The Fremont, Our New Home

Back to The Future!

As our 12th season approaches, Portland Story Theater is excited to be moving to a new venue: the beautiful, brand-new Fremont Theater! After two full seasons at the cavernous, 375-seat Alberta Abbey, we are stoked to be moving back to a smaller, more intimate space.

Located at the corner of NE 24th and Fremont, just nine blocks from Portland Story Theater’s home studio and office, The Fremont will seat 120, and is the perfect size for the type of storytelling we do: eye to eye, face to face, and heart to heart. Performing at The Fremont will be a return to that wonderful sense of intimacy we used to have at Hipbone Studio, where it was kind of like a big living room and the teller was never more than twenty feet away from the farthest listener in the back row. The Fremont will feature a state-of-the-art sound system, comfortable seating, a full bar, a small but tasty menu, great acoustics and the perfect ambiance for our real, true stories.

It was really sort of miraculous how it all came about. The exterior of the handsome brick building on Fremont – known as Lyon’s Court – was completed about a year ago, but then sat unoccupied for quite a while. Lynne and I used to drive past it all the time and wonder about what was going to move in there. Often we would joke, “the future home of Portland Story Theater!”

But it really was just a joke until the day we got a phone call from our dear friend and PST collaborator and board member, Penny Walter, the famous puppeteer. Penny told us that her old friend Johnny Keener was going to open up a music venue in that space! We met Johnny, and then we met his partner, Dave Shur. Turns out that Dave went to college with our son, Scott, and played music with him in a now-legendary twelve-piece band called DoDecca. What are the chances?

We liked both Johnny and Dave immediately, and they seemed really eager to have their new venue be the home of Portland Story Theater, for the sense of community that it would bring to the neighborhood and the venture. A deal was struck, and, voila! Here we are. We could not be more delighted or excited about moving to this beautiful and intimate space.

The Fremont is primarily going to be a music venue, so keep an eye out for some wonderful musical happenings there. Oh, and a word to the wise: with its smaller capacity, Portland Story Theater’s shows at The Fremont are certain to sell out, so be sure to buy your tickets in advance!