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Elizabeth Klinger (adapter/director of Truth and Beauty)

Elizabeth is a director, teacher, and performer who comes to Portland via Philadelphia. As a director, she has staged original, traditional, and adapted works, directing the Youth Ensemble at People’s Light and Theatre Company. Elizabeth taught Movement for Actors I and II and Children’s Theatre at Cumberland County College in New Jersey. She holds an M.F.A. in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from The Dell’Arte International School, and has performed with the Dell’Arte Company across the Pacific Northwest.

Sophie Koeller (playwright for Switch)

Sophie Koeller is a student at Lincoln High School. She was featured in the Visions and Voices Showcase at Portland Center Stage in 2009.

Dañel  Malan (playwright for American Sueño)

Dañel Malán co-founded the Miracle Theatre Group with her husband, José Eduardo González and in 1989 she created the bilingual-touring program, Teatro Milagro, which also includes the BEAT and Puentes programs.  Under her artistic direction, Malán has created and produced over 20 original bilingual plays that have toured throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada.  As a playwright her recent works include El Último, a Chilean eco-drama; ZAPATISTA (2008) the story of Subcomandante Marcos; FRIDA, un retablo (2007), a surrealist vision of one of Mexico’s greatest artist; Mi Vida Gitana (2006) a romance story of Spanish Gypsies; Cuéntame Coyote (2005) a border crossing tale; and mipueblo.biz (2004) the story of a Peruvian storyteller.

Ellen Margolis

Ellen Margolis plays include How to Draw Mystical Creatures; Trying Not to Stare ); Picking Up the Baby: Soil; A Little Chatter; When It Stands Still; and others that have been produced throughout the United States.

Rebecca Martínez (Playwright for American Sueño)

Rebecca Martínez works professionally as an actor, director, singer, dancer, choreographer and instructor.  Recently, she directed Sonia Flew and the Spanish-language production of Ardiente paciencia for Miracle, and wrote and directed the production of Oyá:  Call the Storm.  She is an ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre, and in 2003 she was awarded a Drammy Award for choreography for 7 Great Loves and in 2006 for Best Acting Ensemble for The War Project: 9 Acts of Determination. Former director of Milagro’s Milagro Bailadores, she went of to found Viva la Cultura!; an ensemble of artists that performs dances, music and stories of the Americas.  She has instructed numerous bilingual residencies in theatre and Latin American dance, regionally, nationally and internationally, including MacKay, Queensland, Australia for the Pacific Edge Arts Conference, and in Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Tere Mathern (choreographer and performer in Tere Mathern Dance/Minh Tran & Co)

Mathern has been professionally involved in contemporary dance for over 18 years as a performer, choreographer, and educator. She holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on Modern & Contemporary Dance from New York University, and a Certification in Movement Analysis (C.M.A.) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York. Returning from NYC to Portland, Oregon in 1997, Mathern became a Conduit core artist and teacher and currently serves as it's co-artistic director. A former Assistant Professor of Dance at Portland State University, she has taught and/or performed in various venues throughout the U.S. including in Seattle, San Diego, Anchorage, Portsmouth NH, Madison WI, New York, Denison University, OH, Reed College, OR, and as assistant faculty for the Laban/Bartenieff certification programs at the Laban Institute in NYC and at Mills College, CA. In 2002/03 Mathern began working with current members of her company, Tere Mathern Dance. She has received support for her work from the Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and PSU's former Contemporary Dance Season, the Metropolitan Arts Commission, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. She was guest artist during Reed Arts Week 2002, is ongoing faculty at Conduit, and recently received a Professional Development Grant from the City of Portland’s Artistic Economy Initiative.

Shelley McLendon (collaborator for Road House: The Play)

Shelley McLendon is a member of Portland improv faves, The Liberators, who have brought it all over Portland for over 4 years. Her hilarity knows no bounds, however, as she has also spread her goodness to audiences at Mortified in Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco, OPB’s Live Wire!, Back Fence PDX,  and The 48 Hour Film Festival. Shelley was born in Long Beach, California, and attended high school at the same time and in the same district as Snoop Dogg, Cameron Diaz, and the girl that played Doogie Houser’s girlfriend.

