Paul Susi has been making The Great Minotaur for a long time.
In what he calls “a living digression”, he covers emergency homeless shelters in Portland, the inescapable labyrinth of immigrant identity, and confronting the monstrousness of being. In it, he draws from his whole identity, his work, and his research into Portland’s checkered past.
I first saw Paul perform a one-person show in the old Action-Adventure space, just off the then-new Orange Line MAX tracks. Each time a train came by, the sound of its horn barely muffled by the roll-up garage door of the former auto-mechanics room, Paul stopped in the middle of his line and bellowed back “I’M GETTING TO IT, JUST HOLD ON”. That performance ended with Paul slicing a wineskin open over his head, sacrificing and cleansing and rebirthing himself each night. I am so excited to see where The Great Minotaur will take us.
More on Paul:
Paul Susi (he/him) is a theater artist, an educator, a writer, social services professional, and an activist, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. As an actor, he has appeared onstage with the NW Classical Theatre Collaborative, Anon It Moves / String House, Shaking the Tree Studios, Push Leg, The Forgery, Island Stage Left, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Vermont Stage Company, Teatro Solo/Boom Arts, as well as in self-produced, original work. In 2018-2019, Paul toured “An Iliad” to over 30 prisons, community centers, places of worship, and theaters throughout Oregon with NW Classical Theatre Collaborative and singer/songwriter Anna Fritz.
For five years, Paul specialized in managing new emergency homeless shelters for Transition Projects, with experience in opening and / or closing 6 different shelter programs during that time. Paul currently serves as a Conversation Project Facilitator for Oregon Humanities, and as a Peer Resource Navigator for Portland Street Medicine. He is working on a project commemorating Chee Gong, a migrant worker wrongfully hanged for a murder he didn’t commit in 1889, and buried in an unmarked grave at the historic Lone Fir Cemetery (this project made possible by the generous support of the Oregon Community Foundation). More info at www.paulsusi.wordpress.com.
Paul Susi will be performing his piece “THE GREAT MINOTAUR” as part of the mainstage event of our 2024 Festival of New Performance – June 21st through 23rd, 7pm each night.