PlayWrite September 2023 Newsletter
Merhaba, xin chào, salaam, dzień dobry, hola!
September’s Quote: “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
― Charles Dickens
Staff and Board Discuss: Why join PlayWrite’s board?
Victor Mack and a Jefferson student
You all know Victor Mack, our Program Director. Victor’s been with PlayWrite for… is it nineteen years now? (Yes.) He trains our coaches and is a coach par excellence himself. He’s also an award-winning actor and a director.
Brad Fortier working on shelter ideas for Syrian refugees.
Now, meet Brad Fortier, a PlayWrite board member. Brad’s master’s degree is in the interdisciplinary study of the anthropology of improvised theater (a unique M.A. he earned at Portland State University). He’s the founder of Spontaneous Village (which creates trusted community for the displaced through a playful curriculum), and he’s the senior equity training and education coordinator for Uplift Oregon. He was the education director for the Brody Theater from 2005-2012, and is still busy developing curriculum and delivering workshops around Portland, Oregon and the globe.
Victor and Brad talked a bit about the payoff for being on PlayWrite’s board.
Here's an edited version of the conversation:
Victor: How did you find PlayWrite? Or, how did we find you?
Brad: Teri Fitch was the board president before Matthew [Robinson, who was PlayWrite’s board president from 2021 to 2023]. Teri took improv workshops from me, and she knew I had a degree in anthropology, and that I’d written books on improvised theatre. She saw a lot of dovetails between PlayWrite and my interests and experience. Like PlayWrite’s founder Bruce Livingston, I am an anthropologist who’s interested in theatre, and its impacts and ability to change people. So, she solicited me, and as she transitioned out I transitioned in.
Teri Fitch introducing a play
Victor: That’s about when Covid put a stop to our live performances. Have you had a chance to see a performance?
Brad: Only at fundraisers. I’ve watched many of the videos [more than 700 PlayWrite performance videos have been recorded and can be seen here]. Of course, video isn’t the same thing, doesn’t have the same impact as live performance; it loses some of the power. It loses the energy transfer. I worked with unaccompanied minors coming across the southern US border in 2014… just the raw energy and the transformation, the excitement and nervousness that comes out of them when they’re doing these [theatrical] things, it just doesn’t translate into a two-dimensional space.
Victor: It’s all about relationships.
Coach Brian Kettler (one of our 24-Hour Play winners) and a student, building a relationship
Brad: Even in theatre work, you need that relationship between the characters, to find the magic. The mission of PlayWrite is the awesome thing that I’m here for. It’s seeing you, Victor working with the coaches and working with the youth and making it happen, seeing the slow lights come on…
I used to do an improv workshop with HomePlate. One of the first youth I worked with there went on to start doing stand-up stuff—it changed their motivation, it changed their thinking about themselves, and that changed all their prospects. They got housed, they got a job, they were writing bits, they were making friends, all of that from meeting for pizza and teaching a few games and discovering that it’s all about making connections.
Connections not just between people, but between ideas, and even your self. That’s the other reason I came on the board… I got more opportunities to help facilitate those pieces of change.
Victor: We’re happy to have you, Brad.
What’s Happening
Helensview School provides individualized instruction and specialized support services for youth ages 12–21 who have dropped out of school or who are experiencing chronic attendance / behavioral issues. By the time you read this, we’ll be in workshops at Helensview. We’ll send a QuickNote (a short email) out when the capstone, open-to-the-public performance is scheduled.
News About PlayWrite Coaches, Actors, Staff & Board Members
New to our coaching team: Carlos-Zenen Trujillo (they/them). Carlos-Zenen was born in Bejucal, Cuba, and has lived in Oregon since 2006. Their new play Our Utopia, inspired by Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town, gives the audience the opportunity to explore what it means to be a member of a community. This metatheatrical experience invites the audience to confront their own beliefs and unpack what it means to exist in “utopia”. Bag&Baggage is producing this world premiere in collaboration with the Ashland New Play Festival. Tickets are pay-what-you-will starting at $20, and going up in $5 increments. Runs from September 15th to October 1st in Hillsboro at the Vault Theatre. ASL interpreted, Thursday, September 28th.
Carlos-Zenen’s playwriting includes: The Island in Winter or La Isla en Invierno (Inaugural Problem Play Project Commission); Abundancia (Reading; Matchbox Theatre); Christmas, Contigo (Oregon Cabaret); and The Image of the Black Madonna (OSF Writers Group Reading). Their honors include: ANPF New Voices 2021 Retreat Participant, Certificate of Merit in Dramaturgy (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui); Irene Ryan Award nominations (A Man of No Importance; Elektra); Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) ASPIRE Leadership Fellow 2019, KCACTF John Cauble Award. They are also a KCACTF Directing Fellow 2020. Carlos-Zenen has a BFA in Theatre Arts from Southern Oregon University.
Welcome to the team, Carlos-Zenen!
ALSO:
An example of how PlayWrite coaches and actors impact the youth we serve: Victor worked with a young man at p:ear, who was later selected for a Portland Center Stage JAW festival young playwright internship. Their play Burnt Bread was written and workshopped at the JAW Playwriting Festival at Portland Center Stage and had a staged reading on Sunday July 30th, 2023. Follow this link to read the script: Harvest is Upon Us (wix.com)
PlayWrite coach/actor Chris Harder has been teaching "Authentic Connection," his fun, supportive acting class for 15 years. Using the Meisner technique, you'll learn to build connection through attentive observation, listening, repetition, and moment-to-moment authentic responses. Open to all levels. Classes upcoming. Get more info.