Profile Theatre presents Las Meninas by Lynn Nottage, directed by Dawn Monique Williams

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JOSH HECHT

Featuring Lynn Nottage, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Paula Vogel Las Meninas is often billed as a comedy, and in many ways it is. Nottage certainly has her fun with the morés of the French Court (fun that Crystal Ann Muñoz, Chris Murray and Claire Rigsby attack with naughty relish). The play had its genesis when Nottage, who thought for a time she would be a journalist until Paula Vogel encouraged her to pursue a playwriting degree, was reading a book on the African presence in Renaissance Europe and noted a brief mention of Louise Marie-Therese, a nun of presumed biracial heritage who was rumored to be the daughter of Queen Marie-Therese of France. Upon further research, Nottage discovered that she is mentioned in the 17th century memoirs of several members of the court of the Louis XIV, including those of two of Louis’ mistresses as well as Voltaire himself. In the 1920s a portrait of Louise Marie-Therese that hangs in the Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve called The Black Nun of Moret was determined to have been painted by the same hand that painted some 22 portraits of members of the Sun King’s court. Nottage became fascinated by the story, and wrote Las Meninas in the late 1990s. It had its premiere at San Jose Repertory in 2002.

Nottage leans into the deliciousness that this history implies. But what I love most about Las Meninas is the way Nottage uses it to examine the complex nexus of love, coercion, racism, and the trade in both women’s bodies and Black bodies. By doing so, she asks us to consider the nature of love itself. Can love ever be fully divorced from economic pressures, ego-satisfaction, or the systemic commodification of bodies? That makes me sound awfully cynical, doesn’t it? I don’t mean to imply that love isn’t its own rich, intoxicating, soul- and psyche-expanding numinous thing. But it strikes me, as I make my way through Nottage’s enrapturing tale, that we join together for a myriad reasons that, ideally include love and a sense that “we” can be companions in life, but also includes all sorts of material pressures, versions of the ones we find in Nottage’s play.

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In the same scene in which Nabo tells the Queen, “When you could love the whole world, you chose to love me. A truly noble heart,” he also tells her “If I could get away, I’d have gone long ago […]

Where I go, I’m not a fool. I don’t think you understand that yet. I’m not a servant or a slave. And if you came [with me] I would be all of those things.” Undeniably, there is feeling between these two people. Nabo identifies what Queen Marie feels as “love.” There is kindness, delight, jealousy, compassion, and care.

But there is also the undeniable hierarchy that makes one a Queen of Europe and the other someone who was stolen from his homeland and forced into servitude. Can there ever be something we would call “love” between these two? To complicate things further, Nottage points us towards the way the Queen, too, is a commodity. “You were shipped in a box and I in a carriage,” she says. “I recognized you.”

“Sometimes I feel that we are in love,” Queen Marie-Therese says to Nabo. “Is that strange? Could we be in love?”

“In desperation,” he replies.

The contrast in Las Meninas is stark, brutal at times. Also, perhaps, familiar.

,

Artistic Director

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Profile Theatre Presents an audio play production of:

LAS MENINAS

LYNN NOTTAGE DIRECTED BY DAWN MONIQUE WILLIAMS WRITTEN BY

CAST

Lauren Modica....................................................................................... Louise Marie-Therese Stacy Ross*...........................................................................Mother Superior/Queen Mother Crystal Ann Muñoz................................................................................Queen Marie-Therese Chris Murray.........................................................................................................King Louis XIV Rance Nix*........................................................................................................... Nabo Sensugali Michael J. Asberry*............................................................................................Painter/Doctor Claire Rigsby*....................................................................................La Valliere/Lady Servant

DESIGNERS & PRODUCTION

Dawn Monique Williams^..............................................................................................Director Jamie Lynne Simons.......................................................... Associate Production Manager Bobby Brewer-Wallin..................................................................................Costume Designer Matt Wiens................................................Sound Designer & Composer of Original Music Robert A. K. Gonyo.............................................................................................Audio Engineer Judy Bowman, CSA............................................... Casting Director for the Role of ‘Nabo’ Jamie M. Rea.........................................................................................................Line Producer Run time is approximately 2 hours.

LAS MENINAS premiered at San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose, CA, in 2002 (Timothy Near, Artistic Director; Alexander Urbanowski, Managing Director.

It was developed in Genesis 2000 at Crossroads Theatre Company.

It received a developmental workshop at ACT/Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, ACT, Seattle, WA. RECORDING OR REPRODUCING THIS AUDIO PLAY IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

SEASON SPONSORS: Ronni Lacroute

Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation

WINE SPONSOR:

THIS SEASON IS FUNDED IN PART BY: ^ Profile Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre.

†

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*Appearing through and agreement with SAG-AFTRA. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Collective Bargaining Agreement.

