Fertile Ground Expands Partnership Venue Program, Welcoming Two New Spaces for 2026 Festival

The Fertile Ground Festival of New Work has announced the expansion of its Partnership Venue Program, adding two new spaces - Portland State University's Boiler Room Theatre and The House Studio  - to its lineup. The 2026 Festival will now feature four partner venues in total: 21ten Theatre, The Back Door Theatre, The Boiler Room Theatre, and The House Studio, offering more opportunities than ever for independent artists to share their work.

Launched for the 2025 Festival, the Partner Venue Program was designed to reduce barriers to producing live performance and strengthen connections between artists and Portland's small performance spaces. The Festival rents each participating venue for multiple weeks and subleases it to Festival Producers through a lottery system, ensuring equitable access for local creators.

“Finding an affordable, appropriate venue is a huge challenge for producers - it's the first hurdle to producing, and it impacts every aspect of the work,” says Festival Director Tamara Carroll, who developed the program. “The audience's experience begins the moment they walk into the lobby. The space shapes the creative possibilities, the technical potential, and the overall perception of the event. These great spaces exist, managed by wonderful community-oriented companies, and we want to bring new artists and new audiences into them. Our theatrical venues are precious resources to our communities, and we need to safeguard them.”

Carroll emphasizes that these partnerships are about collaboration, not just logistics. “The companies that run these spaces want to host more events during Fertile Ground, they just don't have the administrative capacity to manage that many projects while producing their own shows. This program helps bridge that gap.”

Last year's partner venues (CoHo Theatre, 21ten Theatre, and The Back Door Theatre) collectively hosted nearly 100 performances of 29 projects during the 2025 Festival. Building on that success, the Festival is expanding its reach in 2026 with the addition of two new partners.

Applications for the Partner Venue Lottery are open through October 27, 2025.

Fertile Ground is a non-juried festival, open to any local artists developing original work. For details on registration or venue applications, visit FertileGroundPDX.org.

About the Partner Venues
21ten Theatre — A rectangular black box theater in Southeast Portland known for its intimate scale and versatility. The space is ideal for solo performances, small ensembles, and staged readings with minimal technical needs, offering artists a focused, audience-forward environment for experimentation.

The Back Door Theatre — A cozy black box tucked behind the Common Grounds Coffee Shop, The Back Door features nontraditional seating (including couches and café tables) that invite audiences into a relaxed, immersive experience. With LED lighting and projection capability, it's a favorite for readings, workshops, and small-scale original productions.

The Boiler Room Theatre (Portland State University) — A 67-seat black box theatre housed in PSU's Lincoln Hall and operated by the University's Theatre Program. Through the Festival partnership, PSU students will gain hands-on production experience as Festival interns and technicians, and participate in events designed to connect them with Portland's professional theatre community.

The House Studio (Fool House Art Collective) — Located in Southwest Portland, The House Studio is operated by Fool House Art Collective, a group of artists with ties to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The collective's mission is to serve as a community arts hub for Beaverton's diverse population, creating accessible space for multicultural storytelling and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Equipped with professional lighting, sound, and projection systems, the venue embodies Fertile Ground's goal of connecting artists and audiences across cultures.