The other day my family and I were trying to figure out why Shakespeare’s plays are still so popular. Is it the poetic language? The spectacle of “rings and things and fine array”? Or maybe the wonder of somehow connecting with a seriously troubled guy like Hamlet more than 400 years after Shakespeare wrote his play? It could also be the fact that witches, ghosts and fools are just plain cool.

My best friend’s mother took me to see my first outdoor Shakespeare production at Washington Park in the 1970s, when Portland Actors Ensemble (PAE) was performing Much Ado About Nothing. The main thing I remember about that show is that I loved the way Beatrice was such a witty, sassy character who got a kick out of giving Benedick a hard time. And her blue dress, which was shiny, looked spectacular with her red lipstick.

Portland actor Megan Murphy Ruckman has her own history with The Bard, which is one reason she’s been working hard for more than a year to bring back Portland Actor Ensemble’s free Shakespeare in the park shows. Below you’ll find the story about her Shakespeare addiction and PAE’s return, as well as other opportunities to see fresh versions of these classic plays around town:

Back to the Future

After a 5-year hiatus, Portland Actors Ensemble brings back free Shakespeare in the park with its production of “Twelfth Night” this month.

Last year, when Megan Murphy Ruckman, an actor and self-described “Shakespeare junkie,” considered reviving the defunct Portland Actors Ensemble’s free Shakespeare in the park shows, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.

“We’ve got lots of Shakespeare around here … do we need more?” she asked herself. After talking to community members about the beloved company, which was founded by Howard Thoresen in 1970, she found the answer was definitely “Yes.”

“This clearly has a history,” she said over the phone last week. “This is clearly Portland. This clearly connects with the community, and there still seems to be a space for it.”

In 2020, PAE was preparing for its annual summer season when Covid came along. The next year the company thought about picking up where it had left off, but the director and some of the cast had moved, and by the fall of that year, the remaining PAE members decided they didn’t have the time or energy to continue. According to Murphy Ruckman, the general feeling was, “ ‘Fifty years – that’s a good history. Let’s let those years be.’ So the agreement was we would close out the company.”

Fast forward to 2024: Someone from A-1 Storage contacted Murphy Ruckman, who had previously been a PAE at-large board member, to say that the rent for the company’s storage unit was past due. If not paid, the contents – costumes, accessories and other supplies once used for park performances – would be auctioned off.

Murphy Ruckman, who has deep roots in Portland’s classical theater community, including performances with “Speak the Speech,” which made audio recordings of The Bard’s work, and as one of the founding members of Original Practice Shakespeare Festival, asked the storage facility to hold off the auction until she could contact the prior PAE board members to see if they wanted to revive the company. As it turns out, everyone else had moved on to other projects.  “‘If you want to take it on, run with it,’” they told her.

“I started having lunch conversations with people in the community and was like, ‘Hey, if PAE was still around what would you do?’ and most people said, ‘Oh, yeah, if PAE was still around, I would play.’”

Since Murphy Ruckman works for the bookkeeping company that had filed PAE’s taxes for many years, she asked them how to get the nonprofit back on its feet. She then started a Facebook fundraiser, with the modest goal of raising $2,000 to go toward renewing PAE’s name, preparing and paying taxes, and covering another month at the storage rental, plus any other unforeseen fees.

Along the way, Murphy Ruckman connected with people with deep ties to PAE.

“I found 50 years of audience members and actors and directors and board members, each of whom had their own connection and their own story and their own memory with Portland Actors Ensemble. I met people who had met their spouse doing PAE. I met people who had just started out – they moved to Portland, and they didn’t know what they were doing and they did stuff with PAE and their theater career hit it off ever after.”

Murphy Ruckman, working with David Berkson, Melissa Sondergeld-Hood, and Megan Skye Hale, quickly met PAE’s first fundraising goal. After that, the company picked up speed. Now, with a board consisting of Murphy Ruckman, Sondergeld-Hood, and Matthew Ruckman (Megan’s spouse), the ensemble will be performing Twelfth Night for two weekends this month, July 11-13, 6 p.m. at Gresham’s Arts Plaza and July 18-20, 6 pm at Gresham’s Main City Park. Nick Medina, a teacher and regular performer with the improv group Curious Comedy (and, incidentally, a splendid Algernon in Portland Experience Project’s 2024 immersive production of The Importance of Being Earnest), is directing.

