The Oldest Profession by Paula Vogel at Profile Theatre Playbill

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JOSH HECHT

@ Friends, It has been so long since I’ve welcomed you to Profile Theatre. Too long. We are so happy to commune with you and grateful you’ve chosen Profile Theatre as one of your first live theatre experiences since the pandemic forced us to close our doors.

Like all of us, 2020 was a year of adaptation. Profile was fortunate that our production of Indecent at Lincoln Hall ended its run on time five days before the mandated shutdown. We, and arts organizations around the world, canceled the rest of our season as well as our planned 2020-2021 season. A brochure that was in the design phase never made it to print.

But artists are nothing if not inventive. In the intervening year, we commissioned and produced one serialized audio play from 9 of the most talented writers across the country; produced two full-length audio plays by Lynn Nottage and one by Paula Vogel; produced a wildly theatrical filmed production of Vogel’s The Mineola Twins; and moved our signature Community Profile program — a free writing workshop and affinity space for the LGBTQIA+ community and for Black Women — to zoom, bringing in some of the most honored writers in the country as mentors each month. All in all we paid out more than $175,000 in fees to 75 freelance artists and technicians during the “shutdown,” something we’re quite proud of.

But there is nothing like the magic that happens when we share the same space, when we witness actors growing and changing right in front of our eyes, and when designers work their magic to transport us in a wholly sensory way with nothing more than colored lights, a little paint, a little fabric and some wood.

We’ve spent the last 6 months planning for this very moment: you, sitting in your seats, waiting for the lights to go down and the show to begin. We are so grateful to philanthropist and Profile Member Charlene Zidell, who called me last winter and said “if we were to open the barge building to theatre performances, what would you need to make that happen?” And we are grateful to our partners, Dance Wire, Portland Opera and Portland State University who joined us in creating a new arts venue in this space that we’re calling Old Moody Stages. (See the spread towards the back of this program to learn more about this summer arts festival.)

In 2021-2022 we will finally present three of the plays we had planned to produce last year before the coronavirus shut down live theatre. Tonight, you will see the final play in our Paula Vogel / Lynn Nottage series, The Oldest Profession. This is one of Vogel’s earliest and most charming plays. The first draft was written in 1980, when Paula was only 28. She returned to the play as a mature writer nearly 25 years later, making the play more theatrical, playing with Brechtian conventions that break the fourth wall and interpolate musical numbers

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into the play. A hallmark of Paula’s writing is her ability to blend humor with content that plumbs and critiques the culture — whether she’s exploring domestic violence, our country’s response to the AIDS crisis, or the culture wars over a woman’s right to reproductive autonomy, no one marries high theatricality, searing wit and the most urgent questions of our time like Vogel. By the time she returned to the play at the age of 53, she was a master of the form, as this production, beautifully and sensitively helmed by Jamie M. Rea, demonstrates.

As I listened to a recent run-thru, I was struck by the themes of gentrification and housing insecurity that have come into such sharp focus in Portland in the last decade. Vogel first wrote The Oldest Profession at the beginning of the Reagan era as she read the writing on the wall of our turn towards austerity and so-called “trickle-down economics.” She revisited the play during the George W. Bush presidency in the years immediately following the bursting of the “dot com bubble” and the recession of the early 2000s. Today, we find ourselves in an economy more unequal than it has ever been. Over the course of the pandemic, as unemployment soared to 15% the highest it had been since we started keeping track in the 1940s, America’s billionaires added $1.2 Trillion to their wealth.

Against this backdrop, Paula wrote a moving portrait of five women on the margins of society with only each other to rely upon. She also wrote a celebration of women’s sexuality, independence and fullpersonhood, as she has in so many of her plays like the others in Profile’s exploration: Indecent, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, The Mineola Twins and The Baltimore Waltz. And, as in her best work, it’s damn funny to boot.

The five extraordinary women on stage tonight give a performance that is full of joy, deep friendship, and life.

I hope you’ll join us for the rest of Profile’s 2021-2022 season as we take a long-awaited deep-dive into the artistic vision of thirty-six-year-old MacArthur “Genius” (and Paula Vogel’s former student) Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. We’ll start this fall with a series of readings and salons to introduce you to this agent provocateur before presenting two full productions in our usual home Imago Theatre: Obie-winning Appropriate and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Gloria. See the back of this program for info on how to purchase a Membership to the rest of our season.

As Carol Burnett used to sing, I’m so glad we’ve had this time together.

When I was twenty years old, I spent a year abroad in England. It was the first time I had been that far away from home, and the first time I’d gone that long without seeing my parents. When my father picked me up at the airport upon my return, he looked at me and said, “It’s been so long. Let’s never do this again.” Friends, it’s been so long since we breathed the same air together and let the theatre soften and open our hearts. Too long that we have been apart. Let’s never do that again. And let’s never again take for granted the community we create together.

