Telephone

by Ariana Reines

Previews June 25-26

Performances June 27th-July 11th

Venue: Reed College Performing Arts Building

“Watson, come here, I want you.”

Ariana Reines’ masterful play explores the limits and limitlessness of communication: between ourselves, between each other, between rooms, between continents and even into the afterlife. Drawing on Avital Ronell’s The Telephone Book, the life of Alexander Graham Bell, and the writings of Carl Jung, the piece asks us to grapple with the way technology seeks to answer a pre-existing desire in all of us to be closer to each other. 

“I’m here, baby, I’m right here.”

“The company is somehow both the city’s most avant-garde and most accessible… The results are singular.”

-Portland Monthly

“PETE is uniquely adept at staging these moments in which you comprehend something that’s impossible to articulate”

-Portland Monthly

Production credits:

Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter

Performed by Jacob Coleman, Cristi Miles, Damaris Webb, Andrew Welsh, and Amber Whitehall

Set by Peter Ksander

Lights by Miranda K. Hardy

Sound by Mark Valadez

Costume by Jenny Ampersand

Special Projects by Trevor Sargent

Stage Managed by Kristina Mast

Production Managed by Molly Gardner

Dramaturgy by Chris Gonzalez

Assistant Director: Lila Kunkel

Assistant Stage Manager: Matt Schrader-Patton

Production Assistant: Leigha Fickling

Lead Electrician: Abby Jacquin

Props Coordinator: Brooklyn Rice

Sound Mixer: Martín Aguas

Photos by Jaren Kerr

Telephone is made possible by the Ronni S. Lacroute Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, The Kinsman Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission, Portland City Arts and Culture, the Oregon Community Foundation, the Jackson Foundation, the Autzen Foundation, and the Miller Foundation.

**Telephone was commissioned by The Foundry Theatre and first presented at The Cherry Lane Theatre in 2009, inspired by The Telephone Book by Avital Ronell. Winner of two Obie Awards (2009) for best direction and best performance.

Special thanks to the Reed College Theatre Department and the Lewis & Clark Theatre Department.