Evan Hatch

Evan was born with cerebral palsy due to complications at birth, which affected his speech but never his passion for creativity. He is currently taking classes at PHAME, where he continues to grow as an artist and learner. In his free time, Evan is an avid reader and a dedicated writer, crafting poetry and plays that reflect his unique perspective and imagination. He is also a published poet, sharing his voice and experiences through his book. Beyond writing, Evan has a deep appreciation for abstract art, and creating drawn to its expressive and limitless nature.

Interview with Lo Steele

Why should people come see At the Root?

My relationship to music is a unique one, it isn’t traditional or formal. I’m often making up chords I’m unable to transcribe, but I know how to feel- a that’s my super power, and I think that shines through in the piece. I am so grateful to have an incredible cast and chorus who are expert-feelers too, who embody the script and music with such honestly and joy and vulnerability. Come see and come feel!

What made you want to participate in this project and create this piece?

I majored in playwriting in college, but haven’t done much long-form writing since then. I was so grateful to be asked to write a piece for Revels. It felt like a timely challenge and an opportunity to rediscover my voice as a playwright.

What about the Portland Revels made it seem like a good fit for you and your work?

I believe both theatre watching and theatre making should be accessible to all. This is a healing art and shouldn’t be exclusive to only the privileged. Revels prioritizes theatre making as a tool toward community building and celebration, which I would like to make my priority too!

Bruce Akpan Hostetler

Bruce’s first Revels as Stage Director was 2011’s The King and the Fool, and he’s been Artistic Director since January 2017. Bruce has directed many theatre, musical, and opera productions throughout the USA and Canada including: Gretel and Hansel – Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Cupid and Psyche – Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Copenhagen and Beauty Queen of Leenane – Oregon Stage Works, Taming of the Shrew – Powerhouse Theatre, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Comedy of Errors, and Much Ado About Nothing – Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival, HMS Pinafore and Light in the Piazza – Mocks Crest Productions, Another Round – Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, Amahl and the Night Visitors and Der Yasager – Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, and Hansel and Gretel – Rogue Opera. In 2012 Bruce’s play Feral (written from over 500 interviews with people living house-less in the Pacific Northwest) had a sold-out performance run in Portland. Bruce holds an MFA in Stage Directing from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.

Interview with Bobby Bermea

What excites you about this production?

The script. Lo really knows her characters and how they speak, what makes them laugh and what brings them together. I feel like it’s way too rare for Black women to be presented on stage with so much warmth and humor, and where they 100% get each other’s back all the time. We have this preconception that people taking care of each other is not dramatic. You need conflict. And I would argue that in At the Root there is conflict — with men, with unfair expectations, with cancer, with the outside world. But the focus of the piece is on how Black women overcome these obstacles together. We don’t see a lot of that in any media, let alone theatre.

What are you most looking forward to the audience experiencing?

The easy answer is everything but if I have to pick one it’s the music. I think Lo is a wonderful songwriter with a unique neo-soul style all her own And the lyrics are really personal and heartfelt. The three leads all have especially rich, evocative voices besides the tremendous skill and precision they sing with.

How is the project different than others you have worked on?

Number one thing would be it’s all women, dealing with issues that impact women differently than they would men, and finding solutions that men don’t often utilize.

What do you find most fulfilling about the project?

The work of the actors and chorus. It’s always magical watching the process of words on a page being given life by artists, especially when they’re so gifted and generous. Watching Josie, Antoinette and Marilyn inhabit these different women has been a real treat.

Sarah DeGrave

Sarah DeGrave is happy to be joining Portland Revels for the first time. Other recent theatre credits include Kate in The Pirates of Penzance (Anonymous Theatre), Susanna in Desperate Measures (Clackamas Repertory Theatre), Jane in Clever Little Lies (triangle productions!), Lucinda in Into the Woods (Broadway Rose), as well as productions at Stumptown Stages, Milagro, and Seattle Musical Theatre, among others. She can also be seen in the short film By and Bye from Blue Envelope Productions. Learn more about Sarah’s previous and upcoming creative projects at www.sarahdegrave.com. @sing_dance_repeat

Eric Island

Eric Island holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Arkansas University and is a veteran of the US Army. Eric is excited to be working with Revels Theatre again as he participated in their Winter Revels show a few years ago. Revelation Coffee has truly been a fun yet emotional affair sharing this specific story of love, loss and perseverance that hopefully ALL patrons will relate to. Eric has worked with Portland Playhouse in Chicken & Biscuits, What I Learned in Paris and The Sounds of Afrolitical Movement(Elegua/Egua). Also Bag&Baggage Theatre in Troy USA and The Measure of Innocence; Red Door Project Theatre; in Hands Up; Experience Theatre Project in Jekyll & Hyde and The Great Gatsby plus a bevy of other theaters over the years. You can find him on YouTube in the Sequestered Soliloquies series and Crossroads at Chambersburg; a documentary about the friendship between politician Frederick Douglas and radical activist John Brown. Eric also performs stand-up comedy at various mics around Portland and beyond, helping people laugh their blues away. He would like to thank his family and friends for all their prayers and support.

Griffin Puatu

Griffin Puatu is joining the Portland Revels for the very first time. He’s an actor and a singer well known for his work in animation and video games. He got his start on the stage in such roles as Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” and Mereb in Disney’s “Aida”. As a voice actor, Griffin has appeared in several notable projects, playing Ganke Lee “Spider-Man 2” on PlayStation 5, Sunday in “Honkai Star Rail”, Louis in “Beastars” on Netflix, and Dohalim in “Tales of Arise”. He enjoys spending time with his loving wife, Sam, where you’ll find them traveling, searching for new food spots, and taking care of their giant dog and three cats.

