Season Four, 1991-1992
This was Stark Raving's Brave New Works season, including Aubrey Hampton's one-man play Mixed Blood, based on Cantwell's book about the AIDS conspiracy, starring Steven Clark Pachosa. With Hampton and Donnelly's help, Burroughs took the play to off-off-Broadway. Burroughs stepped down as Artistic Director, leaving Westlake to manage the remainder of the season before passing the company along to Demke and Donnelley. The rest of the season featured the 100th Monkey Collective's staging of The Conduct of Life by María Irene Fornés, Donnelley's play Angelmaker about the controversial figure Ruth Barnett, and Llew Rhoe's staging of Westlake's A.E.: The Disappearance and Death of Amelia Earhart, featuring Rod Harrel and Tammie Andreas, which later went on to win the Oregon Book Award. that year. SRT was also home to the premier of Steve Patterson's play Bombardment that summer. The final performance of the season was Westlake's staging of Split Britches' Little Women: the Tragedy. Originally written for the trio of Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, and Deb Margolin, Little Women pushed the limits of SRT's space and challenged its regular audience. This was the last time Westlake and Harrel worked together at SRT (he designed the sound). By the end of the run, it played to packed houses who were disappointed at Donnelley's announcement that the theatre would be closing if it could not find a new space for the next season.
By this time, SRT garnered a reputation for edgy and provocative new work. Cate Garrison of Willamette Week noted: "Stark Raving Theatre is not afraid to explore the painful choices society frequently has to make" and "A highly individual performance space that offers the kin of inventive, inexpensive theatre that will...make you think a little." Rebecca Morris of the The Oregonian declared: "Stark Raving Theatre...chooses plays other theatres rarely touch." Bob Hicks had dubbed SRT as "Brash, little Stark Raving Theatre."
Westlake left SRT for graduate school and Donnelley and Demke moved the company to a new venue (Back Door Stage) on Hawthorne Blvd. in Southeast Portland.
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