As nearly every Beyoncé song proves, great singular art can emerge from many, many writers - up to 24. So true with "The Event!," the quirky, collaborative fall opener from Artists Repertory Theatre, which required only seven Portland-area playwrights. Lava Alapai, Linda Alper, Anthony Hudson, Daniel Kitrosser, Susannah Mars, Josie Seid and Luan Schooler (ART's director of artistic programming who also directs) linked up over Zoom toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Zoom rooms all day, every day," said Hudson, aka Portland drag superstar Carla Rossi. Writers were given free rein to release the Krakens of their respective imaginations. "We were just writing bonkers scenes and seeing what fit together for a storyline. I don't know what it looks like, but I'm excited to see it."
(At the time of this interview, Hudson had not been able to see a final draft or attend a rehearsal.)
Hudson, a queer Grand Ronde and Siletz artist, developed his memoir play "Looking for Tiger Lily" at ART. It was set to premiere in May 2020 but was sidelined as the pandemic forced theaters to shut down.
Produced through ART's Mercury project, "The Event!" kicks off the downtown company's "homegrown and Portland-made season." It's ART's first big show since the organization abruptly fired its incoming Artistic Director Jeanette Harrison, and canceled its 2023-'24 season following a sudden financial shortfall.
The new space isn't finished so the company flings its doors open to a sparkling new lobby. On opening night, the makeshift venue was outfitted in alien green lights, hanging clothes, and posters for the McMenamins UFO Fest in McMinnville.
It may seem like a punctuation affectation, but the brain-tickling mystery "The Event!" deserves its exclamation point.
The Show: Steeped in Pacific Northwest noir, "The Event!" chronicles strange happenings in fictitious Cabotville, Oregon, a formerly bustling logging town that could be Oakridge, Cave Junction or John Day after the 1980s mill closures. When Rudy, whom Hudson described as a "queerdo/outcast theater kid" goes missing, a nosy journalist named Misty investigates his disappearance, grilling Cabotville's eccentric town folk. Fans of "Twin Peaks" will feel at home as ostriches, UFOs and other inexplicable oddities pop up as bizarre breadcrumbs. While Rudy is pivotal to the pulpy puzzler, he's never seen on stage.
"It's sort of like 'Waiting for Guffman' meets 'Unsolved Mysteries,'" said Hudson. "It's also weird and funny. The tone shifts everywhere, while still maintaining the same 'Guffman' vibe."
What's the Big Idea? More like Whose Big Idea?
That would be Schooler, who initiated the project, corralled the collaborators and doled out assignments.
"Luan would say, 'Anthony, write a historical film strip that starts in the days of the Missoula floods and catches us up to the modern-day founding of the town,' and I'd be like 'I'm on it, I'm on it,'" Hudson recalled.
"She really structured it in a way where we were all able to have agency and experiment with it, but she was also subtly guiding us."
Before morphing into a mystery play, "The Event!" started out as an outdoor experiential theater piece built around different stations for the audience to explore. The show was also a podcast.
You would think with so many voices, the story would be a bumpy ride. The kookiest thing about "The Event!" is how well it works.
Hudson said the group effort helped "flesh out the feeling of a thriving town full of weirdos."
Egos left at the Zoom room door: "We all have really big personalities. We all have very specific and unique voices, but I think it was a tribute again to how incredible Luan is with bringing people together, because immediately the attitude was just 'Yes and,' the whole way through," said Hudson.
Know before you go: The show is interactive, but audience participation is (thankfully) elect-in (just sit in the backseats).
Who's who: Ashlee M. Radney inhabits plucky Misty. Cabottville's off-center citizenry includes Bobby Bermea, Gail Dartez, Kailey Rhodes, Anthony Green Caloca, Dan Sweet and Alissa Jessup playing multiple roles.
Leah Cohn glides right into wacky Southern transplant Velva Porter, a character Hudson said he basically wrote for himself, though he doesn't perform in the show.
"She's a psychic, who moved to Cabotville to open a psychic palm reader shop, but as a front for selling drugs out of the back. Then weed got legalized, so she was stuck being an actual psychic reader," said Hudson.
"The twins," two influencer sisters also hatched by Hudson, are portrayed by different sets of actors throughout the play, and every pair snatches the spotlight.
Must-see moments: Seven lesser talented scribes might produce something less beguiling, more befuddling -- i.e. "The Event?" But "The Event!" closes with goofy and surprisingly poignant final scenes as the town finds its purpose.