2017 Fertile Ground Festival Announces Lineup in Portland

Now in its ninth year, the 2017 Portland-grown Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Works continues to flourish in a town of prolific playwrights, abundant actors, innovative dancers, talented designers and adventuresome producers.

With a wide variety of new producers, along with several returning companies, FG17 brings dozens upon dozens of new artistic works from Portland's teeming jungle of artists to thrive on stages, nooks and crannies all over the city for 11 days from Thursday, January 19 to Sunday, January 29, 2017. The 2017 crop of new work can be found here.

Shining out through the winter darkness, Fertile Ground offers an astonishing breadth of creative work for the stage, compressed into the darkest and wettest days of the Portland calendar. From seasoned theatre and dance companies, to spunky, young art-creators of every ilk, Portland is fertile ground for presenting new work at every step in development.

This Festival's myriad of new works span theatre, dance, comedy, circus arts, animation, clown and social action through the arts with theatre and dance, workshops, staged readings, readings and multidisciplinary events - for 11 days, at all times of the day. In addition to seasoned producers, dozens of emerging young producers, playwrights, choreographers and animators are also choosing to offer their work in this collaborative Portland showcase festival.

"Fertile Ground is a place where everything that can be created by Portland artists is fair game, and that's very special," said Nicole Lane, Fertile Ground Festival Director. "This uncurated festival is like none other, it offers artists and audiences the opportunity to explore the wilds of art-making in a plethora of genres and at every point in the process. In this year's festival we will see theatre in its short and long forms, musical theatre, storytelling, circus arts, improvisation, animation, clown and a wide variety of dance disciplines."

Key producers this year include Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, CoHo Theatre, Milagro, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Echo Theatre Company, Staged!, Northwest Children's Theater, Lakewood Theatre, Portland Story Theater and many more including emerging theatre companies, individual playwrights and choreographers. For FG17, Polaris Dance Theatre will again present the "Groovin' Greenhouse" with a variety of choreographers and dance groups. PDXPlaywrights will present 11 new works and Artists Rep will present five lunch-time readings, three 7:30pm staged readings and one festival enrichment event.

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Fertile Ground Festival of New Work 2017:

Presented by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance

January 19- 29, 2017

100+ new works by Portland artists in an 11-day festival

Citywide, check website or Festival Guide for locations

All ticket information at www.fertilegroundpdx.org; Individual event tickets sold through each producer

Festival Passes: $50 - access event reservations - www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Patrons can purchase individual tickets to each show or buy a $50 all-access Festival Pass. 2017 Festival full event listings and descriptions can be found in the printed Festival Guide or online at www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

- All access Festival Passes are $50 and are available here: fertilegroundpdx.org/festival-passes-and-tickets.

- Single tickets for all festival events are purchased directly through the producing companies. Links here: www.boxofficetickets.com/bot/wa/search?q=fertile+ground.

Full event listings including production descriptions, locations, times and ticket information here: fertilegroundpdx.org/2017-works. A printed Festival Guide is available in many theatre lobbies including Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Lakewood Theatre, Bag & Baggage, among others, or online at www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

What Makes FERTILE GROUND Unique? Several theatre companies across the nation host "new works festivals" and nearly all of these festivals present "staged readings," works-in-progress curated by the aesthetic of one company's artistic staff. They are also typically exclusive to genre. In contrast, the Fertile Ground Festival presents a non-curated collection of fully staged world premiere productions in theatre and dance, as well as workshop and staged reading productions, and more. Fertile Ground is about process as well as product. This festival is the collaborative work of our local artistic community expressing the mother lode of creative capacities, in a quintessentially Portland manner.

Fertile Ground was launched by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (the service organization for Portland theatre artists and organizations) in 2009 to provide a platform for Portland theatre companies to showcase their commitment to new work. The Festival has grown to embrace many forms of new works in art allowing arts lovers to discover Portland's truly fertile ground for creativity, innovation and daring acts of performance.

The Fertile Ground Festival of New Work is presented by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance and is sponsored by Artslandia. Festival organizers are comprised of individuals who strongly believe in showcasing Portland's vibrant creativity.

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