PLAYWRIGHT PROFILE LYNN NOTTAGE Brooklyn-born Lynn Nottage is one of the most celebrated mid-career playwrights today. She began writing plays while in high school at the famed LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts in New York. But Nottage credits mentor Paula Vogel with helping guide her into a career in the arts. They first met in the late 1980s when Nottage was an undergrad at Brown University and took a graduate playwriting seminar taught by Vogel, who ran the graduate program there for twentyfive years. “I was going to go to journalism school, and Paula said, ‘Well, why don’t you apply to the theatre program?’” Nottage went on to get her MFA in Playwriting at Yale School of Drama and her DFA from Brown. Vogel became a life-long mentor and friend.

Throughout the late 1990s, Nottage was a frequent presence off-Broadway and regionally with plays like Por’Knockers (1995), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (1996), Mud, River, Stone (1997), and Las Meninas (2002), but it was her 2003 play Intimate Apparel that brought her national prominence with three large productions in quick succession at Baltimore’s Center Stage, South Coast Repertory and New York’s Roundabout Theatre in a production starring Viola Davis. Intimate Apparel went on to be one of the most widely produced plays of the early 2000s. It’s companion piece, Fabulation, premiered the following fall at Playwrights Horizons, in a production directed by frequent collaborator Kate Whoriskey.

Nottage had long been interested in exploring a version of Mother Courage and Her Children set in the Congo, which had been embroiled in a years-long civil war. The day after Fabulation opened, she and Whoriskey boarded a plane for Uganda where they spent several weeks conducting interviews. The result of that trip was Nottage’s play Ruined, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize after an extended run at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Nottage won her second Pulitzer Prize for 2017’s Sweat, a play about deindustrialization in America, and the product of extensive interviews conducted in Reading, PA. Hailed as one of the most important plays of the decade, the play transferred to Broadway, where it was nominated for a Best Play Tony Award.

Mlima’s Tale premiered in 2018 at Public Theatre. Slightly different in process than her other plays, Lynn Nottage didn’t have to spend years researching elephants before writing Mlima’s Tale. The play was inspired by a conversation with Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, who was, in Nottage’s words, “deeply invested” in the plight of elephants. “Kathryn said, ‘What can we do?’” Nottage recalled in a recent conversation at the Public. “And I thought we could write a play to get this information out quickly to a broad audience and build empathy in ways that are more difficult to do on screen.” -Interview with Vanity Fair Throughout her work, Nottage marries a journalist’s delight in research and first-hand interviews, an activist’s interest in social justice, and the exceptional craft of one of our most powerful dramatists.

FROM DIRECTOR DAWN MONIQUE WILLIAMS Lynn Nottage has long been a hero of mine. Her stories have provided a theatrical home for so many of us; from By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (which I have directed twice), to Ruined, Intimate Apparel, and Poof (a one act I directed over 20 years ago in undergrad), I have always felt the affirmation of Black lives, in particular the lives of women—the unsung, the forgotten. I have always felt the power of her world building, depth of care, pride, and curiosity. Las Meninas is a superb example of all of this and I hope you, the listener, can experience Lynn’s deftness as a storyteller as she subverts the tragic mulatto trope and renders an origin story, a creation myth, drawn from historical detail, that exposes the sickening pain of human trafficking and the resilience of the human spirit and the triumph of love.

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CAST & CREATIVE TEAM LAUREN MODICA

Louise MarieTherese Lauren (she/her/ hers) is thrilled to return to Portland, Profile Theatre, and to be working with Dawn. Last seen at Profile in The Antigone Project (Antoinette + others), and last in PDX as Mrs. Jennings in Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility and Mary Bennet in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Portland Center Stage) she has spent the last four years at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where recent roles include Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Widow in All’s Well That Ends Well, and others. Other theaters include American Repertory Theater, Artist’s Rep, Defunkt, and others.

CRYSTAL ANN MUÑOZ

Queen MarieTherese Crystal (she/her/ hers) is excited to return to Profile in the role of Queen Marie-Therese! Past work with Profile includes Water by the Spoonful, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Orlando, and Eyes For Consuela.

Other favorite Portland credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest; Civil War Christmas (Artists Rep), Olivia in Twelfth Night (Portland Shakespeare Project), The Huntsmen (Portland Playhouse), Guapa (Milagro Theatre), Kiss Of The Spider Woman (Triangle Productions) and In The Heights (Stumptown Stages). In her spare time Crystal enjoys reading scary novels and snuggling with her two pups.

CHRIS MURRAY

STACY ROSS

Mother Superior/ Queen Mother Stacy (she/her/hers) is a Bay Area based actor who is delighted to work again so soon with Dawn Monique Williams after collaborating in a kickass cast last fall on Bull in a China Shop at the Aurora theatre in Berkeley. Other recent work includes roles in They Promised Her the Moon (TheatreWorks), the world premier of Free for All - a new miss Julie for a new world (Cutting Ball), Everybody (California Shakespeare Theatre) and The Hard Problem (American Conservatory Theatre).

