JAW Festival Of New Plays Line Up Announced!

Portland Center Stage's annual JAW New Play Festival returns July 26-28, 2024. The JAW New Play Festival offers sensational new plays, live music, and community music and dance performances all weekend long, free for all audiences!

Each July, artistic teams, including playwrights, directors, and actors, come together to rehearse — and a lot of times rewrite — a new play. The final piece of the process happens during the weekend, when “music stand readings” are shared with audiences so the playwrights can hear their work, often for the very first time. Audiences are invited to be part of the creation of a new canon of 21st century plays that speak directly to our time, with one-of-a-kind access to playwrights through post-play interviews, an opportunity to offer post-show feedback, and more.

This year's JAW featured plays include A Re-Enactment of the Imagined Trial of Daisy the Cow, who Allegedly Caused the Great Chicago Fire by Julia Izumi, Good Person by Brett Robinson, Fires, Ohio by Beth Hyland,The Sunnyview Elementary Art Show by Rob Smith, and a selection of short plays written by teens from local high schools, commissioned specifically for JAW. 

"This year's festival features comedies with heart, dramas with humor and a one person clown show that blurs the lines between genres. I'm excited for the voices we're sharing with audiences this year." said Kamilah Bush, Portland Center Stage's Literary Manager. “ It's a festival you won't want to miss!”

In addition to these first-time play readings, The Armory will be lit up with live performances from incredible local bands and dance crews through the JAW Press Play series. This year's Press Play events include a return of the epic and awesomely attended WWJP Street Dance Showcase, Funk, Neo Soul, and a dash of Musical Theatre by Kimo Camat, Deepa Barve Bollywood Dance, and more by local musicians Gus Jeffers and MREENS.

All JAW events are free. Tickets for the staged readings can be reserved in advance at pcs.org/jaw, but walk-ups are always welcome. Press Play events do not require a ticket. Lab admission is by lottery. This year, the play readings will all be held in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Simulcasts of the play readings will also be presented in the Mezzanine Lobby in case capacity is reached in the studio. The Armory Bar will be open throughout the festival, with snacks and beverages available for purchase.   

JAW PLAYWRIGHTS & PLAYS

 

A Re-Enactment of the Imagined Trial of Daisy the Cow, who Allegedly Caused the Great Chicago Fire by Julia Izumi

Directed by Josiah Davis

Friday, July 26 · 7:30 p.m. · Ellyn Bye Studio

A re-enactment of the imagined trial of Daisy the cow, who allegedly caused the Great Chicago Fire. A deep interrogation of our criminal justice system, this fabricated trial will question what truth, justice, blame, and guilt actually mean.

Julia Izumi's works include Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons/WP Theater), miku, and the gods. (ArtsWest), Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea (Rorschach Theatre, Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Best New Play Adaptation), and others. Her work has been developed at MTC, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and more. Honors include the OPC Dr. Kerry English Award and KCACTF's Darrell Ayers Playwriting Award. Former Civilians R&D Group Member and Clubbed Thumb ECWG Member. Current New Dramatists Resident. Current commissions: True Love Productions, MTC/Sloan, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Rep. MFA: Brown University. www.juliaizumi.com

Good Person by Brett Robinson

Directed by TBA

Saturday, July 27 · 4 p.m. · Ellyn Bye Studio 

Patrica! (A clown, a monster, and definitively good person) drags you down into her own hole of her own making to ask why we are good. Part seminar and part existential crisis. It's buffoon, it's funny, it's dread. This one person show crafted in drag bars and cabaret spaces invites you to question what makes a person good, and if you happen to be one of those so-called "Good People."

Brett Ashley Robinson (she/they) is a 2021 Pew Fellow and Barrymore Award winning artist. She's the 2021 winner of the PEN America/Jean Stein Oral History Grant for Re-Enactment and a two time nominee  for the Golden Tassel Jawn, Philadelphia 's Drag and Burlesque awards, for best comedy act as Patricia! At the Wilma: Blood Wedding, There, Describe the Night, Mr Burns, Is God Is (a radio play), Fairview, Twelfth Night, Dance Nation. They've worked with Theater Exile, InterAct,  Under the Radar Festival,  Actors Theatre of Louisville, Pig Iron, and the Bearded Ladies. She's an Assistant Professor of Acting at UIUC, a company member of Applied Mechanics, and of HotHouse–the Wilma Theater's resident acting company. Much love to David and Owen

Fires, Ohio by Beth Hyland

Directed by Marissa Wolf

Saturday, July 27 · 7:30 p.m. · Ellyn Bye Studio

As a climate crisis threatens a small Ohio college town, the mopey grown children and second wife of a sort-of-mediocre professor must choose: stay and smolder, or leave and burn. When a visiting scholar comes to stay for a few days, love and hatred flare and jeopardize the family's fragile equilibrium. Chekhovian and totally modern, Fires, Ohio brings an old story into our painfully funny present.

