The Reformers tell stories not commonly seen on local stages, and have a good time doing it. Our original plays explore themes of fear, dread, and the unknown, all with a generous infusion of warped humor. We like to play with form, taking our audiences on site-specific journeys and fully immersing them in the worlds we build. We reject the popular notion that theater is a dying art form; rather, we think its image needs some reformation as a source of connection for everyone, no matter their backgrounds. We are:
Charmian Creagle (She/They) is a theatre maker who graduated from Southern Oregon University in the late 1990s. Moving to Portland after college, she joined the Other Side Theatre and later was a founding member of defunkt theatre where she directed several productions including Machinal, Ubu Roi and 3 Mutants by Lisa D’Amour. In 2000 she moved to NYC where she worked with members of Elevator Repair Service and Clubbed Thumb as well as becoming an associate director and acting/movement teacher for The Looking Glass Theatre, a female focused theatre company. She directed multiple productions for Looking Glass including Spring Awakening, a gender queer production of Brecht’s Baal and multiple iterations of her own devised piece Communicable Dis-ease. She moved back to Portland in 2009 where she and her spouse created a new company, The Reformers in 2012. They have created multiple experiential productions using devising, immersive environments, site specific locales and Reformer created scripts often landing on their favorite holiday – Halloween. She was a member of the Portland Drammy awards committee for 7 years. The Reformers are not a cult.
Sean D Lujan (He, Him) hails from New Mexico and Texas and earned his BFA in Theatre from the College of Santa Fe. He is an actor, writer, designer, and producer as well as a founding member of the multi-award winning theatres The Other Side Theatre and defunkt theatre here in Portland. During a ten year stint in the NYC area he and his spouse founded Pretention Co. and produced several productions including Ubu Roi. Sean worked with several companies including La Mama where he appeared in Gerald Thomas’ production of Anchorpectoris. After moving back to Portland Sean and his spouse founded The Reformers, whose unique productions include The Revenants [Drammy for Sound Design and Makeup], The Turn [Drammy finalist for Best Original Script], Haunted House and The Van. Recent credits include The Seafarer with Imago and In the Penal Colony at Portland Opera. He has worked with several local companies including CoHo Productions, Hand2Mouth and Artists Rep.