{"id":3700,"date":"2026-10-18T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T23:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/puddletown-theatre-collective-launches-with-floyd-collins-and-a-rethink-of-who-gets-paid-and-how\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T19:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T23:15:06","slug":"puddletown-theatre-collective-launches-with-floyd-collins-and-a-rethink-of-who-gets-paid-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/puddletown-theatre-collective-launches-with-floyd-collins-and-a-rethink-of-who-gets-paid-and-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Puddletown Theatre Collective launches with “Floyd Collins” and a rethink of who gets paid \u2014 and how"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portland\u0019s newest troupe, Puddletown Theatre Collective<\/strong>, makes its first outing at 8 pm on Sunday, October 18 at Portland\u0019s First Congregational United Church of Christ<\/strong>, 1126 SW Park Ave. The one-night concert reading of Adam Guettel\u0019s<\/strong> 1994 musical Floyd Collins<\/em> is free with a suggested donation. Founder Chase Davidson<\/strong> leads the cast in the title role.<\/p>\n

Davidson has logged a couple of decades in theater across New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, including a national tour of Spring Awakening<\/em> (more than 700 performances over two years) after studying at the Boston Conservatory<\/strong>. His take on the industry is blunt: \u001cHardly any of them are operating as they should,\u001d he says, pointing to business models that leave artists struggling to sustain a livelihood. Since moving to Portland during the pandemic, he\u0019s been building an alternative.<\/p>\n

Rewiring the economics<\/h2>\n

Puddletown is organized as an LLC<\/strong>, a choice its business plan says gives working artists ownership and a direct say in the company\u0019s direction. That framework is designed to support approaches such as profit-sharing, project-based leadership, and artist-driven decision-making. Through fiscal sponsorship with Fractured Atlas<\/strong>, supporters can make tax-deductible contributions. Davidson traces inspiration to cooperative models from early touring troupes up through repertory companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries \u0014 outfits that shared proceeds rather than carrying the real-estate burden that often pushes ticket prices up without raising artist pay.<\/p>\n

Accessibility is personal for Davidson. \u001cI grew up working class,\u001d he says, recalling a single childhood trip to New York that packed in a few Broadway shows. \u001cIn the past 20 years, prices have really gotten out of control. I\u0019m just doing my part to make theater as accessible as can be.\u001d He\u0019s comfortable labeling Puddletown\u0019s approach with \u001cthe \u0018S\u0019 word\u001d \u0014 socialism \u0014 and describes admission as \u001calmost like kind of a trust system.\u001d<\/p>\n

The debut: a cave, a church, and a chamber band<\/h2>\n

Guettel\u0019s Floyd Collins<\/em> chronicles the 1925 ordeal of a Kentucky caver whose entrapment sparked a media frenzy and a national debate wrapped in class, greed, and exploitation. Davidson says the show moved him, and he expects the score\u0019s bluegrass- and country-tinged writing, with a \u001cquasi liturgical but not blatantly religious\u001d hue, to resonate in the venue\u0019s warm, woody chapel, better known for concerts than plays. The concert reading format keeps staging minimal: actors on scripts with live music from a seven-piece chamber orchestra<\/strong> conducted by company music director and veteran Portland theater musician Stephanie Smith<\/strong>, part of a 10-performer lineup.<\/p>\n

Instead of large sets, Puddletown leans on projections. Davidson was impressed by lighting director Stephen Eggers<\/strong> at the church, whose recent work on a Legends of Zelda<\/em> concert combined music and imagery. He brought Eggers aboard to create lighting and visuals for Floyd Collins<\/em>. \u001cIt feels like we\u0019re actually in the cave,\u001d Davidson says. Renting the church for the night cost $1500, a reminder of how unconventional spaces can trim expenses while shaping atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Davidson doesn\u0019t hide his ambitions beyond musicals, citing interest in a stage adaptation of Stephen King\u0019s Misery<\/em> in a vacant house and eyeing Urinetown<\/em> for Portland, where, he notes, class issues are \u001cnever not relevant.\u001d For now, this premiere is a proving ground for Puddletown\u0019s artistic and financial principles \u0014 and it happens to fall on his 41st birthday.<\/p>\n

V\u00eda orartswatch.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Puddletown Theatre Collective debuts at 8 pm on Sunday, October 18 with a free concert reading of Adam Guettel\u2019s Floyd Collins at Portland\u2019s First Congregational United Church of Christ, led by founder Chase Davidson and a seven-piece chamber orchestra conducted by Stephanie Smith. Organized as an LLC with fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas, the new company aims to share ownership and explore artist-centered pay structures while keeping admission accessible.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-now"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}