Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists Repertory Theatre (Artists Rep) is the oldest professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States, established in 1982 led by Managing Director Aiyanna Cuningham and Interim Artistic Director Luan Schooler.

Artists Repertory Theatre’s mission is to produce intimate, provocative theatre and provide a home for a diverse community of artists and audiences to take creative risks.

In addition to producing six to eight productions in Portland annually, the company runs special programming and collaborations. They tour productions nationally with the support and collaboration of partnering theatre companies and the National Endowment for the Arts.^[1] Operating on a repertory or stock company model, their artistic agenda includes the ArtsHub campus collective and Table|Room|Stage initiative for new work.

Founding Collective (1982–1988)

Artists Repertory Theatre was founded in 1982 by a group of eleven Portland theatre artists, including Rebecca Daniels, Peter Waldron, Vana O’Brien, and others, with a mission to present contemporary plays in intimate settings. The company’s first home was a 110-seat venue in the YWCA.^[2] During its first six seasons, the ensemble produced contemporary works that established ART’s identity as a professional company.^[3]

A Time of Significant Growth (1988–2012)

In 1988, Allen Nause was appointed as ART’s first Artistic Director, beginning a 25-year tenure that oversaw significant growth.^[4] Under Nause’s leadership:

The company launched community programs such as ART Reach (1990), later renamed Actors to Go. It began developing new plays in 1991, with After the Light Goes earning an Oregon Book Award nomination.

A capital campaign in the mid-1990s raised $1.2 million, enabling ART’s move into a new facility on Alder Street in 1997, featuring a 220-seat theatre and production spaces.^[5]

The company participated in international exchanges, including a 1997 tour to Pakistan and a 2000 theatre exchange with Vietnam.^[6]

In the early 2000s, ART expanded with a Second Stage season and in 2005 opened the 164-seat Morrison Stage.^[7]

By the late 2000s, ART had established a Resident Acting Company^[8] and launched collaborations, including a 2010 co-production with Sydney Theatre Company of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, starring William Hurt and Robyn Nevin.^[9]

Nause retired in 2012, having led the company through a period of professionalization and facility expansion.^[10]

Artistic Expansion (2013–2021)

Dámaso Rodríguez became Artistic Director in 2013, introducing a focus on new work development and community partnerships.^[11]

Highlights of his tenure include: Creation of the ArtsHub, a shared-arts residency program that housed multiple organizations within ART’s facility.^[12]

Launch of Table | Room | Stage (2014), a commissioning and development initiative supporting new plays by diverse voices.^[13]

Major productions such as the world-premiere musical Cuba Libre (2015), Magellanica by E.M. Lewis (2018), and The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse (2018), which later went on to Broadway.^[14]

Expansion of the Resident Artist program, engaging nearly 40 multidisciplinary artists.^[15]

Membership in the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) in 2016, making ART one of only a few LORT theatres in Oregon.^[16]

The pandemic-era creation of the Mercury Company, an initiative supporting artists with stipends and developing digital works including audio dramas and short films.^[17]

Rodríguez stepped down at the end of 2021 after guiding ART through both artistic expansion and the challenges of COVID-19.^[18]

A New Space (2021–present)

Following Rodríguez’s departure, ART entered a period of transition marked by a major redevelopment project of its downtown Portland campus.

By mid-2019, architectural plans were released by May for the new two-theater complex with room for the ArtsHub companies, as well as a $10 million capital campaign.^[19] The company's 2019–20 season was "On Tour", renting spaces across the city with Imago Theatre, Portland Opera, the Tiffany Center, Portland Center Stage, and Portland State University to put up the skeleton six-show season.^[20]

Construction paused during the pandemic but resumed in 2023, with the goal of reopening a reconfigured and sustainable facility.^[21]

In May 2024, after nearly five years of performing off-site, ART celebrated a “homecoming” by returning to its newly renovated Morrison Street building.^[22]

ART has operated on a repertory company model since 2008, meaning that they employ a dedicated stable of actors, playwrights, and other theatre-makers throughout a season rather than casting anew for each individual production. The company varies in size over time, sometimes as large as twenty-seven members.

• Magellanica by E.M. Lewis, world premiere^[23]

• Official website
• List of complete production history