Theatre Rex presents
Hamburger Square
by Bruce Hostetler 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Scottish Rite Center (709 SW 15th Ave)
Single Tickets: FREE. Just show up!

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

After his aggressive attempt to help a young family in trouble is misconstrued as a mugging, Robin Mars’ intentionally simple life runs straight into the rest of the world. And into Marian. Hamburger Square is a modern rock ‘n roll retelling of the Robin Hood myth, with music by Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys. It tells the story of Robin Mars, a young man living on the beach in Southern California, and what happens when he attempts to level his society’s financial inequities in some innovative ways. Can a man who has built his life on the statement "they don't bother me and I don't bother them" eventually realize that all his actions have consequences? There will be a discussion session after each workshop reading to continue the working process of bringing this new musical to the stage.

Fort Vancouver
by Sharon Sassone

Festival Performance Dates: Jan 28 and 29 at 7:00 pm, Jan 30 at 4:00 p.m. 

Venue: Haven (3553 SE Division Street)
Single Tickets: Sliding Scale $5-$15. Call 800-494-TIXS or online at www.fertilegroundpdx.org
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $5 per ticket

Grant—called Sam then—hates being the fort’s quartermaster,  misses his wife and infant sons, and likes his liquor and his card games much too much.  Sister Joseph needs money too—to build an orphanage, a hospital, and a school—and doesn’t think much of Sam Grant’s and the residents of the Oregon Territories’ undisciplined lives.  

The Working Theatre Collective presents
_______ not _______
by Nate Harpel and Eva Suter

Festival Performance Dates:, Jan 26 at 8:00 pm
Venue: eff space (boxlift studios) studio #14 (333 NE Hancock)
Single Tickets: $5-10, call 360-739-8523or online at www.theworkingtheatrecollective.com
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $5

In this world (and probably the next) things are not always as they seem.  No matter who we think we are, we may/definitely appear different to the rest of the world.  What is love within one may simply be affection within another, what is a means of transportation to someone may be a traffic obstacle to somebody else.  What is good may be awesome or awful or just odd.  Who can say?

When dropped into the heart of this confusing world, how do we identify who we are, what we do, what we like?  What if, like a blindfold pulled from our eyes, we were forced to self-sort without the aid of practice?  What would happen then?

Northwest Children’s Theater & School presents
Don’t Let the Pigeons Drive the Bus!
from the book by Mo Willems; adapted by Sarah Jane Hardy and John Ellingson; music and lyrics by Ezra Weiss 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 31 at 6:00 pm
Venue: Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center (1819 NW Everett)
Single Tickets: FREE
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: It’s FREE!

“Hey, can I drive the bus? Please…? COME ON!!”

Finally, a play you can say “no” to! When a bus driver takes a break, a wheeling-and-dealing pigeon begs to take his place! The popular book takes flight as audiences get on the bus and move to a Latin groove in this original musical about a little bird with BIG dreams. NWCT World Premiere!

Introducing…Playwrights West
by William S. Gregory, Ellen Margolis, Steve Patterson, Andrea Stolowitz, Eugenia Woods, Patrick Wohlmut, Nick Zagone, and Matthew B. Zrebski

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 31 at 8:00 pm
Venue: CoHo Theatre (2257 NW Raleigh St)
Single Tickets: $5 online at http://www.playwrightswest.org Tickets at the door CASH ONLY

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $3

Showcasing their unique voices and theatrical styles, member playwrights William S. Gregory, Ellen Margolis, Steve Patterson, Andrea Stolowitz, Eugenia Woods, Patrick Wohlmut, Nick Zagone, and Matthew B. Zrebski have each penned a short play to be featured in an evening of dynamic staged readings. Exploring different genres and providing great variety and excitement, Introducing...Playwrights West is a coming out party for a group of dramatists that seeks to introduce audiences to compelling, innovative theatrical experiences while engaging in a dialogue about the rewards of presenting vital new plays by gifted local authors.

