Playwrights West Presents CONTINUUM World Premiere, 8/10-9/1

Playwrights West, in association with CoHo Productions, presents a world premiere, Continuum by Patrick Wohlmut, directed by Stan Foote and featuring Robert McGranahan, Matthew Dieckman, and Jake Michels, from August 10-September 1, 2012, at CoHo Theatre (2257 NW Raleigh, Portland, Oregon).

The production team features Karin Magaldi, Dramaturg; Tal Sanders, Scenic Design; Ted Gold, Assistant Scenic Design; J.D. Sandifer, Lighting Design; Ashton Edmonds, Costume Design; Em Gustason, Sound Design; Nicole Gladwin, Stage Manager; Jacob Orr, Assistant Stage Manager / Intern

Everyone said Peter would be a brilliant astronomer. Then he bet his career on a disproved theory about the planet Jupiter. Everyone said Craig would be a brilliant mathematician. Then he disappeared.

It’s years later and Peter’s newest round of research funding has been stolen – by Craig. Peter desperately wants to know why, but Craig won’t let him have the answer. Lies, memories, pain, and the deep friendship these two men once shared propel them into a cat-and-mouse game that neither man knows how to resolve…and that threatens to overturn the foundations of both their lives.

The show runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00p and Sundays at 2:00p. Tickets are $20 - $25 general admission, and Thursdays are Pay-What-You-Will. To purchase advance tickets, visit www.CoHoProductions.org or call (503) 715-1114.

Patrick Wohlmut on Continuum: “Many people tend to think of themselves as presenting different faces to different people at different times. I think the truth is more complex than that, more rooted in the Buddha’s observation that (depending on who translates it) either “What we are is what we have thought,” or possibly, “What we think, we become.” I think our personality encompasses the full sum of anything we are in the habit of thinking, and that different situations bring out different parts of us. We don’t have many faces; rather, like Walt Whitman says, we are all large, and contain multitudes that may seem contradictory depending upon the situation in which we find ourselves. However, those aspects are not contradictory — they are all, in fact, us. That means that different people and situations reflect us in very different ways. The world is a hall of mirrors, and we see different aspects of ourselves in everything.

"That’s why I tend to appreciate — and try to use — an aspect of playwriting that Paul Castagno describes in his book, New Playwriting Strategies. He describes a trend set by playwrights such as Len Jenkin and Mac Wellman, where character-specific dialogue is eschewed in favor of sometimes rapidly shifting vocal strategies, meaning that several speech genres — ways of speaking — can emerge in the course of a scene, an act, or a whole play. I’m not a die-hard adherent of this strategy of writing, because I think that people do tend to fall into specific speech patterns; it’s not all chaos. However, there’s something in that flexibility of character that attracts me and rings true.”

Continuum was commissioned by Portland Center Stage through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The play was featured in JAW: Made in Oregon in 2011.

Playwrights West is a non-profit organization comprised of eight professional Portland playwrights recognized for the high quality of their writing. The company focuses on presenting top-level productions of its members’ plays while supporting development of original work in Portland. In 2012, their collaboration with Shaking the Tree, The Tripping Point, received 5 Drammy Awards, including 3 for member writers.

Playwrights West is: Karin Magaldi, Ellen Margolis, Andrea Stolowitz, Andrew Wardenaar, Patrick Wohlmut, Eugenia Woods, Nick Zagone, and Matthew B. Zrebski

Pictured: Matthew Dieckman as Craig and Robert McGranahan as Peter in Continuum by Patrick Wohlmut. Photo credit: J.D. Sandifer.