Angus Bowmer Theatre
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The 600-seat indoor Angus Bowmer Theatre of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival opened in 1970. It increased audience capacity by over 100% by making it possible to hold matinee performances and to extend the season into spring and fall.
An April 1968 report by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research of the University of Oregon pointed to the evidence of thousands of people who were turned away each year, noted that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival had become an important economic engine for southern Oregon, and recommended addition of an indoor theatre.
The City of Ashland, Oregon applied to the Economic Development Administration of the Department of Commerce in Fall 1968 for a $1,792,000 project grant with the Angus Bowmer Theatre as the keystone. The plan also called for a parking building, a remodeled administration building and box office, a scene shop and exhibit hall that later would become the OSF Black Swan Theatre, landscaping, and street realignment. $896,000 was approved in April 1969, to match an equal amount to be raised through private donations. The fund drive quickly exceeded its goal, ground for the new theatre was broken on December 18, 1969. The building was ready just five months later to open on May 22, 1970 with a production of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, selected to recognize the Shakespearean origin of the Festival but to indicate that it also was ready to broaden its horizons by incorporating modern plays into its repertoire. Reinforcing that message, The Fantastics and You Can’t Take it with You were the other two plays presented during that first six-week season. Fulfilling the original plan, it now offers five plays from mid-February till late October each year.
The design, by Kirk, Wallace and McKinley of Seattle, was basic, functional and innovative. Support beams are glue-laminated wood from local timbers exposed to form the lobby ceiling, one wall of which is of gold-green tinted glass. All seats are within 55 feet of the stage, arranged with only two side aisles and wide spaces between rows. Dark colors resist reflection and draw the eye to the stage. The fore stage is on a hydraulic lift system that can emulate the thrust stage of the OSF Elizabethan Theatre, form a more conventional proscenium front, move below auditorium floor level to form an orchestra pit, or drop two stories for storage of equipment or scenery. The walls of the auditorium can swing in to close down the playing area or open to accommodate larger productions.
References Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association (1970). Stage II. Ashland, OR: Author Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association (1970). Shakesepare 1970. Ashland, OR: Author Used with the permission of Amy Richard, Media Relations OSF. media@osfashland.org
Angus Bowmer Theatre