, Artistic Director

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Profile Theatre Presents

THE OLDEST PROFESSION PAULA VOGEL DIRECTED BY JAMIE M. REA WRITTEN BY

CAST

JoAnn Johnson*......................................................................................................................Vera Amalia Alarcón Morris.........................................................................................................Edna Jane Bement Geesman......................................................................................................Lillian Elizabeth Elias Huffman*.................................................................................................Ursula Brenda Phillips*...................................................................................................................... Mae Stephanie Cooke................................................................................................................ Pianist

DESIGNERS & PRODUCTION

Wanda Walden..................................................................................................Costume Design Kelly Terry........................................................................................................... Lighting Design Casi Maxwell Pacilio........................................................................................... Sound Design Jana Crenshaw..................................................................................................... Sound Design Lauren E. Chilton...........................................................................................Properties Design Virginia Belt........................................................................................................... Choreography Eric Nordin............................................................................................................ Music Director David S. Cohen*..................................................................................................Stage Manager Hayley Ferrell......................................................................................... Production Associate Run time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, with no intermission

THE OLDEST PROFESSION is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

New York Premiere originally produced by Signature Theatre Company, New York City James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, Executive Director Kate Loewald, Guest Artistic Director for the Paula Vogel Season

PHOTOS, VIDEO OR AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS PERFORMANCE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

SEASON SPONSOR: Ronni Lacroute

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. * Appearing through an Agreement between Profile Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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PLAYWRIGHT PROFILE PAULA VOGEL

FROM THE DIRECTOR JAMIE M. REA

Pulitzer Prize-winner, Tony nominee, and American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee Paula Vogel is one of the most prolific and honored writers working today.

If ya got it baby, flaunt it, flaunt it!

A native of the DC - Baltimore area, Vogel has been writing plays since the late 1970s. Her early work was developed and produced at the legendary Circle Repertory Theatre in New York. The Baltimore Waltz first brought her national prominence when it won the Obie Award for Best New Play in 1991. That production, directed by Anne Bogart, starred a young Joe Mantello and Cherry Jones, who went on to be a long-time collaborator on plays like Desdamona and And Baby Makes Seven.

Throughout the 1990s, Vogel made a name for herself with strongly feminist wide-ranging work like Hot ’N’ Throbbing and The Mineola Twins. Her 1997 play How I Learned to Drive won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, launched the career of actor Mary Louise Parker, and has received hundreds of productions the world over.

Ever an experimenter with form and style, the 2000s saw adventurous works like A Civil War Christmas, The Long Christmas Ride Home and Don Juan Returns from Iraq. But it is her most recent play Indecent that has reestablished Vogel as a master artist at the height of her career.

Commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions project, the play transferred to Broadway in 2017 where it earned a Tony nomination for Best Play. Over the last two years, it has had productions in every major market in the country.

A gifted teacher and mentor, Vogel has trained a generation of prominent playwrights, including Adam Bock, Edwige Danticat, Nilo Cruz, and past Profile Featured Writers Sarah Ruhl, Quiara Alegria Hudes and Lynn Nottage, with whom she shares this special double-season at Profile Theatre.

Welcome. Whew, what a gift to say that after 18+ months of isolation. Welcome. This glorious moment of emergence, as we look into the actual eyes of colleagues, friends, and loved ones, simultaneously invites a celebration of our interconnectedness as well as a sharp, clear-eyed reflection of the impact (the severity of which we are just beginning to discover) this pandemic has wrought on our community. And I can think of no greater playwright to embody that duality than Paula Vogel. Consistently committed to the complexities of being human and the acute magnification of those complexities for marginalized communities, Vogel brings her razor wit and patented whimsy to these practitioners of the world’s oldest profession. As is her way, she puts into high relief that which we often prefer to render invisible.

She centers a trifecta of disregard - older, female, sex workers, (and an increasing houseless population) - as the mirror in which we see the interpersonal impact of our social politics.

A story of endings, of transitions, of change, Vogel invites us to hold both the accumulated impact of our lived experiences as they literally write themselves on our skin and the rich, vibrant, magnetic light that is always present at our core. As I watch these women shed all the pressure, weight, and worry they have accumulated over their epic lives, I see us shedding the calloused, tender skins we’ve needed to weather this last epoch of turmoil.

Not dismissing the changes that this time has rendered in us, but rather embracing the revitalization which shedding all that is holding us back, makes possible. And instead of plowing ahead with my nose in my phone, I find myself turning with curiosity to the people I pass by – interested in the rich, complicated lives they live.