Viola Horton

Viola is pleased to be working with the Design Team at Portland Revels. Her most recent show was “Spear” at Corrib Theatre, working as Costume Designer. Prior Shows include ”Myra’s Story” as Costume Technician with Lead Costume Designer Gregory Pulver, also with Corrib Theatre, “American Fast” as Lead Costume Designer with Artist Repertory Theatre, Costume Technician with Passinart Theatre in “A Song For Coretta”, Portland Playhouse in “Bella! An American Tall Tale”, and Artist Repertory Theatre in “The Children” with Lead Costume Designer Wanda Walden. Other collaborations include Costume Technician work on an independent film called “Gone Two”, with Lead Costume Designer Ashley Russell, and many other theatre productions around the Portland Metro area. She is the owner of Every Body’s Beautiful, sewing, tailoring and alterations and PanAfrican Hip, an Afrocentric menswear line that was featured in the Spring 2020 catalog edition of Africa Imports – Authentic African Fashions & More. She holds a Master’s Degree in Music Education, from Lewis & Clark College, and a certificate in Apparel Design from the Portland Fashion Institute. She and her husband Steve enjoy spending time with their daughter Stephanie and granddaughter Naomi, going to live theatre, play readings, travelling, spending time on the beach, and working on various home improvement projects.

Jesi Robison

Jesi (she/her) has a BA in Theater Production Management from the University of Portland. Most notably she worked on projects like the Tiny Chef Show, In The Know, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at Shadow Machine. However, she can still be found in and around the theatre, whether it be designing, performing, managing, or directing. Her most recent credits include Stage Managing for the Children’s Revels show Little Lights. She is excited to be back with Revels to continue making magic together.

Sophina Flores

Sophina (she/ella) is the founder of local dance theatre company Roots and All Theatre Ensemble, centering marginalized identities and breaking the boundaries of realism. You may have seen her directing there, with Liminal and The Between Spaces with Ritual Treatment coming this summer. Other directing credits include Little Women, A Slight Ache, Romeo and Juliet, and Noises Off! As a theatre maker, playwright, deviser, and choreographer, her work centers the intersectionality of identities as a bisexual Puerto Rican woman, and prominently features themes of mental illness and trauma, with surrealist or magical realist motifs. She’s delighted to share this beautiful show with you!

Kyra Sanford

Kyra Sanford is a freelance scenic designer, painter, technical director, and props designer, working for companies such as Corrib, Bag&Baggage, Broadway Rose, Northwest Classical, Coho, Milagro, and various others. She is currently the technical director and resident scenic designer at Clark College. She received her BFA in Scenic Design from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. Instagram: @sanfordscenic

Olivia Vavroch

Olivia Vavroch is a designer whose work incorporates texture, artifacts, and layers of playful details to tell stories of compassion and emotional interconnectivity across time and space. Recent credits include Profile Theatre (Samsara), Third Rail (Infinite Life), PassinArt (God’s Favorite), Fuse (Arsonist) and The Actors Conservatory/Portland Shakespeare Project (Hamlet). Other selected credits include Imago (The Seafarer), Crave Theatre (Ashland), and Speculative Drama (Titus Andronicus). Through her Vavroch Glass & Art Studio, Olivia currently teaches stained glass and prop food sculpture classes at PCC and has taught art at PHAME Academy and to kids K-12 in the Greater Portland area. Olivia is currently developing a new body of multimedia sculptures and garments that visualize the impacts of generational and complex trauma in the body.

2026 Spring Revels:

Re-Rite

Purchase Tickets

When three artists work to navigate love and family expectations, they must ask whether renewal comes from preservation – or from daring to remake tradition together.

Re-Rite, a collaboration with Theatre Diaspora, is an original Asian-American musical that reimagines South and Southeast Asian traditional dance music through contemporary, beat-driven songs, and storytelling with movement, a live choir and a celebration of community.

Artistic Team

Directed by Jhus Custodio & Oliver Evangelista
Co-Written by Oliver Evangelista & Jhus Custodio
Music Director: Daye Thomas

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Location

Ellyn Bye Studio, Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave, Portland Oregon

April 24th: 7:30pm
April 25th: 2:00pm and 7:30pm
April 26th: 2:00pm

More information about our performers and creative team coming soon….

General Admission: $10-35 Sliding scale
Reserved Seating: $40
Arts for All: $5 (contact the Box Office)

All tickets are subject to a $3.50 User Fee

***Re-Rite lasts approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.***

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Artistic Team

Jhus Custodio

Co-Director / Co-Writer / Co-Composer

Daye Thomas

Music Director / Composer

Oliver Envangelista

Co-Director / Co-Writer

Samson Syharath

Producer

Cast

Samson Syharath

Somchai

Afiq Hisham

Arjun

Char Zenzano

Lila

Abby Pasion-Yang

Evelyn

Lidet Viravong

Uncle Oudet

Lawrence Siulagi

Avi

Cassidy Kusumoto

Jenny

Justine Boringot

Robert

Chorus

Kristina Carpio

Shantelle Canete

Danica Gascon

Wynee Hu

Kate Hayes

Dominic Mallari

Natalis Savanh

Matt Savino

Max Seger