She’s also appeared at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage and 59E59 in NYC.

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King Louis XIV Chris (he/him/his) is delighted to return to Profile Theater under the skillful eye of Dawn Monique Williams! Previous credits at Profile include: In The Wake, The Antigone Project, Sam Sheppard - Festival of One Acts, A Few Stout Individuals, The Sisters Rosensweig and Six Degrees of Separation. A huge thanks to Profile for providing contracts to working artists in the midst of these unprecedented times.

RANCE NIX

Nabo Sensugali Rance (he/him/ his) is an actor from Atlanta, Georgia currently holding it down in New York City working on various internet and new media projects. Most recently,

he spoofed the Netflix hit show Love is Blind by creating and hosting an Instagram version with his roommate called Love is Quarantine. Overall whether on stage or on camera, Rance is an enthusiastic talent with a unique presence that connects with audiences in a truly special way. Even though theatres are closed, Rance is excited to play the role of Nabo Sensugali and bring a very relevant story to life in a timely way!

MICHAEL J. ASBERRY

Painter/Doctor Michael (he/him/ his) most recently appeared in The Rotten Orchard with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He’s also performed with Aurora Theatre Company; Sacramento Theatre Company; Capital Stage Company; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; Pacific Conservatory Theatre; TheatreWorks; Shotgun Theater and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Film and television credits include San Andreas (Warner Brothers); Chance (Hulu); Trauma (NBC); Nash Bridges (CBS) and voiceover for Pixar Animation, Clorox, Pine Sol and the video game, Watchdogs 2. Michael is a Proud Member of SAG/ AFTRA and Actors Equity Association.

CLAIRE RIGSBY

La Valliere/Lady Servant Claire (she/her/hers) is thrilled to explore the world of audio plays with such a fun cast and crew. She is grateful to have a creative opportunity during this time, and especially grateful that it is under the leadership of Dawn Monique Williams, whom she last worked with on the amazingly fun and wacky

The Secretaries by The Five Lesbian Brothers. Portland credits include Artists Rep, Portland Playhouse, Chapel Theatre, Proscenium Live, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Broadway Rose, and Live Onstage.

LYNN NOTTAGE

Playwright Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays include Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award), which moved to Broadway after a sold out run at The Public Theater, Mlima’s Tale (Outer Critics Circle Nomination), By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers and POOF!. In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera at Lincoln Center. She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA. She was writer/ producer on the first season of Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It directed

by Spike Lee. Nottage is a member of the Dramatists Guild, an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, Steinberg “Mimi” Distinguished Playwright Award, Doris Duke Artists Award and PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, among others.

DAWN MONIQUE WILLIAMS

Director Dawn is Associate Artistic Director at Aurora Theatre Company. A native of Oakland, CA, Dawn was previously the Artistic Associate at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she is directing Bernhardt/Hamlet this season, having directed Merry Wives of Windsor there in 2017. Her recent directing credits include Aurora’s Bull in a China Shop, Earthrise at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, TiJean and His Brothers, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Secretaries (Willamette Week’s Top 10 Portland Theatre Productions of 2018), Romeo & Juliet, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Stark.

JAMIE LYNNE SIMONS

Associate Production Manager Jamie rejoins Profile Theatre after previously assistant stage managing the co-production Indecent with Artists Repertory Theatre and was the stage manager for Community Profile’s Our City’s Veterans. As the stage manager for Oregon Ballet Theatre, Jamie has a new covid-skill - video switching.

Tour: production stage manager for Hundred Days. Other local credits: Portland Center Stage at the Armory, Portland Opera, Third Rail Repertory, Portland Playhouse, Chamber Music Northwest - and aiding in medical education at Oregon Health & Sciences University as a practice patient. Jamie spent a handful of years on cruise ships with Carnival Cruise Lines and is the Chair of Portland’s Liaison Committee for Actors’ Equity Association. Art will carry us through.

BOBBY BREWER-WALLIN

Costume Designer Bobby is a Professor of Theatre who designs costumes for theatre and dance. With an MFA in costume design from CalArts, he joined the faculty at Willamette University in 2000. He teaches courses in Costume Design, Global Fashion History, and seminars on the subjects of Clothing + Memory, Protest Clothing as Threads of Change, and Voices of the Pacific Northwest. Recent designs include The Revolutionists, A Doll’s House Part 2, Everybody, and Magellanica at ART, The Memorandum and Revolt. She Said.

Revolt Again., at Willamette University, The Events at Third Rail Repertory Theatre, and Richard III and King Lear at Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre.

