Dreaming Big

Every June, the Portland Drammy Awards highlight the
season’s finest theatrical offerings, recognizing actors, directors,
set designers, choreographers, and more. This year, the two Outstanding
Production Awards went to Lakewood Theatre’s production of Into the
Woods, and Broadway Rose’s Les Misérables, two
big suburban musicals that the Drammy selection committee presumably
felt represented the finest theatrical offerings in all of (the
greater) Portland (area).

In the crowd at the ceremony, ensemble members from Action/Adventure
Theatre drank and milled and drank some more. Their show, Fall of
the House, wasn’t eligible for any awards—its episodic
structure doesn’t meet the Drammy’s criteria of running the same show
for at least eight consecutive performances. But Action/Adventure
doesn’t need recognition from the Drammy committee. With a fraction of
the budget of most of the night’s award winners, and an inclusive
approach that resists privileging traditional theater over improv,
music, film, or any other medium, Fall of the House has
attracted a seriously addicted fanbase that’s younger, broker, and
(sorry!) significantly better looking than your average theater
audience.

Now in its fifth season, Fall of the House follows a group of
twentysomething friends on an eminently relatable course of hooking up,
breaking up, and (sorry again!) toking up. The company is at a turning
point—longtime cast members Patrick Alan Coleman (who daylights
as the Mercury‘s food editor) and Yolanda Suarez are leaving, a
few new actors are joining the cast, and plans are afoot to broaden the
show’s reach, as the company’s flexibility allows them not only to
adapt nimbly to cast changes and real-life events (the election was a
plot point last season), but to take on challenges outside of the
theatrical format.

“We’re talking about filming this season of Fall of the House in a studio to be aired on television, and we also have a pilot written
and a production team assembled for a web series, hopefully rolling out
this fall, that would be a partner show for Fall of the House,”
Artistic Director Tamara Carroll tells me. “It’s based on the theater
company that produces Fall of the House, so it’s a combination
of the actors in the show, who will be playing themselves, and then
[the production staff]—it’ll be like fictionalized versions of
the people who make up the company. It’s going to be more scripted,
less reality TV-feeling, more stylized.”

Webisodes are a relatively under-explored local avenue—with
Fall of the House‘s entrée into the fray, Portland will
be home to a scant three hipster webisode series, including The Free
Box (thefreebox.tv), and The
Bicyclist (thebicyclist.tv).
But Action/Adventure has no qualms about exploring the unexplored, and
plans for a musical episode in collaboration with local bands are also
being tossed around: “We’ve always dreamed of doing an original
musical,” Carroll says. “We’re super interested in promoting local
musicians, and we’re trying to figure out more and better ways to do
that. This time we’ve been able to feature bands more prominently by
having them write covers of our theme song, which are going to be used
in the opening credits.”

Action/Adventure might not be earning “Outstanding Ensemble” Drammy
Awards from the theatrical community—though, arguably, on a night
when everyone’s on point and all the jokes are hitting, they deserve
it. They are, though, doing a better job than anyone else in Portland
right now at reaching new audiences and generating excitement around
theater. Too bad there’s no Drammy for that.