I encourage you to revel in this luscious cadre of ladies as I do. Sexy, funny, wistful and blissfully past the point of giving a f***, these wise women command our attention, stimulate our empathy, and remind us that every ending is a transition. Thank you for joining us. It is so good to see your face.

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CAST & CREATIVE TEAM JOANN JOHNSON Vera JoAnn Johnson is a professional actor and director. She has appeared onstage in many memorable roles, including Vivian Bearing in Wit, Sister Aloysius in Doubt, Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit, Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Kate Keller in All My Sons. Among her recent work are Mother in The Undertaking with Many Hats Collaboration, Vi in Escaped Alone with Shaking the Tree and Beckett Women with PETE. She is a Resident Artist at Artists Rep, where she most recently played Katherine Gerard in Mothers and Sons and directed I and You. Other directing credits include King Lear, Blackbird, boom, The School for Lies, Big Love, Grand Concourse, Macbeth, Eurydice, Richard II and The Turn of the Screw. JoAnn has also worked regionally and internationally, touring with Artists Rep to Asia, Africa and the Middle East and teaching in Bangladesh. Her regional credits include many seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

AMALIA ALARCÓN MORRIS Edna Former Portlander Amalia Alarcon Morris is an actor of Cuban-Ecuadorian descent, now living in the Republic of Panama. During her time in Portland, she collaborated with Teatro Milagro on many shows, including Watsonville, the original musical Oye Oya, both bilingual productions; and Contigo Pan y Cebolla, a classic Cuban Spanish-language play. Amalia can also be seen in the Indie film Zilla and Zoe. This is Amalia’s first production with Profile Theatre, and she is grateful for the opportunity and to her husband James for his support.

Without him it would not be possible.

JANE BEMENT GEESMAN Lillian Jane Bement Geesman is a teacher, director, and Drammy-winning actor with 40 years’ experience in the performing arts. This is her second appearance with Profile Theatre, having last appeared in their production of In the Wake. Jane has performed in numerous theatres in Portland over the years, including Artists Rep, Shaking the Tree, Vertigo, and NW Classical.

She’s had featured roles in television commercials and series, including “Leverage” and “Grimm”. She is a

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guest faculty member at the Haven Institute in British Columbia, where she co-leads, with Sarah Lucht, personaldevelopment workshops using principles of actor training to deepen self-knowledge and spark creative energy. Jane is utterly delighted to be working with this fabulous group of women and is oh so grateful to be back onstage before a live audience. Hooray!

ELIZABETH ELIAS HUFFMAN Ursula Elizabeth Elias Huffman is an award winning director, actor, costume designer and playwright as well as a classical theatre teacher. She is currently developing her musical The Shakespeare Cafe in Pittsburgh and will be performing her solo show, Not My Revolution, also in Pittsburgh in 2022 at Carnegie Stages. She has appeared with Profile Theatre in the Sam Shepard Festival a few years back and is happy to be back treading the boards with this group of fabulous women.

BRENDA PHILLIPS Mae No More Pity Party Blues, (One Wombman Show) written by Brenda Phillips...IFCC Theater; A Lesson Before Dying, Miss Emma...Profile Theatre; Gem of the Ocean, Aunt Ester...Portland Playhouse; Distracted, Nurse/Teacher/ Therapist...Artists Repertory Theatre; Perfection, the elder Anna May Dobbs...IFCC Theater; Menopause the Musical, Power Woman...Portland Center Performing Arts; Having Our Say, Sara Delaney...Artists Repertory Theatre; Little Shop of Horrors, Chivon...Portland Civic Theater; A Raisin in the Sun, Lena Younger...Artists Repertory Theatre; The Little Foxes, Mammie...Portland Black Repertory Theater; Long Time Since Yesterday, Laveere....PassinArt Theatre Company; Stories About the Old Days, Addy....Oregon Stage Company; Mrs. Cratchetts Wild Christmas Benge, Ghost of Christmas Past...Artists Repertory Theatre; Ain’t Mis Behavin, Amelia...Artists Repertory Theatre; The Resurrection of Lady Lester, Sarah/Agatha/Tuta...

IFCC Theater; Wine in the Wilderness, Tommie...Artists Repertory Theatre; Photographs Lovers In Motion, Sarah....

PassinArt Theater Company; The Colored Museum, Aunt Ethel/Last Mama on the Couch/Topsy Washington (Received the Drammy Award for Best Actress in a Musical)...IFCC Theater.

PAULA VOGEL Playwright Paula Vogel is a Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright whose plays include Indecent (Tony Award Nomination for Best Play), How I Learned to Drive (Pulitzer Prize, Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, OBIE, and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play), The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession, and A Civil War Christmas.