“The cast has been one of two things,” Murphy Ruckman says. “Either they’re Shakespeare junkies like me, or they used to do theater, or it’s been a long time since they’ve done theater or they’ve not done this kind of theater, and so they came because they wanted to grow.” That’s a classic part of PAE’s history, she adds. “Shakespeare junkies are a bunch of folks who are perpetual students, which is great.”

Before the pandemic, PAE, which was performing one tragedy and one comedy each summer, could afford to pay its actors. But for now the company is strictly a volunteer organization, with the actors, crew, designers and photographers all sharing their time and talents for free. Murphy Ruckman, however, is mindful about not overusing volunteers, especially since she’s learned as a board member of Fuse Theatre Ensemble about the importance of the “give-get balance.”

“Getting joy is part of the picture, but also if you’re not getting money in compensation, what else are you getting from it?”

As compensation for the actors, PAE is offering workshops this summer, including sessions on voice and vocal warmups, text analysis, and physical storytelling. PAE also invited the teachers to tell them what they’d like in return for their work. “For some folks, it’s flowers; some folks, it’s acknowledgement on their website; some folks, it’s, ‘Hire me back next time so that we can keep doing this.’”

Still, the joy factor is key. Murphy Ruckman discovered her own love of Shakespeare as a child going to see plays with her family. Her mother, she says, took her to her first play in utero, and then as a breastfed one-month-old baby. At age seven, she began participating in afterschool programs through a theater company in California, and when she was eight, she played a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This year Murphy Ruckman is playing Feste, the fool, in PAE’s Twelfth Night (although on the board, she auditioned for the show, just like the rest of the cast), and her spouse, another board member, is also involved with the show. This means that their two kids come with the couple whenever they both need to be at rehearsals. While they’ve never wanted to force acting on their kids, Murphy Ruckman’s almost-13-year-old watches the sword fights and practices the moves. “When there’s an actor missing, he’s willing to pick up a script and read the part of the person who’s missing.”

As a parent, Murphy Ruckman is grateful that rehearsing for the outdoor performance gives her family some flexibility. “For me, it’s really rewarding. If you’re a parent, [theater] is really hard. You have to go to rehearsal, and you can’t bring your kids because it’s too distracting, so you spend a lot of time away from them. And if you also have a job and do theater, that’s even more time away from your kids. When theater companies can accommodate that even a little bit, it’s huge for family dynamics and human life.”

Murphy Ruckman hopes to expand PAE next year. At minimum, she’d like to hold a performance for one weekend in East County, one in Central Portland, and one on the West Side. When someone asked her if PAE would consider performing in Hillsboro or Beaverton, her response was, “If there’s a call for it, yeah, let’s go!”

To make that happen, the company hopes to continue to raise funds. Remembering that PAE used to have a vaguely Elizabethan-looking donation box fondly dubbed “Boxy,” I asked Murphy Ruckman if Boxy would be at this year’s performances.

“Last I heard, it was in somebody’s living room/storage, so I’ve been trying all year to find out where it is and pick it up. I’m hoping to have it. Worst case scenario, I’ll call a friend and say,  ‘Can you make a new boxy – Boxy 2.0?’ I would love to have the original boxy because that’s part of the storytelling.”

The main part of PAE’s story, of course, is the people who’ve been connected with it. One of them is Keith J. Scales, who was a major presence in the Portland theater community, working as an actor, director, and artistic director of Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon before he moved to Arkansas.

In an email to another PAE alum, David Loftus, Scales recalled that he was in PAE’s premiere production, playing Touchstone in As You Like It, which was his first acting part. Scales took over directing the company in 1977 when Thoresen and other company members left Portland for New York.

Among the actors Scales worked with during his tenure at PAE were David Heath, who appeared as the Old Man in Tour de Force Production’s recent revival of Fool for Love, and Jane Bennett, a Portland-based producer, director and actor.

