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• ASHLAND SHAKESPEER PLUS

Then a stroll to study window menus for dinner: French, ethnic and continental fare is offered in several dozen bistros, pubs and upscale venues. Ashland Bistro Café (ABC) is time-honored, with good heavier-breakfast fare and newspapers to peruse. Each month’s First Friday Art Walk gives viewers a taste of what Ashlanders consider “one of the best small art towns in America.” Art lovers and theater insiders enjoy regular backstage tours with expert lectures on set building and costume design.Ī typical Ashland day begins with a cup of European-style coffee and homemade local berry Danish at Mix, a new coffee shop on the plaza. Some of my favorites are David Bjurstrom Studio, with intriguing pencil and graphite drawings Hanson Howard Gallery with contemporary painting and sculpture and the Living Gallery with an impressive showing of Pacific Northwest glass and bronze. Hiking, biking, fishing and white-water rafting compete with wine tastings and historical walking tours, all enhanced by an enticing Mediterranean climate.Ī lively visual arts scene lures strollers into galleries. While the play’s the thing, the cultural offerings of Ashland complement the town’s natural beauty and Rogue Valley’s outdoor enticements. proves that American theater is alive and well far from Broadway. As one of the country’s finest regional theaters, O.S.F. Regulars mingle with actors in bars and eateries, discussing the challenges of repertory and the demands of a heavily publicized season.

Wednesday’s leading comic might take a supporting role in Thursday’s Hamlet. Tonight’s Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew may star in tomorrow’s cutting-edge drama. As visitors see multiple plays, they soon know the actors, watching them change costume and character. In Ashland, storytelling transcends the centuries. Works by Arthur Miller, August Wilson and Thornton Wilder share billing with a 2,000-year-old Indian epic.

ASHLAND SHAKESPEER PLUS

The range includes Othello, A Comedy of Errors and Coriolanus, plus a world premiere, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, and a mind-bending comedy, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler. This year’s theatrical road-trip promises a challenging ride with four of the Bard’s plays and three American classics. Its 75 actors take various roles in rotation. Although the fest retains its Bard-honoring handle, it presents more than Shakespeare: a mix of classical and contemporary drama in repertory format. They welcome crowds from February into November.īowmer’s epiphany blossomed into a Tony-winning phenomenon, a national treasure that attracts world-class performers and an international crowd. In addition to the classic Elizabethan, venues include the handsome Angus Bowmer Theatre, named after the fest’s ingenious founder, and the smaller New Theatre. This season’s nine-month docket unfolds in three distinct theaters. Yearly attendance dwarfs the population - 400,000 for 780 plays. In dramatic circles, the festival has become a major tourist attraction and primary source of employment for this hillside town of 21,000. Today Ashland’s charms are as varied as the crowds who lined up for boxing matches and left reciting couplets. Eventually, Bowmer’s season grew to 11 works and his outdoor venue became the showpiece of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Curious boxing fans soon became devoted play-goers, applauding As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Boxing matches funded construction of the theater and in 1935, the festival debuted. Taking his cue from that time-honored theater technique - enterprise - the clever Bowmer devised a fund-raising lure. Driven by his yearning for drama, and a desire to share it with neighbors, Angus Bowmer determined to build an Elizabethan theater, patterned after London’s famous Globe. Angus Bowmer proved in 1935 people will show up for Shakespeare.Seventy-three years ago, a culture-starved Scotsman vowed to bring live theater to the rolling hills of southern Oregon. I thought OSF would just continue to build, while keeping the Shakespeare plays as the core. According to Douthit, OSF knew they had to be creative in presenting the canon so the OSF faithfuls would keep returning.ĭuring my 20 years as an OSF tourist, some of the outstanding memories include Mark Murphy as Romeo Robin Goodrin Nordii as Lady Macbeth Dennis Arndt in the “The Tempest.” More than Ray Porter’s Volkswagen in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the lack of clothing of some of the younger actors created the most discussion.įoolish me. OSF dramaturg Lue Douthit a few years ago discussed OSF’s challenges when choosing the time period and setting for the Shakespeare plays-some people preferred contemporary times, other patrons preferred traditional. Reducing the number of Shakespeare plays performed was never suggested. “How will we keep our grandchildren interested in coming to OSF?” Peter Thomas, former development director, posed the question to a group of Oregon Shakespeare Festival donors.