How the Light Gets In
by Claire Willet 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 at 7:00 pm
Venue: Jim & Patty’s Coffee (4951 NE Fremont)
Single Tickets: $8 - $12. Call 800-494-TIXS or online at http://www.fertilegroundpdx.org/Calendar.html

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $4

After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Molly Fowler flees her past life for the only safe place she knows - Saint Gabriel Abbey, home of the Benedictine monks who once sheltered her mother. Reckless, self-destructive, with a knack for causing trouble, Molly is an unlikely monastery guest. She quickly makes an enemy of the ambitious Father John, who makes it a project to save her soul. Befriended by the monks who knew her mother, Molly learns some dark truths about her parents' history...while finding herself drawn into a deep and unsettling intimacy with Brother Magnus, the monastery librarian. But when her past, and her mother's, finally catch up with her, Molly's struggle to discover who she is - and who she might become - are violently threatened. This is a story of redemption, and one lost girl's winding and complex journey out of the darkness and into the light. One-third of all proceeds from ticket and pass sales for How the Light Gets In will be donated to support To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. Hope is real.  Help is real.  Love is the movement.  www.twloha.com 

O’Flannery’s Pub
by Rebecca Frost Mayer 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 26 at 7:30 pm
Venue: Arena Stage at Theatre! Theater! (3430 SE Belmont)
Single Tickets: $5. Call 800-494-TIXS or online at http://www.fertilegroundpdx.org/Calendar.html

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $1

O’Flannery’s Pub has been a neighborhood fixture for over thirty years.  In Dorchester, Massachusetts, it is the hangout spot for family, friends, and Red Sox fans.  Seamus O’Flannery, Maggie and Pat’s only child, is set to inherit a share of the family business on his thirtieth birthday.  But when we first meet Seamus, his drinking is out of control, and his girlfriend Caitlin is struggling to keep a big secret from her future in-laws.  Meanwhile, Seamus’ childhood friend Mark is working part-time as a bartender and peacemaker.  Regular customer Bob never misses a beat (or a Budweiser) and provides comic relief as well as serious insight.  It’s time for Maggie O’Flannery to get tough, whether her husband agrees or not.  She’ll do whatever it takes to save her business and her family.

PlayWrite with New Avenues for Youth
by the students at New Avenues for Youth 

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 26 at 2:00 pm
Venue: Mezzanine, Gerding Theater at the Armory (128 NW 11th)
Single Tickets: FREE. Reserve online at http://playwrite-fertileground.eventbrite.com/ 

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

This event shares works in progress of teens from New Avenues for Youth and the dedicated work of PlayWrite coaches, who invest their time with these remarkable young people. Who knows what direction their insights will take by the time the curtain goes up? Come find out… Now entering its seventh year, PlayWrite engages youth in a carefully structured process of creating original plays and songs.  The program targets young people in under-served areas.  The sessions involve an intensive three-week residency, bringing young people together with PlayWrite-trained coaches.  Young participants work one-on-one with coaches to create a play, using non-human characters.  In the final step, public performance, the students become directors, collaborating with professional actors who perform their work for the community. Students, coaches and performers alike learn that putting feelings into language and song is a healing, restorative, and nurturing process, transforming the lives of everyone involved.

The Lincoln High School Drama Department presents
Switch
by Robyn Pritzker, Sophie Koeller, Bati Alon and Anastasia Tuazon

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 27 at 7:30 pm

Venue: Lincoln High School Auditorium (1600 SW Salmon)
Single Tickets: $5 online at https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?ticketing=lhs At the door CASH ONLY

Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: $3

Founded by Lincoln Drama Director Jim Peerenboom and professional director/playwright Matthew B. Zrebski in 2005, the Lincoln Drama New Works Festival has presented over twenty fully produced plays written and performed by students. In its 6th annual offering - titled Switch - four talented playwrights have been selected to each pen a one-act, all of which explore subjects relevant to this young generation - all of which have characters facing a need to switch beliefs, alliances, and paradigms. A young man's struggle with labels regarding sexuality traps him in a triangle between man, woman, and something far more sinister...a girl must work to uncover the hidden memories surrounding a tragic accident...a mysterious cat comes to town, revealing the potential for dangerous independence...killing becomes a humorous way to liven up the banality of every day life for two intertwined teenagers... This year's festival runs February 25 - March 6, 2010. For Fertile Ground, a twenty minute staged excerpt from each play will be previewed for the public.

