Charlotte Spangler's Page

Portland is gathering lots of attention lately – for our sustainability leadership; for our food scene; for being, well, weird. And now we’ve caught the attention of Lauren Weedman, actor/writer of last season’s BUST. In the few months she spent here in the spring of 2011, Lauren’s imagination was also captured by all things Portland, and so we’ve asked her to write a play. About Portland. How will this former Daily Show faux-spondent treat us? What does Portland look like through Weedman’s…See More

A white community in 1950s Chicago splinters over the black family about to move in. Fast forward to our present day and the same house represents very different demographics, and neighborhood values and tensions. Decades apart, hilarious and horrifying neighbors pitch a battle over territory and legacy that forces us to consider how far our ideas about race have evolved – or not. When our houses become our homes, and our neighborhoods become our identities, what will we do to protect them? And…See More

In the post-Civil War South, three men are tied to each other by history and faith, but are also bound by secrets. A badly-wounded Jewish Confederate soldier returns home at war’s end to find that his family has fled to the countryside. Remaining in the city mansion are two former slaves, also raised by his family as Jews. With Passover upon them, the three men unite to celebrate the holiday, even as they struggle to comprehend their new relationships at a crossroads of personal and national…See More

As the royals Theseus and Hippolyta prepare to marry, four young lovers from their Athenian kingdom flee to the forest in the wake of parental disapproval. But in the woodland, these lovers’ lives are complicated when they cross paths with feuding faerie royalty. As Oberon and Titania bicker over a changeling child, the mischievous Puck and his sprightly accomplices use herbal spells to hilariously complicate the love-mad quartet’s forest idyll. When a group of local rustics rehearsing a play…See More

Starring Darius Pierce as CrumpetBased on the true chronicles of David Sedaris’ experience as Crumpet the Elf in Macy’s Santaland display, this cult classic riffs on a few of Sedaris’ truly odd encounters with his fellow man during the height of the holiday crunch. NPR humorist and best-selling author of When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers, and this production has…See More

The first and third Saturdays of each month, The Gerding Theater at the Armory hosts FREE  public tours. Get the full story of how the Armory Annex went from an 1891 military drilling site to public meeting space to beer storage to one of the world’s most sustainable performing arts centers. See the inner workings of Portland’s largest professional theater company, while learning about our one-of-a-kind LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum facility. Tours are from noon…See More

War reporter Paul Watson has witnessed some of the most devastating scenes in modern history. As the ghosts of the tragedies he's recorded bear down on him, he crosses paths with playwright Dan O'Brien, who's battling ghosts of his own. In locations as varied as Kabul, Los Angeles and the Canadian High Arctic, the two men form a tentative friendship in a quest for absolution. The Body of an American was a highlight at JAW in 2011.See More

Widely acknowledged as Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece, Sweeney Todd is set amongst London’s seedy side streets and laced with Sondheim’s characteristically brilliant wit and dark humor. This landmark musical depicts the barber Sweeney Todd’s savage quest for justice and retribution after years of false imprisonment. Aided by harridan pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, who is secretly in love with him, he sets out to…See More

The first and third Saturdays of each month, The Gerding Theater at the Armory hosts FREE  public tours. Get the full story of how the Armory Annex went from an 1891 military drilling site to public meeting space to beer storage to one of the world’s most sustainable performing arts centers. See the inner workings of Portland’s largest professional theater company, while learning about our one-of-a-kind LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum facility. Tours are from noon…See More