Photo Flash: First Look at Artists Repertory Theatre's AND SO IT GOES... World Premiere

Artists Rep begins its 30th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of Aaron Posner's And So It Goes…, directed by Posner. This quirky love letter to the human race flows from Kurt Vonnegut's first collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House. The play runs now through October 7 on the Alder Stage in Portland, Oregon. Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

Can we ever protect ourselves from the idiocy of our hearts? Down a well-worn path, hand-in-hand, take a walk…through leaves and over bridges, breathe in the soul's seductive moments through three love stories set in mythologicAl Small-town America. It's 1962 New England when we join Tom, our tour guide, for a stroll with a host of hearts just like our own. Along the circuitous course of love we travel with our new friends hoping to catch a genuine glimpse of humankind's most elusive sentiment in the wonderfully flawed characters muddling along before us.

Playwright and Director Aaron Posner wrote the first version of And So It Goes…, under the title Who Am I This Time?, in the 1980s while at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre. He said back then adaptation was often done in a strictly narrative style, that it was just a matter of "taking short stories and doing them on stage." 25 years later, after several more incarnations of that production and an even deeper understanding and appreciation of Kurt Vonnegut's work, Posner wrote And So It Goes….

Posner referenced what Critic Robert Scholes said about the author of 14 novels including Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle: "Kurt Vonnegut puts bitter coating on sweet pills." Posner said it is Vonnegut's ability to "portray the difficulties of being human beings with optimism, hopefulness, love and texture" that enables his stories to come to life on the stage.

Aaron Posner (director) is a freelance director and playwright, an Associate Artist at both the Folger Theatre in Washington DC and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and is a founding Artistic Director of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Company. Aaron has directed at major regional theatres from coast to coast including Actor's Theatre of Louisville, American Player's Theatre, ALLIANCE THEATRE, Arizona Theatre Company, Barrington Stage, Cal Shakes, Children's Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Studio Theatre, Theatre J, Woolly Mammoth and many more. Aaron won Barrymore Awards for A Midsummer Night's Dream (Director), and The Chosen (Playwright), both at the Arden. He has won the Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director three of the last eight years, all for work at the Folger: Measure For Measure, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Cyrano. His many published and produced adaptations include The Chosen, My Name Is Asher Lev, Ellen Foster adapted from Kaye Gibbons, Third & Indiana adapted from Steve Lopez, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men adapted from David Foster Wallace, and Sometimes A Great Notion adapted from Ken Kesey. His musical adaptation of Mark Twain's A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage (with James Sugg) was nominated for 10 Barrymore Awards and the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play.

His new adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, entitled Stupid Fu*king Bird will premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in May of 2013. Aaron is an Eisenhower Fellow, holds a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, is from Eugene, Oregon, and lives in Maryland with his wife, actress Erin Weaver, and his tiny daughter, Maisie.

Portland's longest-running theatre company, Artists Repertory Theatre celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Over the past three decades Artists Rep has made a name for itself offering adventurous plays – comedies, dramas and musicals alike – that are supremely entertaining, thoughtful and provocative. Artists Rep feeds our community's artistic soul with premieres, re-imagined classics, new play development and educational outreach.

For tickets, scheduling and more information, visit www.artistsrep.org.

Photo credit: Owen Carey

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