Portland Center Stage presents:

PETE’s

a seagull

June 29-July 13, 2024

Venue: Portland Center Stage’s Ellyn Bye Studio at The Armory

(128 NW Eleventh Ave Portland, OR 97209)

there’s a seamlessness

in the way characters are brought on stage

and into life that makes me want to give my life over

to the process of making plays.

-Chris Gonzalez, a seagull

a seagull is a love letter and an elegy, the building of a play, the striking of a set, the putting on and taking off of roles and hats and moments. The play is asking us to reckon with our role as artists in the world. The play is also begging you to continue to put on your shoes and walk out the door and come to the Theatre to be with us in the darkened room with lights.

There will be dead birds and beating hearts.

This project builds on 10 years of PETE working on new translations of Chekhov plays. Drawing on Štĕpán Šimek’s translation of Chekhov’s The Seagull and the writing of company member Chris Gonzalez, PETE will render a new play that asks: what are we all really doing here?

“positively stuffed with meaning, movement, and energy”

-Portland Mercury on PETE’s Cherry Orchard

"I’ve never seen a production perform as wild a balancing act as this one"

Oregon ArtsWatch on PETE’s Cherry Orchard

“this new adaptation is much better, more visually interesting, and funnier than the agèd workhorse of Sad Russian Plays has any right to be, thanks to a new translation, wise casting, and inventive staging”

-Portland Mercury on PETE’s Uncle Vanya

“Funny and gut-wrenching… Surpassed my very high expectations”

-Broadway World on PETE’s Uncle Vanya

“The show has the company’s visceral, iconoclastic stamp all over it, from the inventive staging to the tension between stillness and motion... this production is immediate and alive.”

-Willamette Week on PETE’s The Three Sisters

“The acting company functions as a wonderfully wrought symphony. Each actor gives us a uniquely envisioned character but they are all skillfully blended within the whole.”

-The Oregonian on PETE’s The Three Sisters

Production Credits:

a seagull

Created by PETE

Text by Chris Gonzalez

Adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, translated by Štĕpán Šimek

Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter

Performers:

Jacob Coleman

Cristi Miles

Maureen Porter

Damaris Webb

Roo Welsh

Amber Whitehall

Ken Yoshikawa

Design:

Jenny Ampersand

Miranda k Hardy

Peter Ksander

Trevor Sargent

Mark Valadez

Stage Management: Kristina Mast

Production Management: Molly Gardner

About PCS presents: "PCS Presents” at Portland Center Stage is a new community-based model of presenting performances in partnership with local artists and arts companies in the region. Offering residencies in our spaces, community arts organizations bring in their own creative teams to create the productions of their dreams. Portland Center Stage offers ticketing support through the PCS box office, creative earned income sharing, as well as support from the marketing department who will help spread the word to PCS audiences and beyond.

Made possible with support from Ronni LaCroute, Pancho Savery, Ellen Walkley & Brian Myers, The Oregon Cultural Trust, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Kinsman Foundation and The Mental Insight Foundation.