Allison Tigard in "The Monster-Builder," which closes Sunday, March 2.
John San Nicolas in "The Motherfucker With the Hat," which opens Saturday, March 1.
Photos by Owen Carey.

One opens, one closes, two FLASH READS & shows for kids are back: Our stages are hopping!

This week we say farewell to starchitects and their volatile world of post-modern, steel and glass in The Monster-Builder and step into the gritty boroughs of NYC with the hard-hitting, colorful and hilarious characters of The Motherfucker With the Hat.

Just 7 more chances to see the World Premiere of Amy Freed's The Monster-Builder! That includes the matinee performance we added on Saturday, March 1 at 2pm. There are still great seats left for that performance so order online here or call the Box Office at 503.241.1278 now.

The show title we LOVE to utter opens Saturday…The Motherfucker With the Hat! Last night’s FULL first preview audience was extremely enthusiastic with lots of laughter, applauses, whistles and cheers – we have another freaking big hit on our hands!

Profanity aside, this is a show that nominated for six Tony Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Play, and has been one of the Top 10 most produced plays in the country. As Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez wrote for the production’s playbill, “I admire Stephen Adly Guirgis’ clarity in titling his very funny, heartfelt and emotion-filled play.  It’s as if he were saying, “for those turned off by the title, you might want to skip this one.”  However, his use of rough language is not a stunt.  It is honest, and his characters – disenfranchised and too-seldom seen, heard or considered on stage in the American theatre – deserve our attention."

Motherfucker runs through March 30 and we do expect it to SELL OUT, so get your tickets sooner than later! Here or by calling our Box Office.

We love it when this building is bustling, join us!

The Monster-Builder is made possible with support from The Boeing Company, OPSIS Architecture and the law firm of Larkins-Vacura.

The Motherfucker With the Hat is presented with support from Marcy & Richard Schwartz, Darci & Charlie Swindells, Kris Olson & Les Swanson, and Weekend Sponsors Karl & Linda Boekelheide.

Badass FLASH READS feature 2 plays by Stephen Adly Guirgis

 

 

COMING UP MARCH 3 & MARCH 10 - Badass Theatre Company presents two plays by Stephen Adly Guirgis, playwright of The Motherfucker With the Hat

MONDAY, MARCH 3 at 7pm, Morrison Stage - The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Set in a time-bending, seriocomically imagined world between heaven and hell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a philosophical meditation on the conflict between divine mercy and human free will that takes a close look at the eternal damnation of the Bible’s most notorious sinner. Judas Iscariot feels alone. He has been vilified by all Christians for the last 2,000 years for his betrayal of Jesus Christ to the Roman authorities for 30 pieces of silver. For that act and for his subsequent suicide he has allegedly been condemned to hell for all eternity. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is not a play about one man’s guilt and another’s forgiveness; rather that through such a contemporary dramatic exploration of an ancient debate about celebrated figures, we as an audience are able to re-examine our own betrayals, our own personal lapses of belief, and who we need to look to for forgiveness.
Directed by Elizabeth Huffman

MONDAY, MARCH 10 at 7pm, Morrison Stage - Jesus Hopped the A Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Angel Cruz is a 30-year-old bike messenger from NYC who has lost his best friend to a religious cult. At the opening of the play, he is in his second night of incarceration, awaiting trial for shooting the leader of that cult in the "ass." He is on his knees, alone and terrified, trying to say a prayer he no longer remembers to a God he has all but forgotten.
 Directed by Jamie M. Rea

FLASH READS are FREE and seating is first-come, first-served. For more information on these reading, including full cast and extended descriptions, click here.

Make A Gift...
Allen Nause will read from Rene Denfeld's debut novel "The Enchanted" at Powell's on March 5 at 7:30pm.

Allen Nause featured in reading of debut novel at Powell’s Books

Powell’s City of Books presents Rene Denfeld & The Enchanted
 Featuring a dramatic reading by Allen Nause
Wednesday, March 5, 7:30pm
1005 W. Burnside St., Portland
This event is sponsored by Artists Repertory Theatre

A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.

"This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it, but I do." The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs with the devastating violence of prison life.

Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honesty and corruption--ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.

Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.

For more information on the event and to purchase the book, click here.

"The Enchanted wrapped its beautiful and terrible fingers around me from the first page and refused to let go after the last. A wondrous book that finds transcendence in the most unlikely of places . . . So dark yet so exquisite."--Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus

The 2013/14 Artists Repertory Theatre season is presented by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Premiere season sponsors are Ronni Lacroute/WillaKenzie Estate and The Oregonian. Season hotel sponsors are The Mark Spencer Hotel and Hotel deLuxe. Other support comes from Regional Arts Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Community Foundation, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Rafati's Catering and Poster Garden.

Artists Repertory Theatre
1515 SW Morrison St.
Portland, Oregon 97205
503.241.1278