Michael Mendelson News

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' AN OCTOROON is a play about the racist history of the United States and the continuing racial struggle we find ourselves in today. And it's funny.

Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez.

Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez. An Octoroon is currently in previews for an opening tomorrow, September 9, and the play runs through October 1 on the Alder Stage. BroadwayWorld has a look behind the scenes in the video below!

Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez.

For its 35th anniversary as Portland's premiere mid-size regional theatre company, Artists Repertory Theatre will offer seven gripping, contemporary plays for their mainstage series.  Among these plays are Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winners, the second  Table|Room|Stage commission, The Thanksgiving Play, by Larissa FastHorse, and a limited run of the World Premiere of the epic theatrical event Magellanica, by Portland playwright E.M. Lewis. Artists Rep's FRONTIER SERIES returns for a second season with internationally acclaimed artists from New York, Seattle and Iran.

Portland Shakespeare Project and Proscenium Journal, in association with Artists Repertory Theatre, present the third annual Proscenium Live Festival of New Work. All performances are free and begin at 7:30pm on Artists Rep's Alder Stage.

 For the final production of its 2016/17 season, Artists Repertory Theatre presents The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, directed by Resident Artist Michael Mendelson.  Previews run May 16 through May 19, the play opens May 20 and runs through June 11 on the Alder Stage.

For the final production of its 2016/17 season, Artists Repertory Theatre presents The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, directed by Resident Artist Michael Mendelson.  Previews run May 16 through May 19, the play opens May 20 and runs through June 11 on the Alder Stage.

Portland Shakespeare Project presents a staged reading of Jeff Whitty's modern verse translation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play on! project.

Think about someone important to you who has died. Now imagine you could make an artificial intelligence (AI) robot who looked and acted exactly like your lost loved one. Would you do it? What if you were elderly and needed care? What if you were lonely? And what would that mean for the nature of human relationships? These are just a few of the questions Jordan Harrison's MARJORIE PRIME, now playing at Artists Rep, asks us to consider.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents the Northwest Premiere of MARJORIE PRIME, a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, by Jordan Harrison. Featuring Vana O'Brien, Chris Harder, Linda Alper and Michael Mendelson, MARJORIE PRIME runs through March 5 on the Alder Stage.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents the Northwest Premiere of MARJORIE PRIME, a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, by Jordan Harrison. Featuring Vana O'Brien, Chris Harder, Linda Alper and Michael Mendelson, MARJORIE PRIME runs February 7 through March 5 on the Alder Stage.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents the Northwest Premiere of MARJORIE PRIME, a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, by Jordan Harrison. Featuring Vana O'Brien, Chris Harder, Linda Alper and Michael Mendelson, MARJORIE PRIME runs February 7 through March 5 on the Alder Stage.

It seems like every time a previously docile animal, like a pet dog or an animal at the zoo, does something unexpectedly awful (usually in the form of harming a person), we hear things like, 'I don't know what happened. He's never been aggressive before.' When it's a person who commits a terrible act of violence, we say they 'just snapped.' In any case, we generally have the idea that one day someone is fine and the next day they just lose it.

Artists Repertory Theatre begins its 2016/17 season with TREVOR, a tragicomedy from Orange Is the New Black writer, Nick Jones. The play features John San Nicolas as the chimp, Trevor, and Sarah Lucht as his "mom," Sandra. This is the first play of seven in Artists Rep's 34th season.

Offering different plays every night from five outstanding playwrights, Portland Shakespeare Project and Proscenium Journal will host the second annual Proscenium Live Festival of New Work, from August 18 to 21 on Artists Repertory Theatre's Alder Stage.

 Artists Repertory Theatre is thrilled to present The Skin of Our Teeth, a timeless comedy by Thornton Wilder that has amazed audiences for generations with its unique theatrical style, huge, and not always human, cast and an epic story that spans centuries. The Skin of Our Teeth is a play in three acts, Artists Rep's production will include 3 to 10 Community Guest Stars in walk-on roles for every performance and will employ multimedia projections, live video feed and a cornucopia of masks.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents Mothers and Sons, an important play by one of American theatre's most acclaimed contemporary playwrights, Terrence McNally. As the fifth production in its 2015/16 season, Artists Rep brings the regional premiere of this play to Portland following its 2014 Tony-nominated Broadway debut. Click below to watch a new trailer with highlights from the show!

Twenty or so years ago, gay Americans were second-class citizens and gay men were dying of AIDS. Today, members of the LGBT community can get married and adopt children, and AIDS is a controllable disease. That's a heck of a lot of change for one generation, and not everyone has accepted it.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents Mothers and Sons, an important play by one of American theatre's most acclaimed contemporary playwrights, Terrence McNally. As the fifth production in its 2015/16 season, Artists Rep brings the regional premiere of this play to Portland following its 2014 Tony-nominated Broadway debut.