THE (CURIOUS CASE OF THE) WATSON INTELLIGENCE Comes to CoHo Season 22

From the Victorian age to the 21st century, 'Watson' is the perfect partner. Mr. Watson was on the other end of the wire when Alexander Graham Bell sent the first communication by telephone. Dr. Watson accompanied each step and anticipated every need of fiction's greatest detective. Watson's the name of IBM's natural language-processing supercomputer, winner of the famous Jeopardy! match in 2011. And Josh Watson is the IT guy with a friendly fix for crashed technology and broken hearts, uncommonly trustworthy and aiming to please. All the Watsons want to give you what you need, but do you want what you need in a partner? The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence is an emotionally-intelligent drama that follows a time-travelling love triangle between the head, the heart and the machine.

The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence premiered in November 2013 at Playwrights Horizons in New York. A revised production was presented at Chicago's Theater Wit in October 2015. Since then, it has received multiple productions throughout the United States. This will be the first in Portland.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Wednesday & Thursday, September 6 & 7 : $5 Previews
Friday, September 8 : Opening Night, post-show celebration in CoHo lobby.
Sunday, September 10 : Conversation with Cast & Creative Team, post-show panel
Sunday, September 17 : Post-show panel (guests tbd)
Sunday, September 24: Post-show panel (guests tbd)
Madeleine George's plays, including Hurricane Diane, The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, Precious Little, and The Zero Hour, have been produced at theaters around the country. She was a founding member of the Obie-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), and is a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Madeleine is the recipient of a Whiting Award, the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, and two MacDowell Fellowships, and she holds commissions from the Sloan Foundation/Manhattan Theatre Club, the Big Ten Theatre Consortium, and the Children's Theater Company in Minneapolis. She is currently the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey.
http://www.madeleinegeorge.com/

THE PRODUCTION TEAM Sarah Ellis Smith as Eliza
Gavin Hoffman as Merrick
Eric Martin Reid as Watson

Philip Cuomo - Director
Tyne Clifton - Assistant Director
Peter Ksander - Scenic & Lighting Design
Elyse Grimaldi - Costume Design
Rosie Lambert - Stage Manager
Liz Young - Sound Design
Amy Chiao - Props Master
Jessica Dart - Dramaturg

ABOUT THE CAST

Gavin Hoffman is happy to be back at CoHo, where he co-produced and directed 'night, Mother, and appeared in Body Awareness. Portland credits include Duncan McDougall in Astoria Part 1, Joe in Great Expectations, Ligniere in Cyrano, Iago in Othello, and Karl/Steve in Clybourne Park at Portland Center Stage; Ted in American Hero, Harry in The Understudy, and Dieter in The Monster-Builder at Artists Repertory Theatre; as well as roles at Lakewood Theatre, Shaking the Tree, Profile Theatre, and Third Rail. He has guest-starred on The Big Easy (USA) and Leverage (TNT), co-starred in Grimm (NBC) and appeared in Portlandia. He is the recipient of four Drammy Awards, a graduate of PCPA. and has a BFA in acting from Ithaca College. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

Sarah Ellis Smith is making her Pacific Northwest debut with CoHo. Previous credits include work with the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, Swine Palace (Baton Rouge, LA) and Gainesville Theatre Alliance in Georgia. Favorite roles include Rita (Educating Rita), Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Cordelia (King Lear), and Nora (A Doll's House). She founded Compleat Stage, a non-profit organization in Louisiana focused on multidisciplinary collaboration and arts education. In addition to her work in theatre, Sarah's most recent film and TV credits include Into the Badlands (AMC), American Horror Story (FOX), Treme (HBO) and The Host (Chockstone Pictures). Sarah holds an MFA from Louisiana State University and a BA from Brenau University.

Eric Martin Reid is a graduate of the Professional Actor's Training Program at the Dell'Arte International School for Physical Theatre. He went on to study Advanced Meisner Technique with Laurel Vouvray at the Actor's Avenue Studio. Eric has worked onstage with theatres including Insight Out, Sojourn Theatre, Sowelu Theatre, Imago and Coho. TV and Film credits include Guest Star on NBC's Grimm, Leverage, and a couple of turns in Portlandia. As a writer and first time director, Eric's short film Kidz won Best Comedy at the 2014 NW Short Film Festival.

For 22 years, CoHo Productions has pioneered artist led co-production as a model of creating theatre. Each season, CoHo solicits scripts and project proposals from Portland's community of theatre professionals and selects three to produce in partnership. The artistic vision is democratic, reflecting the tastes of the Portland theatre community from the ground up. Seasons are diverse and unpredictable; the sole quality nurtured and insisted on is excellence. Copyright © 2017 CoHo Productions, All rights reserved.
The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence

by Madeleine George

Directed by Philip Cuomo

September 8 - 30

Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2pm
Featuring Performances by Gavin Hoffman, Sarah Ellis Smith, and Eric Martin Reid Sarah Ellis Smith as Eliza in The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence
Photo Credit Owen Carey. CoHo Theater
2257 NW Raleigh St.
Portland, OR 97210
(503) 220 - 2646 www.cohoproductions.org TICKETS $32 Single Ticket
$25 Single Ticket +65/-30
$20 Thrifty Thursday Ticket