Drammy Program
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25 YEARS AND COUNTING BY RICHARD WATTENBERG little more than 25 local theatre community and ny’s name) at North Interstate years ago, in the May interested others hobnob and and Russell Street, the theatre A8, 1979, issue of schmooze as well as honor the moved in 1979 to the Theatre Willamette Week, there outstanding theatrical achieve- Paris just south of Burnside in appeared an item of special ments of the past year. Portland’s Old Town. During interest to theatre-goers. Under Initiated by Willamette the ‘70s and ‘80s Storefront the heading “Introducing ‘the Week’s Fresh Weekly editor, was the home-base of the Willies,’” one reads: “Fresh Stephanie Oliver, and theatre extraordinarily imaginative Weekly wishes to announce the reviewer, Bob Sitton, the director/designer Ric Young. nominations for its First Willies were fashioned after Described by Steffen Silvis as Annual Awards for Excellence The Village Voice OBIE “a fabricator of Decameronic in Theater—the Willies—to be Awards, which celebrate New dreams and vaudevillian ter- presented by Willamette Week York City’s adventurous Off rors...the Diaghilev of at an invitational cocktail party and Off-Off Broadway the- Burnside,” Young captivated at the Mallory Hotel at 6 pm atre. Portland with magical specta- on May 22.” A list of three to The OBIE model was espe- cles, including unforgettable five nominations in each of cially appropriate during the productions of Salome and eight categories followed. 1980s when Portland theatre Camille as well as The Passion Thus was Portland’s yearly was energized by a number of for Fresh Flowers (1988) and springtime theatre bash cutting-edge artists and non- Yeats’ The Cuchulain Cycle launched. What began as an equity companies. This was (1989), co-written with Van “invitational cocktail party” the heyday of Storefront O’Brien. has become an annual public Actors’ Theatre. If, as Bob Hicks has written, gala where members of the Established in 1969 in an “Young carefully cultivated empty store (hence the compa- his reputation as...the anarchic 4 DRAMMYS 25th ANNIVERSARY bad boy who scattered glitter Gaynor Sterchi, Kelly Brooks, significant was the grandam FIRST PAGE: Judges Bob Sitton, Pauline Peotter, and naked bodies across Victoria Parker, Jim Caputo, of Portland theatres, the Bob Jackson, Stephanie Oliver and Jonathan Nicholas in the first years of the Willie Awards. Portland’s stages in an orgy of Sam Mowry and Joe Cronin. Portland Civic Theatre, which sensual decadence,” he was Other new companies like dated back to the 1920s. Led TOP LEFT: Gaynor Sterchi holds the record for win- certainly matched by another the New Rose (founded in by Isabella Chappell, PCT in ning the most Willies and Drammys for acting. driving force in the Portland 1979, by a group of the ‘80s was a beehive of theatre of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Minnesota transplants led by activity with two performance TOP RIGHT: The “Diaghilev of Burnside,” Storefront’s Ric Young. Actor/director Peter Fornara Gary O’Brien, to present inno- spaces, the Mainstage and the held audiences spellbound vative productions of classical intimate Blue Room, as well with tough, gritty productions works) and Artists Repertory as a year-round performing of modern American plays by Theatre (founded in 1982 and arts school for children and Sam Shepard and David led in its early years by adults. Mamet, as well as powerful Rebecca Adams) also invigor- In a city lacking an estab- productions of Ibsen, ated the Portland theatre lished professional theatre, Rostand, Shaw and scene during the 1980s. But PCT took a step toward Shakespeare. Fornara claimed not all the best work of the becoming a professional com- he liked plays that “come at ‘80s was staged by new or pany when it launched the you like a hammer,” and this fringe companies. Summer Repertory Onstage. intensity seemed to character- Theatre Workshop, founded Founded in 1973, this off-sea- ize his work. With Actors in 1949 and directed by Steve son company, under Production Company, Sirius Smith from 1970, was Managing Director Bill Productions and a number of engaged in theatre education Dobson and Artistic Director other companies, he collabo- as well as production and in Glenn Gauer, paid its summer- rated with many of Portland’s 1983 spawned the Musical time artists to produce popu- top thespians, including Company. Perhaps even more lar hits. Another attempt at 25th ANNIVERSARY DRAMMYS 5 TOP: The building of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts changed the landscape of Portland’s theatre community. RIGHT: Demetra Pittman, an Ashland