Thara Memory (playwright/composer for Sherman: A Jazz Opera)

Although best known for his contributions to the Northwest jazz scene, Thara is a respected classical conductor and composer. He earned his B.A. in conducting and composition from Marylhurst University and has conducted regionally since then including the Pacific Crest Sinfonietta. In 2001, He conducted the Marylhurst Symphony in the premier performance of his original composition, Middle Passage, which was acclaimed by the Oregonian.

Thara has been awarded NEA, OAC and RACC grants for his involvement in community arts projects. In 2005, he was the awarded the prestigious RACC Fellowship for the Performing Arts. He founded Portland's Accelerated Music Program, which promotes opportunities for talented minority and at-risk youth to achieve excellence in music. They have won top honors at numerous regional events and participated in the "Essentially Ellington" competition at Lincoln Center in NYC.  In 1999 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Arts Foundation for his community service in music.

Phillip Meyer (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Phillip M. Meyer received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Portland State University where he trained with Devon Allen, Lorraine Bahr, and Scott Parker. His recent acting work includes The Miracle Worker (James Keller) at Mt. Hood Repertory Theatre, 1943 Christmas from Home (Jack Warner) with Tapestry Theatre, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Proteus) with Portland Actor’s Ensemble, Much Ado About Nothing (Borachio) with Northwest Classical Theatre, The Bible: The Complete Word of God Abridged with Cacophony Productions, DasVadanya Mama (Feirz) with the Q & D Art Project, Big Love (Constantine) and Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick) at Portland State University, and Art (Yvan) with Ground Zero Theatre in Corvallis. Mr. Meyer’s directing credits include The Skriker for CoTop Productions, and Helpless at the University of Oregon.  He is a frequent contributor for the 24-Hour Plays at the Coho Theatre as a writer, director, and actor; and has been a private acting coach for 3 years.

Milo Mowery (playwright for Pinocchio)

Milo Mowery began his playwriting career in 2000, when he was awarded the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association playwriting award for his play Obligation. Since then he has written a number of plays staged in California, Washington, Utah, Oregon and New York. Most recently his play Crop Circle was staged in the Templeton Actors Studio in NYC. For NWCT Milo has written adaptations of Swiss Family Robinson and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.   Pinocchio is his first musical commission for NWCT.  A freelance writer, Milo lives in Tacoma, Washington with his wife and two children.

Rob Newton (playwright for DIRTY BOMB)

A recent transplant from New York City, Rob Newton worked as an actor off-Broadway and regionally for the last 20 years. Working with directors like Bart Sher, Moises Kaufman, Mark Lamos, and Richard Foreman, he learned a great deal about theater and about himself. As a member of the Red Room (at the Pulse Theater on theater row, 42nd St.), Rob began developing a love of writing. Further study with Tina Howe and Edward Albee helped in the development of his first NYC production at the HERE Arts Center, of The Ballad of Bobby Merge. Rob is grateful to the Fertile Ground Festival for giving him the opportunity to premiere his latest work, DIRTY BOMB, in his new home, Portland, Oregon.

No Go Know (co-creator of xCHANGE3 )

No Go Know released a double album, Time Has Nothing to do With It, to rave reviews. This release was followed up with a national tour in summer 2009. The music site Campus Circle describes them as “a band with ambition… indie rock with gnashed guitar string twisting, groove-flecked jams, icy space rock and clear-eyed acoustic odes. No Go Know is not easy to categorize, but influences include Built to Spill, My Morning Jacket and Pink Floyd; essentially the group has mastered the trick of meshing inspirations into a specific sound that does not seem unfocused or overtly derivative."