MATT WIENS

Sound Designer and Composer of Original Music Matt is a Portland-based composer and sound designer and is excited to be a part of this new project. Recent work includes Indecent with ART and Profile Theater; Claudia, A Viral Love Story, The Baltimore Waltz, Well, and Let Me Down Easy with Profile Theater; The Bakkhai and Escaped Alone with Shaking The Tree Theater; MALA with CoHo Productions; Crowns with Portland Playhouse. Matt holds a BA in Theater from Goshen College and a Masters in Music Technology from NYU. ROBERT A. K. GONYO

Audio Engineer Robert is a theatre director, actor, voiceover artist, podcaster, musician, and tour-guide residing in Woodside, Queens, NY. An aficionado of radio plays, Robert is the host (in the guise of “Professor Mortimer,” his tour-guide alter-ego with Haunted Manhattan) and 7

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM CONT’D producer of Apparitions, a podcast of new radio horror; has directed several pieces in Distilled Theatre Company’s DTC Radio series; and, produced CoOp Theatre East’s long-running Radio COTE series of new plays on social themes. He also wrote & directed radio plays Conference, which puts the audience on a campaign strategy conference call, and A New Cassette, featured on the Geste podcast.

JUDY BOWMAN, CSA

Casting Director for the Role of ‘Nabo’ UPCOMING: “Falling, Rising Monster” (short film), Elliot & Me (musical) & “I’ll Be True” (feature). TV/ FILM: “Big Dogs” season 1 (Amazon), “Separation”, “Hurricane Bianca”, “No Alternative”, “Lost Cat Corona”, “Gold Star”, “Copenhagen”.

THEATER: Broadway & off-Broadway, incl. Molly Sweeney, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Dutch Masters, A Bright New Boise.

Collaborations w/ Humana Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, Arizona Theatre Co, Woolly Mammoth, Cleveland Play House, Merrimack Rep, & 4 productions directed by Josh Hecht. Artios Award nomination, PT Barnum Award.

JAMIE REA

in Christchurch, New Zealand where she trained with the all female Dance Company JAVA & CircoArts.

JOSH HECHT

Artistic Director Josh is the Artistic Director of Profile Theatre where he recently directed The Baltimore Waltz and Indecent (co-production with Artists Repertory Theatre) by Paula Vogel, the rotating repertory productions of Lisa Kron’s Well and Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy, Lisa Kron’s In The Wake, the concert staging of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and the rotating repertory productions of Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful and The Happiest Song Plays Last. Other Portland productions include Teenage Dick at Artists Repertory Theatre. He is a Drama Desk Award-winning director whose productions have been seen in New York at MCC Theater, The Cherry Lane, The Duke on 42nd Street, New World Stages, The Daryl Roth Theatre, Culture Project, regionally

at The Guthrie Theater, the Berkshire Theatre Group, the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Signature Theatre (DC), Theatre Squared and internationally at the Dublin Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and elsewhere. His collaboration with Ping Chong and Company was commissioned by and premiered at The Kennedy Center before touring the northeast. His writing has received the support of the Jerome Foundation. He’s developed new plays at The O’Neill, NYSAF, The Playwrights Center, The New Harmony Project, JAW/PCS, GPTC, and at theaters around the country. He is formerly the Director of Playwright Development at MCC Theater and the Director of New Play Development at WET. He’s served on the faculty of the New School for Drama MFA Directing program, the Fordham University MFA Playwriting program, Purchase College SUNY’s BFA Dramatic Writing program and has been a guest artist at The Juilliard School, NYU’s Dramatic Writing MFA, Carnegie Mellon’s MFA Playwriting, University of Minnesota’s BFA Acting program and others.

BECOME A MEMBER!

Line Producer A renaissance woman of the theatre, Jamie has had the pleasure of exploring this powerful tool for connection and change for over 20 years. She has studied the work of Sanford Meisner & Robert Bray with Barry Hunt & Sowelu Theatre Ensemble; Suzuki Technique & Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints with the SITI Company (NYC); Rhythm Tap with Savion Glover’s teacher Lady Diane Walker & Lane Alexander, founder of the National Tap Dance Festival in Chicago. She has danced at The Body, a festival of dance and physical theatre 8

Free audio play listening for a month+ Bonus content & exclusive event invites All-access pass to programs TBA through June 2021

ONLINE: profiletheatre.org/membership CALL: 503.242.0080 EMAIL: boxoffice@profiletheatre.org

BEYOND THE MAINSTAGE

COMMUNITY PROFILE: VOICES FROM THE REAL WORLD LISTEN TO EPISODES 1-3 NOW AT PROFILETHEATRE.ORG/VOICES-FROM-THE-REAL-WORLD OR ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP. EPISODE 1: Poet Vivian Knezevich reads “Wally”, “Nostalgia and the View From 30,000 Feet” and “Angry Queer Rant #31” Vivian is a poet and proud lesbian residing in Portland Oregon. She writes about the joys & struggles of being queer, recovering from mental illness and the crushing weight of being human.

