LIFEBOAT
A True Story of Two Teenagers Who Did Not Give Up
A co-production with Northwest Children’s Theater
WHO: Co-produced by Corrib Theatre & Northwest Children’s Theater
WHAT: Lifeboat
By Nicola McCartney
Directed by Avital Shira
WHEN: January 12 – February 4, 2018
Opening Night/Press Night: Friday, January 12
Regular Run: Thursdays-Saturdays@ 7:30pm; Sundays @ 2pm
WHERE: Northwest Children’s Theater, 1819 NW Everett St., Portland
TICKETS: $25 regular price; $20 student/group; $15/youth under 18
Brown Paper Tickets: 800-838-3006 or https://corriblifeboat.brownpapertickets.com/
SPECIAL EVENTS
Sunday, Jan 14: Post-show Talkback, guest TBD
Sunday, Jan 21: Post-show Talkback, guest TBD
Sunday, Jan 28: Post-show Talkback with Charlotte Headrick (Dramaturg)
PRODUCTION PHOTOS AVAILABLE: Jan 12, 2018
SHOW IMAGE ATTACHED: Sketch by Jan Baross
PORTLAND, OREGON – December 21, 2017. With a bracing true story of determination and hope, Corrib Theatre and Northwest Children’s Theater present Nicola McCartney’s Lifeboat. Directed by Avital Shira and starring Kayla Lian and Britt Harris, this riveting play by an award-winning Irish playwright runs for four weeks, Jan. 12 through Feb. 4, at Northwest Children’s Theater.
Lifeboat is the extraordinary true story of Bess Walder and Beth Cummings. Set during World War II, it is a story of courage, a story of survival and a story of enduring friendship.
On Friday the thirteenth of September 1940, a ship, The City of Benares, set sail from Liverpool bound for Canada. On board were 90 child evacuees escaping the relentless bombing and dangers of war torn Britain. Four days into the crossing, the ship was torpedoed and sank. Only 11 children aboard survived. Of those few, two young girls, Bess Walder (15) and Beth Cummings (14), clung to life as they spent 19 terrifying hours in the water on an upturned lifeboat. With the hopes and dreams upon which they’d set sail, they buoyed one another’s spirits with stories of home, family and adventure. Bess and Beth inspired each other to survive. Lifeboat tells their story.
“At its core, Lifeboat is a play about resilience,” said play Director Avital Shira, daughter of Portland Rabbis Laurie Rutenberg and Gary Schoenberg. “These two young women defy the odds through connection, story and the will to save the other to ultimately survive longer than humans should be able in the middle of the Atlantic. The world is dark at the moment, and it’s especially important now to harness the power of human resilience and remind ourselves that if we find our common humanity, we have the ability to keep each other afloat.”
“Lifeboat packs a wallop because it is fundamentally about life, death and the human spirit. Oh, and it’s a highly entertaining history lesson too: informing the young and reminding the old.”
Theatre Review, New Zealand
RESEARCH
This is a true story centered around two teenage girls during the evacuation of British children during World War II. Know as “Operation Pied Piper,” the British evacuation of children began on Friday, September 1, 1939. The ship the young girls in this story were sailing on was the City of Benares. It was carrying 191 passengers (90 of them children) and 216 shipmates, 407 souls all told — 260 perished (79 children) and 147 survived (11 children). Details about this ship and its demise are here.
World Premiere of “Magellanica,” by award-winning Oregon playwright E.M. Lewis, directed by Dámaso Rodríguez
Play includes five parts. Runtime is approximately 6 hours.
Three 10-minute intermissions and one 25-minute dinner break.
Limited Run. Only 18 performances.
Regular run Jan 27 through Feb 18: Thursdays & Fridays: Feb 1 – 16 at 5:30pm; Saturdays & Sundays: Jan 27 – Feb. 18 at 2pm
DINNER: Dinner Break meals purchased separately, at least four days in advance, through the box office.
SHOW IMAGES Designed by Jeff Hayes
Artists Rep presents the World Premiere of Magellanica, by E.M. Lewis, directed by Dámaso Rodríguez from January 20 through February 18 on the theatre’s Morrison Stage. Magellanica is a five-part epic play written by Oregon playwright E.M. Lewis. This production is made possible through major funding from the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) Creative Heights Initiative and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Magellanica is a part of Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival of New Works.
