Announcements:
The Fertile Ground Festival will return April 12-21, 2024 under the direction of new Festival Director, Tamara Carroll!
More details will be released as they become available. Keep an eye on this page and make sure to sign up for the Fertile Ground email list for future updates.
What is the Fertile Ground Festival?
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works is an 11-day arts festival that is held every January/February in Portland, Oregon. This city-wide festival is focused on new work from Portland’s creative community in a myriad of art forms. The festival offers dozens of Portland-generated “acts of creation” each year. Projects range from fully staged world premieres, theatrical workshops and play readings, to ensemble, multidisciplinary and collaboration-driven work, to a variety of dance, comedy, film events and more. Fertile Ground spans the spectrum of artistic endeavors and further seeds the next generation of creation through artist conversations, workshops, lunchtime readings and more.
Unlike a typical fringe festival, Fertile Ground features the new work of our LOCAL artists, performers and resident theatre companies, ensuring that the artistic and financial benefits of the festival stay in Portland. Where other new works festivals are curated by one entity, this festival is collaboratively shaped by community consideration to uplift a variety of aesthetic voices.
More
Founded by Trisha Mead with the first festival in 2009, and led by Nicole Lane from 2010-2023 the Fertile Ground Festival features a full range of artistic experiences, giving audiences a greater depth and breadth of work from which to choose in a concentrated time frame. From Portland’s oldest and largest producing institutions to its newest, smallest companies to artist-produced projects, the Fertile Ground Festival offers a platform for a range of producers. This festival is nationally distinctive in that it provides a unique model for creating and sharing new work that is of substantive value locally, regionally, and to the national arts scene.
Fertile Ground was launched by the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (the service organization for Portland theatre artists and organizations) in 2009 to provide a platform for Portland theatre companies to showcase their commitment to new work; and vectoring opportunity to invite regional and national artists, artistic leaders and arts aficionados to discover for the rich artistic diversity of Portland for themselves. Over the past decade, the festival has grown its scope of offerings to encompass a breadth of artistic endeavors including dance, multidisciplinary projects, comedy, visual arts, literature, animation, film, and holds the door open to any art form. Fertile Ground aspires to provide a forum where artists, art lovers near and far can come to appreciate that Portland truly is fertile ground for artistic creativity, innovation, and daring acts of performance.
Find the Fertile Ground Festival Online!
Subscribe to the Fertile Ground email list to get updates on Festival registration and calendar of events.

