Profile Theatre Project

Profile Theatre Project is the only theater on the west coast dedicated to an in-depth exploration of the playwrights voice. Profile theatres mission is to produce a season of world-class productions and community engagement centered around a featured writer whose vision broadens our perspective on the world and deepens our collective compassion. Each year we use a master artists unique vision as a lens to explore the intersection between art and our local community. We believe that the Theatre is a convening ground for people to gather together, sharing stories and building community around social issues and political events. Since 2018, weve moved from a one-playwright, one-season model to one where we curate the bodies of work of two or three writers in tandem over two years, allowing us to amplify some of the key issues of our time through the lens of multiple leading playwrights. Our signature programs are our main stage season of large-scale professional productions which includes our innovative in dialogue programs of lectures, panel discussions, and concert stagings; our community Profile program, which uses the practice of writing to create networks of support and resilience in a dedicated affinity space for a community important to the featured writer; and our playwrights residency, which embeds the featured writer in our portland Theatre to develop new work, lead workshops and engage with our community of patrons and artists. Since 2016, we have exclusively centered bipoc, lgbtqia+, wom*n and jewish writers and artists because we believe that by centering the stories of the global majority, we in our small way help to create a more just and equitable society.

Community engagement: through our community Profile program, we select an underserved community with a particular affinity for the work on the main stage for a full year of creative engagement and community building through monthly writing workshops. We connect further through our playwright's residency, which embeds the featured writer in the lifeblood of the Theatre, providing multiple opportunities for engagement with various communities as well as patrons and artists.in the summer of 2021, we partnered with portland opera, psu and dance wire to put two new temporary performing arts venues in and around the historic barge building at zidell yards. In addition to producing our first in-person production in 18 months (paula vogels the oldest profession), Profile Theatre Project was the lead producer of the festival, pursuing all necessary funding, designing the venues, overseeing all operations, providing marketing and print materials for all collaborators, developing the covid protocols, etc. We invited nearly a dozen different theater, dance, and opera companies to present their work free of venue charges, and nearly 3,000 patrons enjoyed their programming.