Season One, 1989
The theatre officially opened on March 11, 1989 with a benefit screening of Harrel's video work Jack, a retelling of the Jack the Ripper story. "Like some Jacobean drama ('Jack') seems to exist mostly for the thrill of the dirty deeds."
The first staged production in SRT's history was Westlake's semi-musical The Foofy, Open-Toed Shoe: a Not Necessarily Politically Correct, Lesbian, Feminist, Mystery Farce, featuring Allison Coe, Mackenzie Wren, Patty French, and Holly Bennett. The play opened on March 30 and Bob Hicks of The Oregonian remarked, "Westlake has fun blending the silly conventions of gumshoe drama with the dirt-between-the-toes political correctness of the radical gay community. Things may end abruptly, but it's a lightly amusing little trip."
The second production in the spring/summer of 1989 was Harrel's courtroom farce, Trial By Error. This was SRT's first bonifide hit with standing room only crowds and a week's extension on the original run. The Willamette Week's Bob Sitton wrote, "Proof that theatre can still be fun in an age of professionalization is found in Trial By Error, Rod Harrel's what-the-hell spoof...and it's refreshing to see new faces on stage along with some more familiar actors...".
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