Portland Center Stage at The Armory is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at The Armory in Portland's Pearl District. Portland Center Stage at The Armory was founded in 1988 as the northern sibling of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It became an independent theater in 1993 and in 1994 Elizabeth Huddle became producing artistic director. Chris Coleman took over in 2000 as the company's fourth artistic director. In 2018, Marissa Wolf was named the fifth artistic director and Cynthia Fuhrman named Managing Director.
The company began a capital campaign in 2004, and in 2006 moved into The Armory, which includes two theaters, a bar and restaurant, a costume shop, production facilities and office space. Portland Center Stage at The Armory produces at least ten productions annually between September and June, and productions include musicals, classical, contemporary and premiere pieces. Portland Center Stage at The Armory has received positive commentary in regional guidebooks including Best Places Northwest, Best Places Portland and Moon Handbooks Oregon.
History
1988–2000
Portland Center Stage was founded in 1988, and was the "northern sibling" of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland, Oregon, and continued as a branch of OSF until 1994. The company was originally known as "Oregon Shakespeare Festival Portland". Its first production was Heartbreak House. Dennis Bigelow was PCS's first artistic director and was let go by the OSF in 1992. A two-year transitional process began in 1993, during which the OSF maintained a supervisory role over PCS. The Oregonian reported that the OSF's artistic director Henry Woronicz "couldn't figure out how to integrate the two closely enough for his liking, and he was unwilling to have Portland go its own way without supervision".
The advisory board for Oregon Shakespeare Festival Portland was reformulated as the board of directors of the PCS, and Elizabeth Huddle was hired in May 1994 as the producing artistic director. Huddle had previously served on the PCS's search committee for a new artistic director, but decided to put her name in for consideration. In 1994 the PCS had a budget of US$2.2 million, and over 11,000 subscribers.
In May 1995 the company's financial numbers for its transitional 1994–1995 period with its new artistic director were reported to be a deficit of $240,000. The company experienced what The Oregonian described as a "jarring divorce" from the OSF. Huddle had been on the 1991 search committee for the OSF's artistic director Henry Woronicz, but he suddenly announced his resignation in June 1995 effective the following October citing "personal reasons". Huddle and the rest of the theater community were surprised by Woronicz's resignation. In 2000 PCS board president Julie Vigeland commented to The Seattle Times that after separating from OSF "it was a real challenge to form our own identity", but that Huddle "did a wonderful job helping us do that for the last six years".
2000–present
Its fourth artistic director Chris Coleman took over in May 2000, and recruited experienced actors to the company. Coleman had previously co-founded Actor's Express in Atlanta, Georgia, and was the artistic director there. Coleman initially signed on for a three-year contract. Before Coleman began as artistic director with PCS, the company was already the largest live theater production company in Portland. However, the organization was facing sporadic attendance at performances as well as financial difficulties, with a deficit at the end of 1999 of $700,000. In 2000 PCS had a deficit of $880,000 and a base of 10,000 subscribers. The financial position of the company later stabilized, and Coleman had a 2000 budget of $3.2 million to work with when he came on. A 2003 consultant's report, however, found that PCS relied more heavily on gifts and grants to fund its operations than its peers around the company.