LUNGS, MEN ON BOATS and More Set for Third Rail's 2017-18 Season

Third Rail Repertory Theatre announces four Main Stage productions for the company's 12th performance season - a set of impactful, inclusive shows produced with rigorous commitment to excellence and an abundance of craft.

"The plays in our upcoming season are breathtaking - they encompass a range of human experience viewed from shared and diverse perspectives," said Maureen Porter, Third Rail's Managing Artistic Director. "Unflinching, gleeful, harrowing and explosive, this season charges toward the essential questions of our time."

This season also sees Third Rail return to familiar venues for their Main Stage performances: two shows will be produced at Imago Theatre in southeast Portland and two at CoHo Theatre in northwest Portland.

2017-2018 Main Stage Flexible Subscriptions and Memberships are on sale now. To purchase, call 503-235-1101 or visit thirdrailrep.org. Flexible subscriptions include four discounted tickets for the subscriber to use in a number of ways for Third Rail's Main Stage productions, priced at $100-Student; $149-Under 30; $149-Seniors; $165-Adult. Service fee is additional. Membership includes access to all Third Rail Main Stage productions, National Theatre Live Presentations, Sunday Salon Series Readings and other Member-only events. Monthly or upfront payments available.

Anyone who subscribes or renews their Third Rail Membership by May 30, 2017 can give a free RAIL IT FORWARD subscription or membership to someone who has not been a subscriber or member before.

---

Third Rail Repertory Theatre 2017-2018 Season:

Lungs

by Duncan Macmillan
Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter*
Featuring Darius Pierce*
August 4 - August 26, 2017 at CoHo Theatre
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm

How exactly does one decide to bring a child into this world - with the oceans, and the climate, and the, you know, everything else? Surely the kid's Eiffel Tower-sized carbon footprint is reason enough not to. But what if baby grows up to solve the world's problems? Then again, what if baby grows up to be a mass murderer? Or what if...? And what if...? If...? What begins as an odd question for a couple in line at Ikea soon becomes much more as they grapple with existence itself as a moral question, in Duncan Macmillan's timely and startlingly funny Lungs.

The Events

by David Greig
Directed by Isaac Lamb*
October 27 - November 18, 2017 at Imago Theatre
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm

In the rehearsal room of a community choir, Claire and her colleague encounter a visitor who makes an impossible demand: "I have one bullet left. Which one of you is it for?" A flash. An instant. One moment is all it takes to irrevocably change a life, a family, and a community. Weaving together bold theatricality, unflinching storytelling, and live local community choirs, David Greig's daring and powerful play explores our desire to fathom the unfathomable and asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of atrocity. Winner of a 2013 Scotsman First Fringe Award.

Men On Boats

by Jaclyn Backhaus
Directed by Maureen Porter*
March 2 - March 24, 2018 at Imago Theatre
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm

Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Race down the rapids in this wildly, wonderful gender-bending escapade. Based (broadly) on the true adventures of the one-armed pioneering explorer John Wesley Powell and his intrepid crew, this gleefully rebellious play capsizes the white male conquest narrative and discovers the beautifully fluid depth and courage of a wholly different landscape.

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.

By Alice Birch
Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter*
May 25 - June 16, 2018 at CoHo Theatre
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm

Take everything you know about the modern woman and write it down. Next tear the paper up and throw it away. Now set the trash can on fire and douse it with kerosene. You'd better buckle up because tradition and language, relationships and rules, are set ablaze in Alice Birch's firebomb of a play. A comedy, a manifesto, an out of control pep rally, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. blasts through the status quo and rockets to the edge of possibility. **** About Third Rail Repertory Theatre: Third Rail is an artist-driven theatre company whose vitality is defined by its audience's sharp appetite for groundbreaking, innovative work. We promote new plays while exploring the edges of theatrical style. Third Rail exists to provide a home for artists and theatergoers alike, offering a range of experiences to be shared by the audience and the community.

---

More information about Third Rail can be found at thirdrailrep.org.

* Denotes Third Rail Company Member