Fuse Theatre Ensemble

NOTHING HAPPENS IN THE ARTS THESE DAYS WITHOUT YOUR HELP

Under the Influence: All Trumped Up

In 2015 we created what was intended to be a workshop (9 performances over two weekends) of a new serial musical by Broadway lyricist Ernie Lijoi.  However, we soon learned we had a successful show on our hands that would go on to win the 2015 Drammy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Actor in a Musical.  So, we’ve “Trumped” it up, added some new faces, streamlined the designs, and we are proud to present Under the Influence: All Trumped Up.

An unapologetically feminist and irreverent musical, UI tackles the influences that surround all of us by examining our hero, Anita: Anita Drink, Anita Smoke, Anita Cup, whichever Anita she is that day.  Whether it’s Juan Valdez pushing us caffeine, Barbie giving us body issues, some cartoon character pushing nicotine, or our local bartender sliding us another drink, we’re all under the influence of something… yes, even Jesus.

Your funds will help put money in the pockets of working artists.  These people often get paid what equates to pennies on the hour to do what they love.  Fuse tries to pay people fairly but given the increases in the costs of living in Portland, we need all the help we can get.  

Your donation is tax deductible. Anyone who helps us create this show is invited to join us as our guest for opening weekend (9/15-16).  Just email Rusty Tennant @ [email redacted] to arrange tickets.  If you are donating from a distance, we will send you a link to stream the show as we approach the production.

In 2011, Portland, OR based Fuse Theatre Ensemble produced the Gay Pride Reading Series. After immense popular demand, Fuse reinvented it in 2013 as the much more ambitious OUTwright Theatre Festival. The mission of this Pacific Northwest festival is to celebrate the contributions of the LGBTQI+ community to the art of theatre by reading, staging, and developing both original and classic works while creating an incubator for new LGBTQI+ works, artists and audiences. Along with reconnecting us with classic LGBTQI+ texts, OUTwright has paved the way for numerous scripts to receive fully staged productions at theatres across the world. In 2016, OUTwright's production of Under the Influence, by Ernie Lijoi, won the Portland Area Theatre Alliance Drammy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Actor. 2015’s workshop of How to be a Sissy, by Brian Haimbach, has been selected to perform at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  And 2014’s Animals Commit Suicide, by festival favorite J. Julian Christopher, has received full productions in NYC and Chicago.

 

The 2017 OUTwright Theatre Festival will present a fully staged production of the comedy Sordid Lives by Del Shores as well as a revival of How to be a Sissy before it heads to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We will also be reading original works by Portland playwrights  Rusty Tennant and Jane Comer, and NYC playwright J. Julian Christopher.  And, as always, The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival will be with us again staging a play from one of the most gender-bent queer playwrights of all time, Shakespeare.

 

OUTwright holds firm the belief that there is no greater canon of the LGBTQI+ 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.

 

Our five-year anniversary festival’s feature production of Sordid Lives takes us back to a point in our history when gay conversion therapy was considered a justifiable response to homosexuality by much of America. As we head into Trump and Pence’s America, this story is as timely as ever. In this sidesplitting comedy, the audience endures Brother Boy’s detention in a mental health facility, his impassioned battles with psychiatrists and family members, and his eventual and triumphant escape at the hands of the only man he has ever truly loved.  Del Shores beautifully renders this nuanced discussion with just the right amount of sugar to make the medicine go down.