DIRECTING IN PRISON

At Two Rivers Correctional Institution, in Umatilla, Oregon, I directed:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (2008) (This was the first time inmates in an Oregon prison performed a play by Shakespeare)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (2010) (A feature-length documentary, directed by Bushra Azzouz, is being made of this production, to be released in 2021.)

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (2011)

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (2012)

King Lear by William Shakespeare (2013)

A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare (2014)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (2015) (Co-directed with Anna Crandall, Victoria Spenser, Patrick Walsh and Todd Oleson)

DIRECTING

The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, Portland, Oregon (1977)

A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepard, Red Octopus Theater, Newport, Oregon (1990)

A Doll’s House, Gallery Players, McMinnville, Oregon (1992)

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, Gallery Players (1993)

As Artist In Residence, co-directed Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, at Catlin Gabel High School, with Robert Medley (2009).

STUDIES  

In my youth, I studied acting with Howard Thoresen. More recently, I studied performance with the late Scott Kelman.

ACTING  

 Lots of Shakespeare!:

 (Performances in Portland, Oregon, unless otherwise noted)

Plebian & Lepidus in Julius Caesar, Ars Politica (1969)

Biondello in Taming of the Shrew, Portland Shakespeare Company (1973)

Player in Hamlet, Portland Shakespeare Company (1974)

Pompey in Measure for Measure, Portland Shakespeare Company (1976)

Edgar in King Lear, Popular Theater Company, Oakland, California (1977)

Developed my solo King Lear in 1978, directed by Keith Scales, which I have performed many times over the years, including high schools, prisons, universities and at the Cornelia Connelly Theater in New York

Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Red Octopus Theater in Newport, Oregon (1990)

Feste in Twelfth Night, Red Octopus Theater in Newport, Oregon (1991)

Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Gallery Players, McMinnville, Oregon (1993)

Feste in Twelfth Night, Tygre’s Heart Shakespeare Company (1993)

Third Witch in Macbeth at Tygre’s Heart Shakespeare Company (1994)

Second Witch (Namba Tu Kleva Sista) & King Duncan (Bigjif Tonkin) in Ken Campbell’s Pidgin Macbeth at the Picadilly Theatre on London’s West End (1998)

Premiered my solo Hamlet in 2005, at Brooklyn Bay Theater, in Portland. I have since performed it, among other places, at Lewis and Clark College, Two Rivers Correctional Institution and Teatro Tanque in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Most impressive feat!:

 In 1999, I played the longest part, Philip Masters, in the longest play in the English language, The Warp, by Neil Oram, at The Roundhouse, in London, directed by Ken Campbell. The play has 224 scenes. My character was in all but a few of them. The 19-hour play ran from 8 pm on Saturday to 7 pm on Sunday, with intermissions. It took four months to learn the part, more than eight hours to run my lines.

Other Roles:

 Orestes in The Libation Bearers of Aeschylus (1977)

Rageneau in Cyrano de Bergerac, Production Company, directed by Michael Lieberer (1978)

McKyle in The Ruling Class, Production Company, directed by Michael Lieberer (1978)

Einstein in The Physicists by Friedrich Durrenmatt, directed by Keith Scales (1981)

Hypocrices in Aristophanes’ Peace, Classic Greek Theater of Oregon, directed by Keith Scales

Tiresias in The Bacchae of Euripides, Classic Greek Theater of Oregon, directed by Keith Scales

Performed in Domestic Resurrection Circus. Bread & Puppet Theater, Glover, Vermont, directed by Peter Schumann (1987)

Sam in my play Black Birds, Red Octopus Theater, Newport, Oregon, directed by Margaretta Ramsey

Sam in Crossing Delancey, Gallery Players, McMinnville, Oregon

In Storefront Theater’s 1993 production of the Cuchulain Cycle of W.B. Yeats:

Conall in The Green Helmet, directed by Michael Griggs, 

Fool in On Baile’s Strand, directed by Allen Nause, 

Bricriu in The Only Jealousy of Emer, directed by Rebecca Adams

Servant in The Death of Cuchulain, directed by Keith Scales

Tiresias in the dance/theater workshop production of The Bacchae, Columbia University, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones

 Original Projects:

 Adapted a solo version of King Lear in 1977, directed by Keith Scales, which I have performed in theaters, high schools, colleges, prisons and other venues 

Adapted and performed Dostoevsky’s story Dream of a Ridiculous Man along with my original work, Columbus, directed by Bushra Azzouz (1996)

Performed my one-hour version of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself many times

Wrote and performed Everything and Nothing, directed by Bushra Azzouz (1999)

Wrote and performed Silence, about meditation and spiritual search; performed many time, in various venues, including prisons 

Wrote a play called Once There Was and performed it with Rollin Carlson at Brooklyn Bay, directed by Bushra Azzouz (2004)

Adapted and performed a solo version of Hamlet in 2005; subsequently performed in theaters, high schools, colleges, prison, and other venues.

DANCE

Performed in Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, Hutchinson Hall, University of Washington, written, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones

Tiresias in the dance/theater workshop production of The Bacchae, Columbia University, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones

WRITING FOR PERFORMANCE

Original plays:

History of the World (1984)

Bad Day (1984)

Goose In a Bottle (1986)

Black Birds (1990)

Columbus (1992)

Everything and Nothing (1999)

Once There Was (2004)

Silence (2005)

Goldfinches (2015)

Adaptations:

King Lear  by William Shakespeare (for solo performance) (1977)

The Nose by Nikolai Gogol (1984)

Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1996)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (for solo performance) (2005)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (for young adults) (2006)

TEACHING

Taught acting at the Newport campus of Portland Community College (1989)

Taught a number of acting workshops at high schools. 

Taught acting to kids at: 

McMinnville Montessori School

Ashwood Grade School

The Art Conspiracy’s Summer Arts Camp, Sherwood, Oregon

Taught Shakespeare to kids through the Young Players program, Portland, Oregon

As Artist In Residence, co-taught a Shakespeare class at Catlin Gabel High School with Arthur Leo (2009)

Co-taught a Hamlet class at Two Rivers Correctional Institution with Karin Magaldi and Richard Wattenberg, through Blue Mountain Community College (2015)