JULY 18—20, 2025
Pride attendees will have one more option this year for celebrating their history and hearing their stories: the first-ever Portland Pride Play Festival. Produced by Third Eye Theatre, this weekend festival features eight staged readings, from comedies to dramas, covering the breadth of the queer experience.
PORTLAND, OR (July 7, 2025) — Pride attendees will have one more option this year for celebrating their history and hearing their stories: the first annual Portland Pride Play Festival. Produced by Third Eye Theatre, this weekend festival features eight staged readings, from comedies to dramas, covering the breadth of the queer experience. The Portland Pride Play Festival performs July 18 through 20 at Coho Productions in Portland. Attendance is Pay What You Will ($20 suggested donation, via cash, CashApp, or credit/debit card) at the door for any show. Seats are first come, first served.
The shows to be presented were written by local playwrights and feature characters from every color on the rainbow (as well as a few villains). The roles will be read by a cast of Portland-area actors who are equally representative of this diversity.
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Friday, July 18th
7:00 PM
Echo by Lily Tholfsen is a full-length play based on the Japanese classic novel Kokoro. A young lesbian attaches herself to an older, butch lesbian who has a troubled past; and as always, new generations will echo older generations, both because of what we learn from them, and also what we fail to learn from them. Directed by Gina Andrews, Echo features Jeia Scott, Judith Conly, Stephanie Crowley, Leslie Inmon, Presley Ellison, SC Ritsch, and Quinnlan Brawn.
8:30 PM
Predator Pray by Pearson Kunz is a full-length, tense slice-of-life piece, in which an obedient Mormon son returns home from his first mission to realize he is at a turning point in his life. Will he pursue a future with his best friend, Devon, who is gay and out? Or will his mother, who will go to any lengths to keep her son in the LDS fold, manage to keep him close at home and in the church? Directed by Alacias Enger, Predator Pray features Chase Reinhardt as Joseph, Stephanie Crowley as his mother
Evelyn, and Jeia Scott as Devon, with stage directions read by Justin Hinojosa.
Saturday, July 19th
2:00 PM
Closet Prayers is a full-length play by Timothy Krause, directed by Cosmo Reynolds, with stage directions read by Stephanie Crowley. On a sleepless night in Minneapolis, plagued by oppressive summer heat and uncertainty, Mark (Austyn Stone) must summon immense courage to reveal to his best friend Chris (Jesse Harkin) and his girlfriend Meg (Kristen Pizzo) a long-held secret: he is gay. With the assistance of a stranger who appears as an angel (Luckie Daniel), Mark confronts his deepest fears and highest hopes.
4:00 PM
For Reasons Not Entirely Romantic by Bill Lynch assembles a cast of friends and associates with complicated lives in a full-length drama. Alexa (played by Kathleen Barnebey) is hoping to begin sharing a home and a life in New York with Maurice (played by Tony Domingue), despite the fact that she is a “hopelessly straight” woman and he is a gay man. Meanwhile, their friends — bisexual Monique (Stephanie Crowley) and lesbian Trinity (Leslie Inmon) — are facing a rocky patch in their marriage which may or may not work itself out. And things only get more complicated when Alexa’s ex-husband Benny (Ira Kortum) shows up. Directed by Jeremy Cole.
6:00 PM
Encounters by Jeremy Cole is a series of short plays: in “Members Only,” a unique club is formed out of necessity in the summer of 1949. What happens on the fire escape stays on the fire escape. In “The Old Playground,” longtime friends in a bittersweet reunion learn that when old traditions die, perhaps new ones can be forged. And in “The Scoring System,” Steve and Tim may each consider themselves a perfect “10,” but may be shocked to discover how others might rate them. Encounters is performed by Bethany Kemper, Bobby Nove, Chase Reinhardt, and Kristen Pizzo, and is directed by Alisa Peck.
7:00 PM
Crooked Numbers, a full-length play by Ellen Margolis, is directed by Georgia Ketchmark. Set in Woodstock, New York in 1979, Crooked Numbers finds 15-year- old baseball fanatic Dusty (played by Bethany Kemper) spending the summer with her Aunts Fran and Millie, avoiding friction at home with her pregnant stepmother Lizbeth (played by Quinnlan Brawn). As Dusty yearns for connection and recognition, Fran (played by Carol Rose) concerns herself with keeping her small mail-order company afloat, and her partner Millie (played by SC Ritsch) fights an uphill battle with breast cancer. Over the course of a season, while experimenting with tofu, Little League, and liver cleanses, the three women under Fran’s roof challenge and heal each other in unexpected ways.
Sunday, July 20th
2:00 PM
MOVE – BEND – FALL by Ash is a full-length trilogy of thematically connected short plays. From first dates to fiery finales and the moments in between, friends and lovers (and sometimes their ghosts) weave in and out of the bedroom as they uncover what it means to be queer and in love. “Move Forward” is a comedy centering around two couples: one on a first date and the other post-breakup. “Bending the Rules” is a non-linear, dance-like, and dramatic tale of an entire relationship. “Falling” is a ghost story about the roles we might have played in our own tragedies and the songs we sing about them. The cast includes Bobby Nove, Bryn Bollimpalli, Presley Ellison, and Rayburn Gotter, with stage directions read by Justin Hinojosa. MOVE – BEND – FALL
is directed by Ravyn Jazper-Hawke.
4:00 PM
Nine Years Again is a one act play by Jamie Kushnick, directed by Jamie Adams, featuring Jeia Scott as Julian and Bryn Bollimpalli as Thomas. A short play about friendship, youth, and time, Nine Years Again reminds us that our relationships are not formed suddenly or out of the blue, but slowly, over time. They might surprise us, but even that surprise can take years manifesting, until suddenly we look back on those years and realize how much we’ve grown with someone — whether that be growing closer, or growing apart.
Other festival staff includes:
Artistic Director: Alacias Enger
Programming Manager: Ravyn Jazper-Hawke
Marketing: Stephanie Crowley
Stage Manager: David Obele
House Manager: Laura Beth Weinberg
Light Board Operator: Dawn Shipley
Special Thanks to CoHo Productions and Akitora Ishi, Technical Coordinator.
WHEN:
Friday, July 18th
7 pm Echo
8:30 pm Predator Pray
Saturday, July 19th
2 pm Closet Prayers
4 pm For Reasons Not Entirely Romantic
6 pm Encounters
7 pm Crooked Numbers
Sunday, July 20th
2 pm MOVE-BEND-FALL
4 pm Nine Years Again
WHERE: CoHo Productions, 2257 NW Raleigh St., Portland, OR 97210
TICKETS: Attendance is Pay What You Will ($20 suggested donation via cash,
CashApp, or credit/debit card ) at the door for any show. Seats are first
come, first served.
Third Eye Theatre 