NAATCO adds Portland Center Stage to its National Partnership Project

Portland Center Stage will be the fifth partner to join NAATCO’s efforts towards promoting more expansive and long-lasting representations of Asian Americans in theater.  

 The NAATCO National Partnership Project is the ambitious initiative created to establish relationships with theaters around the country to develop and implement strategies for the intrinsic inclusion of Asian American theater artists, technicians, and administrators in their practices. On American stages today, there is a growing emphasis on inclusion and belonging. But Asian Americans continue to be largely excluded from this movement and continue to be portrayed in stereotypical and formulaic ways. Since its founding, NAATCO has been dedicated to changing this dynamic. 

 Portland Center Stage joins current partners Long Wharf Theatre (CT), Soho Rep (NY), TheatreSquared (Fayetteville, AR) and People’s Light (Malvern, PA). 

 "We are honored to partner with the incredible artists at NAATCO, creating exhilarating, long-term collaboration on stage and off with one of the most cherished and venerable theater companies in our field,” said Marissa Wolf, Artistic Director, Portland Center Stage.

 NAATCO has also created a special category within the NNPP to acknowledge the work of two organizations who, on their own initiative, have supported, augmented, and fortified NAATCO’s mission: Satellite Partners. “It gives us great pleasure to name Play On Shakespeare and Transport Group as our first Satellite Partners. These are two organizations who understand our mission and have absorbed it into their processes and programming. I think they are stellar satellites,” Mia Katigbak said.

 Play On Shakespeare has partnered with the NNPP on two of their commissions of the adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays into modern American verse: Romeo and Juliet by Hansol Jung, presented by former partner Two River Theater, which transferred to New York as a NAATCO Off-Broadway production; the upcoming Twelfth Night by Alison Carey, which will be presented by NNPP partner TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR next spring. NAATCO will also be producing Cymbeline by Andrea Thome in partnership with Play On Shakespeare Off-Broadway this spring.

 Even before NAATCO initiated the NNPP, Transport Group had already proposed partnership projects with NAATCO: The Trial of the Catonsville Nine adapted by Jack Cummings III. It was produced in 2019. They then followed up with A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee. Both were presented with all-Asian American casts. They will partner with NAATCO and Classic Stage Company on the upcoming production of William Inge’s Bus Stop also with an all-Asian American cast. 

Lue Douthit, the President and Co-Founder at Play On Shakespeare said, “Play on Shakespeare is honored to be asked by NAATCO to be a Satellite Partner. We remain deeply committed to ensure Asian American voices are represented in the field of contemporary Shakespeare production and practice.”

 Jack Cummings III, the Artistic Director of Transport Group added, “I have worked with Mia Katigbak and NAATCO for several years.  Together, we have explored classic American plays in new and exciting ways, revealing hidden depths that have challenged both companies in meaningful ways.  My respect for NAATCO is deep--their work pushes boundaries in ways that keep the American theater moving forward.  With Bus Stop, I am honored to finish Transport Group's journey through William Inge's major plays alongside a company as revered and respected as NAATCO." 

 Katigbak added: “Our current cohort of NNPP partners includes Long Wharf Theatre, People's Light Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Soho Rep, and TheatreSquared. These five partners embody the program's regional, demographic, and stylistic diversity and reach. I welcome and value the education I am receiving through our work with different communities around the country. I am inspired by the commitment of our partners to achieve  robust and long-lasting programming that intrinsically includes Asian Americans.  Our work with this cohort, along with the Satellite Partners, makes me  profoundly hopeful.”

Productions to come out of the NNPP include Queen by playwright and screenwriter Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy, Evil Eye – Amazon, Three Body Problem - Netflix, and upcoming:  The Nevers – HBO, Sister Act 3 -  Disney/Whoopi Goldberg/Tyler Perry), directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar (produced with Long Wharf Theatre); and Public Obscenities, the New York Times Critic’s Pick, written & directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, produced by Soho Rep as part of the NNPP, and subsequently presented at Woolly Mammoth in Washington DC and Theater For A New Audience in NYC. Chowdhury won the OBIE Award for Direction for Public Obscenities, as did Enver Chakartash (for costume design), Barbara Samuels (for lighting design), and dots for Sustained Achievement in Scenic Design. Public Obscenities was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and was also nominated for three Drama League Awards and four Drama Desk Awards; the cast won the Drama Desk Ensemble Award for embodying “the transnational world” of Misha’s “bilingual play with memorable authenticity, remarkable specificity, and extraordinary warmth.” 

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