Altered States of America: A faux-documentary look at America’s love/hate relationship with psychoactive substances. Full-length drama. Twenty-nine mixed roles which can be played by a small ensemble. Performance: November-December 2003, Theatre! Theater!, Portland, Oregon; full production. November 2006, Vortex Theatre, Austin, Texas; staged reading.  Finalist for the 2004 Oregon Book Award.

Anniversary: A wife sets an unsettling dinner for her gagged, bound husband in a nearly wordless piece about revenge. Short one-act drama. One woman, one man. Performance: May 1992, Third Tuesday Theater, Portland, Oregon; staged reading.

Avalon: A wife struggles to reconcile her husband’s MIA status on the tenth anniversary of his disappearance.  Short one-act drama. One woman. Performance: July 2005, Portland Center Stage, Portland, Oregon; staged reading commissioned as part of the JAW/West New Works Festival.

Between the Lines: The lifelong friendship of two women is tested when their car dies at night in the Southwest American desert. Short one-act comedy-drama. Two women. Performance: May 1998, Stark Raving Theatre, Portland, Oregon; full production.

The Body: A grieving pathologist must conduct an autopsy on a corpse that looks uncannily like his deceased wife. Short one-act drama. Two women, one man. Performance: February 1997, Pavement Productions, Portland, Oregon; staged reading. September 2000, Pavement Productions, Portland, Oregon; staged reading. August 2001, Jobsite Theater, Tampa, Florida; full production; three-week run. February 2008, Performance Works Northwest, Portland, OR; full production; four-week run (part of Pavement Productions’ Dead of Winter production). October 2011, F.A.C.T., Wine and Words, Brooklyn, NY; staged reading.

The Calliope, Erato, and Melpelomeme Blues: Through the person of a naive art student, a nearly bankrupt art dealer who plans to leave New Orleans hears echoes of her early days in the city. Short one-act comedy-drama. Two women. Performance:  Staged reading at the Portland Area Theatre Alliance Festival in the Park, 1999.

Camisole: A painter and a businesswoman create a secret world in a passage linking their French Quarter apartments. Full length two-act drama. Two women, two men. Performance: March 1991, Sunday at Seven, Portland, Oregon; staged reading (excerpt). [Not available]

Controlled Burn: Through a series of interlinked monologues, an array of characters draw a picture of life in the American Southwest. Sections are arranged around earth, air, water, and fire. Full length one-act drama/performance piece. Five women, five men. Performance: September 1990, FUSE Gallery, Portland, Oregon; full production, two-week run. Portland Oregonian, 1990: “…a haunting, insightful script…. The language is expansive and poetic…. Patterson is a writer to watch…like Sam Shepard’s early work….”

Curl of Smoke: A psychiatrist’s patients begin having dreams with ominous common elements. Full length two-act drama. Four women, two men. Performance: May 1997, Portland Women’s Theatre, Portland, Oregon; staged reading.  [Not available]

Cybeleties: An wanna-be celebrity receives phone calls from the exceedingly fabulous. Short one-act comedy. One woman, one man. Performance: January 1993, Third Tuesday Theater, Portland, Oregon; staged reading.

Deuces: During Mardi Gras, a vacationing married couple are drawn into a bizarre poker game that threatens their marriage. One hour one-act comedy-drama. Two women, two men.  Available royalty-free for hurricane relief benefits.  Performance: Jobsite Theatre Katrina Hurricane Relief Benefit, Tampa, Florida; reading January 2006.  September 1993, ArtQuake Festival/Theatre on the Park, Portland, Oregon; full production. 1993, Beverly Hills Television, Beverly Hills, California; full production. JanuaryBFebruary 1993, Theatre 40, Beverly Hills, California; full production, eight-week run. Selected for the Theatre 40 One-Act Festival. October 1991, Third Tuesday Theater, Portland, Oregon; staged reading. Nominated for Oregon Book Award. July 1991, Eugene Playwrights Ensemble, Eugene, Oregon; staged reading. Los Angeles Times, 1993: “(the director) does well with the fireworks of the writing.”

Expatriates: (Adaptation.) In a cafe, stylish readings of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Djuna Barnes sketch Paris in the aftermath of World War I. Full length one-act drama/performance piece. Two women, four men. Performance: February 1994, Stark Raving Theatre, Portland, Oregon; full production, two-week run. [Not available]

Harold’s Been Sick: A chance encounter in a rural tavern turns very, very ugly.  Short one-act dark comedy.  Five men, one woman.  Commissed for Jobsite Theate show “Murder Ballads” based on the album of the same name by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.  Performance: August 2003, Jobsite Theatre, Tampa, Florida; full production, four-week run.