Bridging PAE’s past and present is Loftus, who performed with the company from 2005 to 2008, acting in As You Like It, night shows of Macbeth in Pettygrove Park (with Eleanor Cohn-Eichner, who was recently in HART’s Anne of Green Gables), and Julius Caesar at Washington Park. Starting a new chapter with the company, Loftus is portraying the cross-gartered Malvolio in its current production of Twelfth Night.

“Portland Actors Ensemble has had a lifetime of connections and experiences and joy and pains,” says Murphy Ruckman. “That was the thing that really struck me last year. This is not just some off-shoot: It is its own entity, it has its own story, and it’s connected with so many people. It’s worth carrying that legacy forward.”

Learn more about the show or how to donate to PAE here.

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Original Practice Shakespeare Festival performs several plays through Aug. 31 at various locations.

The no-cost group started its new season at the summit of Mt. Tabor on June 27 and will continue to offer a rotation of comedies, tragedies, and histories throughout Portland and beyond.

According to its website, what makes OPS Fest different from other companies is that the troupe uses the original practice techniques of Elizabethan England, including limited rehearsal, scrolls in hand, audience interaction, and an onstage prompter, which makes each performance a fresh experience.

As Bob Hicks wrote for ArtsWatch last year, “The actors show up before showtime not knowing who they’re going to be playing: The audience assigns actors to roles (come early for this part) about an hour before the curtain goes up — or would go up, if a curtain existed. Actors wade into the action script in hand, but a script containing only the lines their character is supposed to speak. Chances are that now and again performers will be ducking around and about picnic blankets laid out by people in the audience. And someone very like a referee hangs around the action, making sure stuff happens when and where it’s supposed to happen. When an OPS show is hitting on all cylinders, it can be a kick in the pants.”

This month, the company will  be at Laurelhurst Park to perform Hamlet, Twelfthe Night, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Macbeth Midsommer (abridged) and Romeo and Juliet. At Irving Park, see Much Adoe About Nothing, an abridged Romeo, and Henry IV, part 1. Find schedules and other details here.

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Oregon Adventure Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale, through July 27.

Using the art of mask, Oregon Adventure Theatre’s aim is to simultaneously celebrate nature and theater with its outdoor productions.

Its free performances of The Winter’s Tale kicked off at the end of June and will continue at various locations all over town. Reservations are required for the shows at Leach Botanical Garden, July 11-13, and American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters will be at the shows taking place at Laurelhurst Park July 19 and 20.

The closing show at CampOAT, July 26-27 at Turning Earth Farms in Dallas, Oregon, is the only one that requires admission, which includes music by Wren the Band & Friends, food, camping, and the performance. 

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Portland Shakespeare Project’s The Merchant of Venice, July 10-20.

Joining forces with Play On Shakespeare to present this accessible, modern-verse translation by Elise Thoron, Portland Shakespeare Project’s production will take place at Portland Playhouse. Thoron’s version was commissioned by the Play On! Project, begun at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and was published by the University of Chicago Press, which says: “Thoron’s clear, compelling contemporary verse translation retains the power of the original iambic pentameter while allowing readers and audiences to fully comprehend and directly experience the brutal dilemmas of Shakespeare’s Venice, where prejudice and privilege reign unchallenged.”

The show’s rockstar cast includes artistic director Michael Mendelson, Annie Leonard, Emily Sahler, Dylan Hankins, Matt Sunderland, Olivia Mathews, and Henry Noble, among others, making the $30 tickets ($10 for students) a bargain. See the show at Portland Playhouse.

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Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, continuing through October 26.

According to ArtsWatcher Darleen Ortega, a non-Shakespeare play, Into the Woods, which will be onstage through Oct. 11, is OSF’s most unmissable offering this season. Also continuing through Oct. 25 are As You Like It, which Ortega says brings out “the sunnier elements of 1960s hippie culture”; a crowd-pleasing The Merry Wives of Windsor, through Oct. 12, August Wilson’s Jitney, through July 20; The Importance of Being Earnest, through Oct. 25; and Julius Caesar, through Oct. 26. You can find Ortega’s reviews of these shows here.

Still to come in Ashland are Quixote Nuevo, Octavio Solis’s comic adaptation of Don Quixote, July 9-Oct. 24; and Shane, by Karen Zacarías, a show that promises to be a “culturally authentic adaptation” of the 1947 Western novel by Jack Schaefer, July 31-Oct. 24.

