Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Try your 'Luck' with this classic play at PCC

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – In remembrance of Arthur Miller’s passing, PCC is presenting Miller’s first professionally produced play, “The Man Who Had All the Luck.” Adapted from a novel by Miller of the same name, the 1944 play is now considered a long-forgotten classic.

“This is a timeless story and it resonates as much today as it did back in 1944 when it premiered on Broadway,” said Michael Najjar, theater arts instructor and the play’s director. “I had seen, ‘The Man Who Had All the Luck,’ in Los Angeles several years ago and thought that it would be a challenging play for actors and designers.”

PCC Theater Arts will tour the play at each of the three comprehensive campuses Sylvania (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.), Rock Creek (17705 N.W. Springville Rd.) and Cascade (705 N. Killingsworth St.).

The production will premiere at Sylvania’s Little Theatre at 7:30 p.m. from May 11-13. There will be a special matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 14. The play will move to the Rock Creek Forum at 7:30 p.m. from May 18-20 with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 21. The show will wrap up its tour at Cascade’s Daniel F. Moriarty Arts & Humanities Building at 7:30 p.m. from June 1-3. The play will conclude its run with a 2 p.m. show on Sunday, June 4.

“Ever since I arrived at PCC Sylvania I wanted to see the theatrical spaces at the other campuses utilized,” Najjar said. “Nature hates a vacuum, and a vacant theatre is such a vacuum. A theatrical space is meant to be utilized, to be filled with performers and audiences. PCC has many great performance spaces … wonderful things can happen in these venues, and we are touring this show to prove that point.”

“The Man Who Had All the Luck” follows the life of David Beeves, an auto mechanic, whose luck suddenly changes through a chain of mysterious and inexplicable events. After his unbelievably good luck, Beeves begins questioning why he should be so lucky and others so unfortunate. After a calamitous storm that threatens to take away everything Beeves holds dear, his faith is renewed by the birth of his child and the acceptance that his fate was not accidental after all.

“It is a complex drama and it asks a very important question: Can a person control their own destiny?” Najjar said. “Living in America, this is a very important question because most of us believe that we are masters of our own fate. The problem with that theory is that fate is uncontrollable.”

The student cast includes Brian Culp (northeast Portland) as David Breeves, Libby Anderson as Hester, Nick Fuller (Lake Oswego), Danny Fishback (Banks), Joshua Wagner, John Alve (Hillsboro), Anne Applegate (northwest Portland), Charles Bonds (northwest Portland), Clayton Pearce, David Gallic (Vancouver, Wash.) and Kambiz Kolkoo (Iran). The designers include Margaret Chapman (Costume), Robert Tollefson (Set Design) and Mike Stanfill (Lighting Design).

“Rehearsals are great because I’m working with a tremendously talented and committed group of actors,” Najjar said. “They are all devoted to their classes, they’re working on our Student One Act Festival, they have outside jobs, and they are rehearsing this play. Despite their busy lives, they arrive every day ready to rehearse and we get a lot done in a short amount of time.”

Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors, students and college staff. For more information call the PCC Box Office at 503-977-4949 or visit the Theatre Arts Production Web site (www.pcc.edu/theatre). It’s a play the community won’t want to miss.

“We have great communities living and working around these campuses that look to PCC to provide them with the finest in education and cultural events,” said Najjar. “Hopefully, this tour will interest those audiences and will invite them in to see how great PCC is for those communities and for Portland itself.”