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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2003)
marcii 21. 2003» 17 THEATER “ * : ■ s. ' In production Myra Donnelly is a one-woman whirlwind in Portland’s stage scene by P a t r ic ia L. M a c A o d h a he house lights dim. The audience sits in anticipatory silence as actors position them selves in the darkened space. As the lights If come up and the first lines are spoken, one woman in the audience leans forward a little. Myra Donnelly, playwright, producer and partner at Theater! Theatre!, is hilly engaged in her role. She has produced and adapted plays for stages in Portland, New York, Los Angeles, Texas and Ireland, where she has twice pro duced plays for the Dublin Fringe Festival. For Donnelly, theater is “collaborative art. I’m always looking for people to work with, not for,” she says. She adapted and prcxluced her first play, Charlotte’s Web, when she was 14 years old, an alternative to attending high schcxrl English class. Her parents called her “Sarah Bernhardt.” She began her academic pursuit of a the ater arts degree at Rhode Island’s Brown U ni versity hut switched to Sarah Lawrence G il- lege in New York to complete her bachelor’s. In 1989 she moved to Portland and soon began working for Stark Raving Theatre. She supervised more than 40 productions in her nine years as producing director. Donnelly describes her approach to theater as “radically romantic” hut notes her stint at Stark Raving seldom incorporated her own pol itics. “I’ve always had radical politics,” she says, Myra Donnelly, who co-founded Theater! “and enjoyed expressing them through theater.” Theatre!, introduces the new, alternative series She was appalled by the passage of 1990’s Voices in the Wilderness Measure 5, which gutted a significant amount of theater funding statewide, and by infamous anti- ences and that she no longer had “to sublimate gay Measures 9 and 13. T he 1992 production of her personal projects” but could begin to pur Dent by Don H orn’s triangle productions!, now sue her individual interests. her partner in Theater! Theatre!, made her Stark Raving moved to the G 1 H 0 Theatre want to prcxJuce more political drama. building in Northwest Portland, and Donnelly The vibrant theater space on Southeast Bel went to Dublin, enrolling in a master’s program at mont came about, in part, because Donnelly Trinity G)llege. Her thesis-in-progress is titled The Pre-Famine Woman Playwnght and the Irish Stage. wanted to create a “theater mall,” with m ulti ple stages and separate rehearsal and meeting The last few years has been a time of spaces all under one roof. enrichm ent and growth for Donnelly and has Seeking partners, she approached the city of strengthened her resolve to pursue production Portland, the late businessman and developer Bill of works with new artists. Naito and other theater companies in the area. She formed Vanity Productions in 2001 O f everyone she approached, “only Don said yes.” with the goal of producing artist-initiated proj He wanted a space that would work for triangle. ects. Her Death of Cabaret in Dublin’s Interna tional Bar during the 2001 Fringe Festival So Theater! Theatre! was horn— home of enjoyed a sold-out run. It was “roundly panned Stark Raving Theatre, triangle pnxfuctions!, by the critics but played to a full audience storefront businesses and nonprofit office space. every night,” Donnelly smiles. Donnelly and Horn formed My-Don LLC and Vanity is currently presenting a run of solo worked closely on the project, hiring architect Thia Bankey and contractors Yorke and Curtis. performances titled Voices in the Wilderness at The contractors faced a new challenge, having Theater! Theatre!, including The View from Here by Heather Pearl and Michael O ’Neill and never before built a theater, let alone two. Berserker by Paul Outlaw. Donnelly describes the H ie project finished, Kith theater compa series— which included earlier pnxluctions nies moved in, enjoying the rush of interest J.O .C . (Journey of Clown) and Orlando Eats accompanying this new creative venue. W ith a Children with Wine— as "really idiosyncratic unique venue comes unique problems: Produc visions.” Each play is performed hy the writers. tion schedules sometimes had to coincide. Soundprtxifing, while desirable, is very expen And there’s more in the pipeline. Donnelly sive, and early concurrent play runs experi recognizes the struggle between the need of the artist for expression and the necessity of selling enced moments of unplanned hilarity when tickets hut remains excited aKxit “the willingness screams or shrieks from one production spilled of audiences to support new work.” She enjoys into moments of poignant silence in the other. the freedom to produce what she believes in. The theater, she says, is her primary relationship. J H n 1999, creative differences led to a parting of the ways between Donnelly and Stark V a n it y P r o d u c t io n s presents The View from Raving Theatre. “I was suddenly deprived of my work," she says. Here 8 p.m. March 28 and 29 at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 S.E. Belmont St. Tickets are $10 Horn was a strong supporter through this from 503-239-5919. pericxL initially hiring her to assist him with funding development for triangle. Donnelly P a t r ic ia L. M a c A o d h a is a Portland free-lance realized she no longer had to report to an artis writer. 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