Also opening

Theatre 33 Summer Fest, July 1-Aug. 10.

This year’s festival features three productions: The City and the Sea, a new musical by Paul Lewis; Confabulous, by Susan Faust; and WAGMI (We’re All Gonna Make It), by AR Nicholas. Pop-up performances include I Want You, by Kathleen Cahill; Coal is King, by Kwik Jones; Proper, A Steampunk Comedy of Manners, by Angela Gyurko; and Detours, a 90-minute walking theatrical event at the Willamette University Campus, in Salem, where audiences become a tour group led by a pair of unprepared guides from Willamette Historical Society, and mishaps ensue.  

21ten Theatre’s summer residency, July 3-27.

21ten in Southeast Portland is hosting four new shows through its second annual summer residency program this season. First up, July 3-6, is The One, a new work by multidisciplinary performer Andrea Parson, who was born and raised in Hillsboro, Oregon. When she was 8, Parson’s mother told her you have to love yourself before you can love someone else. Thirty years later, Parsons explores whether that’s true in a show that uses evocative movement, storytelling, and a clown sensibility. Directed by Jessica Wallenfels.

Other shows include La Mariposa, a devised performance ritual about a girl who has forgotten her name, created by Sofía Leonila Marks and Isabel Strongheart McTighe, July 10-13; un/seen, from writer and composer erin rachel, a two-part immersive storytelling and sound experience that’s also performed by rachel, July 18-21; and The Rainbow Passage, Ajai Tripathi’s new play that follows a recovering drug addict who travels into the memories of his catatonic twin sister, a professor of radio astronomy, in order to rally their family to free her consciousness from being trapped on the horizon line of a black hole, July 24-27.

Harvest of Woman, a CoHo Theater Residency production, July 4-6.

Olga Kravtsova’s play had an early showing at this year’s Fertile Ground Festival, and now, after further development through the CoHo Theater Residency, a new, fully realized performance of the show will be onstage at CoHo Theater in Portland.

“The piece explores the unseen labor women carry – physically, emotionally, generationally – through movement, clay, and immersive sound,” Kravtsova says. “It lives somewhere between theater and performance art: intimate, nonlinear, and rooted in the body. The kind of work that doesn’t always fit easily into a category, but asks to be experienced closely.” ArtsWatcher Dmae Lo Roberts featured the play in her Stage & Studio podcast.

Elvis Has Left the Building, Coaster Theater Playhouse, July 5-Aug. 9.

This comedy at Cannon Beach’s Coaster Theater Playhouse was inspired by Elvis’s actual brief disappearance. It’s Dec. 20, 1970, Elvis is missing, and his manager, The Colonel, can’t pay a secret debt unless he can find an Elvis impersonator within 24 hours while also keeping a nosy reporter at bay. The show was written by V. Cate and Duke Ernsberger, and is directed by Katherine Lacaze.

Don’t Dress for Dinner, Magenta Theater, July 11-27.

Bernard, the French playboy, plans a romantic weekend with his Parisian mistress while his wife, Jacqueline, is away from their renovated farmhouse. All sorts of hijinks and slapstick comedy ensue when his best friend, Robert – who’s having an affair with Jacqueline – arrives and tries to keep her from leaving. Written by Marc Camoletti and Robin Hawdon, the play — at Magenta Theater in Vancouver, Wash. — is a sequel to Camoletti’s Boeing Boeing.

For Better at Mask & Mirror in Tigard, July 11-26.

In this romantic comedy, Karen and Max are getting married … only their jobs keep them from being in the same city at the same time. Eric Coble’s contemporary farce pokes fun at our dependence on electronic gadgets.

All Shook Up at Lakewood Theatre, July 11-Aug. 17.

This jukebox musical features an assortment of Elvis Presley hits, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” When a young guitar player rolls into a square town in 1955, he gets everyone riled up. Thomas C. Graff directs the show at Lake Oswego’s Lakewood Theatre.

By My Own Hand: Melody, Part 4, a Shaking the Tree performance residency, July 11-13.