EPISODE 2: Jennifer Perrine: Both Magician and Trick Listen to this interview and hear a selection of Jennifer’s original poems.

“Jennifer (or “JP” as they are known in Community Profile) is a down to earth poet who carries within them an innate sense of mystery. Which, by chance, is also a pretty accurate description of their award-winning poetry.

EPISODE 3: Ajai Tripathi: See You On the Other Side Ajai Tripathi is a clear-eyed and incisive observer of the world around him. The poetry of his prose comes not from flowery language but from the precision of his vision and his passion for justice. You can always feel/hear his brain wrestling with the question at hand, never resting in its search for an ever-elusive answer.

FEATURING PARTICIPANTS FROM OUR SIGNATURE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM Since 2017, we’ve provided hundreds of hours of free writing workshops to more than 200 individuals. Participants bring their authentic voices and we give space, mentorship and support to engage in the radical act of self-expression and community building through writing. There is something undeniably powerful about exploring one’s own creative voice alongside those who have walked a mile in your shoes. The result is networks of friendship and resilience, affirmation and accomplishment.

SIGN-UP FOR FREE WRITING WORKSHOPS, MENTORSHIP AND COMMUNITY TODAY This year we are inviting Black Women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to join our dedicated community spaces.

Community Profile is open to new participants through June 2021. Exploring your creative voice with award-winning writing mentors. The program is currently virtual, always 100% free, and you don’t have to join every session. Come to as many or as few sessions that fit into your schedule and goals. Learn more and sign-up at profiletheatre.org/community-profile UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND MENTORS All sessions take place on Zoom from 11AM-2PM (PST) Black Women Cohort LGBTQIA+ Cohort Dec. 5, 2020: Winter Miller Jan. 9, 2021: Christopher Oscar Peña Jan. 23, 2021: Mark Doty Feb. 6, 2021: Diana Oh Mar. 6, 2021: Lucy Thurber Apr. 3, 2021: Daniel Alexander Jones May 1, 2021: Matthew B. Zrebski June 5, 2021: Claire Willett

Dec. 12, 2020: Kara Lee Corthron Jan. 9, 2021: Tananarive Due Jan. 16, 2021: Patricia Ione Lloyd / Ngozi Anyanwu Feb. 20, 2021: Josie Seid Mar. 20, 2021: Nilaja Sun Apr. 17, 2021: S. Renee Mitchell May 15, 2021: Mfoniso Udofia June 19, 2021: Anya Pearson

THIS PROGRAM IS FREE TO PARTICIPANTS THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

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ABOUT PROFILE THEATRE STAFF Josh Hecht, Artistic Director Matthew Jones, Managing Director Krina Turner, Director of Patron and Donor Relations Jamie M. Rea, Line Producer

MISSION: To produce a season of first-class productions and community

engagement activities centered around a Season-long Featured Writer whose vision broadens our perspective on our world and deepens our collective compassion.

Bobby Bermea, Director of Community Engagement Caleb Bourgeois, Company Manager Jen Mitas, Public Relations

OUR HISTORY

ANTI-RACISM

Founded in 1997 by Jane Unger, Profile Theatre has always centered a season around a single writer, spending much of its first fifteen years exploring the work of some of the 20th Centuries most important masters and bringing many of them to Portland to develop work. Profile’s second Artistic Director, Adriana Baer, led the theater from 2012-2015. Adriana was interested in exploring the writers we would come to think of as our “21st Century Masters,” contemporary writers investigating the most pressing concerns of our time.

Profile Theatre is committed to antiracism and we are taking steps towards lasting change.

Josh Hecht became Artistic Director in 2017.

His commitment to new work and robust community engagement has led to new commissions in 2018-2019, an expanded play-development residency for our Featured Writer and our Community Profile Program that uses the practice of writing and storytelling as a means of community-building.

Over the past four years, Community Profile has built lasting community with military vets and their families, people living with chronic illness or caring for someone who does, the LGBTQIA+ community, and this year with Black Womxn.

Over the past twenty years Profile’s Featured Writers have won 10 Pulitzer Prizes (plus 4 finalists), 20 Tony Awards (plus 7 nominations), 18 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Obie Awards and 3 MacArthur “Genius” Awards. In 2010, Profile Theatre was awarded an inaugural “New National Theatre Company” Award from the American Theatre Wing designed to bring national attention to “the most inspiring and innovative theatre companies on our national landscape.” More recently, Profile has twice been recognized by Advanced Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE) for its leadership in equity, diversity and inclusion.

