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When Portland Center Stage artistic director Marissa Wolf needs inspiration, she turns to the business section of the Sunday New York Times.
"Often, they'll have such smart pagewide profiles of amazing women leaders, and I just love those," Wolf says. "From the time I was in my early 20s, I've always been interested in ambitious women who have followed their ambitions with a vociferousness and a resiliency."
With those words, Wolf could be describing herself. Under her leadership, PCS has staged some of its most challenging productions—including an elaborate version of In the Heights and an intimate, all-female Macbeth. And as for resiliency, Wolf's incandescent optimism makes her perfectly suited to steer the company through a pandemic.
PCS has shortened its season in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Yet speaking to WW about the places, people and works of art that matter to her, Wolf exuded joy when describing images and sounds so vividly that despite social distancing, the world and its wonders didn't feel so far away.
1. Fiction I can't put down by Chima-manda Ngozi Adichie, Elizabeth Strout and Julia Alvarez
"I certainly love reading books in which I see myself, but I'm actually most drawn to books in which I get to seek out my heart inside characters whose lives are very different from mine. Each of these writers constructs such whole, rich worlds that they invite the reader into—from the very first word, they construct deeply compelling lead characters, mostly heroines who you just want to live with."
2. Bread Loaf, Vermont
"I grew up going there because my parents taught there during the summers. We haven't been back in years, and yet when I am closing my eyes to try to center myself or calm down, the place I think of is Bread Loaf, Vt. I picture this beautiful and rolling meadow that gets taller and taller throughout the summer, and I can hear the loud hum of the crickets and tree frogs and smell the thick and sweet air. It's just one of those places that I carry inside me in ways that are different from anywhere else."
3. Portland community pools—namely, Matt Dishman and Columbia
"For over 15 years, I've gone swimming a couple times a week in the early, early morning. I do love seeing recognizable faces, and there is a really beautiful feeling of community in the women's locker room and then in the pool where you've all arrived to do this thing for yourself that makes you feel really good."
4. NPR Tiny Desk Concerts
"I love that they're 15- to 20-minute sets of incredible music and that you are invited into a wonderfully intimate concert that's very informal. [The artists] have to bring only their essential band members who they can fit in the space, and they're performing behind a desk. They always do something special and unique that you wouldn't hear them do in another venue. Lizzo's Tiny Desk Concert was just exquisite."
5. The New York Times, Sunday edition
"I look forward to Sunday mornings because of the Sunday New York Times. There's something about the ritual—the feeling of all the sections in your hands. My husband and I argue over who gets to read the front section first, and then who gets to read the Opinion section first, because for me, those two are most relevant that day and then the rest of the paper you can read during the week."
6. Popcorn Movie Fridays
"My husband Tom is the popcorn maker and he is excellent at it. We get kernels from the farmers market, so they're really fresh. We do it in a pot with a little bit of olive oil, and then he is very generous with the butter and salt. The fun thing about Friday Night Popcorn Movie Night is that we have a 5-year-old, and so the deal is that as you're watching the movie and you're eating dinner, you also get to have a bowl of popcorn by your side, so it's pure decadence."
7. FaceTime
"My parents are in Connecticut and my in-laws are in Northern California. [FaceTime] has been a way for our kid to stay connected to his grandparents from the time he was very young. It's become a really beautiful part of the day where he gets to talk to his grandparents and share a little bit about his day, and then just listen to them read for a full half an hour from different picture books and chapter books."