By Ryan J. Prado

Portland’s well of artistic visionaries and performers will be given a proper channel to showcase their collective and individual talents once again, as the Fertile Ground Festival invades the city for the second straight year. Expanding this time to include new genres—dance, comedy, poetry, pulp, music and visual art—the event is a veritable breeding ground for all things creative, and will feature a little something for every type of arts connoisseur.

The fest was established last year by the Portland Theatre Alliance to provide a platform for Portland theater artists to showcase their commitments to new work, and to highlight the city as “fertile ground” for all manner of public performance. As such, the program engages an understandably wide scope of entertainment with introspective, visual and outlandish turns of live revue.

Spanning January 22 through February 2—and Portland artists ranging in age from 8 to 80 (or so the releases suggest)—the fest will embark upon feats of geek chic theater, shadow puppet drama, visual theater memoir adaptation, fully staged world premiere productions, workshops, dance performances and staged readings. In short, if it can be performed, Fertile Ground most likely has it covered.

Portland’s gay, lesbian, bi and trans community will be well-represented at the festival, fixing outrageous combinations like Jim Radosta’s cabaret-karaoke memoir Triskaidekaphilia (January 27 at The Woods in Southeast Portland) under the same umbrella as the Lunchtime Reading Series production of Sandra de Helen’s work-in-progress The Godmother, about two sisters (one a cross-dressing lesbian) who court gang life (January 23 at Hothouse, Gerding Theater at the Armory).

Whatever your fancy, plan on its merciless tickling. But for a closer look at fare poised to make at least part of the 2010 Fertile Ground Festival shine, Just Out offers a roundup of a few of the vastly diverse creative labors planted by Portland’s finest.

With the recent legalization of gay marriage in Mexico City, Teatro Milagro (Miracle Theatre)’s collaborative production of American Sueño couldn’t have come to fruition at a more poignant time for Latino gay rights.

Written by theater co-founder Dañel Malán and director Rebecca Martinez, the play follows the lives of four individuals searching for the American Dream, while embroiled within the social constraints of immigration laws, sexual orientation, and acceptance in an oft-times unforgiving world. The characters represent the outsider’s point of view, focusing on the path forged by Augustin Obrero de la Torre (Joaquin López), a gay, undocumented immigrant working as a musician to support his elderly parents, who are unaware of his homosexuality. De la Torre’s sister Monica (Sylvia Malan Gonzalez) is a U.S. citizen yearning for the openness of the modern world regarding her own sexual orientation, while also seeking acceptance by her traditional past. Mimi (Daniel Moreno) is transgender, and pursuing a life free from the handcuffs of gender identity, and Cruz (Malán) is a homeless woman struggling with addiction and mental health issues.

The characters were derived from interviews with real people sharing their stories in Portland workshops last summer. Malán and Martinez had been collecting coming out stories from Latinos in Oregon, and in June showcased these experiences in a live spoken word and music performance called Voz Alta for Latino Gay Pride at Teatro Milagro. The process inspired the actors and writers to create songwriting workshops for different marginalized communities in conjunction with Multnomah County Health Department through their HepC/HIV outreach program.

“From these conversations, songs were written and recorded,” explained López, who also composed the original music for American Sueño. “It was really amazing to see people come together and open up about taboo subjects and work together to create songs about it.”

The actors were given direction to use their imagination in creating characters who they identified with and whose stories they would feel proud to express.

“Once all of us had a strong idea of our characters, Rebecca interviewed us. As our characters, she asked about our history, how we got to where we were, why we do what we do, what our family history was, what are spiritual beliefs were and how we defined, or not, our sexuality,” said López. “Taking that information, she then ran with it and created the play.”

Martinez’s turn as both writer and director, she admits, was a tricky undertaking, but the goal of telling a story as honestly as possible, with true-to-life experiences as the fulcrum, has sewn American Sueño into a grander pastiche, even within the already huge parameters imagined by the quest for the “American Dream.”

“For the characters in this play, the American Dream represents a personal freedom, a sense of identity, a finding where you belong and why,” explained Martinez. “It is an internal journey, reflected and sometimes limited by the culture you identify with and the country you are a citizen of. It is shaped by personal relationships, and influenced by family.” 

For the four actors and for Martinez, exposing awareness on issues of gay rights for immigrants is a significant part of the play’s message.

“For Latinos, there is such a huge oppression from the Catholic Church through parents and cultural machismo,” said Malán.

“I hope [American Sueno] inspires gay Latinos to be honest with themselves and their family and to build their own identity as strong individuals who express how they feel and stand up for what they believe in,” added López.

For Malán, the bigger story the cast hopes to impart is one of acceptance.

“These characters all just want to be themselves, be loved, be happy,” she said. “The play has many layers, and I think everyone who sees it will identify with some aspect of the concept of trying to find yourself. Because honestly, do we ever really do that in our lifetime?”

For ticket prices and times to American Sueño, visit www.milagro.org or www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

Many Hats Collaboration made its mark in Portland by way of self-generated, physically driven productions such as Break First, Then Open, and stage plays like 2006’s Mutt. Now, in its first project based on existing material, the theatrical production company is tackling the world premiere stage adaptation of Ann Patchett’s 2004 memoir Truth and Beauty.