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In 2016, Profile Theatre identified Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access (EDIA) as top priorities and launched our Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, a three-year commitment to centering all of our programming around the work of women and artists of color.. As a part of this process, Profile has worked to make a safe space for individuals with different racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations. These remain top institutional priorities.

Today, Profile leadership understands the specific need to combat antiBlackness in our organization and industry and to fight for racial justice. We commit to identifying and dismantling systemic racism in our work, practices and spaces in addition to the ongoing pursuit of our EDIA goals. Building on the goals identified by noted antiracism theater maker and educator Nicole Brewer, our anti-racism work includes three overarching aims: harm prevention, relationship building and continuous learning.

Kira Batcheller, Graphic Design

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mignon Mazique, President Stephen Schuitevoerder, Treasurer Linda Jensen, Secretary Patricia Garner Julie Mancini Nia Ray

RESOURCE COUNCIL The Profile Theatre Resource Council is made up of individuals who generously offer their connections or specialized skill and experience to Profile staff, artists and Board. Resource Council members are our ambassadors in the community and our advisors behind the scenes.

Adriana Baer, Former Artistic Director Lue Douthit Paul Duden Erika George Leslie Johnson Mike Lindberg

Read our anti-racism action plan at: profiletheatre.org/anti-racism-actionplan Learn about our Diversity and Inclusion initiative at: profiletheatre.org/1920/ diversity-and-inclusion-initiative

Kush Pathak Mary Simeone Patrick Stupek George Thorn Jane Unger, Founding Artistic Director Julie Vigeland Priscilla Bernard Wieden Stephen R. Young

22 SEASONS OF 1ST CLASS PRODUCTIONS For more than 20 years Profile Theatre has impacted the community through our mission of setting a playwright at the center of our season, making us one of the longest-running theater institutions in Oregon. Since 1997, we have supported the bold vision of these playwrights.

2019-2020: Generations I Paula Vogel / Lynn Nottage / Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 2018-2019 Double Season, Lisa Kron / Anna Deavere Smith 2016-2017, Quiara AlegrĂ­a Hudes 2015-2016, Tanya Barfield 2014-2015, Sarah Ruhl 2013-2014, Sam Shepard 2012-2013, Athol Fugard 2011-2012, 15th Anniversary Season 2010-2011, Lee Blessing 2009-2010, Horton Foote 2008-2009, Neil Simon 2007-2008, John Guare 2006-2007, Wendy Wasserstein 2005-2006, Lanford Wilson 2004-2005, Terrence McNally 2003-2004, Romulus Linney 2002-2003, Edward Albee 2001-2002, Harold Pinter 2000-2001, Arthur Miller 1999-2000, Constance Congdon 1998-1999, Tennessee Williams 1997-1998, Arthur Kopit 11

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS $25,000+

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Elizabeth Anderson and the late Ron W. Naito M.D.

Advanced Gender Equity in the Arts

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Tom and Linda Unger

Lauretta Burman

Quinn MacNichol Jacklyn Maddux

John and the late Judi Wandres

Marta and Ken Thrasher

Rita Charlesworth

Oregon Arts Commission The Ralph and Adolph Jacobs Foundation Stephen Schuitevoerder and Tami Staudt Steve Young and Jane Fellows Charlene Zidell

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Lillie Case Anonymous Lisa Collins Anonymous John D Elliott Tim and Claire Darling

Anonymous

Linda and Stephen Buckley

Ann Bardacke and David Wolf

Priscilla Carlson and Karen Wells

Laurent Drui

Gilbert Shaw and Liana Colombo

Leon Aliski

Ellen Cantwell

Shannon and Hayden Thomas

Linda Jensen and Robert Nimmo

Kay and Roy Abramowitz

Adam Caniparoli and Miriam Schwartz

Amy Driesler

Nancy and Howard Thurston

$500 - $999

Bobby Brewer-Wallin

Rosalie and Ed Tank

Wendy Lin-Kelly

Christine and David Vernier

Kate Bredeson

Nancy Drake

Karl and Linda Boekelheide

Sarah and Steven Cantor

Dean Boyd

Gary Taliaferro

Ann Smith Sehdev*

Oregon Arts and Culture Recovery Program; Fred W. Fields Fund and partners, The Collins Foundation, James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Oregon Community Foundation, Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Reser Family Foundation and Schnitzer CARE Foundation/Jordan Schnitzer

Christine Bourdette and Ricardo Lovett

Patrick Stupek

Rick and Halle Sadle

Michelle Maida and James Hager

Andrew Boardman and Ruth Costantini

Sherwin and Michael Davidson

The Jackson Foundation

Anonymous

Steven Birkel

Stephen and Alice Stolzberg

Diane Herrmann

Liss-Brewster Family Philanthropic Fund

Byron Beck

Abel Weinrib and Carmen Egido

Rebecca Stefoff and Zachary Edmonson Pam Elmore Duffy Epstein Yaakov Epstein Heather Fairlee Denbrough David Felt

