Woman with a dog and man with sideburns surrounded by illustrated clouds and flowers.

We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming PHAME Teaching Artist Jason Rouse and beloved friend of PHAME Jessica Dart as this year’s PHAMEtastic MCs!

Jessica Dart was PHAME's Artistic Director from 2009 to 2015, and she's thrilled to be back co-MCing the gala with Jason. Recently, Jessica has been working as a freelance dramaturg and theatre artist with Portland area theatres including Theatre Vertigo, Oregon Children's Theatre's Young Professionals Company, The Giving Tree/Portland Center Stage, Well Arts, Playwrights West, and the Big Bridge Theatre Consortium at George Fox University. She is currently the Outreach & Communications Manager at CoHo Productions and an Associate Producer with Boom Arts.

I love PHAME because it's a place that creates opportunity for artists to learn, experiment, fail, and succeed in a supportive, inclusive environment. Those are experiences every artist needs to thrive. Plus, the PHAME students are just super cool and fun to hang out with! —Jessica

Jason Rouse is an actor, writer and director who spent seven years as the announcer, writer and associate producer for Live Wire with Luke Burbank from Public Radio International. As an actor he's appeared in feature films (Lean on Pete, Cabin Fever and the upcoming Timmy Failure, from Disney) and television shows (Grimm, Leverage, Angie Tribeca) and many, many commercials. He's performed on stages locally and in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. Jason joined PHAME as an actor for In a Single Breath in 2017, and that fall as a Teaching Artist for Podcasting (which he had edited and announced since its inception), Videography, and Improv.

I was lucky enough to work on “in a single breath” as an actor. I loved hanging out in the dressing rooms and being teased when I would forget my lines (which was often) and I appreciated the support I got when I would try to remember those lines. I've worked on a lot of shows but never one with such support from the cast. It has been a privilege to get to come back to PHAME as a teaching artist to continue my relationship with the students and faculty. —Jason

Welcome, Jessica and Jason! We can’t wait to see you up on stage at PHAMEtastic—PHAME’s Annual Gala on March 10!

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