5th Fertile Ground Festival Kicks Off, Now thru 2/3

The Portland-grown Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Work offers a multitude of artistic endeavors from Portland artists at different points in development and in variety of genres like theatre, musical theatre, dance, multidisciplinary arts and visual art. FG13 brings dozens upon dozens of new artistic works from Portland's teeming jungle of artists into the light to thrive on stages, and in nooks and crannies all over Portland from today, January 24 to Sunday, February 3, 2013.

Shining out through the winter darkness, Fertile Ground offers an astonishing breadth of creative work for the stage, compressed into 10 of the darkest and wettest days of the Portland calendar. Many major theatre companies, dance companies and more are participating, presenting new work as a world premiere or a piece in development with a myriad of workshop productions, staged readings, readings and multidisciplinary events at all times of the day. In addition to seasoned producers, dozens of small, local producers, playwrights and choreographers are also choosing to offer their work as a part of this collaborative Portland showcase festival.

Single tickets for all festival events are purchased directly through the producing companies.
à All access Festival Passes are only $50 and are available on the Fertile Ground website: www.fertilegroundpdx.org. For the most accurate and comprehensive information to include production descriptions, locations, times and ticket information is on the Fertile Ground website.

Key producers this year include Artists Repertory Theatre, CoHo Productions, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Portland Playhouse, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, and more, along with many emerging theatre companies, individual playwrights and chorographer producers. For FG13, MilePost5 presents a group of theatre and visual art works under the title "Ripen," Polaris Dance Theatre presents the "Groovin Greenhouse" again with a variety of choreographers and dance groups, and PDX Playwrights presents a phenomenal 17 staged readings.

Fertile Ground Festival of New Work 2013
Presented by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance
Dates: January 24- February 3, 2013
Venue: City-wide, check website or Festival Guide for locations
Tickets: All ticket information at www.fertilegroundpdx.org
Individual Event tickets sold through each producer and can be accessed through the website.
Festival Passes: $50 (online)
Event Descriptions: More information about the Fertile Ground Festival and full event listings and descriptions can be found in the Festival Guide on the website.

What Makes Fertile Ground Unique? Several theatre companies across the nation host "new works festivals" and nearly all of these festivals present "staged readings," works-in-progress curated by the artistic aesthetic of one company's artistic staff. They are also typically exclusive to genre. In contrast, the Fertile Ground Festival presents a non-curated collection of fully staged world premiere productions in theatre and dance, as well as workshop and staged reading productions, and more. Fertile Ground is about process as well as product in creative development. This festival is the collaborative work of our local artistic community expressing the mother lode of creative capacities, in a quintessentially Portland manner.

Fertile Ground was launched by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (the service organization for Portland theatre artists and organizations) in 2009 to provide a platform for Portland theatre companies to showcase their commitment to new work and vibrant creativity. In the past five years the Festival has grown to embrace many forms of new works in art allowing Portland's arts lovers to discover Portland's truly fertile ground for creativity, innovation and daring acts of performance.

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