She is currently working on three new projects, including Cressida On Top (recently workshopped at CTG and the Goodman), and a new play commissioned by CTG and Second Stage. Lifetime achievement awards include: American Theatre Hall of Fame Award, the Obie Award, and NY Drama Critics Circle Award.

She is honored to have three awards dedicated to emerging playwrights in her name: The American College Theatre Festival’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, the Paula Vogel Award given annually by the Vineyard Theatre, and the Paula Vogel Mentor’s Award

by Young Playwrights of Philadelphia.

Her plays are published in six volumes

by TCG Press and she teaches playwriting workshops throughout the United States and abroad. www.paulavogelplaywright.com

JAMIE M. REA Director As a renaissance woman of the theatre, Jamie has had the pleasure of exploring this powerful tool for connection and change for over 20 years. After directing in LA, New

Zealand, Australia, Canada, Ohio, New York City, and Portland, she now serves as founding co-artistic director of The Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project. Recent local credits include Profile’s Hot ‘N Throbbing, Jesus Hopped the A-Train, CoHo/Beirut Wedding, Topdog Underdog (Street Scenes) and Made to Dance in Burning Buildings with Shaking the Tree. An arts based trauma facilitator, Jamie has focused much of her community engagement efforts in communities of young womxn where our country’s institutionalized misogyny is often manifesting through eating disorders, cutting, and other forms of self-harm.

She is grateful to this company of wise womxn for celebrating themselves in the fullness of their lived experience, allowing us to witness the power of womxn claiming the right to take up our own space.

WANDA WALDEN Costume Designer Wanda Walden is an Award Winning Costume Designer for over 35 years. In 1981 Wanda created a new concept “Retro-Spect Productions” A Theatrical Modeling Company.

Stepping back into the past and reminiscing yesteryear through A Potpourri of Fashion, music and Dance.

In 1985 Wanda Launched a exciting career in Acting and Costuming. The rest is “LA History”. Profile Theatre: Mother Courage, Ruined, Fires in the Mirror, The Secretaries. Artists Repertory: Skeleton Crew, We are Proud to Present, It’s a Wonderful Life, An Octoroon. Portland Playhouse: Pipeline, Crowns, How I Learned, What I Learned. Oregon Children’s Theatre: The Journal of Ben Uchida, In This Corner, Cassius Clay. Media Rites/CoHo: Brothers Paranormal.

Vanport Mosaic: Soul’d, Martha Bakes, Left Hook, Cottonwood in the Flood.

PassinArt Theater: Black Nativity, Two Trains Running, The Gospel of Loving Kindness

KELLY TERRY Lighting Designer Kelly Terry is a Portland-based lighting designer for theatre, dance, and the events industry. After graduating with honors from Florida State University, she launched a career that has included designing for modern theatre (Next to Normal, Jesus Hopped the A-Train), elaborate ballet (Snow White, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and innovative classics (The Romeo and Juliet Project, Pericles), to haunted houses (Busch Gardens’ Howl ‘O Scream) and concerts (Portland’s annual Governors Ball). These days she works with Greenlight Creative, lighting everything from small weddings to massive corporate events.

She would like to thank her everpatient husband/ALD for his support and genius.

CASI MAXWELL PACILIO Sound Designer Casi Maxwell Pacilio has worked with Profile Theatre on past productions of Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, 2.5 Minute Ride, Fires in the Mirror and (Un) Conditional. Since 2005, Casi has been the Resident Sound Designer and Sound and Video Supervisor for 100+ sound designs with Portland Center Stage. In addition, Casi worked on No Candy (Portland Playhouse) as well as Getting Intimate and Plot Points (Reed College). Casi has served as the Sound Designer and Technical Director at hand2mouth theatre during their Residency: Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Other projects include Left Hand of Darkness and Something’s Got Ahold Of My Heart.

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CAST & CREATIVE TEAM CONT’D LAUREN E. CHILTON Properties Designer Lauren E. Chilton has previously worked in props at companies including Santa Fe Opera, Portland Center Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and numerous companies in Washington, D.C., and most recently was the props supervisor on INDECENT at Artists Repertory Theatre. She earned an MFA in props design and management from Virginia Tech, and is excited for herself and the company to return to theatre after a very long year.

VIRGINIA BELT Choreography Virginia has danced professionally with American Festival Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet Theatre and Duluth Ballet. She has trained professionally with such dance luminaries as Mark Morris, David Howard, Violet Verdy, and Mary Anthony. Virginia is one of the co-founders and instructors for Dance for Parkinson’s Oregon an affiliate of the internationally acclaimed Dance for PD@ program that brings the art form of dance to those with Parkinson’s disease. A multi-disciplined theatre artist Virginia has acted for Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, NW Children’s Theatre, Stark Raving Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre and Miracle Theatre of Portland Oregon.

