From the Hill to the Stage: An Alum’s Mission to Revitalize Classical Works in Portland

Aney’s career is a testament to the enduring power of a liberal arts foundation. A proud Lewis & Clark College alumnus and current staff member, Aney’s journey has come full circle—from a student of storytelling to a co-founder of the Rose City Stage Company.

This is not Aney’s first time anchoring a theatrical movement in the city. When he graduated fin 1988, he was a founding member of Portland’s Tygres’ Heart Shakespeare Company. That venture was deeply intertwined with his alma mater; the late Lewis & Clark theatre professor Edgar Reynolds served on the founding leadership team, and the company itself was comprised of numerous fellow Lewis & Clark theatre alumni.

John Aney BA' 88Now, with the Rose City Stage Company—formed in 2025 by a group of like-minded performing artists who felt it was time Portland had a company dedicated to classical works of world theatre—Aney is once again bridging the gap between his alma mater and the professional arts scene. As the company’s literary manager, he is focused on creating a launchpad for local graduates while re-envisioning classical world theater for a modern audience.

In this Q&A, Aney discusses his mission to foster local engagement through partnerships with community organizations by staging performances in non-traditional spaces, while also offering opportunities for emerging artists.

The mission statement of the Rose City Stage Company emphasizes “content over concept.” How does this philosophy guide your process when selecting and adapting classical texts for a modern Portland audience?

Our productions focus on language, storytelling, and the ageless themes explored in classical works—productions that allow the language and storytelling to flourish without the constrictions of overly-produced concepts that obscure the language and inhibit the opportunity for the audience to engage with the characters and story.

Left to right: Seb Lockhart BA ’25 and Rose City Stage Artistic Director Grant Turner performing Hamlet

You’ve planned readings that address issues like racism and sexism in classical works. What is the company’s strategy for honoring these timeless stories while still challenging the biases they often carry?

We recognize that works from the classical repertoire are rife with racism, sexism, homophobia and classicism, among other issues. In staged readings and full productions that counter those narratives, we hope to lift up voices and lives that are often excluded from classical works. We are exploring a reading series, for instance, that will bring little-known plays by women and people of color from history, as well as plays that directly challenge narratives of racism and sexism in plays from the Classical period.

My job as literary manager is to read and assess scripts for production, research new or emerging works that confront the challenges of classical theatre in our time, prepare scripts for cast members, and serve as dramaturg for productions.

- John Aney BA ’88

Rose City Stage Company is building vital connections with local institutions. How do these partnerships ensure the work is “informed by” the community rather than just performed for it?

It’s still a work in progress, and we’re continuing to learn as we grow:

• Our previous project, a staged reading of A Christmas Carol, was staged in Old Town, where the needs and the challenges of the community are clear and the themes of A Christmas Carol, with the focus on those who are neglected by our society, resonated with the audience’s experience as they came to our production.
• Our current production of Hamlet is also staged in Old Town, and focused on various issues around Mental Health in conjunction with May as Mental Health Month. We partnered with Central City Concern for this production, offering free tickets to residents of their facilities in Old Town. Central to our ethos in working with organizations is that we dedicated a portion of our proceeds to the organization. As with A Christmas Carol, a portion of our ticket sales go to Central City Concern.
• Going forward, as we stage non-Shakespearean plays in a community where their needs are maybe not as immediately identifiable, we may encounter a set of challenges, but we believe that the best approach is to listen, learn, and be open to new approaches and perspectives. Perhaps we will let our conversations with the community dictate the play we choose, or perhaps casting is different than we expected once we understand our community better. For instance, we have been invited by the Portland Metro Chamber to be part of the opening of Darcelle Plaza in downtown Portland. As part of the planned “Summer of Love” to celebrate the opening, Rose City Stage will be presenting a series of workshops we are calling ‘Shakespeare Unbuttoned’ that will explore the ways Shakespeare played with identity and gender, both within the stories themselves and in the way actors bring those characters to life. Shakespeare’s plays are full of disguise, gender bending, and love discovered through transformation. Each workshop will include a short scene from one of Shakespeare’s ‘breeches’ plays (where female characters go in disguise as men—like As You Like It or Twelfth Night). We will also host a short interactive workshop or conversation exploring an aspect of that scene, and then the scene is performed again at the end, allowing the audience to experience it a second time through a new lens. We will also bring in prominent guest artists for each event, including members of Portland’s legendary Drag community. This project will culminate with a full production of As You LIke It, to be performed the first two weekends in September on the stage at Darcelle Plaza.

After casting two Lewis & Clark theatre alumni in your May production of Hamlet, do you see Rose City Stage Company serving as a professional “launchpad” for local graduates?

Lewis & Clark’s Theatre department recently earned the title: “Portland’s theatre factory!” We are exploring the idea of hiring student interns to help us with various aspects of the company, giving them valuable experience working with a small company as it grows.

Left to right: Seb Lockhart BA ’25, Rose City Stage Company Associate Artistic Director Ariel Puls, and John Aney BA ’88

One of L&C’s strategic imperatives is to connect more deeply with the greater Portland community. From your perspective as a founder, why is it vital for a liberal arts institution to be an active participant in the city’s arts scene, and how does a partnership with Rose City Stage Company help fulfill that mission?

It is essential, in our opinion, that arts organizations remain in conversation with the community in which they are located. These conversations require skills that are best offered in the liberal arts environment—critical thinking, problem solving, and a willingness to listen to differing viewpoints. In addition, the work we do is centered around the power of language and storytelling, both of which are featured heavily in a liberal arts education. As we say in our founding documents, Rose City Stage Company exists to bring people together—around great stories, in unexpected spaces, in service of something larger than the production itself, and we believe this work will be compelling to Lewis & Clark alumni and students.