Quick "Get you up to date details"
I moved from Chicago to Oregon on May 6th, 2015. This year.
I came here to help support, grow, and build a theater company from the ground up.
That Company is Oregon Adventure Theatre.
This summer I'm playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing and several small parts in Macbeth.
I started coming to Oregon to do shows with this theatre three years ago. Will, the Artistic Director called me on the phone while I was living in Chicago and said,
"Ryan, I want to start an outdoor shakespeare company out here in Oregon. I want it to be lit entirely with campfires and lanterns, I want to use Comedia del Arte' masks, and I want to take people camping. The show this summer is Midsummer Night's Dream. You wana come play the lead role?"
I think its safe to say I'd bought the ticket out in less than a week.
From then until now, I've fallen in love. Fallen in love with the Northwest, with Portland, and with this Theater company.
What we do out here is different, more visceral, and more connected to the earth than anything I've ever been a part of.
We take Shakespeare, focus on the things that make it the most exciting to watch - the things that an audience connects the most with. We take the language, and make it absolutely, 100 % accessible to even the least well read Shakespeare novice.
We perform in peoples back yards all across the Portland area, in High school auditoriums, on farmsteads and in the woods.
I fell in love so hard, that last February, I decided I would move from Chicago, to Portland, to help build this adventure. I left my family, my friends, my career out there - and I came here - to chase a dream.
We open in 7 days.
Come see us on Alberta street opening weekend.
You wont regret it.
Ryan
