CoHo Productions
CoHo Productions, Ltd. is a unique arts company dedicated to producing engaging, professional, affordable theater in an intimate setting in Portland, under a unique co-production model with Portland theater artists.
Founded in 1995, the company has produced 21 plays (and counting!). CoHo has won 11 Drammy Awards, including major awards for directing, acting, new work and technical excellence. With our 2005-2006 season, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary as a company, and our 5th season in the CoHo Theater. Time flies when you’re having fun!
CoHo Productions was born when Gary Cole, a local playwright, and Robert Holden, a longtime Portland actor and director, mounted their own independent production of a play by Cole in the basement of the Benson Hotel. The success of that production (which, as they like to point out, opened on Broadway) inspired the two to establish a company dedicated to forming partnerships with local theater artists.
CoHo has pioneered an unique collaborative model it calls co-production. CoHo invites local theater artists to propose plays for production. CoHo’s co-producer is principally responsible for the artistic and technical aspects of the production; CoHo equips the venue, raises funds, and markets and promotes the show.
This co-production model motivates theater artists to excel because they are treated as partners, not hired hands, and encourages creativity by challenging artists to propose and co-produce their own projects. CoHo has established artistic credibility in the theater community. Because of our critical recognition and awards, top quality performers and directors are eager to work with us.
CoHo has presented a wide range of quality productions. All but five of our productions have been Portland or Northwest premieres, and we have produced four world premieres of original works by Portland playwrights. We have brought productions to Portland audiences that larger and more established companies may not have been willing to risk. For example, in early 1999 CoHo produced Mary Tudor, a play by a previously unknown Oregon playwright about an obscure 16 th century monarch that a major Portland company, despite numerous workshops of the script, would not commit to pursue. The CoHo production won three Drammy Awards and drew great audience response.
Following that success, in early 2003, CoHo produced Child of Pleasure, another play by the same local playwright, and it also drew great audience response. Our company was the first in Portland to produce the rising British playwright Patrick Marber, whose Closer was a more recent hit at Portland Center Stage; our 1999 production of Marber’s Dealer’s Choice won a Drammy for acting. In 2001, CoHo also introduced Portland audiences to Spinning Into Butter, one of the hottest plays in the country over the past several years and a production that was generally mounted by much larger companies elsewhere in the US. It was so popular that CoHo remounted that production the following summer, with a continued high level of attendance and response. Portland is currently embracing Rebecca Gilman's Boy Gets Girl with great enthusiasm.
After six years of a nomadic existence mounting 8 plays in 8 different locations, CoHo built its own 99-seat theater in Northwest Portland (near the intersection of NW 23 rd and Raleigh) which opened in September 2001. The new theater displays the intimacy that has been the hallmark of CoHo productions, with a three-quarter round seating arrangement in which no seat is more than 3 rows from the performance space.
The theater is flexible and versatile, with a mezzanine level and catwalks that permit performance and sets on 2 levels and passageways that permit actor entrances through the audience. The theater has won tremendous critical praise. The Oregonian calls the CoHo Theater a “wonderful brand new theater-in-the-semi-round.” Willamette Week says that CoHo “has succeeded in creating one of the finest and most versatile black boxes in the city” and that “the new CoHo Theater hits a new mark...for theatrical venues in Portland.”
Our productions are put on by one staff member and a skilled and dedicated volunteer board (currently 7 strong) that includes experienced artists and professionals. Board members equip the venue, run the box office, sell program ads, and arrange publicity, among the many other elements of mounting a theater production. We involve over 100 volunteers as ushers, and continue to expand our volunteer opportunities.
The construction of its new theater had CoHo poised for further growth, but continued reliance on an all-volunteer board was a significant impediment to realizing opportunities for expansion. In particular, development of CoHo’s season ticket base could not occur without a dedicated box office capability. Additionally, CoHo had done little to market its space to potential users, particularly daytime business groups, because of staffing limitations. To address this situation, in the fall of 2003 CoHo was awarded a $50,000 matching grant from the Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust to fund a new Managing Director, the company’s first paid staff member, and for an associated capacity building program.
CoHo has established a strong connection with the Northwest Portland community. We consider ourselves to be Northwest Portland’s theater company and have actively promoted attendance at our productions by local residents, sponsorship by local businesses, and advertising by local merchants. Well over 60 area merchants have advertised in our programs – an important source of financial support – with 35 that committed to our entire 2004/2005 season. CoHo is a member of the Nob Hill Business Association, and is continuing to reach out to our NW neighbors in many various ways. The Neighbors West-Northwest office shares the CoHo office space, and we are working together to expand awareness of our facility and programs.
CoHo takes its non-profit mission seriously. We have an active high school outreach program involving 5 area high schools. CoHo donates tickets for students to attend its productions, then goes to the classroom to lead a discussion of the play. While our ticket prices remain affordable, we have always offered discount admissions to students and seniors, and now offer discount subscriptions to them as well.
Portland is underserved by companies such as CoHo that offer top-quality theater in an intimate setting at an affordable price. The recent trend has been in favor of large shows, such as traveling Broadway productions, with big budgets and corresponding ticket prices, or shoestring productions in tiny and uninviting venues. CoHo offers an appealing alternative that is appealing to both the serious theatergoer and the more casual patron.
Get Involved! If CoHo’s approach excites you, please volunteer or help us with a donation.