Write On! Press Release
Write On! PlayWrite’s 24-Hour Play Festival
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WRITE ON! PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
Sat, June 17, 2023, 7:30–10:00 PM PDT
Ellyn Bye Studio, Portland Center Stage, 128 NW Eleventh Avenue, Portland, OR, 97209
Portland, OR—May 5, 2023—PlayWrite Inc., a nonprofit organization serving “youth at the edge” through coaching young people to write and direct original one-act plays, is celebrating 20 years of community by doing what community members love most—creating and experiencing theatre.
PlayWrite’s 20th Anniversary celebration is Write On! A 24-Hour Play Festival, June 16–17, 2023, at the Ellyn Bye Studio, Portland Center Stage, the Armory, 128 NW Eleventh Avenue. Eight original ten-minute plays will be written, rehearsed, and performed within 24 hours.
Twenty-four-hour play festivals are known for producing works that surprise, delight, confound, tickle, thrill, scare, and please, for audiences and performers alike. The compressed timeframe means all the artists must take more risks, with unpredictable results.
Write On! 24-Hour Play Festival Schedule:
Friday evening, June 16, playwrights, actors, directors and production staff gather. Playwrights draw from a hat to discover the required elements of their writing assignment: genre, how many actors, one specific line they must use, and one prop to incorporate. Writers leave to write their plays that night. The others are free until Saturday morning.
Saturday morning June 17, the playwrights turn their scripts into the production staff. Directors draw to determine which play they will direct, and with which actors.
The rest of Saturday morning and afternoon, each troupe (actors, director, stage manager or assistant director) delve into the script and the characters, and rehearse. Actors memorize lines.
June 17, Saturday evening at 7:30—showtime! Eight plays, each no longer than 10 minutes, will be performed. Three judges will decide which play is the standout.
OUR Write-On! EMCEE IS POISON WATERS
Poison Waters is not just a personality—Poison is an experience!! Poison’s worked with benefits, revues and shows for local, regional and national non-profits and for-profit organizations. She has been recognized for her community service, raising awareness, and providing entertainment to dozens of charities including Cascade AIDS Project, Make a Wish Foundation, the American Heart Association. Highlights include appearances with Pink Martini and opening for Storm Large at her Holiday Ordeal. When she’s not hosting events and fundraisers or traveling the globe, she’s the co-hostess at the legendary Darcelle XV Showplace where she has been wildly popular for almost 30 years.
2020 marks the 20th year volunteering with summer camps for children whose lives have been affected by HIV. Poison (as Kevin) is the Camp Director for Cascade AIDS Projects’ Camp KC (Kids Connection). She will always remain “the smile on the face of Portland.”
OUR Write On! JUDGES INCLUDE (listed alphabetically)
BETH HARPER
Beth Harper is an actor, director, artistic director, and teacher. In 1985 she founded the Portland Actors Conservatory (now “The Actors Conservatory” [TAC]), which became a nationally accredited independent school for theatre and film actor training. TAC alumni members now work in the arts from Los Angeles to New York. She “retired” in 2022, and is now TAC’s director emeritus.
Beth has directed dozens of productions for TAC. She also directs for Artists Repertory Theatre (FM, Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music, How I Learned to Drive, Drawer Boy, et many alia) and other theatres.
As a stage actor, Beth has worked nationally and internationally. Locally, she says two of her favorite theatrical experiences were both directed by the (late, great) Michael Griggs: The Cherry Orchard (New Rose) and A Texas Romance (ART). As a film actor, she’s played character roles in movies from Pig (2021, starring Nicholas Cage).
Beth is a commissioner for the National Association of Schools of Theatre. She is the recipient of the Leslie O. Fulton Fellowship for Artistic Excellence, and received the Drammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 for her outstanding leadership and accomplishment in education and professional theatre.