The Fertile Ground Mission Statement
The Fertile Ground Festival of New Works, a program of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (PATA), serves our community’s artists and audiences by offering a new works festival that features a myriad of artistic endeavors by local artists. The festival provides art-makers and producers a marketing umbrella and professional development opportunities. The annual festival offers a platform that fosters relationships between artists, producers and arts patrons, and deepens an appreciation for the abundant “acts of creation” in our community.
Fertile Ground is committed to the continued examination and expansion of efforts toward equity, inclusion, diversity and accessibility at every level. The festival works toward creating an inclusive, welcoming festival platform shared by intersectional identities and underrepresented voices across race, ethnicity, color, age, gender identity and sexual orientation (LGBTQ2IA+), and physical or intellectual ability.
Fertile Ground respectfully acknowledges that the work made for the festival in the Portland metropolitan area was created on the unceded ancestral lands and traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia (Wimahl) and Willamette (Whilamut) rivers. We honor the many diverse Indigenous peoples who reside in this region — past, present, future. With grateful intentions, we humbly recognize the generations of peoples who have stewarded these lands, indeed these fertile grounds, for eons and still do.
The Fertile Commitment to EDI
Fertile Ground Press
DramaWatch: Re-seeding Fertile Ground
2/10/2023
Marty Hughley for Oregon Arts Watch
Fertile Ground press release
2/6/2023
Fertile Ground Raises Funds for New Festival Director
Portland Tribune
2/6/2023
Fertile Ground theater festival seeks paid director
Broadway World
5/23/22
Fertile Ground Announces Strategic Hiatus For 2023 Festival
Oregon ArtsWatch
5/22/22
Fertile Ground Festival takes a break
Willamette Week
5/22/22
The Fertile Ground Festival of New Works Is Not Happening in 2023
Portland Monthly
2/7/22
Heart of Stone Mines Uyghur History for Universal Truths
Oregon Public Broadcasting/Think Out Loud
2/3/22
Russian choreographer’s story told in new play, ‘Heart of Stone’
ArtsWatch
2/2/22
DramaWatch: Desire and Fertile Ground
Broadway World
1/28/22
Fertile Ground 2022 Kicks Off with Virtual and Live Performances – 5 Picks for This Year’s Festival
The Beacon
1/28/22
UP Alumni Stage Pirate Play for Online Theater Festival
The Southeast Examiner
1/28/22
Fertile Ground Fest Streams On
Portland State Vanguard
1/27/22
Witness a fusion of theater and dance at Heart of Stone
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/27/22
DramaWatch: Digging deep into Fertile Ground, and other adventures onstage
Portland Monthly
1/27/22
5 Things to Check Out at the 2022 Fertile Ground Festival
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/26/22
Fertile Ground: Get your festival on
Lake Oswego Review
1/26/22
Lakewood productions online for 2022 Fertile Ground Festival
Willamette Week
1/25/22
Fertile Ground, the Annual Festival of New Productions, Brings Love, Sex and Puppets to a Screen Near You
Judy Nedry Reviews
1/24/22
FERTILE GROUND: MOSTLY VIRTUAL AND BETTER THAN EVER!
Portland Tribune
1/24/22
Fertile Ground’s resilient artists
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/20/22
DanceWatch: Moving into Fertile Ground
Here is Oregon
1/10/22
Leaven Dream Puppets premieres latest film, Alma’s Wish, at the 2022 Fertile Ground Festival
Oregon Live
1/18/22
How to make the most of Portland’s formidable Fertile Ground Festival in 2022
Portland Tribune
1/17/22
Bits & Pieces: Rose Festival returns as ‘Rose City Reunion’
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/13/22
We now pause for a word from our pandemic.
Oregon Live
1/12/21
Portland stages offer globetrotting adventures this winter
Here is Oregon
12/17/21
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works announces 2022 lineup
Broadway World
1/6/22
Portland Eurythmy Performs At Fertile Ground Festival
Broadway World
1/4/22
Tim Lafolette, Sings of Love And Community In Inspiring Cabaret at Fertile Ground Festival
Here is Oregon
12/17/21
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works announces 2022 lineup
Willamette Week
12/5/21
Fertile Ground Announces Its Hybrid Online and In-Person 2022 Lineup
American Theatre
11/8/21
Fertile Ground Announces 2022 GROW Awards
Broadway World
10/31/21
Fertile Ground Announces GROW Award Winners Ahead of New Works Festival
Willamette Week
9/21/21
The Fertile Ground Festival, One of Portland’s Largest Presentations of New Works, Will Remain Virtual in 2022
Broadway World
9/10/21
Fertile Ground Festival 2022 Plans Announced
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/11/21
Fertile Ground 2021: The Aftermath
Portland Monthly
2/9/21
5 Things to Stream at the 2021 Fertile Ground Festival
Writer’s Guild Initiative
2/9/21
Interview with Participant, WGI Workshop Participant Darlene Zimbardi
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/7/21
Belling Shakespeare’s cat
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/6/21
Days of Fezziwig past
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/5/21
Looking for light, packing a punch
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/5/21
A room with a redemptive view
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/4/21
Tough questions, tough answers
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/4/21
A ‘Hot Mess’ of a zombie jamboree
Oregon ArtsWatch
2/4/21
Strike up the virtual festival band
KBOO
Tara’s Way of Trying
