August 9, 2018
The Anonymous Diaries by Bennett Campbell
Oregon ArtsWatch

"No one can know exactly what will happen when Lysander says that first line. Anonymous is a company built on leaps of faith. Which prompts the question: Would Lysander take that leap once more and join another Anonymous production? 'In a heartbeat,' they say without hesitation. 'It’s this great opportunity to truly prepare as much as you can and then just give yourself over to a moment. And everyone’s there in that moment and everyone’s rooting for you. I think anytime you can have that opportunity to just give yourself over to the tide of this art that’s happening, you should take it.'"

August 7, 2018
Guess Who? Anonymous Theatre!
Adventures in Artslandia Podcast with Susannah Mars

Susannah: Hi... Actor. Tell me: what is it like to work on Anonymous?
Actor: (voice disguised) Working on Anonymous is a particular sort of thrill and fear. The trepidation and the anticipation, working with material in this kind of way, is something completely unparalleled, to say the least. I can tell you, just thinking about it right now is making my body flood with adrenaline. 
 

August 8, 2017
Defying disaster, flying high by Bob Hicks
Oregon ArtsWatch

"It was theater. It was comedy. It was song and dance. And from the reaction of the audience at Monday night's performance of Urinetown by Anonymous Theatre Company, it was sports all the way. The sold-out crowd in the mainstage auditorium at The Armory clapped and roared and hollered, cheering loudly every time an actor rose from among the audience, shouted out a line of dialogue, and hustled up to the stage to play ball with the rest of the cast. It was edge-of-the-seat stuff, a little like watching game seven of the NBA championships with the outcome still on the line..."

August 4, 2017
Who’s on first? Anonymously yours by Bob Hicks
Oregon ArtsWatch

"What is it that draws so many performers and theater fans to this perilous and unlikely undertaking? Surely the challenge of overcoming pitfalls is part of it. And oddly, trust – the most important thing that rehearsal is supposed to build among a cast of actors – is also central to the Anonymous experience. The actors must trust that on this one-night-only occasion the other actors will help them out and pass the ball around. The director and choreographer and music director must trust that everything will mesh. For everyone, blind faith kicks in: the belief that one’s training, attention, and instincts will overcome the lack of ordinary preparation, and that something vivid will be created in real time. Ideally, the challenge of getting it right creates an intensity of focus onstage that carries the proceedings deeply into the moment, creating intimacy and attentive reaction as the performance goes along..."

July 24, 2017
Preview: Urinetown by Dennis Sparks
All Things Performing Arts

"It’s quite an adrenaline rush for the actors, I’m sure, and the audience as well. I have seen a couple of their once-a-year shows in the past and it is amazing how well the cast blends together, as if they’ve been doing this for weeks. But that is partly because of the actor’s dream (and nightmare) that, no matter what, the show must go on..."

August 4, 2015
Actors, Anonymous by Allie Donahue
The Willamette Week

"It's like going to a tent revival."

July 22, 2015
Preview: The Real Inspector Hound by Dennis Sparks
All Things Performing Arts

"But that brings up the question, then how do you psych yourself up for such an experience?  'George's' offbeat answer was, 'My balls are the size of peanuts right now. Embracing the crazy is the way to tame it.'" 

August 23, 2014
Improvisation the key to success in Anonymous Theatre by Ginger Moshofsky
The Oregonian

"'It was seat of the pants back behind the stage. There were lots of little things that weren't obvious to the audience,' said Bartholomew. 'I had the best seat in the house. We are on stage and we don't know who is going to join us. At intermission we introduced ourselves. It was so oddly backwards.'"

August 9, 2012
Anonymous Theatre: Hello, Are you an actor in this play? by Emily Stevens
Oregon ArtsWatch

"Fellows emphasizes the important role Anonymous has played in building community among theater lovers in Portland. 'It’s a different kind of energy, and everybody is just on everybody’s side. It’s a real affirmation of the theater community in this town,  a celebration of every person who goes up there. It’s a great energy. It’s a great energy that night. It just buzzes.'"

June 8, 2009
Anonymous actors bring fresh identity to 'Macbeth' by Marty Hughly
The Oregonian

"'We've done this -- what -- seven or eight times?,' Anonymous Darius Pierce said in introduction. 'And even at that, I still can't believe what we're about to do.' So how would this serious and challenging classic hold up to such a makeshift delivery system? Magnificently, it turned out. ...No more secrets: This was one to shout about."

April 3, 2007
Unscripted 'Forum' Plays for Effect by Margie Boule
The Oregonian

"Director Jim Crino e-mailed all stage directions to cast members, then met with each once or twice for individual rehearsals. 'It was like having a secret affair with 20 people at the same time,' Jim says. [...] There was a lot of high-energy teamwork going on backstage, the actors say. 'It reminded me of when I used to be a waiter,' Jeff says, when he'd be calm in front of customers and frenetic in the kitchen. Actors handed each other props and ran to catch falling sets. Several studied scripts, frantically looking for their next entrances. Once, an actor realized someone standing nearby was supposed to be on stage and rather assertively pushed him in the right direction."

March 23, 2007
To Do Monday: Anonymous Theatre! by Ben Waterhouse
The Willamette Week

"It isn't often that you get an opportunity to see professional actors give entirely spontaneous performances. Weeks of rehearsal make all but the finest artists set in their reactions, but Monday's show will have none of that. Some of these folks may never have met before, and they can't help but give a fresh, new and potentially disastrous performance. I'm predicting one part genius and one part hilarious train wreck. Find out for yourself. Go!"

May 5, 2006
Anonymous Theatre Interview by Justin Wescoat Sanders
The Portland Mercury

"Q: Is the idea of performing a play without having rehearsed with, or even met your fellow actors, kind of terrifying? A: My feelings have swung from abject terror to a kind of intoxicated exhilaration, much like someone about to embark on their first parachute jump."

May 5, 2005
Anonymous Theatre by Justin Wescoat Sanders
The Portland Mercury

"Actors rarely get to perform these kind of exhilarating stunts, and audiences rarely get to see them. If the stunt fails, it will fail magnificently, like a daredevil misjudging his leap across that canyon, falling like a dying firefly into a seething abyss."