Meet the Fig Tree Committee
Based in Portland, Oregon, The Fig Tree Committee has been working together to bring powerful performances to the people who need them most since 2018. Most of the audiences who have seen our production of An Iliad have been adults in custody, but it’s central to our work that we also perform public shows, to keep the inside and outside connected to each other.
An Iliad was written by Lisa Peterson & Denis O’Hare
Directed by Patrick Walsh
Music composed by Anna Fritz
Performed by Paul Susi & Anna Fritz
Production Management by Lyndsay Hogland
Conversation Facilitators include: Julia Waters, Emily Squires, and Douglas Detrick
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Paul Susi
Paul Susi is a theater artist, educator, writer, social services professional, and activist. As an actor, he has appeared onstage with the NW Classical Theatre Collaborative, Anon It Moves / String House, Shaking the Tree Studios, Push Leg, The Forgery, Island Stage Left in the San Juans, WA, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Vermont Stage Company, Teatro Solo/Boom Arts, as well as in self-produced, original work.
Paul has served on the Boards of Directors for numerous cultural nonprofits, including Streetbooks and Cerimon House, and as Co-Chair of the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and as Executive Director of Portland Actors Ensemble / Shakespeare in the Parks.
For five years, Paul specialized in managing new emergency homeless shelters for Transition Projects. He currently serves as a Conversation Project Facilitator for Oregon Humanities, and is working on a project commemorating Chee Gong, a migrant worker wrongfully hanged for a murder he didn’t commit in 1889, and buried in an unmarked grave at the historic Lone Fir Cemetery.
Anna Fritz
Anna Fritz is a cellist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her background includes a rigorous classical training, culminating as a student of Uri Vardi at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Anna is a founding member of Portland Cello Project, with whom she toured nationally for seven years, sharing stages with the Dandy Warhols, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Garrison Keillor (on Prairie Home Companion), Reggie Watts, and many others.
As a studio musician, her cello work has been featured in films and on numerous albums from artists such as The Decemberists, First Aid Kit, and Madison Cunningham. Anna tours widely as a solo folksinging cellist with three of her own studio albums. Her original songs are used as political anthems and intimate prayers, touching on themes of colonization, gender, climate, and connection with the natural world.
As a Quaker with a music ministry, Anna leads programs for spiritual communities and as a composer, has written scores for two plays. She teaches private cello lessons and has maintained a studio of students in Portland, Oregon since 2007.
Lyndsay Hogland
Lyndsay has worked behind the scenes to support artists for over 25 years, helping to coordinate events, performances, exhibits, and cultural initiatives all over the world. She has helped manifest several large-scale festivals, including as the Director of the Portland Winter Light Festival and as the Production Manager / Technical Director of the Platform International Animation Festival, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts (PICA), BodyVox, Profile Theatre Project, and the Romanian-style circus Cicuri Curajul.
For over a decade she served as the Program Director for PlayWrite, Inc., an organization that conducts writing workshops for marginalized youth. Since 2018, she’s been working with The Red Door Project, using the power of theater to explore issues of race and police profiling. She serves on the Board of Directors for the AFRU Gallery, Portland’s last, truly punk rock organization, is a Resident Artist at the Zymoglyphic Museum, and believes strongly in fighting every day for the world we want to live in.