Hosted by: Thom Becker
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/31/21
DanceWatch: Jan-bruary is the resilient month
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/28/21
Interactive cookies and scares
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/30/21
Martha Bakes in Black & White
The Columbian
1/28/21
Clark County thespians featured in Fertile Ground festival
KOIN
1/28/21
6 Things: Fertile ground, live music, local shopping, more
Oregon Live
1/21/21
5 things to do this week: Fertile Ground, ‘Stone Soup’ and Portland jazz composers
Willamette Week
1/26/21
Fertile Ground May Be Virtual This Year, but It’s Still Vibrant
Portland Tribune
1/26/21
Fertile Ground: Theater online, on brand and on point
Oregon ArtsWatch
1/25/21
Fertile Ground 2021: Digital seedlings sprout
Judy Nedry Reviews
1/22/21
FERTILE GROUND (RE-IMAGINED) 2021
Black PR Wire
1/21/21
“Be Careful What You Ask For” by Lisa Collins debuts during the Fertile Ground Virtual New Work Play Festival
Broadway World
1/21/21
BWW Previews: 10 Things to See at Fertile Ground 2021
The Southeast Examiner
1/20/21
Stage & Studio
1/19/21
Dmae Roberts talks with S. Renee Mitchell
Broadway World
1/13/21
Lakewood Theatre Company Presents Online Productions of ACTING COUNSEL by C.S. Whitcomb
EIN Presswire
1/13/21
Queer Quarantine: “Lilies” Film Takes Home Awards at Short Film Festivals
Broadway World
1/12/21
BWW Interview: Fertile Ground Festival Managing Director Dré Slaman
Stage & Studio
1/12/21
Damaris Webb on Martha Bakes
Stage & Studio
1/10/21
Dmae Roberts talks with Damaris Webb
Oregon Live
1/10/21
Portland winter theater, film guide: Organizers adapt to bring arts into homes
Jewish Review
1/6/21
Fertile Ground Fest offers Window into Elder World
America Theatre Magazine
12/2/20
Portland’s 2020 Fertile Ground Fest to Go Online
American Theatre Magazine
9/30/20
Fertile Ground Announces 2021 Festival Lineup
Broadway World
9/29/29
Fertile Ground 2021 Projects Announced; 31 Projects Selected by Community Panel
Broadway World
9/12/20
BWW Interview: Fertile Ground Festival Managing Director Dré Slaman
America Theatre Magazine
9/2/20
Fertile Ground Announces 2021 Grow Award Winners
Broadway World
9/1/20
Fertile Ground Announces GROW AWARD Winners For 2021 Festival
Portland Tribune
9/1/21
Bits & Pieces
Willamette Week
8/12/20
Fertile Ground Festival Will Move Entirely Online in 2021 Due to the Coronavirus
Oregon ArtsWatch
8/6/20
A Fertile Ground of storytelling for our time
Broadway World
8/1/20
Fertile Ground Announces 2021 Virtual Festival Plans
The Fertile Ground Festival
How it Works?
Registration information for the 2024 Fertile Ground Festival will be available in late summer 2023.
FAQs
1. Festival Overview
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works is an 11-day arts festival that is held every January/February in Portland, Oregon. This city-wide festival is focused on new work from Portland’s creative community in a myriad of art forms. The festival offers dozens of Portland-generated “acts of creation” each year. Projects range from fully staged world premieres, theatrical workshops and play readings, to ensemble, multidisciplinary and collaboration-driven work, to a variety of dance, comedy, film events and more. Fertile Ground spans the spectrum of artistic endeavors and further seeds the next generation of creation through artist conversations, workshops, lunchtime readings and more.
2. What are the Participation Qualifications?
The festival offering should be a new work, or a significant reimagining, from a local artist using local actors/creative team on the project. Each participant is responsible for producing their own event. Fertile Ground acts as an umbrella for publicity, marketing and consulting support.
3. Is the 2022 Festival Curated?
Fertile Ground is an uncurated festival. Being uncurated is a feature that is unique to our festival. We want to provide a platform for all area artists to share their new work with new audiences.
4. What are the GROW Awards?
We are continuing our work to address equity and access barriers to participation in the festival that exists for underrepresented artists. Fertile Ground, with the GROW Panel adjudicating applications, selects 5 GROW Award recipients to receive $500 to be used in production of their Fertile Ground project.
5. How does the Participant / Fertile Ground Partnership work?
Festival participants independently produce their own recorded projects. Fertile Ground is a marketing umbrella, offers ongoing education, and acts as a resource for producers. Fertile Ground is not legally liable in any way for your event. Here are some ways Fertile Ground supports you as a producer:
Festival Website
- Your project is listed on the Festival website
- You supply the listing, description, photo/image, donation link and link to project website.
Public Relations & Marketing
- Media Relations – Your project is included in festival press materials distributed to local, regional, national media
- Social Media – Your project receives support via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Marketing Outreach – As opportunities arise, your project is included in special events, community partnerships, etc.
Workshops and Roundtable resource events
Fertile Ground offers informational gatherings, workshops and networking opportunities in the months leading up to Fertile Ground. Past events have included a three hour PR & Marketing Bootcamp, a Meet the Press night and a hands-on Box Office Tickets/Passes workshop. We are still in the formulation phase of how these (and other) events will transform in a virtual environment.
General Support