This solo work by Allie Hankins explores movement, memory, and sound. Using analog tape recorders with looping tapes of varying durations, unexpected rhythmic patterns emerge with a wavering chorus of voices. The recurring sonic fragments are paired with dances, actions, and images, generating an ever-evolving soundtrack that layers and distorts the audience’s ideas of time and memory.

MJ the Musical at Keller Auditorium, July 15-20.

Broadway in Portland is bringing the touring production of this Tony-winning musical to town. The show is centered on the making of Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour. Created by Tony-winning director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, MJ looks at the creative spirit that turned Jackson into a legend.

The Little Mermaid, at Broadway Rose Theatre Company, July 16-18.

Broadway Rose’s professionally produced short musicals are specifically geared for younger audience members. This year, the company is presenting a 50-minute version of The Little Mermaid, an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale, now told with song and dance. The show features professional actors supported by an ensemble of Broadway Rose’s kids’ drama camp participants. All ages are welcome at the performances, which will be onstage at the Deb Fennell Auditorium in Tigard.

Ripcord, Rogue Theater Company, July 17-Aug. 30, previews July 16.

David Lindsay-Abaire’s comedy centers on adversarial roommates in a retirement home. Directed by Henry Woronicz, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 1991 to 1995. Opening night is July 17 and, as a benefit for Planned Parenthood SW Oregon, will include wine or sparkling water and a talkback with the director and actors after the show. $50 ($55 at the door). All shows are 1 p.m. indoor performances at Grizzly Peak Winery in Ashland.

Bonnie & Clyde at Bridgetown Conservatory of Musical Theater in Portland, July 17-27.

During the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from being two small-town nobodies in West Texas to gun-toting American folk heroes and Texas law enforcement’s worst nightmares. The Tony-nominated show, with a book by Ivan Menchell, music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, Civil War, Dracula), and lyrics by Don Black, is a story of love, adventure and crime that captured the attention of an entire country.

The Curious Savage, at Gallery Theater in McMinnville, July 18-August 3.

If you couldn’t make it to Twilight Theater Company’s recent production of John Patrick’s witty and warm-hearted play, you can head to McMinnville for this Gallery Theater production in the company’s black box performance space. The show is directed by Tonya Nichols, and features Dave Ferry, Kevin Folgate, Bec Hasel, Sasha Horning, Lisa Lindman, Beth Moore, Sarah Munk, John Olson, Stan Smith, Soren Smithrud, Obie Williams and Cathy Willoughby.

BOYeurism Pride Spectactular at the Alberta Rose Theatre, July 19.

This celebration of queerness and creativity is from the duo IZOHNNY – or Isaiah Esquire and Johnny Nuriel, known as the Goliaths of Glam – who are internationally acclaimed for performances that combine elements of drag, burlesque, circus, and dance.

The Pride edition will also feature Trinity K. Bonet, a celebrated drag performer, singer, and actor who gained prominence on Season 6 of the Emmy award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race; and Lawanda Jackson, a legendary drag artist whose career spans over four decades. Originating from Portland, she began her journey in the late 1970s, quickly becoming renowned for her dynamic impersonations of icons such as Tina Turner and Janet Jackson. An array of other artists, both local and from abroad, will also perform. The show is for ages 18+, and anyone ages 18-20 must be accompanied by a guardian 21+.

Continuing shows

JK Squared: Till Death Deux We Art at the Backdoor Theatre, continuing July 3–5.

This is the third show from JK Squared, the Portland-based sketch comedy duo. Created by Jacquelle Cherise Davis and Kaia Maarja Hillier, this comedic exploration of grief, fear, hate, and hope is told through sketch, song, and satire. 

“We thought this show would be about sobriety and my dead dad,” says Davis. “But the world had other plans. When grief showed up after my mom also passed, I started writing. This show is about loss, yes — but also about collaboration, community, and choosing joy when it feels hardest.” 

The production is a continuation of JK Squared’s mission to center femme, Queer, and trans voices in comedy and performance. Their first show, JK²: More is More, debuted in 2019 to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim. The guest cast for Till Death Deux We Art includes Jessica Hillenbrand, London Bauman, Rae Davis, Jessica Tidd, Kelsy Carson, Kayla Kelly, Connor French, Andrew Tesoriero, and Clara Liis Hillier. 

Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble’s Aw, Hell, through July 12.