Rodolfo Ortega (Composer for Pinocchio)

Rodolfo Ortega received his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied piano and composition. His composition credits for NWCT include Hansel and Gretel (2009 Parents Choice Award Winners), Swiss Family Robinson (2007 Drammy), and Frankenstein (2006 Drammy).  Locally, he has composed many of the productions at Artist Repertory Theatre (House and Gardens, Metamorphoses, Frozen, and Assassins), Oregon Children’s Theatre (Tuck Everlasting: 2004 Drammy) Miracle Theatre (Mariela in the Desert, Adriente Paciencia and Lorca in a Green Dress: Drammy 2004) and Profile Theatre Company (Lisbon Traviata, Redwood Curtain, Talley's Folley, and Talley and Sons). For the 2000-2001 Season Rodolfo was awarded the Drammy in Sound Design and Composition for A Season of Outstanding Work.

Steve Patterson (playwright for The Re-Write Man and  Introducing…Playwrights West)

Steve Patterson has written over 50 plays, with works staged in Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Tampa, and other cities in the U.S. as well as in Canada and New Zealand. His play Lost Wavelengths won the 2008 Oregon Book Award, and he has recently become co-representative for the Dramatists Guild in Portland.

Melinda Pittman (composer and playwright for A/Broad for All Seasons)

TBA

Polaris Dance (co-creators of xCHANGE3 )

Polaris Dance Theatre is organizing the event. Led by award-winning Artistic Director Robert Guitron, Polaris believes that through dance, we awaken the heart and enhance our humanity. Since 2002, we have created innovative works of contemporary dance, which are athletic, intelligent, emotional and thought provoking. Polaris creates and seeks out opportunities to augment and make accessible the need and meaning of dance as an art form. We are on the cutting edge of shaping tomorrow’s performing art world by exploring the frontier of alternative methods and venues for dance. We seek to inspire, cultivate and collaborate with artists of both the performing and visual arts.

Consisting of a company of brilliantly technical and soulful dancers, Polaris Dance Theatre creates original work comprised of adventurous movement and poignant gestures. These works of art are a response to the rich tapestry of life and the world we live in. The choreography of Polaris is intentionally honest, physically bold and emotionally resonant.

Robyn Pritzker (playwright for Switch)

Robyn Pritzker is a high school student at Lincoln High School and was a 2009 Promising Playwright during JAW at Portland Center Stage. She has a play featured at the Portland Center Stage Visions and Voices readings in 2009.

Jimmy Radosta (creator of Triskaedekaphilia)

Jimmy Radosta is an award-winning journalist who has written for The Portland Mercury, Statesman Journal and The Skanner. In 2000 he started editing Just Out, the Pacific Northwest’s largest queer newsmagazine, and in 2004 he debuted “Jim’s Closet,” a popular column featuring interviews with celebrities such as Yoko Ono, Lily Tomlin, Bea Arthur, Melissa Etheridge and Gus Van Sant. In 2005 the National Endowment for the Arts named Radosta as an “Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Fellow,” dispatching him to the American Dance Festival at Duke University to train with retired New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff. He also recently launched Face2Face: An Ongoing Series of Community Dialogues at Q Center. After making several well-received appearances at Mortified in Portland and Hollywood, Radosta makes his stage debut with Triskaidekaphilia (Just My Luck). An Oregon native, he lives in Northeast Portland with his cat, Petunia. For more information visit www.jimmyradosta.info.

Bill Ratner (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Bill Ratner got his start in show-business pushing buttons on a radio console at age twelve. From grimy black-box theaters in Minnesota, to playing Flint on G.I. Joe & Family Guy, to voices-that-will-never-die in Disney World, Bill keeps moving his lips and his fingers on the keyboard. He is a three-time Moth Story Slam winner, a published short-story & essay writer, has acted in plays and told his stories on-stage in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York City, and is proud to add Portland and Pulp Diction to the notches in his theatre belt.

Rich Rubin (playwright for Pulp Sampler and More Foreplay at the Someday)

Rich’s plays have been performed in New York City, Los Angeles and Singapore, as well as multiple theaters in between.  A relative newcomer to Portland, he is absolutely delighted to be a part of the 2010 Fertile Ground Festival.

