Harrel made his professional stage debut on his 21st birthday in 1981 at Seattle's Brass Ring Theatre as Officer O'Hara in Joseph Kesselring's macabre comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace.
In 1986, he co-founded, with Cathy J. Lewis, a participatory theatre company called The Jupiter Players, which toured around the Portland area until 1988 and for which he wrote four plays.
[citation needed] During the fall and winter of 1988, Harrel's new play, Jack—a trauma from hell in seven scenes, was produced by Playback Theatre with him directing.
[clarification needed] The play was produced as a movie, which was scheduled to have its premiere as a cablecast on Multnomah County public-access television cable TV on May 26, 1989.
Along with Robin Suttles, they co-founded Stark Raving Theatre, which opened in March 1989 at a basement space in the Bull Ring Restaurant in northwest Portland.
As an actor, Harrel appeared in such plays as his own, Trial By Error, Cold Hands written by Paul Bernstein and Beidermann and the Firebugs.
From 1992 to 1994, Harrel produced and directed a 12-part series on Portland Cable Access that was created and written by E. Lauryl Nagode called The Gingerbread Man and starred Douglas Mouw.
The controversial series about a serial killer caused concern among public-access television cable TV administrators in the greater Portland area.
A memo about censoring public access programs that was distributed to cable operators mentioned The Gingerbread Man as a production depicting, "the life of a serial killer in his rape, mutilation and murder of victims.