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Wanda Sykes Up Front
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Comedian reaches out to
promote Portland show
Short term rentals
another blow to
housing access
and affordability
See story, page 7
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Volume XLIV
‘City ö/Roses’ vfejK
Number 38
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www.p
www.portlandobserver.coni
1 3 wedne;
Wednesday
• September 24. 2014
Established ¡n 1970
C om m itted to C ultural D iversity
of
service
Great Playwright Inspires
Actor Russell Hornsby returns to teach in Portland this fall through
the Red Door Project which introduces students to the works o f
August Wilson whose long inspired work reflected the African-
American experience. Hornsby currently stars in the hit Portland-
based fairy-tale-based series, Grimm.
Chantal DeGroat is
the lead teaching
artist for the August
Wilson Red Door
Project, a program
that engages
Portland area
students in the work
o f August Wilson
one o f the world’s
great writers.
DeGroat is regular at
Portland Center
Stage and current
stars in one o f
Wilson's plays, The
Piano Lesson, at the
Portland Playhouse.
photos by
O livia O livia /T he P ortland O bserver
Alex Ramirez (left), programs coordinator o f the August Wilson Red Door Project, a program
inspired by the late Pulitzer Prize— winning playwright August Wilson and the African-American
experience, mentors Hailey Kilgore, a local student graduate o f a program.
August Wilson Red
Door Project returns
to Portland schools
O livia O livia
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Portland area students will engage in the work of Pulitzer
Prize-winning writer August Wilson this fall as the August
Wilson Monologue Competition returns to high school
classrooms.
W ilson’s work has long inspired and reflected the Afri­
can-American experience in the United States, and his cycle
of plays, set in every decade of the 20th Century, have
appeared on stages around the world.
As part of Portland’s August Wilson Red Door Project,
the competition connects students to local black actors and
other actors of color, such as Russell Hornsby of the TV
series Grimm, or Chantal DeGroat, a regular at Portland Center
Stage.
continued
on page 6
August Wilson’s ‘The Piano Lesson,’ presented by Portland Playhouse
opens this week at ‘The Church’ in northeast Portland. See Metro, page 11