Beth Hyland is a playwright and screenwriter based in Southern California. Her plays and musicals include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, FIRES, OHIO, SEAGULLS, KILLED A MAN (JOKING), GRIPPY SOCK VACATION, ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER'S PLAY, CLEARING, FOR ANNIE, and RED BOWL AT THE JEFFS. Her plays have been produced and developed regionally at The Geffen Playhouse, Steppenwolf's LookOut Series, Goodman Theatre's New Stages, Know Theatre, Provincetown Theatre, B Street Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Octagon Theatre Bolton; in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club and The Hearth; and around Chicago at Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, The Story Theatre, Bramble Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, The Sound in collaboration with Joe Swanberg, and others. Her play SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA was the 2024 recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival's Weissberger Prize and Jay Harris Commission, as well as the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting. Her play FIRES, OHIO was the 2023 recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Prize and the Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting. She co-founded The Sound, an itinerant Chicago storefront theatre, with artistic director Rebeca Willingham. Her short film CLAMBAKE, directed by Sammy Zeisel, was an official selection of the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and the Santa Monica Film Festival. She is a rising third-year MFA student at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. BA: Kenyon College. Representation: Jamie Kaye-Phillips, Paradigm. bethhyland.com

JAW Teen Playwrights Showcase

Directed by TBA
Sunday, July 28 · 1 p.m. · Ellyn Bye Studio
Experience some of the newest voices in theater! Teen playwrights will be selected following their deep involvement in PCS's education programming, including in-school playwriting residencies, Teen Council membership, and Teen Academy classes. They will receive PCS commissions to write short scripts for JAW. The work they develop — dynamic 8-10 minute plays — will be performed by actors from the JAW company.

The Sunnyview Elementary Art Show by Rob Smith

Directed by TBA

Sunday, July 28 · 4 p.m. · Ellyn Bye Studio

As the annual Sunnyview Elementary Art Show comes to a close, the newly formed Art Committee locks themselves away to determine which student will win The Golden Paintbrush. While it was once the decision of the Art Teacher alone, now she must mix it up with the new Assistant Principal, a veteran Fifth Grade Teacher, and the eager Head of the PTO; all with their own points of view. In this comedy, penned by local playwright Rob Smith, lines are drawn, perspectives are skewed, and truths are shaded as the Arts Committee struggles to determine whether the art or the artist matter more, if emotion or execution create the best art, or if art should even be judged at all.

Rob Smith was so excited to bring his wife and newborn son home from the hospital that he forgot where he parked. After 30 minutes of searching, texting, and feeling overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, he finally realized he was in the wrong parking lot. Relieved, he found the car, picked up his family, and went home to start their new lives together. That experience sums up his approach to writing; emotions run high, need drives the characters, and moments will never be forgotten. Rob's work has been produced/read/ commissioned from theaters in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and Tennessee. Some of these works include the full-length plays Dust, Underneath, Tightrope, and The Sunnyview Elementary Art Show. One-act and ten-minute plays include Do Us Part, Strands, Night and Day, The Family Photographer, and The Packer. For the screen his work includes various screenplays and pilot, including Park Rangers (named one of LaunchPad's Top 100 Pilots of 2019), and he produced and directed the mock-umentary about the world's greatest avant-garde theater company, The Closed Theatre. He received his BA from Catawba College and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was twice the recipient of the Shubert Fellowship for Dramatic Writing. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America. When not writing he can be found in the kitchen cooking something new, reading books about history, watching baseball, or coming up with reasons to get donuts. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his wife Kelly, their son Bobby, and their two cats Molly and Bowie.

JAW PRESS PLAY EVENTS

 

WWJP Street Dance Showcase

Friday, July 26 · 6:00 p.m. · Main Lobby

Kick things off for the 2024 JAW weekend with this wildly popular showcase, presented by Jesus Rodales of WWJP. Featuring street, club, and urban dance styles, performed by artists from a variety of local Portland area dance crews and institutions.

Kimo Camat

Saturday, July 27 · 1:00 p.m. · Main Lobby

Portland based performer Kimo Camat will be performing a pre-show set to the afternoon's play filled with songs ranging from Funk, Neo Soul, and a dash of Musical Theatre. Joined by Mak Kastelic on keys and Juliet Terrill on bass, Kimo wants you to come hang for an afternoon of cool drinks and soft tunes downtown in the Pearl.

MREENS

Saturday, July 27 · 6:30 p.m. · Main Lobby

Enjoy the cool, summertime vibes at JAW with a performance by Portland-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer MREENS as she shares her unique versions of cover songs, blended with original songs for the JAW weekend crowds.

Gus Jeffers

Sunday, July 30 · 12:00 p.m. · Main Lobby

Enjoy a JAW weekend pre-show music performance featuring 14-year-old vocalist Gus Jeffers sharing a mix of cover songs and original tracks, blending pop and R&B genres.

Deepa Barve Bollywood Dance

Sunday, July 30 · 3:00 p.m. · Main Lobby

Enjoy a JAW weekend pre-show music performance featuring a Bollywood dance troupe led by Deepa Barve.

JAW LABS

Saturday, July 27 - 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. with Julia Izumi
Sunday, July 28 - 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. with Brett Robinson
Lab space is limited, so admission is by lottery. To enter the lottery, email education@pcs.org with your choice of labs in order of preference. 

ABOUT JAW

Since 1999, JAW has created a space for 94 playwrights to develop 97 plays. Most have gone on to receive professional productions across the country, including many world premieres at PCS.

This year's JAW New Play Festival is supported by the Kinsman Foundation and Oregon Cultural Trust. Support for the JAW Teen Playwrights comes from the PGE Foundation and Herbert A. Templeton Foundation.

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE

Portland Center Stage was established in 1988 as a branch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and became independent in 1994. The company produces a mix of classic, contemporary, and world premiere productions, along with a variety of high-quality education and community programs. As part of its dedication to new play development, the company has produced 28 world premieres, many of which were developed at its JAW New Play Festival. Portland Center Stage's home is The Armory, a historic building originally constructed in 1891. After a major renovation, The Armory opened in 2006 as the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, the first performing arts venue in the country, and the first building in Portland to achieve a LEED Platinum rating.

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