By Clare Shreve
"She had fangs," actor Ben Buckley, 24, said with bewilderment. "She had fangs."
Buckley played a Powell's Bookstore worker who comes across a femme fatale-type customer with fangs, who he is both repulsed by and oddly attracted to in Nick Zagane's play, "Your Everyday Blood Market." The play was performed, with seven others, in a rehearsed stage reading on Monday night with the overarching title of "Open City" at the Gerding Theater at the Armory, located in trendy northwest Portland.
Elements of Portland including its bridges, roses and MAX lines all got their fair share of coverage on Monday night's Portland Center Stage event. The event was a part of the Fertile Ground Festival, a citywide festival of new work that spanned 10 days.
"The goal was to gather an essence of Portland and theater together, to show what we're capable of," said Mikki Lipsey, a Portland Area Theatre Alliance board member. PATA sponsored this event.
The eight plays came from eight different Portland playwrights, who chose a random Portland location and a cast size from a hat. The playwrights were allotted two months to write their one acts. "No one really used that time," said Andrea Stolowitz, a UP adjunct instructor of screenwriting and a playwright. "We all wrote them in a few days."
Meanwhile, the actors had one week to read over the scripts and familiarize themselves with the eight scenes. Working off a five-hour rehearsal the day before the show, the actors prepared as best they could.
"These things are always just 'Okay, here we go!'" Buckley said. His biggest challenge was Zagane's lengthy monologue. Buckley saw it as almost a stand-up routine, and judging from the audience's reactions, he delivered his lines impeccably, with the kind of finesse reminiscent of Andy Samberg of "Saturday Night Live."
Stolowitz saw her play, "Having It All," come to life on stage during the performance, which she said is always a learning experience for her.
"I always have my students' work read out loud in class because then you can really see what works and what doesn't," Stolowitz said. "It's magical to see what comes alive with an actor."
Stolowitz's play was set during a Portland walking tour. Portlander's favorite haunts such as Saturday Market, Powell's Bookstore and First Thursday were all highlighted during the evening. In addition to the places around town, Portland attire was also addressed.
"It's Portland! Who can see how anyone looks under all that fleece?" said actor Deirdre Atkinson, as Kate, who was reassuring her sister, Sarah, who questioned the way she looked in "Having It All." Jabs like that at the fashion sense in Portland or the way Portlander's drive kept the night going with laughter.
Lines having to do with the zen of Portland drivers or the fear of finding yourself off "the grid" eschewed out of the character's mouths in almost every play. The night was not entirely centered on the comedy Portland and its inhabitants freely offer up - there were also moments of recognizing the city's beauty.
"I'll just sit here and stare at my city," recited Timothy Hill. "Hello Portland, how are ya?" Hill played a painter who decided to sit atop Mount Tabor, rather than go to his own art show in the Pearl in the play "First Thursday" by Steve Patterson. Even Portland's sunset got props in Shelly Lipkin's "A Sunset at City Grill." The Portland City Grill is a restaurant notorious for its breathtaking views of the city (and its exorbitant prices).
The common thread of Portland places, events and idiosyncrasies of the Pacific Northwest was what struck a cord with many of the audience members. Steve Lipsey, an audience member who attended 20 of the Fertile Ground Festival events, is one such individual. Lipsey liked that he was able to catch the clever references but also enjoy the play as a work of art.
Every seat in the house had a good view of Rose City, but not without some obscurities creeping. Some playwrights managed to fulfill the demand of "Keep Portland Weird," as the bumper sticker says. For one, there was an odd tale of a ménage-Ã -trois type couple that stressed the importance of licking, bleeding and roses in the story, which was lost on some audience members.
However, with any lull in the program, there came roaring laughter at the next snippet as chaotic Saturday Market scenes came to life with every word of dialogue. Everything from the sweet smell of patchouli to the even sweeter smell of wet leather to those cursed strollers that take up more room than is necessary; each part of the market was shown in a relatable, funny way during Buckley's audience-favored monologue as well as a few other plays.
"Open City" created a view of Portland that was open to be marveled at. With the hard work on all fronts, as the emcee said, "an evening of theater was born."
