Brooke Totman spent a decade away from acting, feeling like she'd failed her childhood self.

Now the 52-year-old former MADtv cast member is opening a 4,500-square-foot theater in a converted SE Portland winery, six blocks from the acting studio where the idea took shape.

100 Lives Theatre holds an open house Saturday, Aug. 15, at 2025 S.E. Seventh Ave., the former home of Helioterra Wines. The event is free and open to all, with a DJ, margaritas and beer. The company's first production at the new venue opens Friday, Oct. 23.

Totman and co-founder Annie Kehoe, 44, built 100 Lives around a specific mission: raw, emotionally honest work featuring women artists over 40. The company champions what it calls "depth over flash, experience over novelty, and connection over comfort."

The pair outgrew their previous home at Spotlight Theatre, which had 32 seats, 8-foot ceilings, no green room, no air conditioning and electricity that blew out during slideshows. The new space, with 18-foot ceilings, includes a 54-seat main stage, a 30-seat black box, a mezzanine balcony, a stainless-steel bar, a full kitchen and an upstairs rehearsal room.

"I went in and just turned on the razzle-dazzle and talked to [the owner] about my mission and went to the building every night before class and touched it," Totman told the Portland Tribune about securing the lease despite other applicants ahead of her in line.

The conversion was funded through community donations of money, materials and time.

Totman called it "a village" effort.

Totman grew up in Southern Oregon, studied theater at the University of Oregon and spent nearly a decade in Los Angeles, where she joined The Groundlings and landed roles on MADtv, King of Queens and Portlandia. She returned to Portland and stepped away from performing for 10 years before a Portland Playhouse audition reignited her career. She has taught sketch and improv for nine years, starting at Curious Comedy Theater.

Kehoe, classically trained with a BFA from Ithaca College, came to Portland from Chicago, where she co-founded LastMatch Theatre Company. She joined one of Totman's acting classes and the two discovered a shared appetite for gutsy, character-driven work.

They founded 100 Lives in February 2025 alongside a third co-founder, Blaine Palmer, 71, who joined Totman's outdoor acting class during the pandemic. The company name comes from Duncan Macmillan's 2015 play People, Places and Things, in which a character says she wants to live 100 lives.

Their inaugural production, Craig Wright's Orange Flower Water, ran at Spotlight Theatre and won 2025 Broadway World awards for Best Performance in a Play (Totman) and Best Direction (Kehoe). Totman told the Tribune one audience member emailed afterward to say the play prompted her to divorce her husband.

Speaking to Willamette Week in September 2025, Kehoe framed the company's mission in broader terms: "We're just reversing ageism through storytelling."

Executive director Cat Plein, who co-founded the 4-million-member Pantsuit Nation community, rounds out the leadership team alongside literary manager Jonathan Hoonhout, former co-artistic director of Washington Ensemble Theatre.

The open house Saturday, Aug. 15, is at 2025 S.E. Seventh Ave. Details and the upcoming season schedule are at 100livesrep.org.