ERIC NORDIN Music Director Eric Nordin is a multiple award winning playwright, composer, music director, pianist, and educator. He has made his artistic home here in Portland, Oregon since 2004. Recent original pieces for the theater (as playwright and/or composer/lyricist) include The Snowstorm (2015), John

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Hughes High: The 1980’s Teen Musical (2018), and The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors (2019). Recent projects as Musical Director include Into the Woods and Once at Broadway Rose Theater Company.

DAVID S. COHEN Stage Manager David has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regionally, and is a show-caller and deck manager for large-scale corporate events. Some highlights include SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Sex Tips for Straight Women From a Gay Man, TedX, Yahoo The International Science and Engineering Fair, and His Holiness the Dali Lama’s Teaching Visit to the U.S.

HAYLEY FERRELL Production Associate This is Hayley’s first production with Profile Theatre and is more than excited to be working in person again and with such a wonderful group of people as their PA. Previously, and more recently Hayley has been the SM for Martain Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, and ASM for Romeo and Juliet with PCC theatre over Zoom.

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.

ABOUT OLD MOODY STAGES

Property owner Charlene Zidell has long had a vision for what she calls an “arts ecosystem” on the South Waterfront. Over the years, she and the Zidell family have converted the Old Moody office building (the former home of Zidell Companies) into a home for arts organizations, individual artists, artisans and entrepreneurs to find office space at a subsidized rate.

When the pandemic forced the cessation of live art and entertainment around the world, Charlene began to wonder how the 33-acre Zidell Yards might be activated as a COVID-safe outdoor site for arts and culture. In the winter of 2020–21, she brought together Emily Running of Dance Wire, Laura Hassell of Portland Opera and Josh Hecht of Profile Theatre, three of Portland’s leading arts organizations, to explore, and the idea for Old Moody Stages was born.

Old Moody Stages is a community-driven, grass-roots effort. Portland Opera has donated the two stages and lighting trusses; Portland State University has donated much of the lighting instruments; Profile Theatre has donated production services and took the lead raising $120,000 to bring the project to life; Dance Wire has taken the communications and curatorial lead; Fuller Events helped create the front of house infrastructure; and Oh! Creative has joined our collaborative as marketing consultant. Together, we have pooled our resources to bring a 6-week, multi-disciplinary performing arts festival to Portland’s South Waterfront.

We can’t wait for you to join us!

FESTIVAL STAFF Emily Running Dance Wire Executive Director Josh Hecht Profile Theatre Artistic Director Laura Hassell Producing Director POA ​Caleb Bourgeois Profile Theatre Company Manager Liz Bacon, Oh! Creative Marketing Consultant Maya Bourgeois Web Designer Jenessa Raabe Festival Production Manager ​Jeff Forbes Festival Technical Director ​Christina Fuller Fuller Events Charlene Zidell Zidell Yards Owner Alan Park Zidell Yards Site Manager

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BEYOND THE MAINSTAGE

COMMUNITY PROFILE OUR YEAR-LONG OUTREACH PROGRAM THAT USES WRITING AND THE SHARING OF STORIES TO FORM MUCH-NEEDED COMMUNITY. Community Profile is a free wiring program and affinity space for a community important to our seasonlong Featured Writer. The program brings award-winning writing mentors from around the country and uses the practice of writing to create networks of resilience and friendship. In 2020-2021, Profile formed two cohorts, one for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and one for Black Women. Together we had over 130 participants in the program mentored by writers including Tony nominees, MacArthur “Genius” grantees, Guggenheim Fellows, Emmy winners and Pulitzer Prize winners.

EKONE RETREAT FOR BLACK WOMEN For the culmination of this year’s Community Profile Black Women cohort, one of the participants (W. Noel Robbins) had the idea to do a writing retreat at Ekone Horse Ranch in eastern Washington for our final session. We had two different mentors, local luminaries S. Renee Mitchell and Anya Pearson, and closed the evening with the lovely music of Lo Steele. The serene beauty of the high desert was a perfect capstone to a season of fellowship, creativity and love.

PUBLIC READINGS CELEBRATE COMMUNITY PROFILE This past year and a half was a time of upheaval and turmoil for our entire nation. It was a year when more connection was needed, not less. To that end, Profile Theatre ran two Community Profile cohorts rather than our usual one. We kept the one for the LGBTQIA+ Community going and we started one for Black women. Sunday night, August 8th will be celebration of the resiliency, creativity and generosity of spirit of these two amazing groups; a theatrical collage of their writing. Please join us!

