Oregon Children's Theatre Dec/Nov | Page 3

PAGE P7 STAY IN TOUCH! A MESSAGE FROM OREGON CHILDREN’S THEATRE In 2006, Oregon Children’s Theatre started The New Play Initiative, a quest to commission a new play a year every year for ten years. This season we are producing two new plays and next season we are producing two and possibly three new plays. We hope these new works speak to contemporary youth and bring a rich vitality to our audience. It most certainly has positioned the company nationally as a great place to develop new work. We have collaborated with Dallas Children’s Theater, First Stage Children’s Theater, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and Magik Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. Two Newbery Award-winning authors, Lois Lowry and Louis Sachar, have adapted their own novels for our stage. Several of our new works have been published and many have been produced by other companies—most notably, The Giver, which has been produced by over 250 theaters nationally and internationally. We have workshopped plays at the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices and NYU’ s New Plays for Young Audiences. Timmy Failure is our first collaboration with an international playwright, Finegan Kruckemeyer. Fin is about the sweetest guy you could ever meet. Here’s his picture. Rumor has it he may be spending more time in Portland in the near future. The New Plays Initiative has been a great success for OCT. I look forward to seeing where this path leads us. Next season, three new plays and after that…? Stan Foote Artistic Director Oregon Children’s Theatre Get behind-the-scenes peeks at our productions; stay informed about outreach efforts and special projects like our annual playwriting contest; find out about special subscription and ticket offers. Visit www.octc.org and subscribe to one—or all!—of our email updates: OCT Community News, Acting Academy, and Main Stage blasts. THANKS THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FROM THE BOARD, STAFF, CAST & CREW TO: Ben Courtney, Portland Center Stage Bud’s Lites Eric Little Gabriel Vernon: g.vernon: Print & Web Design Solutions IATSE Local 28 Kerry Ryan Misty Tompoles, Artslandia Multnomah County Library School Corps Nate Crosby Oregon Ballet Theatre Partners at Melvin Mark Companies Oregon Children’s Theatre TIMMY FAILURE: MISTAKES WERE MADE P1