HISTORY OF FUSE
Fuse Theatre Ensemble Dares:
Our audiences to exit their comfort zones,
Our peers to collaborate before competing,
Our community to manage our resources sustainably.
Shift the Paradigm.
Fuse is celebrating over a decade of producing paradigm shifting theatre in Portland, OR, and around the world. The recipient of six 2019 Drammy Awards, Fuse has become a stalwart of socially motivated theatre in the Portland community. Fuse is the recipient of the 2019 Regional Arts...
HISTORY OF FUSE
Fuse Theatre Ensemble Dares:
Our audiences to exit their comfort zones,
Our peers to collaborate before competing,
Our community to manage our resources sustainably.
Shift the Paradigm.
Fuse is celebrating over a decade of producing paradigm shifting theatre in Portland, OR, and around the world. The recipient of six 2019 Drammy Awards, Fuse has become a stalwart of socially motivated theatre in the Portland community. Fuse is the recipient of the 2019 Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant, 2019 MCCC grant, 2017 Regional Arts and Culture Council Arts Equity Grant, and 2007 Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant. They have traveled the world with their production of Suburban Tribe, won Drammy Awards for their productions of Cabaret, Tether: ADHD+BDSM, and Under the Influence and for their props design for Artist Rep’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Fuse has been an ambassador of the Pacific Northwest theatre touring to New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bali, Adelaide, Australia, and Avignon, France. In less than a decade, Fuse has fostered the creation of 18 original works (Craft/Craeft/Kraft, Slap That Bitch, Suburban Tribe, MySp_ce, #smarter_than_phones, Karaoke Night! (the musical), A Virgin in Neverland, (...), Sonnetscape, Under the Influence, Tether: ADHD+BDSM, The Importance of being Frank, I am an Actress, unde+ec+able, Book of J, The Fear of Speaking, and The Pursuit of Happiness) while also producing Portland’s annual celebration of the LGBTQIA+ contribution to theatre, The OUTwright Theatre Festival.
HISTORY OF OUTwright
In 2011, Portland-based Fuse Theatre Ensemble produced the Gay Pride Reading Series. After immense popular demand, Fuse rebranded it as the much more ambitious and inclusive OUTwright Theatre Festival. OUTwright’s 2018 production of Cabaret garnered 11 Portland Area Theatre Alliance Drammy Nominations and took home six awards including Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical and Outstanding Production of a Musical. In 2016, OUTwright's production of Under the Influence, by Ernie Lijoi, won the Drammy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Actor. Along with reconnecting us with classic LGBTQIA+ texts, OUTwright has paved the way for numerous scripts to receive fully staged productions at theatres across the world. This year’s Feature Production, The Pursuit of Happiness, by Portland’s own Ernie Lijoi, started out as a workshop in last year’s festival. 2014’s Animals Commit Suicide, by festival favorite J. Julian Christopher, has received full productions in NYC and Chicago. 2015’s workshop of How to be a Sissy, by Brian Haimbach, was selected to perform at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
OUTwright holds firm the belief that there is no greater canon of the LGBTQIA+ civil rights experience than the theatre. Our hope is to educate future generations on the struggles and successes of our predecessors by sharing these stories, both new and old, while also engaging our audiences in numerous outreach programs by providing workshops, panel discussions, and artistic opportunities.
HISTORY OF BlaQ OUT
BlaQ OUT is the brainchild of James Dixon, a Portland-based theatre maker. In its inaugural season, BlaQ OUT aims to explore the intersections between being Black and Queer by fostering original theatrical content.