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Profile Theatre has canceled its production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Appropriate due to COVID-19. In an email, artistic director Josh Hecht stated that three members of Profile’s acting company had tested positive.
“As with all Profile employees, artists, technicians and volunteers, they are fully vaccinated and experiencing only mild symptoms,” Hecht wrote. “But these cases coming so close to the end of our scheduled run has forced us to cancel the third and final week of performances.”
While some Portland theater productions have been able to regroup and continue after COVID outbreaks, Appropriate is a unique case. Profile doesn’t own its own space (the play was being produced at Imago Theatre), which made it impossible to reschedule the remaining performances.
“As renters who do not own our own space, we don’t have the ability to pause and resume performances in a week,” Hecht wrote. “Another theater’s show prevents us from extending, which means we will be ending the run early, and with it the season.”
Although the email did not specify, the other show Hecht refers to is most likely Julia’s Place, a puppetry-filled production from Imago that will apparently involve a rhinoceros.
As for ticket refunds, director of communications Eboni Lovell confirmed to WW that patrons who purchased tickets to canceled shows have been emailed refund options. Anyone with further questions should contact marketing@profiletheatre.org.
Appropriate was the final play in Profile’s season devoted to the works of Jacobs-Jenkins and Paula Vogel. The company has already announced its 2022-23 season, which will be devoted to the plays of Kristoffer Diaz, Christopher Oscar Peña and Lauren Yee.
In his email, Hecht expressed regret at the closure of Appropriate, but also pride regarding the company’s production of the play, the story of three adult children returning to their late father’s plantation estate.
“At Profile, our mission is to broaden perspectives and deepen compassion through our work,” Hecht stated. “This play has done just that. And though it will be seen by a smaller number of people than we had hoped, the several hundred people we did reach saw an incredible piece of storytelling thanks to these artists, and thanks to our community of patrons and donors whose support makes possible everything we do.”
Related: A COVID Outbreak Has Canceled the First Week of Portland Center Stage’s Season-Closing Play