Portland Center Stage Welcomes New Literary Manager Kamilah Bush

Portland Center Stage has hired Kamilah Bush as its new literary manager following a nationwide search. Bush is currently working remotely from North Carolina and will move to Portland in February.

As literary manager, Bush is charged with deepening the literary and artistic core of Portland Center Stage, bringing a lens of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility to script reading and season programming, liaising between artistic, production, and marketing teams, and cultivating a diverse pool of voices and aesthetics to enrich the company's artistic offerings.

Bush's new post also includes the role of resident dramaturg for select PCS's projects, including the recent holiday offering The Bells That Still Can Ring and the upcoming PCS Remix: Original Works project, which is slated for release in March.

"Kamilah brings a gorgeous approach to excavating text and plays, a wealth of experience with production dramaturgy and pre/post-show conversations, and a beautiful vision for what theater can offer the community in which it's embedded. I know she'll be a significant part of the artistic engine and collaborative work we're all engaged in at PCS," Artistic Director Marissa Wolf said.

"I am so thrilled to join the PCS team and to become a Portlander," Bush said. "I see my core values as an artist mirrored in PCS, and I'm excited to build a new home with not just the folks inside the theater, but in the Portland community as a whole."

Bush is a dramaturg, playwright, and educator originally from North Carolina. Most recently, Bush served as the artistic assistant at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, where her credits include the world premiere of Love in Hate Nation, the new musical by Tony Award-nominee Joe Iconis.

Prior to that, Bush spent several seasons at Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota, Florida, and Triad Stage in Greensboro, North Carolina. At Asolo Rep, project highlights include the first workshop of the musical Knoxville, by Frank Galati, Lynn Arhens, and Stephen Flaerty - the celebrated creative team behind Ragtime. Bush holds a B.F.A. in theater education from UNC-Greensboro.

Portland Center Stage is among the top 20 regional theaters in the country. Established in 1988 as a branch of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the company became independent in 1994. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Marissa Wolf and Managing Director Cynthia Fuhrman, the company produces a mix of classic, contemporary, and world premiere productions, along with a variety of high quality education and community programs. As part of its dedication to new play development, the company has produced 28 world premieres, many of which were developed at its new works festival, JAW. Portland Center Stage's home is at The Armory, a historic building originally constructed in 1891. After a major renovation, The Armory opened in 2006 as the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, and the first performing arts venue in the country, to achieve a LEED Platinum rating.

Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying and interrupting instances of racism and all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). Learn more at pcs.org/idea.

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