Want to learn even more about Fertile Ground? Visit the Festival Website…
What is the Fertile Ground Festival?
Fertile Ground is an annual city-wide festival highlighting new work from Portland’s creative community in myriad art forms and offering dozens of Portland-generated “acts of creation” for audiences to experience each year. Where other new works festivals are typically curated by one entity, this festival is collaboratively shaped by community participation, uplifting a variety of aesthetic voices.
Projects can range from fully staged world premieres, to theatrical workshops and play readings, to ensemble, multidisciplinary and collaboration-driven work, to a variety of dance, comedy, film events 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.
The next festival will take place April 4-19, 2025
Producer Registration is now open on the Fertile Ground website!
More
Founded by Trisha Mead with the first festival in 2009, and led by Nicole Lane from 2010-2022 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.
HOW it works
For producers
Registration for the 2025 Fertile Ground Festival will open on November 1, 2024 and stay open through December 15, 2024.
The Festival will take place April 4-19, 2025.
For questions or support around registration, please email FGregistration@
How does registration work?
There is no submission/selection process to participate in Fertile Ground. Anyone with work that meets the requirements of new and local is welcome to present work by registering to participate, and paying the registration fee.
Registration for a single Fertile Ground project is $135 which includes:
- A single listing on the Fertile Ground website and Festival guide
- At least one social media post (FB & Instagram) highlighting your project
- Free use of Fertile Ground’s ticketing system
- Access to expert-led marketing, producing, and accessibility workshops
- Use of CoHo Theatre’s Resource Center
Producers may submit to produce as many projects under the same producing name as they would like. There is a charge of $25 per additional project listing (on the website and in the Festival Guide) with a $310 cap.
Registration opens November 1, 2024 and closes December 131, 2024. Late registration is available January 1-15, 2025 with an additional fee of $30 (Note: late registrants may not have their listing included in the printed Festival Guide, but will be in the digital guide and website).
What information do I need to have in order to register?
When you register your project(s), please be prepared to supply the following information:
Number of Projects Registering
Project Title(s)
Performance Type (select from provided options)
You do NOT need (yet):
Venue
Show Dates/Times
Ticket Price(s)
Detailed Project Description(s)
You will also be asked for contact and payment information at the time of registration.
How does the Fertile Ground Festival Pass work, and what does that mean for me as a producer?
In previous years, Festival Passes have entitled pass-holders to free tickets to any show in the Festival. This year, in order to direct a higher percentage of ticket revenue to producers, we are instead trying a system where 100% of ticket sales go to producers, and:
- Audiences may purchase Festival Passes that entitle them to ½ price tickets to any show
- Both Tix.page (the ticketing platform) and Fertile Ground add a ticketing fee to every ticket purchase (excluding reservations for free performances)
Producers will not be required to hold a certain number of seats for pass-holders, but there will also be no limit on the number of pass-holders who can attend any show.
We hope this change strikes a balance between the producer’s need to earn ticket revenue, and the pass-holder’s desire for their pass to ensure access to all of the shows they wish to attend.
Where do I register?
Registration will be open November 1st, 2024 on the Fertile Ground Website.
FAQs
1. How does Fertile Ground support my show?
Fertile Ground’s primary function is to act as a marketing umbrella for all Festival projects. The Festival is broadly marketed in traditional digital, print, and social media throughout Portland. The Fertile Ground website and Festival guide provide centralized locations for patrons to explore the Festival offerings, and the Festival pass incentivises audiences to take a chance on unfamiliar work. As a program of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, Fertile Ground aims to support producers by providing access to expertise and resources that may be exceptionally beneficial to newer producers.
2. What are the requirements to participate in Fertile Ground?
Shows in the Fertile Ground Festival should have a local writer/creative team, with at least one of the writers/creators living in Portland, and the majority of the performers/designers based in the Portland area.
Producers are expected to handle all aspects of producing their show, including securing a venue, providing all artistic/production staff, and participating in the marketing/promotion of their show.
We welcome shows at any stage of development, from first draft readings, sing-throughs of all or a portion of a new musical, a workshop production, or fully produced world premieres.
3. What are the GROW Awards?
The GROW Awards were created in 2021 to help address the equity and access barriers to participation in the festival that exists for underrepresented artists, and to increase the richness and impact of the Festival by increasing the diversity of artists and programming. Applications for the 2025 GROW Awards open September 15, 2024. Visit the Fertile Ground Website for more information.
4. How does the Participant / Fertile Ground Partnership work?
Festival participants independently produce their own projects. Fertile Ground provides marketing for the Festival 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, and photo/image
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 and Instagram
- Marketing Outreach – You project is mentioned in Fertile Ground’s e-newsletter, and 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, including
- PR & Marketing Bootcamp
- Producing Workshop
- Accessibility Workshop
- Producer Meetup & Networking Event
General Support
Fertile Ground staff are available to support you, answer your questions and provide a helping hand.
5. How do Fertile Ground Partner Venues work?
We want to make it easier for producers to find venues… and to build the “festival” atmosphere by having multiple projects hosted at hub venues. Producers may apply for a performance slot(s) in a Fertile Ground Partner Venue beginning September 15, 2024. All Venue applications will be evaluated to determine if a specific project is a good match with a specific venue, and suitable projects will be placed in a lottery for open performance slots. Priority will be given to projects seeking multiple performance slots, though we will also include single-performance projects if and where we have space. We will do our best to ensure that all projects are placed in time slots that align with likely access to their target audience(s).
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.
Fertile Ground Committee:
Harrison Butler, Jane Comer, Gail Dartez, Chari Smith, Steffanie Goldsmith, Eleanor O’Brien, Ashley Hollingshead, Noelle Guest, Curtis Cooper, John Freed, Jennifer Dolphin, Bets Swadis, Samson Syharath
Fertile Ground Staff:
Tamara Carroll | Festival Director | fertileground@portlandtheatre.com
Cassie Greer| Operations Director | cassie@portlandtheatre.com
Venus Edlin | Social Media Manager | marketing@portlandtheatre.com
Sarah DeGrave | PATA Office Manager | info@portlandtheatre.com
