The Fertile Ground Festival of New Works is a citywide, multi-week performing arts festival taking place in venues throughout Portland, Oregon and the surrounding areas.

This year's lineup includes site specific theatre, dance, solo shows, aerial performance, puppetry, and dozens upon dozens of brand-new scripts by some of Portland's most celebrated and prolific playwrights.

Schedule of Events:

5:30pm - PDX Playwrights: Scenario at CoHo - New Experimental Works - by Stefan Feuerherdt, Brook Hinton, and Urks Io

New Experimental Works - by Stefan Feuerherdt, Brook Hinton, and urks io

Scenario Selection at CoHo Theatre

In Brook Hinton’s We Have Ten Minutes To Reach An Understanding Or At Least Convince Ourselves That We Have, three strangers confront themselves under the shadow of a rumored cataclysm. The audience delivers 21 New Messages, by Stefan Feuerherdt, in which the story of a woman coming to clean her mother’s home is revealed through messages on the mother’s telephone answering machine. Food Play, by urks io, is an in-process, experimental devised theatre piece that explores the historic and ritual use of food as a lens through which to uncover our society’s health and ills. These pieces are among the most creative and daring new works by playwrights who participated in the Scenario workshop led by PDX Playwrights in collaboration with CoHo Productions. We invite you to check out these enthralling and thought-provoking acts of creation. Another wonderful and distinct set of four short works from Scenario will be presented at Chapel Theatre.

Rating/Recommended Age:
15+

Performance Length:
75 minutes, no intermission

Location: CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St, Portland , Oregon , 97210

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8:00pm - Who's Who by Marshall Welch at 21ten

16-year old Onnie Thomas likes to listen to heavy metal music, steal from the convenience store and get high in the cemetery in her hometown of Stafford, Kansas. Her luck runs out when she’s caught siphoning gas. She is ordered to complete community service hours at the library.

While archiving books, Onnie stumbles upon a bundle of letters hidden in a 1940 volume of Who’s Who written by a girl her age. The yellowing pages reveal a tragedy buried in the past. She he is compelled to search for the mystery author with the hope of returning the time capsule to her. Her quest ends in an unexpected friendship bridging two generations with a bittersweet balm that heals past wounds inflicted and the teenage angst of living in today’s digital world.

Rating/Recommended Age:
12+

Performance Length:
60 minutes, no intermission

Location: 21ten Theatre, 2110 SE 10th Ave, Portland , Oregon , 97214

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9:00pm - One Thousand Times adapted and directed by Eric Martin Reid

What if there were no more evil in this world?

This new, immersive work, places you in the midst of a conversation between an exalted and wise spiritual leader who comes across Satan, mortally wounded…with only moments to live.

One Thousand Times- adapted and directed by Eric Martin Reid

A new work based on the profound short story “Satan” by Lebanese-American artist Kahlil Gibran (author of The Prophet). Produced by Lydia Sheehey, Eric Martin Reid, and The Studio NW- Premier Acting Studio.

Rating/Recommended Age:
18+

Performance Length:
75 min

Location: The Studio NW, 734 NW 14th Ave, Portland , Oregon , 97209

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