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Despite how many female public figures over 40 lead complex, badass lives out loud, the creative powers that be still often relegate actresses as someone’s mom or grandma, whether they’re the main character or (probably) not.
A trio of Portland actor-directors saw this happen all too often. They banded together and formed a new theater company called 100 Lives to not only hire actors who are 40-plus, but champion scripts and stories written by similarly experienced playwrights. The first production in 100 Lives’ inaugural season is Craig Wright’s 2004 play Orange Flower Water, an unexpectedly raw examination of two crumbling suburban marriages. Orange Flower Water runs Sept. 26–Oct. 12 at the Spotlight Theatre in Southeast Portland.
“There’s a huge movement right now, I feel like, with Gillian Anderson and Naomi Watts redefining this chapter of women who are experienced and beautiful and have a lot to say and have a lot of fire,” says Annie Kehoe, one of three artistic directors and founders of 100 Lives.
100 Lives was founded in February by Kehoe, 44, Brooke Totman, 52, and Blaine Palmer, 71. Palmer took Totman’s outdoor acting class during the pandemic, while Kehoe enrolled at the Spotlight Theatre this past winter. Totman has been involved in the local theater world for over 20 years (and was a MADtv cast member, among other credits) and co-founded 21ten Theatre with actor Ted Rooney. (They ultimately parted ways over creative differences.)
Kehoe comes to Portland by way of Chicago, and joined Totman’s class after a break from acting. Kehoe and Palmer worked powerfully together in class, and when they realized they had similar priorities, the three joined forces. The name 100 Lives (pronounced “hundred lives”) is a reference to a line delivered by Emma, the protagonist of Duncan Macmillan’s 2015 play People, Places and Things. Emma, an actress battling addiction, says she wants to live 100 lives and, as Kehoe puts it, “fight against the infinitesimal time we have on this planet, and that acting gives her the same thing as drugs and alcohol, but the good parts are just hard to come by.”
“We only get to live one life that is our own, and we want to experience—this is why we are so passionate about storytelling,” Kehoe says.
100 Lives actors, including Totman, previewed two nonsequential Orange Flower Water scenes at an intimate launch party near Forest Park on Sept. 13, attended by guests who included actress Briana Ratteran (Beth + Jeremy and Steve) and state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland). The intentionally emotionally uncomfortable moments staged—two soccer dads comparing women before the affair is exposed, while their wives sift through the fallout over Sour Skittles—fall between scenes which will include nudity and sexual situations amid an affair (100 Lives enlisted an intimacy coach for these scenes). Totman in particular, a bubbly and vivacious party hostess, honed her energy quickly and convincingly into that of a middle-aged Christian woman navigating doubt in her faith and family.
“We’re so desensitized to these heightened stakes and intimate moments because we see them everywhere, but when it’s happening right in front of your face, it stores like a real experience memory,” Kehoe says.
Totman, Palmer and Kehoe are each artistic directors within 100 Lives who make decisions democratically while managing their departments. They will take turns this season balancing responsibilities as directors and actors.
“I’m really eager to be part of this creative process. There are roles for me, and I’m excited by that,” Palmer says. “I’m on board with this focus.”
Other plays coming up in 100 Lives’ 2025–26 season include Tira Palmquist’s The Body’s Midnight in February 2026, Craig Wright’s The Pavilion in May, and a play by Kehoe on chosen family that will be performed as part of the Fertile Grounds Festival of New Works. The season’s overarching themes include age-tested bonds, long-lingering love, and the reevaluation of life’s options once “the big plans” are out of the way: College is further in the rearview, careers establish ruts, and kids stop being babies.
“I know plenty of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s who are amazing and not ill and have full lives and are the most interesting people to talk to ever, and are the spiciest, most fun humans ever,” Kehoe says. “We’re just reversing ageism through storytelling.”
SEE IT: Orange Flower Water at the Spotlight Theatre, 1123 SE Market St., 100livesrep.org. 7:30 pm Friday–Saturday, Sept. 26–27, and Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 2–4 and 9–11; 5 pm Sunday, Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 and 12. $33.85. 18+.