Vince and Valri Chiappetta

Elizabeth and George Marino

Susan Climo

Nancy Matthews

Anthony Wilcox

Katherine Fischer

Ron Crosier

Kathryn Mclaughlin

Grey Wolfe

Carol Flanagan

Aubrey Daquiz

Anonymous

Kristy Fleming

Dev Devarajan

Daniel Meeker

Maureen Wright and Lane Brown

David Deutsch and Gary Stutler

Charles Meshul and Maureen Ober

James Dixon

Anonymous

Wendy Feuer

Maryann Yelnosky and Jesse Smith

Daniel Fogg and Matt Pearson Joshua Forsythe

Birgit Meyer

UP TO $99

LM Alaiyo Foster

Mrs. Leslye Epstein and Dr. Herman Taylor

Sharon Miller*

Gary Alexander

Intel Foundation

Carole Morse

Madilynn Garcia

Georgenne Ferdun

Kelyn Moser

Bruce Allardice and Victoria Abrash

Kathryn Neumark

Jane Geesman

Roger Griffith

Krista Garver and Katie Leonard

Anonymous Andrew Apter

Anonymous

Jay Hecht

Carolyn Gassaway

Tim and Jan Gillespie

Jessie Jonas

Robert and Melissa Good

Corrine Oishi and Lindley Morton

Demetra Ariston Jeff Bachrach

Cynthia Gomez

Jean and Rich Josephson

Olive Grose

Eddie Passadore

Anonymous

Anonymous

Greg Berman Anonymous Deborah Correa and Mark Wilson Gun Denhart

Anonymous

Cheryl Gatti

This list acknowledges donors September 15, 2019 to November 30, 2020.

Julie Hastings

William and Susan Sack

Brian McGrady

Francie and Paul Duden

Anonymous

David Saft and Laura G. Lehrhoff

Byron Palmer and Helen Sinoradzki

Gary Taliaferro

Deborah Schauffler

Carlton Olson

Anonymous

Carol Flanagan

Les Schwartz

Carol Kimball

Gilbert Shaw and Liana Colombo

Byron Palmer and Helen Sinoradzki

Carolyn Gassaway

Glenda Chaite

Margaret Hoffman

Carolyn Wood

Greg Berman

Marlene Andrejco

Casey Meredith

Grey Wolfe

Martha Spence

Caster/Katz Family

Helen Kelley

Mary Forst

Catherine Bax and Ann Turner

Helen L Henry

Mary McCurdy

Shannon and Hayden Thomas

Isabel Sheridan

Mary Mears-Haskell

Shannon Planchon

Jacqueline SiewartSchade and W. Curtis Schade

Mary Muir

Sherwin Davidson

Mary Simeone

Sonia Buist

Maryann Yelnosky and Jesse Smith

Stephen Schuitevoerder and Tami Staudt

Maureen Wright and Lane Brown

Steve Young & Jane Fellows

Melissa Stewart & Don Merkt

Sue Redman

Janice Mills Jean and Rich Josephson

Merilee Karr

Jean Fleming

Michael Campbell

Jeff and Carol Kilmer

Mignon Mazique and Jim Rue

Joe Johnson Alejandro Juarez Adina Kahn Anonymous David Kinder Mary and Gordy King Jody Lasky Bonnie Lee Kirsten Lee Nathan LeRud Ted and Joyce Liljeholm Anonymous

Joanna Smith Aarisa Smith Jonathan Snowden Elizabeth and Les Stoessl Gary Sunshine and Mark Lagasse Nel Taylor

Judy Lyons

Stephen Urion

Mimi Maduro

Anonymous

Anna Marti

Barbara West and JT Taylor

Caren Masem Anonymous Karla Mason Smith Kate Mayo

Judith F Wilding Larry and Hilda Dibe Williams

Nora McLaughlin

Tom and Jeanette Williams

Mary Mears-Haskell

Craig Willis

Jeffrey Mills

Carol Ann and Patrick Wohlmut

Cathy Roe Cecily Johns Celina Patterson Charles Meshul and Maureen Ober Charlotte Rubin Cheryl G. Gatti Christy Marchant Cindy Lyndin Claire Stock Claudia and Bill Schechter Colleen Cain & Philip Miller

