Willamette Week Interview with Abby Pierce + Ian Greenfield

Williamette Week Interview with Gladden Schrock

Meet the Disconnect
One of the more provocative theater/artist groups around, Lightbox Studio, presents an evening of hot party action to help fund their ever-growing creative enterprise. Music from Mongolian punkers Koto y Soto and old standards Shicky Gnarowitz, and 'performance intrusions' from Lightbox regulars Ian Greenfield, Jason Eksuzian, and Kelley Bryant. Plenty of booze as well, and yes, the party really does go all night long.
—Justin Sanders, Portland Mercury, August 14th, 2003

Richard Foreman Mini-Festival
Our favorite scene was provided by Lightbox Studio's Jason Eksuzian, who invited audiences to read from the Foreman text Roly Poly. The sentence prompt would launch Kelley Bryant and Orianna Herman into feral spurts of action as cowgirl crooners, pro wrestlers and giggly headcases—each ending with Eksuzian's deadpan, slightly concerned 'Thank You.'
—Kelly Clarke, Willamette Week, August 13th, 2003

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
McGuinness' play lends its voice to hoping (cultural) differences can be overcome and that we can reach a point of recognizing our shared humanity: a potent message in these days of religious and governmental fanaticism. Ian Greenfield's production is expertly paced and completely involving, and he has three fine performers.
—Steffen Silvis, Willamette Week, December 11th, 2002

Lightbox Studio presents a thoughtful, moving production of Frank McGuinness' play about three hostages (an American, an Irishman and a Brit) held by Arab militants in Lebanon – each chained to a different wall in a small, windowless room. The play probes the terror and uncertainty these characters share and relates the games they play to divert themselves from horrendous circumstances. Under Ian Greenfield's direction, Devan McCoy as an American doctor struggling to maintain his stoic facade, Matt Pillischer as a fiery Irish journalist and Darius Pierce as a seemingly naive English educator all do excellent work.
—Richard Wattenberg, The Oregonian, December 13th, 2002

Portland Lures 'Creative Class'
An ambitious group of Bennington College graduates started this multimedia group, which specialized in an intense, physical brand of theater rarely seen in Portland. "We were looking for a place to have the most influence quickly," says Greenfield, a returning native Oregonian. "There's a lot of people exploring. They're open to collaboration and not bogged down in organizations. There's not a lot of huge foundations for funding, but people are interested in having art in their lives. The audiences are very intelligent. You rarely hear the generic 'I loved it.'"
—Randy Gragg, The Oregonian, December 1st, 2002

Wings
With Arthur Kopit's 1978 play, Lightbox Studio takes audiences into the skewed world of the stroke-stricken character Emily Stilson. Heather Beckett skillfully traces this woman's troubled efforts to come to terms with the horrifying isolation resulting from the loss of language and memory. Beckett is especially successful in portraying the inner strength and resilient courage that drives this one-time aviator and 'wing-walker.' Director Jason Eksuzian's original video and Sam Kusnetz's sound design bring a vivid sense of Stilson's fractured inner life to Ohm's small stage.
—Richard Wattenberg, The Oregonian, October 8th, 2002

Taps
There are two things that make being a theater critic worthwhile: discovering exceptional plays that are unknown to you and finding new, surprising artists. Lightbox Studio's production of Gladden Schrock's witty tour de force Taps offers both…an exciting evening that reminds one of theater's possibilities
—Steffen Silvis, Willamette Week, February 27th, 2002

This is a thoughtful and earnest production…one can't help but be intrigued.
—Richard Wattenberg, The Oregonian, February 28th, 2002

The Invitation
Lying on her back, her knees propped up, (Maga) gives birth to a love child produced from an affair with a lobster. With the air still unsettled, a giant catfish saunters on, center stage, waltzing and mawing to the soothing sounds of Al Green's 'Tired of Being Alone.' It is an oddly touching and insightful scene, as if Salvador Dali had directed an episode of Ally McBeal, only the main character is full-bodied and darkly beautiful.
—Phile Busse, Portland Mercury, January 31st, 2002

Scape and Tentative Balance
Abigail Pierce explores the frailty and strength of petticoat netting in her ephemeral installation, Scape, at the Metropolitan Art Studio in Northeast Portland.
— A&E, The Oregonian, June 30, 2000

Pods and Grids is arresting. It has a hushed quality—an eerie stillness. The pods convey a palpable sense of a landed fish gasping, or of a bird's ribcage rising and falling as it breathes. These delicate beings hang in precarious relationship to the sharp tensile stength of grid and wire.
— Daniel Duford, Willamette Week, June 14, 2000

Riders to the Sea
Each time (Liz Weber) moves forward, she lets out a sigh that is more a pained cough than a relief, it is a gripping show of what emotion looks like… The primary shortcoming of the piece is it's length: It's too short…like waking up from a dream about gorging on a grand feast only to be still hungry. Riders to the Sea is a captivating and enchanting forty minutes.
— Phil Busse, Portland Mercury, April 12, 2001

Director Ian Greenfield and his cast have developed a physical vocabulary to express the emotions of three women as they survive the installments of loss brought by the sea. This is a thoughtful and inspiring interpretation.
— Steffen Silvis, Willamette Week, April 18, 2001

Director Ian Greenfield offers adventurous Portland theatregoers a stylized studio production of John Millington Synge's one-act masterpiece Riders to the Sea…imbued with refreshing earnestness.
— Richard Wattenberg, The Oregonian, April 12, 2001


Awards
In 2001 Lightbox Studio, then Catamount Theatre, received the Drammy Award for Set Design. The award was given by Portland-area theatre critics