Oregon Children’s Theatre presents
Small Steps
by Louis Sachar, adopted from the book by Louis Sachar

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 22 at 1:30 pm
Venue: Madison High School Library (2735 NE 82nd Ave)
Single Tickets: FREE Reserve seats at 503-228-9571 or online at www.octc.org
Flash Your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility, Armpit is back in Austin, Texas, working at a landscaping company and trying to change his life, taking small steps. He sets five goals for himself, determined to keep moving forward. 1. Graduate from high school. 2. Get a job. 3. Save some money. 4. Avoid situations that might get violent. 5. Lose his nickname Armpit. Things are going smoothly until X-Ray, a friend from Camp Green Lake, turns up unexpectedly with a get-rich-quick scheme. The plan sounds simple. Kaira DeLeon, the famous teen pop star, is playing a concert in Austin. All X-Ray and Armpit have to do is buy tickets when they go on sale, mark up the price, and sell them to concertgoers. Reluctantly, Armpit agrees to the scheme, but things don’t go nearly as smoothly as X-Ray promises they will. Armpit ends up taking Ginny, his ten-year old neighbor, to the concert, and a series of unexpected events leads to Armpit nearly getting arrested, and a chance encounter with Kaira herself! Suddenly, Armpit’s life is spinning out of control and he finds himself trying to keep himself and X-Ray out of jail, avoid angry ticket scalpers, and even on a plane to San Francisco. Louis Sachar’s sequel to Holes follows Armpit as he maneuvers through the unexpected, the dangerous, and even the romantic—all the while trying to keep his goals in sight, take small steps, and keep moving forward.

Portland Theatre Works presents

Galaxy Blink

by Francesca Sanders

Festival Performance Date(s): Jan 25 at 7:00 pm

Venue: Arena Stage at Theater!Theatre! 3430 SE Belmont

Single Tickets: FREE

Flash your GrOw Button and Save: FREE

Ferdinand is the only person who stands between the few and the brave who protect the galaxy and the forces of absolute evil.  So he never leaves his apartment, surrounded by papers, memos, and wire, desperately radioing and scribbling.  He can't let the men down.  Aurora, his fiancé, is left to make explanations to their dwindling friends, forcing Ferdinand to eat, trying to get him out of his head and into the real world.  Enter John Robert, who knows all about Aurora as soon as he sets eyes on her, and is himself the hero that Ferdinand is waiting for.  But with John Robert's dark past, can he help Aurora and Ferdinand, or will he drag them down with him?

Comedy/Theater: Late Night at the Hothouse
Bad Reputation Productions presents
Road House: The Play
developed for stage by Shelley McLendon and Courtenay Hameister

Festival Performance dates: Jan 28 at 10:30 pm
Venue: Hothouse on the Mezzanine, Gerding Theater at the Armory (128 NW 11th)

Single Tickets: $10. Call 800-494-TIXS or online at http://www.fertilegroundpdx.org/Calendar.html

Flash Your Fertile Ground Button and Save: $2 per ticket

First released as a film in 1989 and starring the late Patrick Swayze, “Road  House” tells the timeless tale of a bar bouncer with a mysterious past who lives by his own rules, a small town terrorized by a wealthy senior citizen, a sexy doctor, and karate. Debuting as a staged reading during the Fertile Ground’s Hot House series, “Road House: The Play!” is the magic that results from taking the original film script, putting it on stage, and adding original songs. For more information: http://badreputationprods.wordpress.com/