PETE takes Inferno, a 14th-century epic poem and the first installment of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and adds…clowns, of course! Read ArtsWatcher Caitlin Nolan’s preview here.

Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position at Clackamas Rep, through July 20.

Based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Margaret Raether’s comedy follows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they’re approached by twin sisters who have fallen victim to a shady employment scheme. Four actors portray multiple roles in what Broadway World calls a “fast-paced little romp.” Directed by Don Alder.

Waitress at Broadway Rose Theatre, through July 20.

This pop musical based on the movie by Adrienne Shelly tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker, who’s stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. When a baking contest in a nearby county offers her a chance to escape, Jenna fights to reclaim a long-forgotten part of herself … with the help of her fellow waitresses and an unexpected romance. Book by Jessie Nelson and music and lyrics by Tony-nominated Sara Bareilles. Directed by Lyn Cramer. ArtsWatch reviewed the show here.  

Theater news

New season announcements

Corrib Theatre

For its upcoming season, Corrib Theatre will align three productions with holidays in the Celtic calendar: Samhain, Imbolc, and Ostara. For Samhain, they have Stilt, a new play by Joy Nesbitt that reimagines the Rumpelstiltskin tale as an Irish thriller, Nov. 13 – Dec. 7. The company’s winter offering is An Scéal (“The Story” in Irish Gaelic), a variety show that promises to be “a warm and magical evening of theatre, storytelling, music, and more in celebration of Imbolc and St Brigid’s Day,” Jan. 22 – Feb. 1. Also on tap is Outside Mullingar ,by John Patrick Shanley, a wry comedy with a twist. The story is set in rural Ireland and echoes the springtime celebration of Ostara, and the show is onstage Apr. 2-19. Subscriptions are on sale for $80 for all three shows.

Corrib’s original play From a Hole in the Ground by Ken Yoshikawa will also be back for a limited run at Northwest Children’s Theatre, Sept 27 – Oct 5. For its summer sale, all tickets to this show are available at youth pricing, regardless of your age, through August 31.

triangle productions!

For triangle’s 36th season, Don Horn says, “This year, we wanted to find shows that made you laugh, have a tear or two roll down your cheeks, and know you spent quality time enjoying time with the stories we feel are important to share.” To make the season even more tantalizing, the various casts include Danielle Valentine, Lydia Fleming, Emily Sahler, and Wendy Westerville.

Among the shows are The Cake, about a struggle with values; Donnie’s new play about Gert Boylr, the Columbia Sportswear matriarch, It’s Not All About Me; The Savannah Sipping Society, a story about four women who are drawn together by an impromptu happy hour; and the U.S. premiere of Stephen Sewell’s Arbus and West, about the infamous 1964 meeting between famed photographer Diane Arbus and Hollywood’s Mae West. As a bonus, Donnie is back onstage with James Sharinghousen in The Donnie Show, which is free to all season ticket holders. Find tickets and schedules here.

New Season changes at Bag&Baggage

Hillsboro theater company Bag&Baggage has announced some changes to its new season lineup. As reported by Bob Hicks in ArtsWatch, a recently formed artistic leadership committee (Scott Palmer, Bianca McCarthy, Ephriam Harnsberger, and Signe Larsen) has been tasked with ensuring that “Bag&Baggage remains artistically vibrant, financially responsible, and deeply connected to our community.”

Along those lines, B&B has decided to cut down costs by replacing The Gift of the Magi with the smaller-scale comedy A Tuna Christmas, part of the satirical Tuna Trilogy, Dec. 5-21. B&B is also replacing Beauregard at Manassas with Hadestown: Teen Edition, a full-length adaptation of Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony-winning folk-rock musical that will feature the artists of STAGES Youth Theatre Academy, a change that dovetails with B&B’s commitment to give young theatermakers a spotlight on their stage, while also saving on production costs, Jan. 23-Feb. 8.

B&B’s Glass Menagerie, directed by Nik Whitcomb (Sept. 5-21), and their co-production of Antíkoni with the Native Theater Project (June 5-21, 2026) will go forward as planned.

For those who’ve already purchased a season membership, the tickets are good for the new shows. Check here for more information or to support B&B with a membership or donation.