Talk Back

Greetings new and loyal friends of Portland Theatre Brigade! We are excited to share stories, thoughts, links and other engaging things with you through this, our new blog.

For those of you new to Theatre Brigade, let me give you a little background. We are a unique, professional year-long theatre program for young people age 7-15. Rooted in improvisation (primarily inspired by the groundbreaking work of Viola Spolin), story theatre, and multicultural folk tales, Brigade allows the young actors to choose and write the plays that they will perform each year. The Brigade year ends with a series of performances for schools and the public. In addition to professional theatre training, the members of Theatre Brigade develop leadership skills through an open process, an empowering multi-generational mentorship structure that includes young people in the roles of stage managers, story and dance mentors and apprentice teachers.

Find out more about the history at our website here.

Here at Talk Back you can expect to hear from our young actors and teachers about things going on behind the scenes, their thoughts about theatre and whatever else they feel like sharing.

In case you’re wondering about who I am, my name is Toni and I’m the new Managing Director at Portland Theatre Brigade. Being at Theatre Brigade is like coming full circle for me. I was a young actor (”drama geek”) where I grew up in suburban Cleveland, Ohio at the Beck Center for the Arts and throughout high school. Theatre and the arts changed my life. Discovering this way to express myself helped me overcome shyness, find my voice, instill confidence and provided me an outlet for me to become a thoughtful, team-oriented, caring, open-minded leader. These days I dabble in the non-profit arts and activist world and keep up my theatre chops doing improv and movement as well as other delightful artistic adventures. You can see more about my personal blog ramblings of a dabbler.

Thanks for reading and check back often! See you on the stage…