DAVID KOFF
David Koff has been acting, writing, and producing theater professionally since 1991. He's appeared on the TV shows “The West Wing", "The John Larroquette Show", and "Sesame Street". After completing the improv program at "The Groundlings" in Los Angeles, David trained for a decade with Groundlings alum Stan Wells at his "Empty Stage Theatre”. He then completed two years in the master class of Bill Steinkellner, executive producer of “Cheers” and “Just Shoot Me”. He sold his first screenplay to Fox Family Films in 1993 and continues to write for the stage and screen.
In 2020, David founded the Change Through Play studio where he teaches improvisation as a life skill to students of all ages. He continues to bring his unique training style to help both his corporate clients and recovering addicts at his studio in Southwest Portland. For over 20 years, he’s served as the Artistic Director of the "Fake Radio" comedy troupe.
NIK WHITCOMB
Nik Whitcomb is a lifelong theatre artist who’s worked with nonprofit arts institutions across the nation including the Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and Omaha Performing Arts. Nik has also worked on Broadway as Program Director of the Black Theatre Coalition. He’s a proud Associate Member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and a reader on the Distinguished Play Committee for the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Nik is a vocal advocate for equity, access, and inclusion in the entertainment industry and consults with creative organizations of all sizes on strategic community development and implementation of human-first creative models.. He is an Ensemble Member and Chair of the Theater Advisory Committee at The Union for Contemporary Art, an Advisory Council Member of The Stillwell Institute for Contemporary Black Art, and was named a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. Nik became the Artistic director of Bag&Baggage Productions in 2022 and is about to launch his first season (2023–24) with the company.
PlayWrite’s Write On! Production Team
AIMEE FARR
Aimee is PlayWrite’s Operations Director. She is an accomplished actor with a BA in theatre from Idaho State University. She has performed with companies including Boise Little Theatre, Stagecoach Theatre, Daisy’s Madhouse Theatre, Prairie Dog Productions, and The New Heritage Theatre Company where she was a repertory member.
Aimee was President of the board of Daisy’s Madhouse Theatre in Boise, Idaho for three consecutive years. During her tenure, she created and chaired, then produced, Will Act 4 Food (WA4F), a 24-hour play festival and fundraiser to benefit the Idaho foodbank. WA4F celebrated 11 years March 2020. Aimee says:
One of the most beautiful byproducts of the 24-hour play festival is the amazing relationships that form. Each individual signs up to participate and they have no idea who they will be working with. Every facet and every participant is randomly drawn, so there are no dream teams and nothing is pre-written. The teams are thrown together through the fates of the draw and by the time the bows are taken so many friendships have materialized.
Aimee also holds an MBA from Boise State University and has found a way to channel both her skills in business and leadership with her passion for the performance arts at PlayWrite.
Victor Mack
Victor is PlayWrite’s Program Director. He’s an award-winning actor and director who has facilitated workshops and residencies in Theatre Arts at schools and community organizations across the country. The list of venues includes the Bronx Creative Arts Center, Young Adult Learning Academy, The 52nd Street Project, Special Audiences of New York and NJ Young Playwrights.
Locally Victor has been a Coach and Actor with PlayWrite as well as director and Acting 2 instructor for Portland Actors Conservatory. He is also Lead Teaching Artist with the Red Door Project's August Wilson Monologue Competition.
Katherine Lefever
Katherine is PlayWrite’s Development Director. She spent the previous decade fundraising for non-profit arts organizations, most recently, at All Classical Portland (KQAC 89.9 FM). She serves on the board of the Portland Symphonic Choir, a group with which she also performs.
Katherine has a BA in Music from Reed College and an Executive MPA from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Having firsthand experience of the transformative and healing power of the performing arts, she believes deeply in this work and is delighted to be on the PlayWrite team.
Photos from 2011 Will Act 4 Food (WA4F), a 24-hour play festival and fundraiser to benefit the Idaho Foodbank. WA4F celebrated 11 years March 2020.
Contact: Sherry Lamoreaux PlayWrite Media Relations 503.704.9700