Fall Back: Portland Center Stage
After taking theater company 'down to the studs,' Artistic Director Marissa Wolf rebuilds
Marissa Wolf enters her seventh season as Artistic Director of Portland Center Stage this fall, a job that involves nonstop shifting between the right and left parts of her brain.
On one hand, Wolf says it’s her job to “lift the vision and the mission of the theater and to really live inside its values—while connecting to the community.” Inside the theater, she works with artistic teams and acts as a producer on the season’s shows and supports the different directors.
Wolf is also the one digging into the finances and earned revenue part of running a major theater. And though PCS will hire a new managing director to focus on those parts, it’s Wolf crunching numbers these days.
At its magical best, live theater takes us on a flight. But take-off depends on selling tickets and being able to keep the lights on. “Your product is the work you put on stage,” Wolf said, matter-of-factly.
No shock, it’s a challenging time for the arts.
“Many nonprofits have struggled post-pandemic, but now it’s ‘what does stability look like,’” Wolf said. “We had a certain way of operating before, and then we had to really take it down to the studs during the pandemic. But we’ve done a mighty lift and made massive cuts.”
The theater’s finances came to a head in late spring, said Wolf, and Portland Center Stage had to go public with its problems.
“I didn’t want to, but it felt that urgent,” she said. “We had to let our community know.”
The good news is that PCS reached its August benchmark partly thanks to a gift from the State of Oregon that will help build back its audience. Wolf credits the efforts of the staff and board, too.
Everything excites Wolf about the upcoming 2025-2026 season. Here are a few highlights. Full season here.
The season kicks off with “Primary Trust,” a play that Wolf describes as Mister Rogers meets “Our Town.”
“It’s about how we learn to leave childhood trauma behind, and it has a lot of tenderness in it. It’s that warm hug people need right now,” she said.
For the holidays, PCS stages a new production of “Little Women.” Portlanders, Wolf said, love a good literary adaptation, and this one satisfies our need for something smart, moving and romantic.
Winter brings a high farce called “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a co-production with Seattle Rep.
“It will be gray and raining by then,” Wolf said. “Who knows what kind of political moment we will be in?”
The murder mystery whodunnit promises a break from world events with two hours of comedy built around a complex series of set and prop pieces that have to function as they break. Pity the stage manager for this show.
For the season’s grand finale, Storm Large returns with “Storm Large Makes it Home.” Large’s 2009 one-woman show, “Crazy Enough,” was one of the all-time biggest hits at PCS. “She’s so brilliant, she’s an incredible storyteller,” Wolf said. “You’ll feel like you’re at a rock show” while also analyzing this city’s favorite topic: itself.
“She’s very interested in questions around what home is, especially now that she has lived so many places. But Portland is the connection inside these powerful, muscular stories.”
Large’s performance is available to Portland Center Stage’s season ticket holders first, but if 2009 is any indication an extended run and other connection points could open up more opportunities.