Fertile Ground has a volunteer staff to support you, answer your questions and provide a helping hand.
6. What is Expected of me as a Participant?
Festival Promotion Expectations
- Promote Festival Pass Donations. This year, donations are how we will be able to produce the festival. Please share all Festival Pass Donation correspondence with your networks!
- Include the Fertile Ground Festival logo on your marketing materials, digital ads and printed material.
- Include a descriptive sentence and web url for Fertile Ground in all media releases related to your production. Individual producer media releases are highly encouraged.
- Include a logo or a description of the festival on your website linking to the Fertile Ground website.
- Promote your show in conjunction with Fertile Ground to your mail or e-mail list, social media, etc.
Communications Expectations
- Meet or precede all festival and submission deadlines.
- Provide complete, accurate information in the format requested (the first time).
7. Can I hire SAG-AFTRA/AEA actors in my Fertile Ground piece?
Producers who are interested in hiring SAG-AFTRA/AEA members need to sign SAG-AFTRA/AEA members to an appropriate SAG-AFTRA/AEA contract. They should contact regional representatives: Albert Geana-Bastare, ageanabastare@actorsequity.org (323-978-8080 x 118) or Gwen Meno, gmeno@actorsequity.org (323-978-8080 x110).
The GROW Awards
Fertile Ground continues work forward from the inaugural 2021 Festival’s efforts to address equity and access barriers to participation in the festival that exist for underrepresented artists via the GROW Awards. The GROW Panel adjudicates these awards, and continues the work in furthering our commitment to encouraging typically underrepresented artists to be a part of Fertile Ground and elevating that work. Funding for the 2021 award came from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Think Tank System, and individual donors. The 2022 awards came from Fertile Ground’s operating budget and from The Think System Foundation.
In 2021 Fertile Ground, with the GROW Panel adjudicating applications, selected five (5) GROW Award recipients to receive $500 to be used in production of their Fertile Ground project. New in 2022, the group also designated FG22 projects as “selected” works if they meet the 2022 group’s intention to highlight underrepresented communities,* artistically interesting and culturally relevant “acts of creation,” and projects with an innovative concept for a recorded piece intended for a digital media platform. The aim of this endeavor was to inform festival goers of key projects that involve aligned artists and stories, and to encourage typically underrepresented artists to be a part of Fertile Ground and elevate that work.
Fertile Ground’s GROW Panel selected the five 2022 GROW Award-winning projects, from a submission pool of 12 applications. Fertile Ground created the GROW Awards for the 2021 festival to support organizational efforts to increase access, and decrease financial barriers to allow for a greater participation of new voices. The GROW Panel and GROW Awards were intended to formalize and expand the festival’s initiatives to address equity and access barriers to participation that exist for underrepresented* artists.
*BIPOC, LGBTQ2IA+, Disabled
2022 GROW Recipients
Heart of Stone from producer Fool House Art Collective
THEATRE
Dance Performance
Fool House Art Collective presents
Heart of Stone
By Alisher Khasanov & Karen Polinsky
Director & Choreographer: Alisher Khasanov
Video Production: Alexandr Beran
Theater Dance Performance. A 20-minute exploration of the central theme of breaking free from oppression, the first exploratory step in the development of a full-length show by Alisher Khasanov.
By Valerie Yvette Peterson
Director: Valerie Yvette Peterson
Three African American brothers are faced with difficult decisions that will challenge their shared upbringing, spirituality and moral compass.
PLEDGE The Musical is a three-act play that focuses on nine days in the life of a public radio station, run by a small, conservative Arkansas college. KKAR’s (KKAR.org) staff, led by station manager Ava Sanchez, navigates technical problems, political attacks and personnel issues, all while trying to successfully pull off the all-important, twice yearly pledge drive.
www.facebook.com/Street-
A modern-day reimaging of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play An Enemy of the People. Dr. Katherine Garcia dares to expose an inconvenient truth and faces a swift backlash and unfortunate consequences.
GROW Light
New for the 2022 Fertile Ground Festival of New Works: GROW Light selections!
DM & Associates PLEDGE
Do It For Mead Misadventures of Missy Black
Fools House Heart of Stone
Leaven Dream Puppets Alma’s Wish
Polaris Dance Theatre Groovin’ Greenhouse
+Street Scenes The Enemy of the People
Vanport Mosaic SOUL’D
Yantra Productions Cosmogonos
Echo Theater Company Touch and Go
GROW Panel
This GROW Panel is composed of individuals whose identities encompass a spectrum of underrepresented voices,* along with Fertile Ground and PATA representatives. Demonstrating Fertile Ground’s commitment to broadening representative inclusion of local artists, this panel was instituted in order to include a wider range of community artists involved in festival.
This extraordinary community cohort of local artists will adjudicate and award five 2021 GROW Awards, and also identify GROW Panel selected projects with the aim of informing festival goers of key projects that involve artists and stories from underrepresented communities.*
*BIPOC, LGBTQ2IA+, Disabled