Sunday, Aug 8 at 6pm at the Barge Building at Old Moody Stages (free)

COMMUNITY PROFILE IS FREE TO PARTICIPANTS THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

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WE ARE CEREMONY “We Are Ceremony- A collaboration between Profile Theater and Ten, Tiny, Talks as part of the Old Moody Stages Festival” A showcase featuring interdisciplinary artists from the Black and Indigenous Diaspora and from the trans, gender expansive, two-spirit and queer communities.

We Are Ceremony is the creative presentation of a three-week intensive lead by Zeloszelos Marchandt and facilitated by a.c.Ramirez De Arellano. Participants from the classes will be performing and exhibiting their work developed during the courses. Themes of sacred irreverence, myth, resistance and chaos theory come forward in these pieces.

Sunday, Aug 15 at 7pm at the Barge Building at Old Moody Stages (free)

LISTEN TO OUR FREE COMMUNITY PODCASTS COMMUNITY PROFILE: VOICES FROM THE REAL WORLD Guests engage in wide-ranging conversations about life, identity and art and read selections of writing they’ve done in our Community Profile writing workshops.

SATELLITE: BEYOND THE PAGE If you like pre and post-show conversations, you’ll love this podcast that goes indepth into our plays.

OUR 2020-2021 SEASON MENTORS For the LGBTQIA+ Cohort:

For the Black Women Cohort:

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• •

• • • • • • • • •

Mark Doty – National Book Award-winning Poet and Memoirist Daniel Alexander Jones – Guggenheim Fellow, Playwright and Performer Taylor Mac – Tony nominated Playwright and Performer Winter Miller – Playwright (In Darfur, The Public Theater) Diana Oh – Playwright and Performance Artist christopher oscar peña – writer “Jane The Virgin,” “Insecure” Lucy Thurber – Playwright, Obie Award-winner Chay Yew – Playwright and Director, former Artistic Director at Victory Gardens Claire Willett – Company Member of the Oregon Writers’ Collective Playwrights West Matthew B. Zrebski – Playwright, Composer, Teaching Artist

• • • • • • • • •

Ngozi Anyanwu – Playwright and Actress Kara Lee Corthron – YA novelist and TV writer (HBO’s “The Flight Attendant”) Kia Corthron – Staff Writer on TV’s “The Wire” Tananarive Due – Award-winning Author Patricia Ione Lloyd – Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theatre, NYC S. Renee Mitchell – Poet, Educator and Activist, Spirit of Portland Award-winner Anya Pearson – Poet, Playwright and Performer Josie Seid – Playwright and Actor Nilaja Sun – Performer and playwright, NAACP, Helen Hayes and Princess Grace Award-winner Mfoniso Udofia – Playwright, TV writer and Actor Damaris Webb – Theater and Performance-maker, Artistic Director of Vanport Mosaic 11

ABOUT PROFILE THEATRE STAFF Josh Hecht, Artistic Director Matthew Jones, Managing Director 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.

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 story-telling 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, sexual orientations, and abilities. These remain top institutional priorities.

Today, Profile leadership understands the specific need to combat antiBlackness in our 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 anti-racism theater maker and educator Nicole Brewer, our anti-racism work includes three overarching aims: harm prevention, relationship building and continuous learning.

Bobby Bermea, Director of Community Engagement Caleb Bourgeois, Company Manager Kira Batcheller, Graphic Design

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mignon Mazique, President Stephen Schuitevoerder, Treasurer Linda Jensen, Secretary Patricia Garner Nathan LeRud Julie Mancini Tyler TerMeer

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 Kush Pathak

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

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

23 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.

2019-2021: Generations Paula Vogel / Lynn Nottage / Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 2018-2019 Double Season, Lisa Kron / Anna Deavere Smith 2016-2017, Quiara Alegría 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

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THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS $25,000+

Mignon Mazique and Jim Rue

$500 - $999

Ronni Lacroute

The National Endowment for the Arts

Leon Aliski

The James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation The Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Multnomah County, the Arts Education & Access Fund Dan Wieden and Priscilla Bernard Wieden

Oregon Arts Commission Portland State University Foundation

Ann Bardacke & David Wolf Betsy Bergstein Anonymous

Pat Reser and William Westphal

Katherine Bloomfield

Stephen Schuitevoerder and Tami Staudt

Karl and Linda Boekelheide

Steve Young and Jane Fellows

Congregation Beth Israel

Jennifer Bruml

Jeuli Bartenstein and Mike Carleton Laura Barton Catherine Bax and Ann Turner Geof Beasley Anonymous Rachel Bernstein Susan Bladholm Anonymous

