Productions
ETP Archive: 2007 production “IF”
ETP completed its final run of “IF” in November, 2007. For schedules of productions currently booking, see “The Pressure Point!” and “The Amazing Food Detective.”
If you had one wish, just one wish, and you could wish for anything, what would you wish for? This is the question facing Jessie, Charlie, Angela, and Kim in the original world premier musical “IF,” a new production from Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program in collaboration with Oregon Children’s Theatre. “IF” offers a groundbreaking look at how choices effect our health and our lives, focusing on the key messages of vision, choice, and leadership.
Designed to be performed by students for students, “IF” has two week residencies at middle schools, where students at the school audition for roles, rehearse the piece, and then perform it for their peers, family, and community. Everything from the rehearsal process to classroom activities connected to the production will prompt students to visualize how they want their lives to be both now and in the future.
“IF” was conceived through the combined expertise of innovative arts and health care professionals. Development of the script and music was achieved through collaboration with local middle school students, in the hopes that the ideas in the play would connect well with today’s youth. Featuring a poignant script, contagious musical compositions, and the artistic influences of a nationally renowned playwright and composer, “IF” is designed to reach kids through dynamic contemporary avenues that they appreciate and understand.
Click here for a video preview of “IF”.
2007 Performance Schedule
Times and dates of performances are subject to change. Please check back regularly!
Mt. Solo Middle School
5300 Mt. Solo Road
Longview, WA
Performance: Sept. 28th, 7 pm
Lane Middle School
7200 SE 60th Ave.
Portland, OR
Performance: Oct. 11th, 7pm
Stephens Middle School
4962 Hayesville Dr., NE
Salem, OR
Performance: Oct. 26th, 7 pm
Conestoga Middle School
12250 SW Conestoga Drive
Beaverton, OR
Performance: Nov. 16th, 7 pm
Sunrise Middle School
14331 SE 132nd Ave.
N. Clackamas, OR
Performance: Dec. 7th, 7 pm
Biographies
Michael Rohd (Playwright) is founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and a 2005 recipient of Americans for the Arts’ Animating Democracy Exemplar Award. His work as creator/director/performer includes 7 Great Loves (five 2003 Drammy awards including Best Production and Best Director), and Witness Our Schools (9 months of touring in Oregon and the U.S.). Rohd is a recipient of Theatre Communication Group’s 2001 New Generations Grant, and their 2002 Extended Collaboration Grant with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre. An associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles and an artistic associate with Ping Chong & Co in New York City, he is currently a guest faculty member at Northwestern University in Illinois. He is author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue, and has recently premiered new work in Michigan, Idaho, Virginia, and New York City. He has an MFA in Directing and Public Dialogue from Virginia Tech, where he studied with Bob Leonard.
Rodolfo Ortega (Composer) has composed music and designed sound for numerous theaters in Portland Oregon and across the region. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Arizona and his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied piano and composition. He has composed music and designed sound for the recent productions of Artist Repertory Theatre’s Enchanted April, Frozen, The Seagull, and Bug. He has composed many of the production’s at Miracle Theatre including the recent production’s of Lorca in a Green, Adriente Paciencia and Elliot a Soldier’s Fugue. For the Profile Theatre Company his credits include designing the music for Lisbon Traviata, Redwood Curtain, Talley’s Folley, and Talley and Sons. Additionally he has composed the music for Frankenstein, for which he received a Drammy Award in 2006, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The Hobbit, Diary of Anne Frank, and Sleepy Hollow for The Northwest Children’s Theatre and Charlotte’s Web, Tuck Everlasting, BFG, Holes and Cyrano for Oregon Children’s Theatre. He also recently music directed Oregon Children’s Theatre’s production of Ferdinand the Bull. For the 2000-2001 season he was awarded the Drammy in Sound Design and Composition for a season of outstanding work. In the 2001-2002 season he was again awarded the Drammy for his compositions for Tuck Everlasting for Oregon Children’s Theater, and in 2004 he received the Drammy in Composition for Lorca in a Green Dress.