marcii 21. 2003»
17
THEATER
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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. E-mail her at patmac3l@juno.com.
tic director with whom she had strong differ-
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