Hillsboro, OR – After nearly 15 years of leadership, Bag&Baggage Productions’ Founding Artistic Director Scott Palmer is leaving the organization to take the helm of Company of Fools Theatre Company in Sun Valley, Idaho. To honor his past leadership, and to ensure the continuation of his legacy of adapting classical literature for the stage, Bag&Baggage’s Board of Directors has announced the creation of The Scott Palmer Founders Fund; a dedicated fund that will support future productions of the kinds of adaptations that have made Palmer famous throughout the country.
“Since founding B&B in 2004, Scott has led the organization from a small touring company, to a scrappy suburban upstart theatre, to now, a nationally recognized Hillsb oro institution,” said Gayle Nachtigal, the Chair of the B&B Board of Directors. “Scott’s time, passion, and leadership have truly made B&B what it is today, and has brought the life-changing experience of live, professional theatre to thousands of audience members throughout the region.”
The Board of Directors announced The Founder’s Fund on January 25, 2019 at the company’s annual Burns Night Supper. Cassie Greer, B&B’s Associate Artistic Director said at the event, “To honor Scott’s work, and to preserve his legacy, we are proud tonight to announce The Scott Palmer Founder’s Fund. For everyone who has been touched by Scott’s work as a director and adaptor, we ask you to make a generous donation to the fund so that B&B can continue to create ground-breaking, world premiere adaptations of classical work that have been such a crucial part of our success.”
Donations to the fund will be placed in a dedicated account, a kind of endowment, that will help fund at least one major literary adaptation in each future Bag&Baggage season. During the Burns Night Supper, patrons contributed more than $16,000 towards B&B’s final goal of $40,000 for the fund. As Palmer begins the process of leaving B&B, the Board and staff hope to reach their first-year goal of $40,000 by March 1, 2019; Palmer’s last day as the Artistic Director.
Greer said, “The fund will support projects like a major reworking of a Shakespearean play, an adaptation of a novel or other work of literature, or the commissioning of a new play based on classical world literature - the kind of work Scott is best known for creating and championing.”