Spider
A Young Professionals Company Production
October 20–November 5, 2023
“in this spiderweb,
I see the world.”
"Baby Spiderman KILLED EVIL Spider!” blows up on YouTube Kids. A rogue program escapes the Simulation — in a video game called Awakenings. And a choir prepares to sing with one voice. When a school shooting reveals the delicate web connecting these events, the people tangled within it start to wonder: who’s to blame? Written by an alumni of the YP Company, this powerful new play about iPad kids, collective trauma, and what we trust AI to do will stick with you long after the final bows.
"[The Company's] great work in this show bodes well for the future of Portland theatre, while the play itself gives me hope that the world of tomorrow might contain a lot more empathy and kindness than we have today... If you are a teenager, have a teenager, or want to know more about what it’s like to be a teenager right now, definitely go see it." —Krista Garver, Broadway World
Talkbacks & Discussion
Following every Friday evening performance, playwright Madeleine Adriance will host a “Conversations with the Playwright,” which will allow for open discussion about the development of the script and how the story was crafted. Additionally, “Mental Health Conversations” will follow Sunday afternoon performances with resources provided by YouthLine, a local teen-to-teen crisis support and help line.
Content Warning: this play has mature themes, content, and language. It also references a school shooting, and has a gunshot sound.
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SPIDER
An original work by Madeleine Adriance
Commissioned by the Young Professionals CompanyAge restricted for 14 and up
Runtime: approximately 90 minutes -
October 20–November 5, 2023
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2:00 pmASL Interpreted Performance: Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm (buy tickets)
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$20 Adults
$15 Students$5 tickets available through the RACC Arts for All Program.
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Curious Comedy Annex
5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Portland, OR 97211
view mapNote: entry to the Annex Theater is located on the west side of the building. A small parking lot is accessible via NE Emerson & NE Sumner Streets.
About the Playwright
Madeleine Adriance is a playwright investigating the complex relationships between human and non-human beings: between “us” and the natural, monstrous, and divine. She grew up in Guatemala City and Portland, Oregon. In Portland, she has worked professionally as an actor, dramaturg, and assistant director with the Young Professionals Company, and as an assistant playwriting and acting teacher with Oregon Children’s Theatre. Madeleine is a Young Professionals Company alumni, working with the company from 2016–2019.
She is a Senior pursuing her BA in Theater Arts at Brown University, where she has received the Robinson Potter Dunn and the S.R. Steinfeld awards, as well as a departmental production of her full-length play The Living Ones. She is completing an honors thesis on ecological disaster in American plays, and has studied playwriting at the graduate level with Julia Jarcho and Lisa D’Amour. Check out an interview with Madeleine about the show’s development with the Young Professionals here!
To view all photos, click here.
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