By Steve Patterson
Music courses through the works of playwright William S. Gregory. Not that his plays are musicals, though they have frequently incorporated music. Rather, Gregory fuses the musicality of language with a passion for history, verse, and the eternal comedy (and tragedy) of human manners to shape a charming, erudite, and wholly unique voice in Portland theatre.
Having written some 36 plays since 1990 (including a six-play cycle on the life of Cardinal Richelieu), Gregory’s plays frequently use history as a starting point, such as “Mary Tudor”—which won Drammy Awards for “Best Direction,” “Best Ensemble,” and “Best Production of a New Play” for its 1999 CoHo Theatre production—but they concern themselves less with dates and more with the vanities, self-importance, and pitfalls of social pretenders, schemers, and rogues, who more often than not ensnare themselves in their own webs. Though his pieces sometimes reflect the pre-modern periods in which they’re set, aggressively plotted and functioning within socially restrictive societies, there’s a modernist’s eye at the controls, much concerned with the class pressures to which Americans claim to be immune. Though he may portray Renaissance characters or adapt Carlo Goldoni, a sly voice beneath the verse and affect asks: are we, today, much different?
The results have found ready audiences in Portland, with an almost unbroken string of productions and workshops since 1998. At a time when Portland playwrights often have to find productions outside the Pacific Northwest, Gregory has consistently been produced in Oregon and Washington, working with theatres such as Portland Center Stage, Miracle Theatre (in a memorable bilingual adaptation of “Fuente Ovejuna”), Triangle Productions, Stark Raving Theatre, the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, and several times with the aforementioned CoHo Productions.
In fact, it was CoHo’s production of “Mary Tudor,” sweeping up its armful of awards, that helped make Gregory one of Portland’s better known playwrights. For several years, he was also a member of Portland Center Stage’s PlayGroup Playwriting Workshop, with pieces in a number of PlayGroup’s collaborative shows, and, in one case, instigating “Frenching the Bones,” a memorable 2007 Halloween show with the PlayGroup writers celebrating the intersection of fine food and horror. The innovative production sold out, emblematic of Gregory’s entertaining gift for combining the very high with the deliciously low.
Given his taste for classic themes and poetic, musical dialogue, it comes as no surprise that part of Gregory’s apprenticeship includes singing liturgical music and attending Southern Oregon State University in Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Perhaps exposure to one of America’s finest Shakespearian theatres fed Gregory’s love of onstage verse, magic, and spectacle. One of his few regrets about Portland’s theatre scene is a lack of a classically trained company focusing entirely on Shakespeare.
He is, however, appreciative of Portland’s acting community, finding it well stocked with strong performers who generously lend their time and talent to developing new plays, which is evident in Portland’s January/February Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Works. Naturally, Mr. Gregory will be playing his part in the festival, presenting a new play January 26th at Portland Theatre Works: “Stone Love”—a verse comedy about the eternal Don Juan. William S. Gregory may be once again looking to the past, but he does so to reflect upon present and the fools, charlatans, scoundrels, and saints within all of us.
splatterson@mindspring.com
Portland
By Steve Patterson
Music courses through the works of playwright William S. Gregory. Not that his plays are musicals, though they have frequently incorporated music. Rather, Gregory fuses the musicality of language with a passion for history, verse, and the eternal comedy (and tragedy) of human manners to shape a charming, erudite, and wholly unique voice in Portland theatre.
Having written some 36 plays since 1990 (including a six-play cycle on the life of Cardinal Richelieu), Gregory’s plays frequently use history as a starting point, such as “Mary Tudor”—which won Drammy Awards for “Best Direction,” “Best Ensemble,” and “Best Production of a New Play” for its 1999 CoHo Theatre production—but they concern themselves less with dates and more with the vanities, self-importance, and pitfalls of social pretenders, schemers, and rogues, who more often than not ensnare themselves in their own webs. Though his pieces sometimes reflect the pre-modern periods in which they’re set, aggressively plotted and functioning within socially restrictive societies, there’s a modernist’s eye at the controls, much concerned with the class pressures to which Americans claim to be immune. Though he may portray Renaissance characters or adapt Carlo Goldoni, a sly voice beneath the verse and affect asks: are we, today, much different?
The results have found ready audiences in Portland, with an almost unbroken string of productions and workshops since 1998. At a time when Portland playwrights often have to find productions outside the Pacific Northwest, Gregory has consistently been produced in Oregon and Washington, working with theatres such as Portland Center Stage, Miracle Theatre (in a memorable bilingual adaptation of “Fuente Ovejuna”), Triangle Productions, Stark Raving Theatre, the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, and several times with the aforementioned CoHo Productions.
In fact, it was CoHo’s production of “Mary Tudor,” sweeping up its armful of awards, that helped make Gregory one of Portland’s better known playwrights. For several years, he was also a member of Portland Center Stage’s PlayGroup Playwriting Workshop, with pieces in a number of PlayGroup’s collaborative shows, and, in one case, instigating “Frenching the Bones,” a memorable 2007 Halloween show with the PlayGroup writers celebrating the intersection of fine food and horror. The innovative production sold out, emblematic of Gregory’s entertaining gift for combining the very high with the deliciously low.
Given his taste for classic themes and poetic, musical dialogue, it comes as no surprise that part of Gregory’s apprenticeship includes singing liturgical music and attending Southern Oregon State University in Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Perhaps exposure to one of America’s finest Shakespearian theatres fed Gregory’s love of onstage verse, magic, and spectacle. One of his few regrets about Portland’s theatre scene is a lack of a classically trained company focusing entirely on Shakespeare.
He is, however, appreciative of Portland’s acting community, finding it well stocked with strong performers who generously lend their time and talent to developing new plays, which is evident in Portland’s January/February Fertile Ground City-Wide Festival of New Works. Naturally, Mr. Gregory will be playing his part in the festival, presenting a new play January 26th at Portland Theatre Works: “Stone Love”—a verse comedy about the eternal Don Juan. William S. Gregory may be once again looking to the past, but he does so to reflect upon present and the fools, charlatans, scoundrels, and saints within all of us.
splatterson@mindspring.com