 Lounge Car Night: At the close of World War II, oddball characters on a train crossing the American Southwest fall for the charms of a couple of very unique con artists. Half hour one-act comedy-drama. Two women, three men.  University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 2005; full production.

 Northbound Train: A chance encounter on a train consoles a grieving son.  Short one-act comedy-drama. One woman, three men.  Performance: Vertigo Theatre, Portland, Oregon; a single night’s full production.  Published in Oregon Literary Review, Summer 2006.

 Object of Destruction: In a Vienna hospital, a World War II journalist confronts the civilian cost of war. Short one-act drama. Two women, one man. Performance: April 1992, LitEruption Book Fair, Portland, Oregon; staged reading.

Pathology: A police hostage negotiator stumbles into a conspiracy to spread a violence-producing virus among the public. Full-length drama. Seven women, six men. Performance: September 1999, Stark Raving Theatre; staged reading. [Not available]

Shelter: When a fading rock musician becomes snowbound with his ex-lover in a Pacific Northwest cabin, their respective histories and identities begin to blur. Full length two-act drama. Two women, three men. Performance: June-July 1993, Stark Raving Theatre, Portland, Oregon; staged reading, two-week run. [Not available]

Shooting Mexico: A hard-luck character faces an uncertain morning on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Short one-act drama. One man or one woman. Performance: May 1993, Third Tuesday Theater, Portland, Oregon; staged reading.

The Spider Wind: A long-estranged daughter returns home to her mother and her disturbed younger brother as Los Angeles is beset with Santa Ana winds and fires. Full length three-act drama. Three women, one man. Performance: December 1992, Paula Productions, Portland, Oregon; staged reading. [Not available]

The Submerged Country: Based on the life of surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, an artist recounts her husband’s progressive mental illness. Half hour one-act drama/performance piece. One woman. Performance: September 1991, ArtQuake Festival/Winningstad Theatre, Portland, Oregon; full production.

Temptation: In the Pacific Northwest, a writer and his sister-in-law spend an excruciating summer wrestling with their very obvious attraction for one another. One hour one-act comedy. One woman, two men. Performance: July-August 1996, Toad City Productions, Portland, Oregon; full production, four-week run.

Wet Paint: A séance goes awry when a woman’s friends band together to prove her house is not haunted.  Short one-act drama. Performance: February 2008, Performance Works Northwest, Portland, OR; full production; four-week run (part of Pavement Productions’ Dead of Winter production).

Whitechapel: An American expatriate in London suspects her flat is haunted by Jack the Ripper.  Short one-act drama.  Performance: Winner of the Sam Bass Theatre Festival in Round Rock (Austin), Texas, May 2003; full production.  October 2003, Readers Theatre Repertory, Portland, Oregon; staged reading. February 2008, Performance Works Northwest, Portland, OR; full production; four-week run (part of Pavement Productions’ Dead of Winter production).

Awards:

Immaterial Matters: Oregon Book Award finalist for drama, 2013.

Lost Wavelengths: Oregon Book Award winner for drama, 2008.

Delusion of Darkness: Wins five University of Canterbury Madcap awards for dramatic achievement, 2005.

Altered States of America: Oregon Book Award finalist for drama, 2004.

Whitechapel:Winner of the Sam Bass Theatre Festival in Round Rock (Austin), Texas, May 2003.

Deuces: Theatre 40’s one-act festival winner, 1993.

Bombardment:Oregon Book Award finalist for drama, 1992.

Grants:

Next of Kin: Awarded Multnomah Country Regional Arts and Culture Council grant for a workshop through Portland Theatre Works, 2010.

Turquoise and Obsidian: Awarded the $1,000 Portland Civic Theatre Guild Fellowship for research.

Liberation: Received a $15,000 production grant from the Flint Ridge Foundation.

Professional Memberships:

The Dramatists Guild of America: 1993 to present. Portland Regional Co-Representative from 2009 to 2013.

Playwright West Theatre Company: Founding member of playwright-driven theatre company dedicated to producing its members’ work, 2009 to present.

Portland Center Stage PlayGroup Playwrights Workshop: 2005 to 2009.

Northwest Playwrights Guild: Member. Board Member and Outreach Coordinator; 1992 to 1993.