Maureen Porter News

As a part of their innovative new Membership model, Third Rail announced their Summer and Fall programming at a public event on Monday night. 'In an effort to keep pushing ourselves to innovate,' says Artistic Director Scott Yarbrough, 'this is the first step in a new process. We plan on announcing our shows a quarter at time, at least 6 months out. We want patrons and our community to know that there is always something exciting coming at Third Rail.'

Third Rail Repertory Theatre presents Static by Dan Rebellato, directed by Scott Yarbrough*, running tonight, May 1-24, 2015 at the Imago Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre presents Static by Dan Rebellato, directed by Scott Yarbrough*, running May 1-24, 2015 at the Imago Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

Middletown is a frustrating play to describe because I want to tell you everything that made me love it, and yet I don't want to tell you anything about it. I want you to go see it and experience it for yourself.

Third Rail opens our season with a play we have been dying to produce since it was the hit of Portland Center Stage's 2009 JAW Festival, MIDDLETOWN by Will Eno. The residents of Middletown lead lives that are probably not too different from ours. They wake up, go to work, say hello to their neighbors, fix the plumbing, seek advice on parenting, and try to live lives that are as rewarding as possible. It's all fairly ordinary. And yet...ordinary doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this quirky, word-frenzied, refraction of OUR TOWN. MIDDLETOWN is a quizzical fable about life in all its sweetness and pain, joy and wonder, beginnings and endings.

McDonagh's plays are like sitcoms with the anger boiling underneath; they're like Cheers if the characters had all been wasted alcoholics, or the 'Eunice' sketches from The Carol Burnett Show with the wackiness dialed way down.

The Third Rail Repertory Theatre Presents THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE by Martin McDonagh. The play will run from today, May 30th through June 22nd. The cast includes Damon Kupper*, Maureen Porter*, Jayne Taini, and Rolland Walsh. According to Charles Spencer of The Telegraph, '[McDonagh's writing] is the bastard offspring of JM Synge and Quentin Tarantino, with moments of extreme violence constantly juxtaposed with edgy, laugh-out-loud humour.'

The Third Rail Repertory Theatre Presents THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE by Martin McDonagh. The play will run from May 30th through June 22nd. The cast includes Damon Kupper*, Maureen Porter*, Jayne Taini, and Rolland Walsh. According to Charles Spencer of The Telegraph, '[McDonagh's writing] is the bastard offspring of JM Synge and Quentin Tarantino, with moments of extreme violence constantly juxtaposed with edgy, laugh-out-loud humour.'

Michael Frayn's farce-within-a-farce is simply the funniest play ever written by a human, and it's so good that even high schoolers can get surefire laughs with it. Put this script in the hands of talented professionals, however, who can find laughs beyond what's written on paper, and you've got an evening so stuffed with laughter that you'd better prepare yourself to ache from all the funny.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre Presents: Noises Off by Michael Frayn, Directed by Scott Yarbrough* at Winningstad Theatre, PCPA, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97205.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre Presents: Noises Off by Michael Frayn, Directed by Scott Yarbrough* at Winningstad Theatre, PCPA, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97205.

I completely forgot I was watching a play. The actors disappear into their roles, and the dialogue is so natural, filled with the interruptions, unexplained digressions, and inside references that you'd expect to hear at a family dinner.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre presents Sweet and Sad by Richard Nelson, directed by Scott Yarbrough*, opening tonight, September 27, 2013, and running through October 20, 2013.

We enter the world of Padua, which in director Michael Mendelson's vision takes place in the swinging 1960s. The set is a clear reminder of Laugh-In, with its pastel colors and patterned walls with small doors that the actors can peep through. The costumes are witty reminders of that era, particularly the women's outfits and wigs. And the music throughout echoes Carnaby Street.