The original 227-page novel catalogued the tumultuous, though endlessly loving friendship between Patchett and fellow memoirist/poet Lucy Grealy, who died in 2004 as a result of an accidental overdose. Patchett’s famed memoir came after the success in 1994 of Grealy’s critically acclaimed Autobiography of a Face, which chronicled her early life and adolescent experiences overcoming cancer of the jaw. Treatment for the rare cancer (Ewing’s sarcoma) left Grealy’s face disfigured, and she endured numerous facial reconstructive surgeries, leading to addictions to several pain medications, and finally heroin.

Many Hats’ co-founder, and Truth and Beauty co-star Jessica Wallenfels (in the role of Grealy) approached the project within the company’s “physical theater” milieu. Wallenfels explained this approach as an attempt to translate the action of the scenes into a physical life for the actors that could live alongside the spoken text—sometimes running parallel and sometimes veering away, but always with the goal of illuminating the truth of the piece.

“We’re looking for ways the physicality—from naturalism to clown to dance and gestural movement—can animate the story in ways that are surprising and virtuosic, as well as revealing,” said Wallenfels.

 Elizabeth Klinger, a somewhat recent addition to the Many Hats company—founded in 2004 by core members Wallenfels, co-artistic director Lava Alapai, and Annalise Albright—adapted the screenplay and also directs the production. Wallenfels and co-star Betsy Cross (in the role of Patchett) experimented with various choreography exercises to hone in on the direction their presentation of the piece would take. One major goal was to bring out as much humor as possible in what is, otherwise, a very dark story. Wallenfels explained that the heart of the story is one of profound friendship.

“I think you can’t help but come away thinking about friendship, and asking yourself: Who is the person in the world I’m this close to? Who cares about me the way these people care for each other? Who will I be there for no matter what? Have I loved this heroically in my life?” said Wallenfels. “It makes you question your own intimacy levels in your relationships, platonic or non.”

Further information about Many Hats Collaboration, as well as ticket prices and times for Truth and Beauty can be found at www.manyhats-collaboration.co, or by visiting www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

Running January 24, 26, 27 and 28 at the Brody Theater (16 NW Broadway).

Hosted by Phaedra Knight.

Not to be forgotten among the fray of hyper-intense melodramas, theatrical wizardry, and introspective visual stunts are the sci-fi comic nerd crosshairs zeroed in on the Brody Theater at the end of the month. Pulp Diction promises to exacerbate any and all sensationalist fiction and DIY stage production to the “nth” degree during its run. They’ve even got Embers’ drag temptress Phaedra Knight as emcee. And beer.

The culprit for such moral depravity is brand new theater company The Pulp Stage, presided over by local actor and producer “Tall” Matt Haynes. The purpose of the buzz-worthy production in Portland is simplistic in its nature, he explained.

“I think Western Civilization itself is a great place for pulp in live theater,” explained Haynes. “Sophocles? Shakespeare? Brilliant intellects who raised our collective ‘humanities’ bar, yes... But they were also shameless, slobbering, voyeuristic sensationalists and crackling good storytellers to boot. So you can have your cake and eat it too...especially in the thoughtful, conscientious, and funky, fun lovin’ city of Portland!”

The series kicks off on Sunday, January 24 with the “Pulp Sampler,” a smorgasbord featuring various Portland authors and directors. Jason Ferte’s Alba the Vampire presents the tales of a bloodsucking lesbian; Rich Rubin’s expletive-laden heist-gone-dumb Hamlet in Hiding follows three female Irish bank robbers; and drug smuggling sits center stage in Bill Ratner’s 101 in Gold, along with many others for this inaugural evening.

Haynes himself adapted his older brother Adam’s story The Night I Died for the stage (presented Tuesday, January 26), juggling duties for a packed itinerary of performances. The Pulp Stage’s Brian Allard has also contributed a “humbling amount of help,” added Haynes, in not only coordinating the event, but in directing some of the Pulp Sampler productions—as well as Wednesday, January 27’s amnesia-thriller The ReWrite Man, penned by Oregon Book Award-winner Steve Patterson.

Adding Phaedra Knight as host of Pulp Diction was a stroke of promotional genius, with Knight’s home stage of Embers being just three doors down from the Brody Theater. “I asked the owner [of Embers] about cross advertising and I asked one of the queens about hosting,” explained Haynes of Knight’s inclusion. “Both said ‘yes,’ and so a nice little alliance was born...as well as a Portland answer to Elvira: Phaedra will be introducing each evening of pieces and closing with a song during the ‘credits.’”

Don’t miss Thursday, January 28’s cosmic superhero spoof The Go Girls, with a special guest appearance by legendary voice actor Ratner—“Flint” on the G.I. Joe animated series, or to become immortalized at the Pulp Diction photo booth!

For more information on Pulp Diction, visit www.thepulpstage.weebly.com. For prices and times, visit www.fertilegroundpdx.org.