About "Untitled Houdini Project" by Jen Silverman:
In the winter and spring of 1926, Harry Houdini was summoned to a hearing before the House of Representatives, to testify on behalf of a new bill that would make acts of fortune telling illegal.
The newest project by playwright Jen Silverman takes as its starting point the exact
transcript for these Congressional hearings, while weaving in thrilling theatrical séance sequences, and the growing complexity of Houdini's relationship with Rose Mackenberg, Houdini's chief investigator.
Are we to be a country of cold hard facts, scientific data, and honesty? Are we to be a country of comforting possibilities, where the boundary between the living and the dead is crossable if the right guides are permitted to take you? What does it mean to argue over the character of a nation in 1926 And, of course, what does it mean to do that right now?
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About the Playwright Festival:
What was it like being the first to hear early drafts of Angels in America? Or Fences? Or The Glass Menagerie? Or Twelfth Night? At Profile's Playwright Festival, you’ll know.
Last year’s Playwright Festival gave audiences the opportunity to meet with, and see early drafts of new work from Tony Award-nominated playwright Kristoffer Diaz and two-time Sundance Fellow christopher oscar peña. This year, you’ll be the first to welcome the visionary 2025-2027 Featured Playwrights, Jen Silverman & Mike Lew, and see early drafts of the plays commissioned for our 2025-2027 cycle.
You’ll enjoy two workshopped readings, and close the weekend off with a catered Artist Salon with the playwrights. You’ll have the opportunity to meet and mingle with the Featured Playwrights, and to discuss their work, their process, the state of their art, and the state of the world. At Playwright Festival, our audiences and artists build the future of live theatre together.
Profile Theatre's Playwright Festival runs June 26 - 28. All events will be held at The Ellen Bye Studio at The Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave, Portland, OR.