favorite, won Best Actress in 1989 for OSF Portland’s production of Heartbreak House (1989). FAR RIGHT: The original “Willie” Award. BELOW: Ted Roisum and Keith Scales helped make Storefront’s Greek the Best Production of 1987. establishing a professional manager. Portland theatre’s company came with the progress towards professional- Oregon Contemporary ization culminated with the Theatre in the early ‘80s. completion of the Performing OCT used many of Portland’s Arts Center in 1987 and the finest actors as well as bring- arrival of the Oregon ing in such talents as Emily Shakespeare Festival/Portland Mann, Andre Gregory and under artistic director Dennis Wallace Shawn. Bigelow in 1988—an event A further stride toward pro- that represented a significant fessionalization was taken in turning point in the history of the mid-80s by the onetime Portland theatre. Mark Allen Players, which As true professional theatre moved into the Willamette was establishing itself in Center Building (now Portland, a change took place Portland’s World Trade in Portland’s springtime Center) to become Willamette awards festivities. During the Repertory Theatre. In 1985, summer of 1989, the awards this company which was later nominating committee, origi- to become the Portland nally sponsored solely by Repertory Theatre, negotiated Willamette Week, reorganized a modest equity contract itself to become an independ- whereby each production ent board, the “Portland would employ two union Drama Critics Circle.” The actors and one union stage- clever little puppet-like Willie 6 DRAMMYS 25th ANNIVERSARY awards designed by Joan sional theatre in their midst. LEFT: The legendary Peter Fornara, three-time Gratz of Will Vinton The desire to join the Best Actor winner in the 1980s. Productions gave way to the OSF/Portland in Portland’s RIGHT: Karen Boettcher-Tate as Frankie and Allen less whimsical Drammy tro- Center for the Performing Nause as Johnny in Artist Repetory Theatre’s phies and plaques. Arts and establish the little revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Given the recent arrival of a Winningstad as a home had Lune, 1993. professional theatre on troubling effects for some of Portland’s Broadway, it may Portland’s more innovative not be entirely coincidental companies. Storefront and that the new Drammys were New Rose seemed to lose their introduced by The Oregonian way, and both closed in the on June 10, 1990, as “the early ‘90s. Similarly, other Rose City’s own version of once-vigorous theaters like Broadway’s Tony Awards.” Portland Civic Theatre and Although the OBIE model the Columbia Theatre disap- yielded to the mainstream peared at the start of the Tony prototype, the intent decade. Even more tragic were was still to celebrate outstand- the deaths of Ric Young in ing work by Portland theatre 1992 and Peter Fornara in artists, and that work was not 1994, from AIDS, losses that limited to big equity venues. seemed, for a time, too diffi- The early ‘90s were, howev- cult for the local theatre com- er, a period of adjustment as munity to overcome. smaller companies adapted to Portland theatre still, how- the presence of a fully profes- ever, carried on and remained 25th ANNIVERSARY DRAMMYS 7 vital. The Portland branch of Certainly, other companies the OSF became Portland haven’t done as well—going Center Stage, an independent the way of the old Storefront theatre, in 1994. In 2000, and New Rose. Portland Chris Coleman took over as Repertory Theatre, Tygres that theatre’s fourth artistic Heart Shakespeare Company, director and infused the city’s Musical Theatre Company largest professional theatre and Other Side Theatre are with a vigor not seen under just a few of the once-vital his predecessors. theatres that have disappeared Artists Repertory Theatre in the past 10 years. Yet, has grown steadily since Allen around the PCS/ART core, Nause took its helm in 1988. Portland nevertheless has a TOP LEFT: Doug Miller and Drammy-winner In 1998 ART moved out of rich array of active theatres. Christine Calfas in Richard III, 1997. YWCA’s 110-seat Wilson Now, 25 years since the first Center into the new awards celebration, there’s TOP RIGHT: David Ivers and Gretchen Corbett in Reiersgaard Theatre. In the still much to celebrate on 1998’s Molly Sweeney. 2001-2002 season, ART Portland’s stages. So here’s a ABOVE: Imago’s Frogz. opened a second stage at the toast to all the theatre artists Interstate Firehouse Cultural of the past 25 years and to all Center in North Portland. the work we have to look PCS followed suit in 2003, forward to in the next 25. offering productions in both Cheers. ■ the Newmark and Winningstad Theatres. 8 DRAMMYS 25th ANNIVERSARY.