PATHWAYS 25/26: Creators + Critics

• Mentorship: Cohort members are paired with a local mentor for monthly conversations to engage about their lived experience, artistic work and goals. It is important to us that mentors share at least one intersection of lived experience with the mentee. 
• Skill building: Attending writing and creation workshops or panels, group writing/editing sessions, dropping in on the artistic process at Artists Rep, and receiving writing feedback. Experiencing both response and being the subject of written response. 
• Community building: Monthly 2-hour cohort events such as group meetings, or outings to local theatre and other cultural events. 

Yes, you must live in the Portland metro area. We are excited about artists who are invested in the Portland theatre community! PATHWAYS is designed to support our local artists, celebrate their skills and talents, and provide them with growth, visibility, and access.

All participants will be paid $1000 (approximately $20/hr for 5-7 hours each month) for their time in the cohort.

• One year of meetings with a local mentor. 
• At least three skill-building or professional development workshops. 
• A community of artists, and a greater relationship with ART and the Portland theatre community.
• Monthly community building meetings as a cohort. 
• Free tickets to all ART shows and events in the 25/26 season.

A long-term professional relationship grounded in shared experience and conversation, designed for dreaming, learning, expansive thinking, as well as guidance and an in-depth understanding of one another’s paths and lives. We believe that mentorship relationships should be grounded in an ethos of safety and equality (the exchange should always feel good), and honor that both mentor and mentee have much to offer each other.

The PATHWAYS selection committee will be made up of BIPOC artists and administrators. The process for selection and pairing takes place in three phases: 

1) Blind evaluation of applications using a rubric. 

2) Virtual get-to-know you session.  

3) Final selection and pairing process.

We hope that this application is more than a means to selection, but the opening of a door. PATHWAYS is one experience specific to our current resources, but anyone who applies can be added to ART’s artist database and monthly newsletter (optional) that features open positions, casting calls, and opportunities. If you would like feedback on your application, that is also available.

With the exception of the culminating ArtsWatch article, your work will not be published by ArtsWatch or Artists Rep or shared beyond cohort meetings. You may be asked to share a quote from your work for an ART newsletter or update. Your writing belongs to you: If you choose to publish your work via personal channels, you are of course welcome to do so.

Bobby Bermea is the co-artistic director of The Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, a proud member of Sojourn Theatre, and a long-time member of Actors’ Equity Association. He has worked in theatres literally from New York, NY to Honolulu, HI, and has been a regular contributor to Oregon ArtsWatch since 2018. Bermea has appeared at La MaMa in New York, Centerstage in Baltimore, Kansas City Repertory, Vortex Repertory in Austin, the Albuquerque Little Theatre in Albuquerque, NM, Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu, HI, Intiman, ACT, The Group, The Langston Hughes Cultural Center, A-Ha, The Empty Space, and The New Mercury Theatre in Seattle, and the Cleveland Public Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. In Portland, Bermea has performed with Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Playhouse, Profile Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Sojourn Theatre, Cygnet, Tygres Heart, Milagro and Beirut Wedding. In recent years he’s directed My Soul Grown Deep, Reborning, The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents, Wait Until Dark, Hollow Roots, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Blue Door. He has written four previous plays, Saint Heroin, Mercy, Rocket Man and Heart of the City.

Melory is an Iranian-American theatre artist for live performance, music, and cultural works. As a director, dramaturg, and performer, Melory has developed or presented work with Artists Repertory Theatre (Racecar Racecar Racecar; Sapience), SpeakEasy Stage Company (English), Third Rail Repertory Theatre (Sanctuary City), Portland Opera (La Cenerentola), National Queer Theatre (Layalina), Gloucester Stage (Wish You Were Here) and more, praised by the Boston Globe for drawing “fine-tuned performances” that “land with the impact of emotional truth.” Melory is a Stage Directors & Choreographers Fellow (Pittsburgh Public Theater/Portland Center Stage; Young Americans), and has been recognized by Opera America (Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize; Glück’s Orfeo) and SpeakEasy Stage (Thomas Derrah Emerging Artist Award; English). Currently, Melory serves as Artistic & Producing Associate at Artists Rep in Portland. IG: @meloryjasmin