Sara Jean Accuardi
Sara Jean Accuardi’s full-length plays include The Delays, BREAK, The Storyteller, < 3, Love Scenes, and Portrait of the Widow Kinski. Her writing has been produced and developed around the country, including with Theatre Vertigo, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Something Marvelous, Victory Gardens, Portland Center Stage, Chicago Dramatists, The Blank Theatre, and Spooky Action Theater. The Delays received the 2019 Drammy Award for Outstanding Original Script, and The Storyteller won the 2020 International Thomas Wolfe Playwriting Competition. Sara Jean holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University and is a member of the Dramatist Guild and LineStorm Playwrights. Her plays are available on The New Play Exchange.

Jane Comer
Jane Comer, a part of the Portland theatre scene since the 1980’s, is sometimes called a trans pioneer of theatre. Jane has decades of experience making theatre both from before and after transition. An actor, writer and director, her work recently has focused on solo performance. Her latest work, The Fear of Speaking , was workshopped at the 2020 Fertile Ground Festival, and was featured as the mainstage production of the 2020 Outwright Theatre Festival. Jane currently serves on the board of Fuse Theatre Ensemble.

Tamara
Tamara (they/them) is a director of theatre for all ages, with a passion for thematically challenging and aesthetically compelling work. Currently freelancing as a teaching artist, facilitator, dramaturg, and producer, Tamara previously served as Program Director for Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program, in collaboration with Oregon Children’s Theatre. Portland directing credits include Jungle Book (Northwest Children’s Theatre), The Delays (Theatre Vertigo), Good Kids (Oregon Children’s Theatre), and This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (CoHo Productions). Tamara holds an MFA in Drama & Theatre for Youth & Communities from UT Austin, and is chair of the PATA Drammy Committee. They are grateful for the opportunity to support Fertile Ground’s efforts to increase diverse representation in the festival, and to reduce barriers to access for marginalized artists.

Michael Cavazos
Michael Cavazos is a Queer Chicano theatre maker and author of the play Gritos y Chismesitos and co-author of Chic and Sassy and Chic and Sassy: The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God. He recently assistant directed Sweat by Lynn Nottage at Profile and became a company member at Hand2Mouth. Michael directed and performed in the theatrical concert Universo and has stage-managed several shows including Imago’s productions of La Belle and Medea; Crave’s productions of Crossing and Red; and Hand2Mouth’s Dream|Logic and Object Karaoke. He is currently working on new works for Crave, Hand2Mouth, and PCS.