Louis Sachar (playwright for Small Steps)

Louis Sachar was born in East Meadow, New York, and grew up in California. He majored in economics at the University of California at Berkeley, and attended law school at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. During his first week of law school, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, his first book, was accepted by a publisher. After graduating, Sachar continued to do part-time legal work while writing children’s books. In 1989, he was able to stop practicing law and write full-time. Sachar’s other books include Someday Angeline, Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Holes, the Marvin Redpost series, and the Wayside School series. He lives with his wife Carla and daughter Sherre in Austin, Texas. 

Anna Sahlstrom (playwright for The Go Girls)

Anna Sahlstrom is an actress and writer born and raised in Vancouver, WA.  She attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she earned a BA in Theatre and a minor in Spanish.  Anna also trained in the One-Year Acting Program for Post-Graduates and Professionals at Drama Studio London where and earlier version of The Go-Girls had its first reading.  Additionally, she attended the Playwrights' Cornucopia workshop at CSU Summer Arts.  Anna recently originated the role of Betta in the musical Rejected No More with Trueheart Productions.  This is the first play she has written.

Sharon Sassone (playwright for Fort Vancouver)

Sharon Sassone, known as ShaSha in the theatre community, leads the Portland Dramatists Workshop.  She is an award-winning playwright, actress, director and owned and operated her own theatre in Chicago for over ten years.  ShaSha is a doting grandmother of five adorable grandchildren, teaches ESL for Mt. Hood Community College, and recently really “broke a leg” while acting on stage and spent over a month in the hospital.  She will never use that expression again!

Jason Squamata (playwright for Pulp Sampler)

Jason Squamata writes HYPNOKOMIX.  http://hypnokomix.blogspot.com/

Andrea Stolowitz (collaborator for Memory Water and playwright participating in Introducing…Playwrights West)

Andrea is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at the University of California San Diego. She has had her plays developed and presented at many venues including The Cherry Lane, The Old Globe, The Long Wharf, New York Stage and Film, and the Mill Mountain Theater. Previously produced work includes Knowing Cairo, Seascapes and Tales of Doomed Love. She currently teaches at Willamette University and the University of Portland and served on the theater studies faculty at Duke University and UC-San Diego. She was a Walter E. Dakin fellow at The Sewanee Writers Conference in 2005, completed a residency at Ledig House Writer’s Colony in the fall of 2006, and was awarded a North Carolina Playwrights Grant in 2007. She is an ensemble member of Playwrights West and is the Portland Regional Representative to the Dramatists Guild. Her play Bad Family was recently read at Jaw: A Playwright’s Festival 2009 at Portland Center Stage.

Eva Suter (playwright for __not__ )

Eva Suter’s bio usually goes something like “Eva lives, writes, drinks and rides her bike in Portland,” because she hates bios and the awkward pressure they present. 

Pema Teeter (Co-writer and Director for SexyNurd)

Pema Teeter’s plays have been produced in New York, Portland, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Albuquerque. The staged reading of her comedy, Talking Dogs, played to a sold out crowd at Fertile Ground Festival 2009. A ghostwriter and story coach for creatives and executives, Pema studied at NYC’s Actors Studio Drama School, worked in HBO’s comedy division, and mentored with playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Motorcycle Diaries, Jose Rivera.

Don Teeters (Playwright for Leg Wrestling with Wittgenstein)

Don Teeters’ early years were spent with various California theatre companies, from the original White Oaks in Carmel Valley, to the Petite Cabaret in Santa Barbara, and Salinas Performing Arts. He also spent time in the mid-60’s at the legendary Columbia Studio Workshop in Hollywood. He met his wife, Fayra, while performing in the opening season of Western Stage at Salinas, California. He started writing plays in the mid-90’s. His play Shell Games was produced at the 1994 Seattle International Fringe Festival and by Masque Alfresco in June 2005. His work was performed in the Blink of an Eye Play Festival in Albuquerque, and Stark Raving’s 2000 Rave Festival in Portland.

