Fertile Ground Festival of New Work 2014 to Kick Off Jan 23

The Portland-grown Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Work offers a multitude of artistic endeavors from Portland artists at different points in development and in variety of genres like theatre, musical theatre, dance and multidisciplinary arts. FG14 brings dozens upon dozens of new artistic works from Portland's teeming jungle of artists into the light to thrive on stages, and in nooks and crannies all over Portland from Thursday, January 23 to Sunday, February 2, 2014.

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 major theatre companies to spunky dance companies, to loads of playwrights and emerging producers, Portland is fertile ground for presenting new works as a world premieres or pieces in development. This a myriad of new works span theatre, dance, comedy and social action through the arts with staged readings, readings and multidisciplinary events at all times of the day. In addition to seasoned producers offering works at variety of stages, dozens of small, local producers, playwrights and choreographers are also choosing to offer their work for this collaborative Portland showcase festival.

- All access Festival Passes are only $50 and are available on the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org

- Single tickets for all festival events are purchased directly through the producing companies but can be accessed through the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org

FG13 PROGRAMMING INFORMATION:

For the most accurate and comprehensive information to include production descriptions, locations, times and ticket information is on the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Printed Festival Guides are available at performance venues throughout Portland, or mailed upon request.

Key producers this year include Artists Repertory Theatre, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Portland Playhouse, Theatre Vertigo, Lakewood Theatre, Post5 Theatre, and more, along with many emerging theatre companies, individual playwrights and dance chorographer producers. For FG14, Polaris Dance Theatre will again present the "Groovin Greenhouse" with a more than a dozen choreographers and dance groups, and PDX Playwrights will present 10 staged readings.

Fertile Ground Festival of New Work 2014

Presented by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance

Dates: January 23- February 2, 2014

Venue: City-wide, check website or Festival Guide for locations

Tickets: All ticket information at www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Individual Event tickets sold through each producer

Can be accessed through www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Festival Passes: $50 - www.fertilegroundpdx.org

Event Descriptions: More information about the Fertile Ground Festival and full event listings and descriptions can be found in the Festival Guide and at www.fertilegroundpdx.org

THEATRE

Action Adventure - "To Be Determined: A Cavalcade of Awesome"

ALL CAPS Comedy - "ALL CAPS: A Comedy Show with Character(s)" curated by Scott Rogers

Artists Rep - "The Monster-Builder" by Amy Freed & "Flash Reads" reading series from Playwrights West

Curious Comedy - "David Saffert's Birthday Bashstavaganza! IV" by David Saffert

Dance Naked Productions - "Lust & Marriage" by Eleanor O'Brien

D.C. Copeland - "The Truth According to Rose" & "Merrily Down the Stream" by D.C. Copeland

Demaris Webb with Passin' Art - "American King Umps: A Midsummer Night's Melodrama on the Tragedy of
Slavery" by Don Wilson Glenn

Down Boat Arts - "Middle Names" by Corey O'Hara

Greathouse of Music, Dance and Accordion Cabaret - "You Do Speak English, Don't You?" by Mark & Helena

Greathouse

Hand2Mouth - "Pep Talk" by the H2M ensemble

New Century Players - "Entanglement" by Kevin Yell

Jazz Me Blues Productions - "The Past Is Calling" by Dennis Nyback

Jewish Theatre Collaborative - "Memory's Landscape" conceived & adapted by Jamie M. Rea

& Sacha Reich

Lakewood Theatre - 4 readings: "Aged to Perfection" by Veronica Esagui & Linda Kuhlmann, "The Temporary
Man" by Scott David Bradner, "The Haunting of Childhood" by Gregory Neil Forbes, "Til There Was
You" by Julie Michaels

PDXPlaywrights - 10 events by a variety of PDXP playwrights

PHAME - "Unlimited Ambition: A Collection of Short Plays" by the Students of PHAME Academy

PlayWrite - "Word.Voice."

Portland Civic Theatre Guild - "Love is Enough"

Portland Playhouse & Boom Arts - "A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff" by Alicia Jo Rabins

Portland Playhouse & The August Wilson Red Door Project - "My Walk has Never Been Average" by Roberta S.
Hunte

Post5 Theatre - "Therapy Hunger" by Cassandra Boice & "Bon Ton Roulet" by Elizabeth Huffman

RLP - "Mad Genre" by Jason Ferte

Readers Theatre Repertory - "Theodore & Di" by David Berkson

Robert Gaynor - "Tennessee in Key West" by Robert Lee Gaynor

SPECTRE Productions in association with triangle productions! - "4x4 Musicals" by Bryce Earhart,

Diane Englert, William S. Gregory, Wayne Harrel, Mark LaPierre, Valory Lawrence, Paul Lewis, Kurt Misar, Eric Nordin, JEN RAYnak, Wendy Wallace

Theatre Vertigo -"End of Sex" by Craig Jessen

The LanceLife Comprehensive Total Life System - "Live your future, today!" by Wallace Fessler & Josh Fisher

The Skidmore Bluffs and Untitled Productions - "Revival" by Josh Gulotta & "Dear Momma: A Love Letter" by
Megan Sweigert

Well Arts - "Stories for Portland" by teenage girls aged 14-18 at Boys and Girls Aid

Whink Productions - "Remme's Run" by Wayne Harrel

DANCE

Bridge City Dance Project - "A Fight To Become"

SubRosa Dance Collective - "Heirloom"

TriptheDark Dance Company - "Picture Sentence Picture" by Corinn deWaard & Stephanie Seaman

Rutherford's Brain - "Scenes from the Future" by Anne Rutherford and ensemble

Cami Curtis Performing Arts Center - "Sincerely," by Ucce Agada

Polaris Dance Theatre's "Groovin Greenhouse" - six nights featuring three of the following:

PDX Dance Collective - "Seasons", NW Fusion - Selected Repertoire, Collective Northwest - new work by Mary Hunt, A-WOL Dance, Beat Bangerz, Top Shake Dance, Polaris Jr. Company - world premiere by M'liss Stephenson, Polaris - new work in progress from Robert Guitron

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 artistic 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 in creative development. 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 and vibrant creativity. In the past five years the Festival has grown to embrace many forms of new works in art allowing Portland's arts lovers to discover Portland's truly fertile ground for creativity, innovation and daring acts of performance.

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