Oregon Shakespeare Festival
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The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States. The festival annually produces eleven plays on three stages during a season that lasts from February to October. Four to five of the plays produced each year are by William Shakespeare.
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[edit] Overview
A typical season at OSF consists of three plays on the outdoor Elizabethan Stage (aka Allen Pavilion), three in the New Theatre, and five in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. OSF provides a broad range of educational programs for secondary and college students and theatre professionals while providing a wide range of classic and contemporary plays. While OSF has produced non-Shakespearean works since 1960, each season continues to include three to five Shakespeare plays. Since 1935, it has staged Shakespeare's complete canon three times, completing the first cycle in 1958 with a production of Troilus and Cressida and completing the second and third cycles through the works in 1978 and 1997. Since 2000, there has also been at least one new work each season from playwrights such as Octavio Solis and Robert Schenkkan.
In addition to the plays, a free outdoor "Green Show" precedes the evening plays from June through September. Until 1996, it consisted of historical Elizabethan music and dancers. More recently, it consisted of three shows in rotation inspired by the plays showing in the Elizabethan Theatre and consisted of live music by the Terra Nova Consort and other guest musicians, and modern dance performed by Dance Kaleidoscope. Beginning in 2008, the Green Show will feature performance groups from around the western US.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival occupies a four-acre campus adjacent to Lithia Park. The primary buildings are the three theatres (The Elizabethan Stage, The Angus Bowmer Theatre, and The New Theatre), Carpenter Hall, and the Camps, Pioneer, and Administration buildings, all surrounding an open central court, locally known as "The Bricks", that includes a performance area for the Green Show and other community events. The festival presents 750-800 performances of eleven plays in three theatres from February through October each year, with a total average audience of 375,000 to 400,000.
The company consists of about 325 full-time, including about 90 actors, and 175 part-time personnel supported by some 600 volunteers.[1]
[edit] History
The festival traces its roots to the Chautauqua movement of the late 1800s. In 1893, the citizens of Ashland built a facility that hosted its first performance on 5 July. The building was expanded in 1905, and in its heyday, accommodated audiences of 1500 for appearances by the likes of John Phillip Sousa and William Jennings Bryan during annual ten-day seasons.[2][not specific enough to verify]
In 1917, a new domed structure was built at the site, but it fell into disrepair after the Chautauqua movement died out in the 1920s. In 1935, the similarity of the remaining wall of the by now roofless Chautauqua building to Elizabethan theatres inspired Southern Oregon Normal School drama professor Angus L. Bowmer to propose using it to present plays by Shakespeare. Ashland city leaders granted him a sum "not to exceed US$400" (US$5,600 2005 est.) to present two plays as part of the city's Independence Day celebration. However, they pressed Bowmer to add boxing matches to cover the expected deficit. Bowmer agreed, feeling such an event was in perfect keeping with the bawdiness of Elizabethan theatre, and the performances went forward. Confidently billed as the "First Annual Oregon Shakespearean Festival", Bowmer presented Twelfth Night on July 2 and July 4, 1935 and The Merchant of Venice on July 3. Reserved seats cost US$1, with general admission of US$.50 for adults and US$.25 for children (US$13.80, US$6.90, and US$3.45 2005 est.). Ironically, it was the profit from the plays that covered the losses the boxing matches incurred.[3]
The festival has continued ever since, excepting a few years while Bowmer served in World War II, and quickly developed a reputation for quality productions. In 1939, OSF took a production of The Taming of the Shrew to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, California that was nationally broadcast on radio.[2][not specific enough to verify] A second playhouse, the indoor Angus Bowmer Theatre, opened in 1970, enabling OSF to expand its season into the spring and fall; within a year, attendance tripled to 150,000.
Bowmer retired in 1971, and leadership of the festival passed to Jerry Turner, a respected actor/director and later a translator of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Turner opened OSF's third theatre, the Black Swan, in 1977, and festival attendance soon reached 300,000. In 1983 OSF won a Tony Award for achievement in regional theatre. Five years later, the Oregon Shakespearean Festival was renamed the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. At the invitation of the City of Portland, from 1988-1994, OSF established a resident theatre in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, which later spun off to independence as Portland Center Stage. Those six seasons ran from November-April, and company members worked often in both cities.
Turner retired in 1991 and actor/director Henry Woronicz took control for five seasons. 1992 saw the opening of the Allen Pavilion, which encircled the open-air seating area within the walls of the Elizabethan Theatre.