James Dixon
James Dixon is a Portland-based actor, director (SDC), playwright, and equity facilitator. James most recently served as the EDI Chair for the PATA Board of Directors. There is a wealth of self-empowerment, wisdom, and fulfillment in telling your own stories. So James now focuses on creating through an equity lens in an effort to bring communities closer to the stories that display the beauty of the human condition. His favorite directing credits include Bootycandy with Fuse Theatre, The Mysterious Affair At Styles with Linestorm Playwrights, Gender-fication with 360 Labs, and as a Cultural Advisor for Hair with Staged. jamesrdixon.com

Tracy Cameron Francis
Tracy Cameron Francis is a first-generation Egyptian-American director, interdisciplinary artist, and producer. She is currently the Artistic Director of Boom Arts and formerly was the co-founder and artistic director of Hybrid Theatre Works in New York which focused on international collaboration and social justice. She was a 2017 TCG Rising Leader of Color fellow, is a core member of Theatre Without Borders and currently serves on the steering committee for the newly formed Middle East and North African Theatre Makers Alliance . She holds a B.A. from Fordham University in Middle Eastern Studies and Theatre, is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and an associate member of SDC

Robert Guitron
Robert Guitron is a father, partner, son, brother, Latino, award-winning choreographer, dancer, composer, jewelry designer, director, actor, certified welder, bonsai artist, and fellow human. He is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Polaris Dance Theatre since its inception in 2002. In the past 43+ years, he has worked in the dance, stage and film industry creating work, performing and choreographing around the world for many prestigious dance companies and performing arts organizations. Aside from his repertory work, his credits and accolades come from his involvement in many outreach programs, operatic performances, musicals, music videos, and collaborations with corporations, artists and charitable organizations. Polaris Dance has been a part of Fertile Ground for the past decade bringing Portland’s dance community together under Polaris Dance Theatre’s roof with the Goovin’ Greenhouse — the festival’s dance hub of the festival within the festival. Robert is at his happiest both professionally and personally when he gets to share his life-long passion for dance, music, and the arts; and is humbled and honored to be with this group of artists and contributing to Fertile Ground in this capacity.

Heath Hyun Houghton
Heath Hyun Houghton is a Korean American actor, writer and director. He is a MFA candidate in Dramatic Writing at Goddard College and holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Humboldt State University. He also studied Korean dance and performance styles in Jinju, South Korea with USD Modern Dance. His writing has been published in Spring Time Magazine and The Pitkin Review. He has contributed lyrics to albums released by Ultraviolet Hippopotamus and The Turnips. His plays have been seen as staged readings in South Korea, California, Michigan and Portland, OR. He works as an arts educator and competitive gymnastics coach and instructor.

Nicole Lane

Raz Mostaghimi
Raz Mostaghimi is an Iranian playwright, actor, improviser, and theatre teacher.

Bianca McCarthy
For over 20 years, Bianca McCarthy (Panel Facilitator) has been passionately committed to the arts & culture landscape of Portland. She has been in development, marketing and communications, for everyone from the Oregon Zoo, to Oregon Ballet Theater, to Schoolhouse Supplies. She has served as the Executive Director for Echo Theater Company for the past six years. When not at Echo, this LatinX/Black femme is also a producer, emcee, and performer.

Tess Raunig
Tess Raunig (they/them/theirs) is a Portland based actor, musician, writer, and teaching artist. They live with multiple disabilities, and they identify as a queer, non-binary trans person. They are originally from Missoula Montana, and earned their Bachelors degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Montana. Tess teaches voice, songwriting and choir at PHAME Academy, an arts school for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As an actor, they have worked with companies such as Artists Repertory Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Couch Film Collective . An accomplished musician, they are in a theatrical folk pop band called Sasha and The Children, and Acchord, an a’capella group comprised of trans and non-binary folks. When they aren’t performing or teaching, Tess enjoys drinking tea, and hanging out with their cat child, Sasha. And yes, the band is named after Sasha kitty.

