Orphic
Andrew is the founder and artistic director of Orphic. He has directed several workshop readings of new plays for Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival, including Rebecca Frost Mayer’s O’Flannery’s Pub, Sandra de Helen’s The Godmother, Brian Kettler’s Iphigenia 3.0, which was the first adaptation commissioned by Orphic, Karin Magaldi's Remain(s), which was the second, and The Killing Fields, which was the third. Andrew is also a playwright, dramaturg, and educator. He currently teaches Introduction to Fine Arts at University of Portland, where he graduated in 2014 with an MFA in directing; his thesis project featured Euripides’ Alkestis. Andrew is also a playwright. His play, The Pool Behind the Old Brick School, was featured in the Teen West program in February of 2016. Another of his plays, The Sweatermakers, premiered in August 2014, produced by Playwrights West in association with CoHo Productions.
Andrew Wardenaar
Artistic Director
Josie Seid
2019 Playwright
Josie is a member of the LineStorm Playwrights collective and in has produced several works in partnership. For their Portland in Play 2016 and 2017 productions, she wrote the short plays Jordan’s Wisdom and The Portland Colored School: A Lesson in Reading Between the Lines. She also wrote the short play, Overdue, for the Short and Sweet short play festival in 2017. Her short plays This is Message, 13, and Stand By Me have also been featured in Profile Theater’s 24 hour short play festivals in 2017 and 2018. Her full length play Petite Dames was highlighted by both the Reading Parlor and 2017 Fertile Ground and was a Kilroy List nominee. Her newest play, The Great God of the Dark Storm Cloud, was featured in this years Fertile Ground at Artists Rep. in February.
Jeffy Denight
2019 Playwright
Jeffrey "Jeffy" (they/them) is a playwright & educator. They are a core member of Playwrights West through which they wrote L O S T_F O R_W O R D S | 失われた言葉 (2018) and Curtain Call is What Follows Act V (2019). They are a two-time Waukegan Theatre Festival fellow with Three Bros. Theatre, where they developed Pictorial Anatomy of an M----- (2014) and Daddy Daughter Dance (2015). Jeffy lives in Portland, OR. Jeffy received their BA in theatre and BFA in creative writing at Truman State University.
Kai Hynes
2019 Intern
Kai is primarily an actor onstage; working offstage in the field of dramaturgy is relatively new to him. However, he is feeling confident and is excited to contribute as much of his curiosity, insight, and knowledge to these two new adaptations of Herakles as he possibly can. He is currently a student at the University of Portland studying theatre, English, and communication. Recent acting credits include Beethoven in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead at University of Portland, and Jacob in The Mermaid Hour at Milagro Theatre. Outside of theatre and education, his interests include drawing, writing, taking photos, lounging by water, and dancing with friends.
Kai is primarily an actor onstage; working offstage in the field of dramaturgy is relatively new to him. However, he is feeling confident and is excited to contribute as much of his curiosity, insight, and knowledge to these two new adaptations of Herakles as he possibly can. He is currently a student at the University of Portland studying theatre, English, and communication. Recent acting credits include Beethoven in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead at University of Portland, and Jacob in The Mermaid Hour at Milagro Theatre. Outside of theatre and education, his interests include drawing, writing, taking photos, lounging by water, and dancing with friends.
Maddie Nguyen
2019 Intern
Maddie Nguyen
2019 Intern
Maddie is a Theater major at the University of Portland about to enter her last semester. As an acting emphasis, she has appeared on the University of Portland stage in shows such as Tartuffe, Boeing Boeing, and Dog Sees God. She's also long carried a torch for creating and devising, having worked on HOME: A Devised Production at University of Portland and Experience Cult's Hamletmachine for the 2019 Fertile Ground Festival, as well as having written and directed the annual culture show, Hello Vietnam, for the University of Portland's Vietnamese Student Association for the past three years.
Maddie is a Theater major at the University of Portland about to enter her last semester. As an acting emphasis, she has appeared on the University of Portland stage in shows such as Tartuffe, Boeing Boeing, and Dog Sees God. She's also long carried a torch for creating and devising, having worked on HOME: A Devised Production at University of Portland and Experience Cult's Hamletmachine for the 2019 Fertile Ground Festival, as well as having written and directed the annual culture show, Hello Vietnam, for the University of Portland's Vietnamese Student Association for the past three years.
Phoebe Whittington
2019 Intern
Phoebe is a fiction writer, comic artist, and scriptwriter. Her work and research often explore environmentalism, intersectionality, the presentation of violence, and adaptation of existing texts. Most recently, her short fiction piece, Fireweed, received first place in the Amy M. Young Awards in Creative Writing and subsequently appeared in PLUM: Pacific's Literature by Undergraduates Magazine. Phoebe was previously the editor of Pacific University’s Undergraduate Research Newsletter in the Arts & Humanities and is currently an assistant editor for Silk Road: A Literary Crossroads. She enjoys hikes with her dogs and cooking with her friends. She is completing her BA at Pacific University in Forest Grove and will graduate in 2020.
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Sam Baldwin
2019 Intern
Sam is originally from Seattle but has lived in Portland for the last three years. He is a senior at the University of Portland, and is studying philosophy and theater with an emphasis in acting. Some notable productions he’s been involved with include Pippin and Eurydice, from which he learned to love Greek adaptation. He is a firm believer in theater's ability to communicate philosophies and is excited to cultivate both his fields of study into one work. It’s kind of a dream come true to help adapt some of the most philosophy steeped theater there is.