Portland Center Stage Presents JAW's Big Weekend, 7/24-25

Portland Center Stage rounds out JAW's Big Weekend July 24th and 25th with Devise & Conquer: a series of performances from community arts organizations and a theater fair scavenger hunt that earns participants a FREE ticket to any 2010/2011 PCS performance.

The festivities kick off at 3 pm on Saturday, July 24th with the Theater Fair Scavenger Hunt and will continue before and after the 4 pm and 8 pm JAW readings both days at various locations throughout the Gerding Theater at the Armory. Also available throughout the weekend are Community Artists Labs with actor Kate Eastwood Norris, playwright Will Eno and dramaturge Joy Meads.

Participating in this year's Devise & Conquer are local storytelling organization Back Fence PDX and avant garde theater company Hand2Mouth, who present two very different interpretations of the storytelling art form; Polaris Dance, who invites everyone to a between-readings flash mob; and Playwrights West, who has created an audience participatory multi-media meditation on our complex relationship with the food on our plates.For 12 years JAW has created a space for playwrights to grow as writers and as professionals. Of the 40 plus plays that have received workshops at the festival, more than 50% have received world premiere productions at a regional theaters ranging from the NY Theater Workshop to Steppenwolf to Berkeley Rep to Portland's own Third Rail Rep. Ten JAW plays have later received fully staged productions at Portland Center Stage, giving Portland a strong national reputation for not only incubating new work, but helping to see that work to successful fruition.

JAW: A Playwright's Festival is made possible in part by funding from The Kinsman Foundation, The Oregon Cultural Trust, the Oregon Arts Commission, The Regional Arts and Culture Council and RACC/Work for Art, the Maybelle Clark McDonald Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Portland Center Stage inspires our community by bringing stories to life in unexpected ways. Established in 1988 as an off shoot of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PCS became an independent theater in 1994 and has been under the leadership of Artistic Director Chris Coleman since May 2000. The company presents a blend of classic, contemporary and original productions in a conscious effort to appeal to the eclectic palate of theatergoers in Portland. PCS also offers a variety of education and outreach programs for curious minds from six to 106, including the PCS GreenHouse, a school of theater.

THE GERDING THEATER AT THE ARMORY houses a 599-seat Main Stage and a 200-seat black box Studio. It was the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, and the first performing arts venue, to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. The Gerding Theater at the Armory opened to the public on Oct. 1, 2006. The capital campaign to fund the renovation of this hub for community artistic activity continues.

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