Geof Beasley Georgenne Ferdun

Jake Vacarella Jane Jouett Jane Robinson and Michael Sands

Jenny Pietka Joe Sandfort

Curtis Roberts

John Hawthorne

Carolyn Wood

Cynthia Fowler

Jordana Sardo

Darlene Zimbardi

Dale Gaskill

Joshua Ferrer

Erika Zoller

Daniel Kitrosser

Judy McKeever

IN-KIND DONORS

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Julie Lawrence

Aaron Cooper Swor

Danielle Weinstein

Julie Sikkink

David Deutsch and Gary Stutler

Karen Griffis

Anonymous

Abel Weinrib and Carmen Egido

Judith Nichols

Alice Kersting

David Larsen

Vana and Michael O’Brien

Dawn Hayami

Phyllis and Warren Oster

Ann Bardacke and David Wolf

Beth Parmenter

Ann Smith Sehdev

Anonymous

Ann Stringam

John and Rose Mary Payne

Anne Ashford

Diane Herrmann

Kelyn Moser

Anne Draper

Dina Campeau

Kirsten Lee

Anonymous

Annie Popkin and David Parker

Douglas and Leslie Van Dyk

Lan Fendors

Anonymous (7)

Ed and Elaine Kemp

Anthony DeCrappeo

Elisabeth & Peter Lyon

Anonymous

Anthony Wilcox

Elise Menashe

Sandy Polishuk

Elizabeth & Les Stoessl

Michael Polson

Arlena Barnes and William Kinsey

Shari and Johnny Powell

Arlene Hagen

Anonymous

Aubrey Daquiz

Grant Molsberry and William Apt Sharon Morgan and Kathleen Kollasch Cheryl Morgan Maya Muir Anonymous

Sue Pickgrove and Mike Hoffman Anonymous

Deborah Schauffler Demetra Ariston Diana Woll

Elizabeth Anderson Elizabeth Gilson Ellen Fader

Karen Johnson Karen Nielsen Karl and Linda Boekelheide Kathryn Sheibley Kay & Roy Abramowitz

Larry Smith Laura La Rosa

Margaret Baldwin Margaret Dixon

Mimi Maduro Morel Ink Nan Narboe Nancy and Howard Thurston Nancy Flynn

Robin Schauffler Roger Griffith Rosalie & Ed Tank Roxanne Goebel Sandy Polishuk Sarah Bradley Sarah Hershey

Susan Cato Susan Crabtree Susan Schenher Susan Stragnell Susan Zeidler Terry Pancoast and Pam Erickson Vince and Valri Chiappetta Wendy and Tom Hawkins William and Susan Sack

Nancy Matthews

Nena Baker

CASCADE AIDS PROJECT / PRISM HEALTH FUNDRAISER

Nikolai Schnittke

Elizabeth Anderson

Pamela Hayes

Sherwin Davidson

Pamela Smith

Josh Hecht

Pancho Savery

Daniel Kitrosser and Jordan Siegel

Nancy Panitch Nancy Press

Pat Patton and JoAnn Johnson Pat Perkins Patrice Morrow Phyllis & Warren Oster

Ronni Lacroute Gary McDonald and Barbara Holisky Phyllis and Warren Oster J Perrine

Lauretta Burman

Quinn MacNichol

Jan Standlea

Lawrence Kirsch

Redmond Reams

Krina Turner

Leslie Kolisch

Regina McCarthy

Leslie S Johnson

Richard Bradspies and Dore Everett

*Donors with an asterisk are a part of our monthly giving program.

Leslye Epstein and Herman Taylor

Real Estats, Inc; Leonard and Susan Magazine

Bennett and Trish Garner

Anonymous

Betsy Jeronen

Erica Rubin and Tom Swanson

Alison Roper

Bev Balliett

Esther Freeman

Lola Oyibo

Dashiell Rucka

Bill and Sharon Bourque

Evan King

Lori Katz

Charlotte Rutherford

Bob Conklin

Fran Rothman

Lynn Marchand Goldstein

Eric Vega

Marc Parks

Robin E Anderson

Priscilla Carlson and Karen Wells

Barbara Garrett Beth Kaye

Mahonia Vineyard

Robery Burt

Laura Potter

Karen and John Rathje

Emily Sinoradzki

Lynn Taylor &Peter Thacker

Linda Jensen and Robert Nimmo Lisa Carlson

Charlotte Rubin

Rick and Halle Sadle Rita S Charlesworth Robert & Melissa Good Robert Bricker Robert Burt Robert Lowe and Michelle Berlin-Lowe

We do everything we can to list donors correctly. Please contact krina@ profiletheatre.org if you see you are listed in error.

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DONATE TO PROFILE THEATRE Profile Theatre’s work is made possible by our generous community of donors. Together we are creating the life-enriching art that broadens our perspective and deepens our compassion and we are serving our communities through our one-of-a-kind free engagement programming.

Thank you for showing up for us in 2020 and for considering us as a part of your calendar year end giving plans.

GIFTS OF ALL SIZES MAKE A DIFFERENCE Make a gift online at profiletheatre.org/support or mail a check to PO Box 14845, Portland, OR 97293

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