ART presents
DNA: Oxygen
A devising group named OXYGEN, made up of nine Black artists in the company. The name OXYGEN is in honor of the many black people whose final words were, “I can’t breathe” before being killed by police. Produced by ART Development & Marketing Director, Kisha Jarrett, and created by collaborating artists Vin Shambry, Josie Seid, Lava Alapai, Jeff George, Ayanna Berkshire, Andrea Vernae, Pancho Savery (ART Board Vice-Chair), and Kristen Mun (Line Producer). The group’s first project will be a short film called See Me, which is a slice of life of seven black people interwoven with animated fantastical dreamscapes and will be filmed in September 2020. This group will expand to include BIPOC artists and will continue to devise works beyond June 2020.
Oxygen has three goals: 1. incubator for young BIPOC individuals to learn and grow as theatre designers and artists (including one mentor/mentee production a year where the entire production team and mentees are BIPOC), 2. development of BIPOC artists (through funds for project development and production), and 3. a BIPOC affinity group for ART.
Advisory Committee
Kisha Jarrett
Jeff George
Pancho Savery
Josie Seid
Lava Alapai
Vin Shambry
Ayanna Berkshire
Andrea Vernae
Jacinta’s Magical Traveling Theatre; Chapter I: Dreams on the Bridge
In Development
by Blanca Forzán Our multicultural story will follow Jacinta’s journey as a young girl starting on the Mexican border and then visiting the landmarks, culture, and cities of the United States of America. The first city Jacinta will visit is...
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See Me
Premiered at Portland International Film Festival (PIFF)
Written By Kisha Jarrett, Dawn Jones Redstone, Aki Ruiz, Josie Seid, and Vin Shambry Directed By Dawn Jones Redstone Creative Producer Kisha Jarrett Daily routines intersect with the turmoil of the world outside as three Black Portlanders go about their...
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Forget Me Not, America
Available Now
written by Josie Seid Forget Me Not, America is a FREE video. However, your gift today ensures that this resilient artistic home continues to produce complex, challenging, and diverse bodies of work like Forget Me Not America. “We continue to...
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Better Maybe
Available Now
Scroll to the bottom to view Better Maybe A video project of Obie Award winner Caridad Svich’s short play Better Maybe that will be shared this summer and features the entire company. Originally commissioned by the Play At Home...
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Beheading Columbus
In Development
Beheading Columbus is a project in Mercury III (June 2021) written by Diana Burbano Beheading Columbus follows two sisters down a trail of DNA deception and makes them face race and colorism in the Latinx community and in their own...
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Coming Out and Overcoming
In Development
This project is a collaboration with Asian Pacific Network of Oregon, Theatre Diaspora and Artists Repertory Theatre. Queer and Trans Asian American and Pacific Islander community members will participate in a storytelling workshop, sharing their stories of coming out, transitioning,...
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The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud
In Development
The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud is a project in Mercury III (June 2021) written by Josie Seid A contemporary retelling of the Greek tragedy Hecuba is told from an African American perspective, integrating modern themes and concepts,...
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In Plain Sight
In Development
In Plain Sight is a project in Mercury III (June 2021) written by Tess Raunig The story follows Lex, a disabled, non-binary trans person, in their early 30s, who began their hormonal transition on low dose testosterone during the pandemic,...
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The Killing Fields
In Development
written by Anya Pearson For Cly, the news of her husband’s early release from prison threatens to unravel everything she’s worked for. Set in East Oakland in the midst of the 1980’s crack epidemic, The Killing Fields re-imagines the story of Agamemnon through...
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Mother of Color
In Development
Written by Dawn Jones Redstone Mother of Color is the feature film debut of Mexican American filmmaker Dawn Jones Redstone. In a tumultuous world, a whip-smart community organizer and single mother of two dreams of running for office but constantly...
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The Night We Won
In Development
Written by Yussef El Guindi Love, politics, art and the struggle to maintain the idealism of all three in the face of various corrupting forces. A young man and an older woman meet in a bar on Senate Election Night...
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Pointed Portland
In Development
Written by Reena Dutt Every neighborhood has a mystery to solve…and residents with clues. Similar to Spoon River Anthology, everyone’s history develops based on who you ask, and how your hippocampus recollects these memories. In this piece (utilizing Eko or...
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Red Door Untitled Film Project
In Development
A workshop for a future film project produced by Red Door.
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Sabor
In Development
written by AnaSofía Villanueva Sabor is a story of a mixed-race Latina, Clara, in search of her place within the elite culinary world and among her relationships. After the passing of her abuelo, Clara makes drastic life changes: breaking off...
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Sista Suffragist!
In Development
A working group organized and led by Kisha Jarrett and B. Frayn Masters. This multi-year multi-media project centers on four Oregonian black women who were instrumental in getting women the right to vote and particularly fought for women of color...
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Sodara
In Development
written by Derek Kolluri & Deven Kolluri Two cousins, STU and SOL, are seeing each other for the first time in years. STU, a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology, is finally beginning to gain acceptance by commodifying elements of his...
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Sube Y Baja
In Development
written by Francisco Garcia On July 28, 2019, three pink teeter-totters were briefly placed on the border wall of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, which stands on the most-crossed border in the world and a continual site of...
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Those Places We Carry
In Development
Artists from across areas of practice gather for a single day intensive story circle/sharing workshop. Participants are guided through a series of prompts/themes and share autobiographical stories in response to those prompts. Writing breaks are interspersed throughout so storytellers can...
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The Transformation of Joan Little
In Development
written by Bobby Bermea A theatrical account of what went on behinds the scenes of the 1974 murder trial of Joan Little. Joan Little was the first woman to be aquitted of murder committed in self defense against a sexual...
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Untitled Queer Scary Things Project
In Development
A focused work group intent on researching the correlation between queerness and the horror genre, why queer people love scary things, and why our narratives feel so connected to spook. The work from this group may result in a play,...
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Untitled Sketch Comedy
In Development
Untitled Sketch Comedy is a project in Mercury III (June 2021) Development of a long-form sketch comedy web series dealing with issues of race. The project scope and project deck is creating a sustainable budget for a web/tv series, writing...
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