David Mitchum Brown

I am delighted to have played John Wheatley, Archibald Bell, and the Rev. John Moorhead in the May '23 WORLD PREMIER of Paul Oakley Stovall's Written By Phillis at Quintessence Theatre in Philadelphia! This beautiful play tells the story of the remarkable Phillis Wheatley Peters, who in 1773 became the first African woman to have a published book of original poetry. I hope you got to see it!

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Right in the middle of our biggest snowstorm in decades, February '23, I got to spend a day playing holier-than-thou Rev. Childreth in writer and director Zac Locke's Santa Isn't Real. Despite everyone's concern about getting trapped by the weather, the entire team made it a productive and fun experience.

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I had a great time in Fall '22 playing Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, another bucket-list role.

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In June and July '22, I had the pleasure of doing a couple of quick camera-work projects: the first installment in a new trilogy of films from Jason Hawkins (Cinema Drifter, LLC) and a fun recruitment video styled as a spoof of the "Naked and Afraid" series.

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I got some great news when I returned to my room after seeing the terrific Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in March '22: As it turns out, I stayed in NYC for a few more days to attend a callback!

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I was thrilled to be in New York City for a week in March '22, rehearsing and performing in a concert of songs from the new musical, A Symphony for Portland, at the famed Feinstein's/54 Below on March 24th.

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It was announced in January '22 that Twilight Theater Company's production of A Feminine Ending, by Sarah Treem, had just won two 2021 Broadway World Portland Awards: BEST PLAY and, for artistic director Dorinda Toner, BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY.

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In October '21, after nearly a year and a half away, we completed our run of Sarah Treem’s charming A Feminine Ending (see below) at Twilight Theatre Company. We had already received a terrific review, and now we've received another—thank goodness for the return of live theatre!

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In mid-October '20, I wrapped for The Bleeding Dark, written and directed by Jason Hawkins, with horror effects by Hollywood legend Joe Castro. The film is in post, so keep an eye out for it—you’ll see a first, for me!

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The talented young producers of the Hetero web series posted the first scene of Episode 1.

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In September '20, I got to perform in a new musical by choir director Christina Hemphill. A Symphony for Portland was recorded remotely by more than a dozen individual singers, whose voices and video images were beautifully mixed with orchestration and inserted into a live online reading of the book. It was a unique experience that the audience really seemed to enjoy. I hope the show gets a full production, sometime soon.

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I was pleased to head up to the Seattle area, in early August '20, to play the primary antagonist in the upcoming Third Charm Films web series, Hetero. My Media page includes a link to a snoppet of Episode 1, now that the series is online!

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I was thrilled to be cast as Max Detweiler in the Fall '20 presentation of The Sound of Music at Clackamas Rep...and soon disappointed to hear that the company has cancelled its '20–'21 season because of COVID. The silver lining is that they’re doing the same season, including The Sound of Music, a year later, so I’ve already booked my first gig for Fall of 2021!

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Opening on Friday the 13th (March '20); temporarily suspended on Saturday; and shuttered on Sunday, for having more than the limit of 25 seats: Sarah Treem’s A Feminine Ending at Twilight Theatre Company had already received a terrific review, and we had hoped to be back after a week or two, but it soon became clear that it’d be months before it was safe to reopen. I was glad we’d get to finish the run of this sweet little story and that you’d get another chance to see it.

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I had a blast singing and dancing in the ensemble of A Christmas Story, playing for just two weekends in December '19 in Salem’s beautifully restored Elsinore Theatre.

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In August '19, I played Captain Brackett in the Clackamas Repertory Theatre production of South Pacific, and the show was a great success, with all but one performance playing to a sold-out house. I’d had a blast playing FDR in Annie there, in '18, so an enthusiastic “Yes!” was my immediate answer when they asked whether I was interested in working with them again. I was delighted to learn later that Sarah DeGrave and Adam Elliott Davis would be in this production!

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I hope you caught Lyon Theatre’s 2019 production of Tigers Be Still, a sweet and funny story of unlikely optimism in the face of setbacks.

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It was a rewarding five-week run of the Stumptown Stages production of Urinetown in March of 2019. I loved working with Jennifer Anne Davies, Doug Zimmerman, and Ron Harman again, along with making a whole cast’s and crew’s worth of new friends! Here’s how we were reviewed in The Oregonian.

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After the 2018 holidays, I enjoyed performing in a concert presentation of the up-and-coming musical disconnected by Chris Rentzel (music and lyrics) and Gayle Towell (book), part of the 10th annual Fertile Ground Festival. The music is lovely, and all three performances were sold out!

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A closing-weekend case of laryngitis notwithstanding, I had great fun with Twilight Theatre Company in its December '18 production of The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig. I played the actor, playwright, and entrepreneur William Gillette, a long-time friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in this comedic whodunnit.

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I had the good fortune to have assembled a terrific cast for my first project as a director, the Portland Civic Theatre Guild October '18 concert reading of Foxfire by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn. It featured Virginia Kincaid, Benjamin Tissell, Del Lewis, Tiffany Groben, and Alex Trull. I hope you were able to join us!

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I played author and playwright PG Wodehouse in a lightly staged reading of the latest play from local historian and playwright David Ritchie.

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I was happy and grateful to have been invited to play FDR in Clackamas Repertory Theatre’s terrific production of Annie in August '18, especially because it gave me the chance to work with Cassi Kohl, Jon Quesenberry, and Sarah DeGrave again!