Nancy Cowgill

Richard Bradspies and Dore Everett

$10,000 - $24,999

$1,000 - $2,499

Gun Denhart

Stephen and Allyson Brooks

Dream Envision Foundation

Kay and Roy Abramowitz

Nikki Dobay

Caleb and Maya Bourgeois

The Kinsman Foundation

Elizabeth Anderson

Michelle Giguere

Lauretta Burman

Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation

Nita Brueggeman and Kevin Hoover

Mary James and Terence Thatcher

Anonymous

Dr. Sonia Buist

Jean and Rich Josephson

Cantor Ida Rae Cahana and Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana

Colleen Cain & Philip Miller

Kristen Kern

Kim Carlson Rita Charlesworth Vince & Valri Chiappetta

Oregon Community Foundation Mayer and Janet Schwartz Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation

Nathan Cogan Family Fund

Abbe and Dan Klores

The Shubert Foundation

Columbia Bank

Charlie and Darci Swindells

Robert and Janet Conklin

Nancy Kurkinen and Richard Hollway

Val Fisher and Rod Lewis

Nathanael LeRud

Margaret Collins

Marcia J Mason

Deborah Correa and Mark Wilson

Adam and Liz Matar

Ron Crosier Bur Davis

$5,000 - $9,999

Harold Goldstein

Ellen Fader

Lynn Goldstein

Judith Henderson

Anonymous

Gary McDonald & Barbara Holisky

The Jackson Foundation

Dawn Hayami

Emma McIlroy

Linda Jensen and Robert Nimmo

Renee Holzman

Sue Meyer

Elisabeth & Peter Lyon

Elizabeth Johnston

Laurel Pickett

Joe McFerrin II

Liss-Brewster Family Philanthropic Fund

PLACE

Carolyn McKnight

Larry and Janet Richards

Ann and Jack Messick

Lawrence Smith

Chris and Pete Nickerson

Leslye Epstein and Herman Taylor

Robinson and Michael Sands

Richard and Mary Rosenberg Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Abby Farber

Bob Speltz

Jen and Howard Feldman

Rosalie Tank

Stephen Fenwick

Nia Ray

Claire Willett

Paul & Sherry Fishman

$2,500 - $4,999

Rick & Halle Sadle

Keren Wilson

Bonnie Gilchrist

TThe Autzen Foundation

The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation; Jordan Schnitzer

Ken and Mary Unkeles

Dennis Gilliam

Wally Van Valkenburg and Turid Owren

Elinor Gollay

The Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust Charlene Zidell Zidell Family Foundation

Charlotte Rubin Debi Coleman Francie and Paul Duden Patricia and Bennett Garner Diane Herrmann The Ralph and Adolph Jacobs Foundation

Ann E. Smith Sehdev Barre & Robert Stoll Tyler TerMeer, PhD

$100 - $499

Ken and Marta Thrasher

Rukaiyah Adams and David Chen

David and Christine Vernier

Robin Anderson

Leslie S. Johnson

Adriana Baer

Julie Mancini & Dennis Bromka

Vanessa Bailey

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David Deutsch and Gary Stutler Edy Dorsen Michael Dowling Norma Dulin & James Barta William and Karen Early

Melissa and Bob Good Olive Grose Anonymous John W. Haines Jeff Hamm and Mary StenzelPoore Wendy and Tom Hawkins A Hein and E. King

This list acknowledges gifts between June 2020 – June 2021.

Jay Hecht

Adrienne Nelson

UP TO $99

Laura La Rosa

Sarah Hershey

Anonymous

Cindy Adams

David and Liz Lippoff

Deborah and William Hertz

Corrine Oishi and Lindley Morton

Bruce Allardice and Victoria Abrash

Patricia Lofgren

Wendy Beth Oliver

Andrew Apter

Lauren Mackie

Susan Oswald

Demetra Ariston

Anonymous

Terry Pancoast and Pam Erickson

Janel Astor

Carl and Lois Melina

Jeff Bachrach

Michael Mendelson & Tim Thompson

Anonymous Donald and Lynnette Houghton Debbie Hutchins Carrie Hoops Shirley A. Jackson James and Barbara Jessup Cecily Johns Alan Jones Beryl Jones-Woodin Marcia Kahn and Howard Rosenbaum Kathryn Kersey Jeffrey & Carol Kilmer Carol Kimball Hank Keeton and Norma Jean Standlea Helen Kelley James Kelly and Sue Porter Kelly Michelle & Loren Koplan

Portland General Electric Judy and Mark Peterman Bonnie and Pete Reagan Rick Rees Norma Reich Sacha Reich and Aaron Pearlman Betty and Jacob Reiss

Margaret Baldwin Kathleen Barnebey Karen Belsey Cathy Bernatt Anonymous Shelli Blank