Minh Tran (choreographer and performer in Minh Tran & Co)

Born in Vietnam, Minh Tran immigrated to the United States in 1980 as a political refugee. In addition to receiving dance training in classical Vietnamese opera at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Washington and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration / Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from Portland State University with a Certificate in Dance. Mr. Tran has created over thirty choreographic works since 1989. As both a dancer and choreographer, his work has received numerous grants, fellowships and commissions, including: the Regional Arts & Culture Council; White Bird / Tiffany & Company New Works Fund; Oregon Arts Commission; Oregon Ballet Theatre; BodyVox; Alaska Dance Theater, Portland State University's Contemporary Dance Season; PICA's TBA Festival; the Portland International Performance Festival; ArtExplosion: A Festival of Asian American Performing Arts; San Francisco Performances; San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Seattle's On the Boards; UCLA’s Asian & Pacific Performance Exchange Initiative; New York’s Dance Theater Workshop Suitcase Fund’s Mekong Project with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Anastasia Tuazon (playwright for Switch)

Anastasia Tuazon is a student at Lincoln High School. She penned a short play for the 5th Annual Lincoln High School New Plays Festival.

Samantha Van Der Merwe (collaborator on  Memory Water)

Samantha Van Der Merwe runs Shaking the Tree Studio & Theatre. Directing credits include The Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire, The Peasants’ Bible & The Story of the Tiger by Dario Fo, Grimm Tales adapted by Carol Anne Duffy and the Portrait the Wind the Chair by Y York. Samantha recently won a Drammy for her direction of Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act by Athol Fugard, produced by Shaking The Tree.

Vorcan (co-creator for xCHANGE3 )

Vorcan, a dynamic painting duo calling Portland home. The two artists who make up Vorcan, Vort and Cank, began painting collaboratively live music of all genres in a variety of venues together in 2006. Using music and environment as inspiration, Vort and Cank create fine art using collaborative imagery.  VORCAN has painted more than 300 events in the United States and across Europe. VORCAN often take their “Painting Live Music” performances to buyers’ homes for commission, creating the painting in front of the collector. In March of 2008, VORCAN embarked on a staggering journey across America where they created 50 paintings in 50 states in 50 days. Starting March 15th, 2008, Vort and Cank began painting various landmarks, concerts, and events across all 50 states. Upon completion, VORCAN has continued to tour extensively throughout the United States, blogging their travels with words and pictures on 50DollarLunch.com.

Ezra Weiss (composer, lyricist for Don’t Let the Pigeons Ride the Bus)

Ezra Weiss was born in Phoenix Arizona.  He received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and his Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College in New York.  In 2002, Ezra recorded his debut CD, The Five A.M. Strut. Ezra's subsequent recordings included Persephone (2005 Umoja) and Get Happy (2007 Roark Records). He has co-led the Courtney Bryan/Ezra Weiss Jazz Orchestra in New York. Featured in  September ‘09 Downbeat Magazine, Ezra won the 2002, 2006, and 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award. For NWCT Ez has taught classes and music directed many productions including Crazy for You, The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.  He conceived and composed the Jazz Musical Alice in Wonderland as part of the NWCT 2008-2009 Season and the Original Cast Recording of which received a Parent’s Choice Award. 

Jessica Wallenfels (performer/collaborator for Truth and Beauty)

Jessica Wallenfels is a director, choreographer and performer who has created original performance work in New York, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. since 1997. Credits include two seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, choreography and assistant direction at Tanglewood Music Center and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, La Ma Ma e.t.c., Joe’s Pub, The Old Globe Theater in San Diego, The Mark Taper Forum’s Taper New Works Festival, and Portland Center Stage (Sometimes a Great Notion, Drammy Award for Outstanding Choreography, The Beard of Avon, Pride and Prejudice, assistant). Locally she has performed with Hand2mouth Theater and Tears of Joy Puppet Theater. Her original works have been performed at HERE Arts Center, ps 122, WAX, Danspace, University Settlement, Culture Project, The Actor's Gang in Los Angeles and Portland’s Gerding Theater rest rooms. She directs, performs, and teaches with her company, Many Hats Collaboration (Mutt). Wallenfels holds a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and attended graduate studies at Dell'Arte International. She has studied dance and mask carving in Bali, Indonesia.