In 1986, scientists and engineers from around the world converge at the South Pole Research Station to figure out, among other things, if there really is a hole in the sky. In the darkest, coldest, most dangerous place on Earth, eight imperfect souls are trapped together. Utterly isolated from the outside world for eight and a half months, this research team must face life or death challenges, their own inner demons and depend upon each other for survival.
With epic scope in the tradition of The Kentucky Cycle or Angels in America, this play takes its inspiration from the true story of the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer at the height of the Cold War. Part historical adventure, part love story and mystical foray into the unknown, Lewis has constructed a demanding, five-part epic that tackles issues of political, social and scientific urgency on a global scale. As Lewis says, “It has scientists as heroes. It’s about the importance of truth. It’s about a world that can either tear apart or come together for its own survival.”
“Magellanica falls into that rare category of plays that becomes more relevant with each news cycle,” says Artistic Director and Director of the production Dámaso Rodríguez, “the play grips you from its first moment and the five acts fly by. A piece of this magnitude doesn’t get produced every day, and requires in-depth exploration from all sides.”
Artists Rep is committed to premiering this piece because of its timely importance as tensions mount between the United States and Russia, the clock ticks on the warming planet and divisions widen between cultures. It’s a vital story for today and an extraordinary excursion for audiences to the ends of the Earth.
FOUNDATION AWARDS
Artists Rep received two major gifts in support of the World Premiere production of Magellanica. The Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights Initiative awarded the company $75,000 and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards awarded $44,000 through the Theatre Communications Group.
The scale and complexity of the piece required that Artists Rep seek special “risk capital” for Magellanica, above and beyond the theatre’s typical contributed income. While the play has received developmental work at multiple theatres, no theatre has taken on the challenge of producing it. With a play that extends past the five hour mark and includes a large cast working in multiple languages, Magellanica needed three additional weeks of rehearsal. The technical and aesthetic demands of the design and the narrative structure also add complexity and expense. The Edgerton Foundation funded the additional rehearsal weeks, and OCF’s Creative Heights Award funded the increased production expense and covers some of the risk the theatre is taking on earned income, as the play’s length dictates a shortened run and fewer performances than a typical play would receive.
Over the last 11 years, the Edgerton Foundation has supported an extended rehearsal process for 385 World Premiere productions. Through this support, many plays have scheduled numerous subsequent productions, with 27 making it to Broadway. Fifteen plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the best play or musical awards. Nine plays have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with Next to Normal winning in 2010, Water by the Spoonful in 2012, The Flick winning in 2014, and Hamilton winning in 2016.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
E. M. LEWIS is an award-winning playwright, teacher, and librettist. Her work has been produced around the world, and is published by Samuel French. She received the Steinberg Award for Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for outstanding writing of a world premiere play, an L.A. Weekly Award for Production of the Year, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, and the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama. Her play Now Comes the Night was part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington DC, and was published in the anthology Best Plays from Theater Festivals 2016. The Gun Show premiered in Chicago in 2014, and has since been produced in more than a dozen theatres across the country, including Coho Theatre in Portland, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; it was published in The Best American Short Plays 2015-2016. Other plays by Lewis include: Infinite Black Suitcase, Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, Reading to Vegetables, True Story, Apple Season, and You Can See All the Stars (a play for college students commissioned by the Kennedy Center). In 2018, Lewis’ epic Antarctica play, Magellanica, will have its World Premiere at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland. How the Light Gets In will have a reading in the Fertile Ground Festival. Song of Extinction will have a reading at the Portland Civic Theater Guild. And Lewis will spend five weeks in residence at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, teaching playwriting and working with students on the workshop production of a big, new political play set in her home state of Oregon called The Great Divide. In addition, Lewis will premiere Town Hall, a new opera written with composer Theo Popov, at the University of Maryland Opera Studio in February, and continue to work on a full-length, family-friendly opera, written with composer Evan Meier, commissioned by American Lyric Theater, called Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant. Lewis is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
