2007-2008 Season!
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On the Main Stage....

CABARET

Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb; Book by Joe Masteroff; Directed by Chris Coleman
September 25 – October 21, 2007
The 1965 premiere of this classic musical brought Christopher Isherwood’s titillating Berlin Stories to the stage. Mid-century Europe never got any wilder than at the infamous Kit Kat Klub, where the story takes flight. With the club’s star, Sally Bowles, trying to hold her emotional life and disintegrating career together, relationships all around her dance, collide and eventually explode. How long can the party last as the footsteps of Hitler’s storm troopers grow louder and louder? Cabaret will feature much of the creative team of last season’s West Side Story — director, musical director, choreographer, set and costume designers.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Based on the novel by Charles Dickens; Adapted by Mead Hunter; Directed by Cliff Fannin Baker
November 25 – December 23, 2007
Perhaps no story speaks to our longing for charity at the holiday season as poignantly as Charles Dickens’ classic tale of greed and redemption. In this new adaptation by PCS Director of Literary and Education Programs, Mead Hunter, we return to the original source and pull out all the stops – big sets, gorgeous costumes, original music combined with traditional holiday favorites, flying ghosts, real children and a crusty old miser whose heart turns to putty when he’s shown the true meaning of Christmas. ‘God bless us every one.’ A holiday treat for the entire family.

THE BEARD OF AVON

By Amy Freed; Directed by Chris Coleman In repertory with
TWELFTH NIGHT , or WHAT YOU WILL
By William Shakespeare; Directed by Jane Jones January 15 – March 9, 2008
Portland Center Stage presents two productions simultaneously in repertory sharing sets, costumes and many of the same actors in both productions. (These two plays will be playing on alternating nights and require purchase of separate tickets.) The Beard of Avon is Amy Freed’s bawdy, delicious, mind-bending comedy about the true authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. An aspiring young spear carrier (Will Shakespear) is enlisted by Edward de Vere (infamous murderer, lecher and nobleman) to serve as his front man for the plays he wants to see mounted. As their partnership grows, Will’s knowledge and understanding of the theater also grows and the line between mentor and protegé gets very blurry. Who actually wrote the plays? An uneducated actor who was losing his hair? Or the brilliant but tawdry Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford? Or was it Sir Francis Bacon? Or Christopher Marlowe? Or, dare we dream it, Her Majesty, Elizabeth Regina herself. Directed by Jane Jones, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Seattle's Book-It Repertory Theatre, whose delightful production of Pride and Prejudice was one of the hits of the 05/06 season.

Throughout The Beard of Avon, frequent references are made to Twelfth Night, making them perfect partners to present in tandem. Perhaps Shakespeare’s finest comedy, Twelfth Night tells the story of Viola, a young woman who finds herself shipwrecked in an unknown country. Disguising herself as a boy to ensure her safety, she soon encounters, and falls in love with, Duke Orsino who also develops tender, but perplexing, feelings for her (er, him) as questions of sexual identity, desire and longing spin into a heady concoction. Tender, poignant outpourings of the heart lie next to some of the Bard’s silliest (and most low-brow) double-entendres, while both romance and adventure emerge in full bloom. In typical Shakespearean fashion, boys play girls, girls play boys, girls play boys playing girls and all’s well that ends well in this charming tale of love and misunderstanding.

World Premiere SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

Based on the novel by Ken Kesey; Adapted by Aaron Posner; Directed by Aaron Posner
April 1 – 27, 2008
Named the “all-time great Oregon novel” by Portland Monthly magazine, Ken Kesey’s epic tale is set amidst the conflict between the Stamper clan – a family of hard-nosed, self-centered lumberjacks – and the out-of-work union loggers in town. But the heart of the story is the struggle between two brothers: one who represents the land, the body and the spirit the pioneers brought with them over the Oregon Trail; the other an introspective, Yale-educated gentleman whose long-awaited return home provides the play’s catalyst. The fury of the brothers’ long-held grudge rises to the surface as their love for the same woman becomes increasingly impossible to ignore. Writer/director Aaron Posner has telescoped this monumental work into two jam-packed hours on the stage, while managing to encompass the scope, passion and power of the original story as well as the eloquence of Kesey’s unique literary voice.

DOUBT

By John Patrick Shanley; Directed by Rose Riordan
May 20 – June 15, 2008
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005, Doubt takes place in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx in 1964. This sensitive yet provocative play centers around the conflict between Sister Aloysius, a traditional, by-the-book nun who presides over the school, and the more laid-back parish priest, Father Flynn, over what Sister Aloysius considers to be inappropriate behavior toward one of the school’s new students. Described by TheaterMania as “a modern mystery or thriller that ends with no certain answers… [Doubt] is a supreme contest of wills, an unflinching search for the truth and a measure of justice dealt to the audience for 90 minutes without an intermission… Some of the original Broadway cast has even stated in interviews that the second act takes place when the audience leaves the theater to discuss their differing opinions of the play – some agreeing with Aloysius and others siding with Flynn.” But the real issue of the play is not what is right and what is wrong, or who did what to whom and why, but the role that doubt plays in the hearts and minds of all of us, believer and non-believer alike.

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In the Studio Theatre...

THE UNDERPANTS

By Carl Sternheim; Adapted by Steve Martin; Directed by Rose Riordan
October 16 – December 2, 2007
In this sidesplitting reinvention of a 19th century German sex comedy (who knew there were German sex comedies?), the incomparable Steve Martin focuses his zany eye on the relationship between a prudish butcher and his delectably voluptuous young wife, Louise. Set in 1910, when a glimpse of stocking was something shocking, two very different men face cardiac arrest when they are witness to the full descent of the luscious Louise’s lingerie during an outdoor celebration. Louise becomes something of an instant celebrity and a magnet for romantic intrigue in this hilarious, frothy, naughty comedy with absolutely no redeeming social value whatsoever, but lots and lots of laughs.

A FEMININE ENDING

By Sarah Treem; Director TBA
February 5 – March 23, 2008
The hit of the 2006 Just Add Water/West Playwrights Festival, A Feminine Ending centers around a brilliant young oboe player caught between two visions of her future: her own musical career or that of her fiancé, a rocker whose star is rapidly on the rise. In her search for answers, Amanda journeys home to face the sources of her ambivalence: a mother who frequently leaves her husband and returns to him without his even knowing she’s been gone, and The Boy Next Door who’s grown into an independent and intriguing young man. Funny, fresh and surprising, this beguiling romantic comedy written by a talented young playwright, Sarah Treem, will have everyone talking.

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED

By Douglas Carter Beane; Directed by Chris Coleman
April 29 – June 15, 2008
The Off-Broadway hit of 2006 follows the adventures of Mitchell Green, a handsome, young movie actor who is about to hit it big. Always photographed on the arms of beautiful women, he nevertheless has a little secret that could end his career once and for all – his clandestine affairs with men (sound familiar?). And as if that’s not enough, he’s fallen in love with his most recent “rent boy” and wants to announce it to the world. Helping him navigate Hollywood’s choppy waters is his devilish agent Diane (a modern-day Lady Macbeth in stilettos), who’s doing everything she can to keep him away from the rent boy and the rent boy’s girlfriend (wait, the rent boy has a girlfriend?). The Little Dog Laughed is one of the most keenly observed social satires in recent memory. And it’s not just the dog who’ll end up laughing by the time it’s over. {Warning: This play contains nudity and sexual content.}