Charles Meshul & Maureen Ober Anna Marti David Martin Grant Molsberry and William Apt Barbara P O’Hare

Ross Bondurant and Catherine Harris

Mark and Annie Oldani

Fran and Robin Rothman

Christine Bourdette and Ricardo Lovett

Phyllis and Warren Oster

Claudia and Bill Schechter

Paul Bright

Karen Paladino

Leah Schrader

Laura Brown-Clay

Beth Parmenter

Laurie and Bill Schulte

Adam Caniparoli and Miriam Schwartz

Matt Pearson and Daniel Fogg

Don Caniparoli & Sarah Rosenberg

Jim and Sally Petersen

Priscilla Carlson and Karen Wells

Katie Ray

Alison Roper Karen & John Rathje

Jim Scott and Elaine Robin

Jordana F. Levenick

Soderberg Design Inc.

David Lewis and Elizabeth Sandoval

Karen and Charles Springer

Richard Lewis and Margaret Larson

Fiona Bailey

Lisa Maas

Jesse Smith & Maryann Yelnosky

Michael Olich

Anonymous Steve and Shannon Planchon

Nakeia Daniels

Donna Riechmann

Roxanne Goebel

Megan Rowe

Amy Driesler

Dashiell Rucka

Karen Donovan

Joe Rudy & Lonnie Ferguson

Patti Duthie

Charlotte Rutherford

John Elliott

Penelope Schott

Yaakov Epstein

Christen Skolnick

David Felt

Mark Sommers Household

Katherine Fischer

James Smith

Dale Gaskill

Jonathan Snowden

Anonymous

Nel Taylor

Karen Harmon

Lee Thomas

Dan Hays

Thanh Ton

Robert & Amy Hayes

Kelley Weigel

Anonymous

Patricia Welch

Maya Hristov

Craig Willis

Anna Jimenez and Zdenek Zumr

Tom and Linda Unger

William & Jeannette Meyer Matthew Miller

Merilee Karr

Carol Ann & Patrick Wohlmut

Carole Morse

Daniel Kitrosser & Jordan Siegel

Jon Younkin

Stephen and Alice Stolzberg

Jerry Lidz

Patrick Stupek

Mikki and Steve Lipsey

Julie and Bill Young

Henry Louderbough

Chen Subramanian

Michelle Maida and James Hager

Gary Taliaferro

Christopher Maloney Christy Marchant Elizabeth and George Marino Anonymous Sharon Grady and Michael Marks

Lynn Taylor and Peter Thacker Shannon and Hayden Thomas Roz and Roy Tucker Jane Unger Satish and Saroj Upadhyay Sharon Vansickle-Robbins

Shirley Mason

Julie Vigeland

Nancy Matthews

Anthony Wilcox

Johanna K McCormick

Rebecca Webb, Portland Radio Project

Toinette Menashe Don Merkt & Missy Stewart

Maureen Wright and Lane Brown

Stephen J Urion

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BECOME A MEMBER! We’ve missed you and are excited to have you back at the theatre this season! Become a Member for the remainder of our 2021-22 season for just $110 and enjoy all the content below and more!

FALL, WINTER, SPRING SHOWS Appropriate WRITTEN BY MACARTHUR “GENIUS” AWARDEE BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS DIRECTED BY TBA AT IMAGO THEATRE JANUARY 13 – 30, 2022 Winner of the 2014–2015 Obie Award for Best New American Play. Every estranged member of the Lafayette clan has descended upon the crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly dead patriarch.

As his three adult children sort through a lifetime of hoarded mementos and junk, they collide over clutter, debt, and a contentious family history. But after a disturbing discovery surfaces among their father’s possessions, the reunion takes a turn for the explosive, unleashing a series of crackling surprises and confrontations. “…an exceptionally brilliant piece of writing…gut-punchingly honest work.” –Time Out

Gloria WRITTEN BY MACARTHUR “GENIUS” AWARDEE BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS DIRECTED BY JOSH HECHT AT IMAGO THEATRE MAY 5 – 22, 2022 Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. This funny, trenchant, and powerful play follows an ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine, each of whom hopes for a starry life of letters and a book deal before they turn thirty. But when an ordinary humdrum workday becomes anything but, the stakes for who will get to tell their own story become higher than ever.

“A rare example of a contemporary play that keeps us constantly guessing where it’s headed, GLORIA is a work not to be easily forgotten.” –Hollywood Reporter

Exclusive access to Member Salons, play readings, our expansive In Dialogue series of lectures and concerts, and the On Air programming you love including our podcasts Voices From The Real World and Satellite!

CONTACT US: info@profiletheatre.org | 503.242.0080 | P.O. Box 14845, Portland, OR 97293