Hibernate Program

BEdrock Theatre presents:

Hibernate

Feb 23 - 25, 2024

at Leach Botanical Garden 

Through the generosity of our sponsors:

About the Production

ABOUT HIBERNATE

Hibernate was born out of a desire to connect more deeply with the seasons. In particular, we wanted to explore deep winter–that oft-overlooked lull between the jolly brightness of the holidays and first blushes of spring. In talking about this season, we felt we had a lot to reckon with and to learn from.  

Inspired by the nighttime landscape of Leach Botanical Garden, we let the cabin-like setting of the Fireplace Room inform the performance. Our examination of winter took many forms: we learned how many plants and animals endure the season, dove into Celtic folklore and legend, and reflected on our own patterns of reflection, nesting, and solitary thought. Winter invites us to sink into cozy softness and to face the bitter chill; it reshapes landscapes without and within. 

ABOUT BEDROCK TheATRE

Founded in 2016, Bedrock Theatre's mission is to connect audiences to their environment and to each other through immersive storytelling in natural landscapes. With music, movement, and person-to-person storytelling, our adaptations and original works are lovingly crafted to transform an ordinary path into the world of the tale. While Bedrock Theatre shares work in a variety of landscapes and venues, we primarily gather in and around Portland, Oregon, the traditional villages sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya and Molalla. We respectfully acknowledge this land’s original caretakers, and honor the ongoing story of Oregon’s Native peoples, whose knowledge and stewardship of this landscape goes back tens of thousands of years. Hibernate is Bedrock’s second collaboration with Leach Botanical Garden. In 2019, the company completed a 9-month residency at the garden, developing an original adaptation of the Persephone myth. 

ABOUT LEACH BOTANICAL GARDEN

Leach Botanical Garden offers immersive, restorative, and educational experiences in a unique landscape of native plants and horticultural collections for the purpose of building community, celebrating nature, and inspiring environmental stewardship. The “Sleepy Hollow'' estate that John and Lilla Leach lovingly created and tended for over 36 years was donated to Portland Parks in 1980, and a grass-roots, non-profit organization was quickly formed to work in partnership with Portland Parks to care for the garden and ensure its future. Today, 18 staff members along with a dedicated group of volunteers care for the property, offer events and  tours, handle garden maintenance, work to replenish native plant habitat, engage underserved communities with hands-on learning, and provide visitor services to more than 30,000 people per year. Learn more at https://www.leachgarden.org/about-us. 

CASt & Production team Bios

Annabel Cantor (she/they) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist hailing from Portland, Oregon. She holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, where she coproduced and performed in a three-year series of experimental performance labs (UGLy). Their current artistic interests center around devising processes, Viewpoints & Suzuki practice, Surrealism and Neomodernism, and cultivating sensory richness onstage. In her final year of college, she completed an (as yet) unauthorized stage adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Annabel is interested in making work that is visceral and immediate in form and content: catharsis and color. She strives to be in conversation both with contemporary media, tech, and culture and the reality of the human as a self-domesticated wild animal. They recently completed a year creating with the Institute for Contemporary Performance 21-22 cohort (PETE). Annabel is working on cultivating her athleticism, listening skills, and self assurance. In her free time she enjoys walking around and looking at stuff.

Emily Eisele* (she/her) grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, where her appreciation for the outdoors began. After spending the past decade or so in Portland, Oregon, she continues to be amazed by our fortunate proximity to mountains, ocean, forests, and more. Emily has a wide range of experience as both an artist and administrator with companies including CoHo Productions, Artists Repertory Theatre, and Third Rail Repertory Theatre. She currently works in nonprofit accounting at Susan Matlack Jones & Associates. A “many hats” type of collaborator, Emily is a performer, writer, musician, bookkeeper, and list-maker for Bedrock—depending on the day.

Sean Grosshans*(he/him) is from Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his B.A. in Theatre Directing/Management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He moved to Portland, Oregon after graduation for the mentorship program with Third Rail Repertory Theatre. He immediately fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. Sean loves creating new works with an ensemble of artists. Sean tells his stories through music, photography/video, food and beverage.

Joellen Sweeney* (she/her) is an actor, director and teaching artist, with a deep love for the natural world. Joellen's regional credits include work with Artists Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Renegade Opera and Northwest Children's Theatre. Joellen earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Washington, and currently works as a teaching artist for Portland Center Stage and Portland Actors Conservatory. She also serves as a member of The Verdancy Project Advisory Board.

Mia Webster (she/they) Originally from Philadelphia, Mia attended Lewis & Clark College where she received a BA in Sociology with a minor in Theatre Studies, as well as a distinction in Technical Theatre and Stage Management from L&C’s Fir Acres Theatre. Recent credits include RENT (Fir Acres Theatre), 52 Pick Up (21ten), Here We Are Again Still (21ten), Piercing the Veil (Štepán Šimek/Musica Universalis/Kettlehead Studios//21ten), Taking Care of Animals (21ten), and I’m In Control Which Means Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Me (PETE Presents). 

Becca Wirta* (she/her) is a theatre artist, performer and collaborator in Portland, where she has lived and worked in public relations and marketing for the past 10 years. A graduate from Willamette University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Theatre Performance as well as Rhetoric and Media Studies, she sees herself at a crossroads as a person and as an artist. Art is no longer merely a fun venue for escapism for Becca, and through the past couple of years she has discovered that experiencing, participating and consuming art is when she feels the most awake, present and capable of deeper understanding. Becca is a recent graduate of the Institute of Contemporary Performance with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble.

Continue the Journey

Hibernate INSPIRATIONS & SOURCE MATERIAL

• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

• The Cailleach: An Introduction to the Ancient Goddess of Winter (Celtic Mythology Explained), video by Moon Books Publishing, and Pagan Portals - The Cailleach by Rachel Patterson

• The Red Shoes (1948), Film written, directed, and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

• Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

• Wintering by Sylvia Plath

• Hibernate Spotify playlist compiled by Sean Grosshans

• In loving memory of Philip Cuomo and inspired by his work with the CoHo Clown Cohort.

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