Ellen West (playright and producer for More Foreplay at the Someday)

Ellen West is a playwright with two first prizes and two finalist awards for her plays, short and long, and productions on both coasts and in between.  She is also the producer of More Foreplay at the Someday.

C.S. Whitcomb (playwright for The Wilde Boy)

C.S. Whitcomb has been nominated for the Emmy, Cable Ace, Edgar Allan Poe, Humanitas, and Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2007 her play The Book of John was part of the JAW new play festival at Portland Center Stage.  This year her play Santos was a semi-finalist at the Eugene O'Neill.  Her new play The Wilde Boy is receiving its first public staged reading at Artists Rep in January as part of the Fertile Ground Festival of New Works. She teaches screenwriting and serves on the Oregon Film Board, the Advisory Board for Literary Arts and is president of Willamette Writers.  She is taking a group on a Trans-Atlantic Writing Cruise in April 2010.

Claire Willett (playwright for How the Light Gets In)

Claire Willett is a native Portlander, playwright, grantwriter, blogger, and Catholic youth minister.  Her play Upon Waking appeared in the 2009 Fertile Ground Festival.  Claire holds a B.A. in Theatre from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, where her first play Requiem: God Breathing took 3rd Prize in the 2002 One Act Play Contest, and her second play The Mysterious Mr. Azul was produced during the 2003 Undergraduate Conference.  A graduate of the Paul A. Kaplan Theatre Management Program at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, Claire worked in PR and development for three years at Artists Repertory Theatre, and as a development consultant for arts organizations like the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, Wordstock, Theatre Vertigo, hand2mouth, and the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center.  She is the Grants Manager for Oregon Ballet Theatre.  Follow her as she blogs the process of writing and producing How the Light Gets In at www.thejesusplay.wordpress.com.

Patrick Wohlmut (playwright participating in Introducing…Playwrights West)

Patrick Wohlmut is an actor and playwright. Two of his short plays – The Surrogate Mothers and K-PAN – were featured in Portland State University’s New Plays Festival in 2002, and he was a featured writer for Bump in the Road Theater’s 2004 original production, (Old Age Ain’t) No Place For Sissies. Patrick is a winner of the 2001 Art Kreisman Award for Creative Writing from Southern Oregon University, and was awarded a Sloan Foundation New Science Initiative commission for his play, Continuum, in 2007.

Sharon Wood Wortman (playwright for More Foreplay at the Someday)

Sharon Wood Wortman is a poet performer, and author of The Portland Bridge Book. She recently wrote and acted in her one-woman show The Bridge Lady, funded in by part a Regional Arts & Culture Council grant. 

Nick Zagone (playwright participating in Introducing…Playwrights West)

Nick Zagone's plays have been seen in England, Scotland, Canada, Australia, the Virgin Islands, Singapore, 30 U.S. States, and over 40 Colleges and Universities. He has a

Bachelor of Theatre from Willamette University in Salem, OR, and a Master of Fine Arts in

Playwriting from University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Nick is also Founding Member of Open

Circle Theatre in Seattle. He has worked with Cal-State Stanislaus in Turlock, Stage 3 in Sonora,

Pasadena City College, No-Shame Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Seattle

Repertory Theatre, ACT & Printer’s Devil in Seattle, Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, and

Willamette University.

Matthew B. Zrebski (playwright participating in Introducing…Playwrights West)

Matthew B. Zrebski is a multi-award winning playwright, composer,

and producer-director whose career has been defined by new play development. He has served as

the Artistic Director for Youth Could Know Theatre, Theatre Atlantis, and Stark Raving Theatre

and since 1995, has mounted over 40 world premieres. Matt's produced plays include: the planet

ME, Neck, A Place Called Timothy, Parts, After the Zipper, Darkstep and Dawning, The

Vespiary, and Ablaze. First Beard and The Cloud-Bangers were both featured in the Portland

Center Stage JAW Festival and his play Texting the Sun was commissioned by Oregon Children's

Theatre