The haven project

Every autumn the University’s theater faculty and students welcome some 20 “at-risk” young men and women from the Portland area to campus to write, perform, and produce the children’s original one-act plays in the University’s Mago Hunt Theater. In the last five years more than 100 young people have enjoyed such theatrical adventures; all told around the city 200 professional actors, writers, musicians, directors, designers and painters work with 700 girls and boys a year, producing nearly 100 plays under the aegis of the Haven Project, founded by University neighbor Gretchen Corbett. Last year’s plays featured lions, pebbles, birds, a champagne bottle and its cork discussing ego and sacrifice, an ivy spore matching wits with a flame, a car and a tiger in a rapping contest, and a rat and a lizard discussing nonviolence — among other pleasures, as noted here by photographer Steve Hambuchen.

This year’s free night of plays will be Tuesday, December 7, says coordinator Dan Ruiz ’05. Information: 503.943.7228, or druiz@up.edu, or wander into www.up.edu.

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