Dré Slaman
Dré Slaman, a San Diego native, is an Arab American actor who received her MFA from Northern Illinois University and has also studied at the William Esper Studio and the Moscow Art Theatre. She has been in Portland for 10 years and has been seen on the screen and stages throughout the city. Also an entrepreneur, she is the Founder and COO of local company Farm to Fit – Portland’s Healthy Meal Delivery Service. Dré served on the PATA Board of Directors from 2013-2018, and is President Emeritus. She has been joyfully been working with Fertile Ground since for the past six years.

Logan Starnes
Logan Starnes is a Yunwiya (Cherokee) indigiqueer director and educator. Their work focuses on the welfare of community, working from the idea that artistic expression is inherent to our collective existence, survival, and future. Much of their previous work has centered around deconstructing dominant narratives in order to “re-story” marginalized histories. For Logan, re-storying histories is an act of resistance, healing, and continued cultural memory. They see theater as a learning space—providing an avenue to challenge ideas, privileges, and prejudices within ourselves and others with the ultimate hope of moving our voices forward into the future.

Samson Syharath
Samson Syharath (GROW Panel Chairperson) is a Laotian-American performer, director, educator, playwright, and theatre producer. He received a BA from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith. After studying at the Portland Actors Conservatory, he helped start Theatre Diaspora, a nonprofit committed to celebrating and creatively advocating for the Asian American/Pacific Islander experience through stage work and post show discussion. He is also a member of the Accountability Collective and the EDI Committee Chair with the Portland Area Theatre Alliance. He received the Leslie O. Fulton Fellowship and was named part of the Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color Cohort in 2017.

Valerie Yvette Peterson
Valerie Yvette Peterson has been a writer, author, director and poet, here in Portland for over 30 years. Her writing seeks to bring awareness to social/anthropological issues in acknowledging the adversities present in communities of color that are impacting life every day, in the lives of women. She has written countless plays and poems, and her work has been featured in the Portland Observer, Stereotype Co. Blog, Dr. Melinda Silva’s podcast and many others. For the past six years, Valerie has been an Associate Producer for the Annual MLK Jr. Keep Alive the Dream Celebration here in Portland, which is the second largest MLK celebration in the country. Valerie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminology and is certified as a CBT Mental Health Facilitator.

Mark Woodlief
A former music journalist, Mark Woodlief (he/him/his) has served and facilitated the Portland theater scene since 2013, with part-time stints in the Portland Center Stage box office and at Artists Repertory Theater. In the first half of his life, Mark was an avid, enthusiastic runner. Diagnosed with the progressive neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1994, he now quips, “I used to run five miles in 25 minutes. Now I can’t run five feet.” Mark also dismantles his ableism by embracing the principles of disability justice.
RECENT Team Members
The Portland Area Theatre Alliance is a collection of people. From membership to leadership – it takes individual, personal investment to foster, cultivate and grow a dynamic theatre community. We would love to invite you to join our small team of volunteers to ensure that this festival remains one of Portland’s bragging rights.
Current Committee:
Harrison Butler, Jane Comer, Samson Syharath, Jessica Wallenfels, Sara Jean Accuardi, Nicole Lane (former FG Artistic Director), Dre Slaman (former FG Managing Director)
Recent Committee Members & Staff
Nicole Lane | Recent Festival Director
Dre Slaman | Recent Managing Director
Sara Jean Accuardi | PATA Fertile Ground Committee Member (Former PATA Board Member, Secretary)
Samson Syharath | PATA Fertile Ground Committee Member (PATA Board President)
Jane Comer | PATA Fertile Ground Committee Member (PATA Board Secretary)
Jessica Gleason | Former Website & Graphic Design
Nina Monique Kelly | Former Social Media Manager
Maddie Odegaard | Former Marketing Assistant
Lilo Alfaro | Former Collaborative Assistant
Trisha Mead | Founder