DÁMASO RODRÍGUEZ is in his fifth year as Artistic Director of Artists Repertory Theatre. In 2001 he co-founded the Los Angeles-based Furious Theatre Company, where he served as Co-Artistic Director until 2012. From 2007-2010 he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse. His directing credits include work at Artists Rep, Playwrights’ Center, the Pasadena Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse, A Noise Within, The Theatre@Boston Court, Naked Angels and Furious Theatre. Rodriguez is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Back Stage Garland Award, the NAACP Theatre Award and the Pasadena Arts Council’s Gold Crown Award. His productions have been nominated for multiple LA Weekly Theatre Awards and LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. In 2012, Rodriguez was honored by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation as a Finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
Directing credits at Artists Rep include the World Premiere musical Cuba Libre by Carlos Lacámara featuring the music of three-time Grammy-nominated band Tiempo Libre; the Portland premieres of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon (co-director), Nick Jones’ Trevor, David Ives’ adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s The Liar, Nina Raine’s Tribes and Exiles by Carlos Lacámara; the U.S. premiere of Dawn King’s Foxfinder; the West Coast premieres of Charise Castro Smith’s Feathers and Teeth, Jeffrey Hatcher’s Ten Chimneys and Dan LeFranc’s The Big Meal; and revivals of The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, The Miracle Worker by William Gibson and The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge. Credits at other theatres include productions by contemporary and classic playwrights including Craig Wright, Neil LaBute, Matt Pelfrey, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Richard Bean, Owen McCafferty, Alex Jones, William Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, Bernard Shaw, Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman. Upcoming directing projects for Rodríguez are Magellanica by E.M. Lewis at Artists Rep, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and We, the Invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton at Actors Theatre of Louisville. www.damaso- rodriguez.com/
Join us for a fun, introductory Israeli dance class. All levels are welcome. Six people needed to run class.
Register: oregonjcc.org/registration
Registeration code: CG202
Judaism; Essential Spiritual Practices, Rituals and Ethics Class
Rabbi David Zaslow, Cyrise Beatty Schachter, Rabbi Sue Morningstar and guest teachers present an eleven-week series of classes at the Havurah Synagogue – Judaism; Essential Spiritual Practices, Rituals and Ethics. Classes will be held beginning on Thursday, February 1 from 5-6 PM for eleven weeks. Online streaming is available for those who are unable to attend at this time – a code will be given upon registration. Pre-registration is required by calling 541-488-7716. Class fee is $50-$90 sliding scale. Please call for more info. The Havurah is located at 185 N. Mountain Ave. in Ashland.
The term Shabbaton is often employed to mean an event and/or celebration that is held on Shabbat or over a full weekend. A Shabbaton is an immersive family Shabbat experience – providing engaging programs and activities for all ages.
On Friday, February 2, 6 PM Rabbi David Zaslow and Morah Cyrise Beatty Schachter will lead a musical Kabbalat Shabbat & Celebration of the Trees!! Tu b’Shevat, the most ancient ecological holiday, is celebrated with a ritual passed down by the 16th century mystics of Safed. Fruits and nuts will be tasted on the journey through the four worlds to celebrate the emergence from winter into the time of the awakening of the trees. Devorah Zaslow will tell a story of the season. Free. All are welcome. Donations gratefully accepted. Bring a potluck veggie dish to share and children are most welcome. The Havurah Synagogue is located at 185 N. Mountain Ave., Ashland. Call 541-488-7716 for more info.
Raoul Wallenberg: To Me, There’s No Other Choice.
Learn the story behind the Swedish diplomat who single-handedly saved thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II.
By issuing protective passports and buying buildings to establish as sovereign Swedish territory in Budapest, Wallenberg was able to shelter Jews during 1944 and save an estimated 15,000 lives in just six months. His life and legacy stand as a testament to moral courage and fortitude, especially in the tragedy of his ending.
From the Swedish Institute in Stockholm, this exhibit is generously sponsored locally by Barry Peterson & Darlene Peterson and EPrint, with additional support from the Swedish Institute.
Young children and their parents celebrate Shabbat with singing, movement, blessings, and storytelling. We touch on the main highlights of the Shabbat morning service: wonder, fun, song, listening to the world, dancing, and Torah. Afterwards, we enjoy an informal potluck nosh and the chance to play and schmooze. Led by Deborah Eisenbach-Budner.
Please RSVP here by Wednesday, Jan. 31.
Join us as we say goodbye to Shabbat in our PJs.
We’ll have dinner, stories, art and a whole lot of fun.
$5 per person. For families of children ages 0-5.
Co-sponsored by PJ Library.
