Anthology Productions to Open THE CHIMES in Portland With Every Seat Reserved Without Prepayment

This holiday season, a new nonprofit theatre company is asking Portland a simple question: what is a night of theatre worth to you? Anthology Productions has opened reservations to the general public for The Chimes, its first production, running December 11 to 23 at the World Trade Center Portland. Every seat is reserved without prepayment. Guests come to the show, then decide afterward what the evening was worth and give after. Zero is always an option.

Anthology calls it the All In Model. There is no ticket price and no door price. A card holds each reservation and is never charged when the guest shows up. What guests give after the curtain covers their own seat and opens the door for the next audience, alongside donors who underwrite seats in advance.

"That isn't a loophole in the model. It is the model," said Founder and Artistic Director Andy Baldwin. "We're betting the house on the magic of theatre. Go All In to Ensure All Get In. What you give doesn't just cover your seat. It puts someone else in one."

"Joy isn't an exclusive resource for people who have money and privilege," said playwright and performer Ben Tissell. "Theatre is the same way. Theatre is for everyone."

Toby Veck is a London porter who stands beneath a bell tower and listens. When the world pushes him toward despair, the chimes carry him forward, not to punish him, but to restore his faith in people. Tissell wrote and performs this one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens's lesser-known 1844 Christmas story, which he has refined since 2020, when he first staged it during lockdown as a multi-camera livestream.

"We can't wait for anyone else to give us permission to tell our stories," said Tissell. "The worst circumstances to make art are often the best ones. I made this during lockdown, on a livestream, the worst possible way to make theatre, and it forced everything good about this show into existence."

Oregon ArtsWatch calls Tissell "mesmerizing" and "always impressive," the kind of performer "you just like and are ready to go on a journey with." The production is directed by Stephen Pick, with composition and sound design by Rory Stitt, set design by Bryan Boyd and lighting design by Kacy Hughson.

"This model makes the audience my collaborator," said Tissell. "The same way a scene partner pushes me to do my best, the audience becomes my scene partner up there with me. They deserve my best every single time, and this is how they get it."