When Woronicz left in 1996, OSF recruited Libby Appel from the highly respected Indiana Repertory Theatre, and a guest director at OSF from 1988 to 1991, as artistic director. In 1997, the OSF-commissioned The Magic Fire was presented at the John F. Kennedy Center and named by Time among the year's best plays. In 2001, the ten millionth ticket to an OSF performance was sold. In 2002, the New Theatre replaced the Black Swan as the venue for small, experimental productions in a Black box theatre.[2][not specific enough to verify] In 2003, Time named OSF as the second best regional theatre in the United States.[4]
On Appel's announcement of her intention to retire, Bill Rauch, former artistic director and co-founder of the Cornerstone Theater Company, in Los Angeles, was selected to become the festival's fifth artistic director, beginning with the 2008 season. Rauch, who had directed plays previously at OSF, hopes to make direct connections between classic plays and contemporary concerns, to reach beyond the Western canon to include Asian and African epics, to initiate a series of original plays focusing on American history, and to connect with youth.[5][not specific enough to verify]
[edit] OSF Campus
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival occupies a four-acre campus adjacent to Lithia Park and the Plaza in Ashland, Oregon. The primary buildings are the three theatres, Carpenter Hall, and the Camps, Pioneer, and Administration buildings, all surrounding an open central court, locally known as “The Bricks,” that includes a performance area for the Green Show and other community events. Other facilities include the costume warehouse, costume shop, production and plant shops, classrooms, and rehearsal spaces.[2][not specific enough to verify]
[edit] Elizabethan Stage
[edit] Original Elizabethan Theatre
The Elizabethan Stage has evolved since the founding of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The design for the first outdoor OSF Elizabethan Theatre was sketched by Angus L. Bowmer on the back of an envelope based on his recollection of productions at the University of Washington in which he had acted as a student. Ashland, Oregon obtained WPA funds in 1935 to build it in the roofless shell of the abandoned Chautauqua theatre, the twelve-foot high circular walls of which remained after the dome had been removed. Bowmer extended the walls to reduce the stage width to fifty-five feet, and painted the extensions to resemble half-timbered buildings. He designed a thrust stage—one projecting toward the audience—with a balcony. Two columns helped divide the main stage into forestage, middle stage, and inner stage areas. Fifty cent general admission seating was on benches just behind the one dollar reserved seating on folding chairs. This theatre was torn down during World War II.[6]
[edit] Second Elizabethan Theatre
The second outdoor Elizabethan Theatre was built in 1947 from plans drawn up by University of Washington drama professor John Conway. The main stage became trapezoidal, with entries added on either side, and windows added above them flanking the balcony stage. A low railing gave a finished appearance to the forestage. Chairs arranged to improve sightlines replaced bench seating. Backstage areas were added gradually and haphazardly, until the ramshackle result was ordered torn down as a fire hazard in 1958.[6]
[edit] Current Eizabethan Theatre
The next year saw the opening of the current outdoor Elizabethan Theatre, patterned on London's 1599 Fortune Theatre. Designed by Richard Hay, it incorporated all the stage dimensions mentioned in the Fortune contract. The trapezoidal stage was retained but the façade was extended to three stories, resulting in a forestage, middle stage, inner below, inner above (the old balcony), and a musicians' gallery. The wings were provided with second-story windows. Each provides acting areas, creating many staging possibilities. A pitched, shingled roof enhances the half-timbered façade. A windowed gable was extended from the center of the roof to cover and define the middle stage. Just before each performance, an actor opens the gable window, and in keeping with Elizabethan tradition signaling a play in progress, runs a flag up the pole to the sound of a trumpet and doffs his cap to the audience.
The result is not an exact replica of the Fortune Theatre. The known but incomplete dimensions apply only to the stage. The original specifications sometimes say no more than “to be built like the Globe,” for which there are no plans or details. The remotely operated lighting, on scaffolding on either side of the stage of course did not exist in the original and the current site rather than the original architecture determines the shape of the auditorium. Twelve hundred seats in slightly offset arcs ascend the original hillside, giving an excellent view of the stage from each seat. The old Chautauqua theatre walls, now ivy-covered, remain as the outer perimeter of the theatre.
The US$7.6 million Paul Allen Pavilion was added in 1992. It houses a control room, and audience services including infrared hearing devices, blankets, pillows and food and drink, which are allowed in the auditorium. Several hundred seats were moved to a balcony and two box seats, further improving sightlines and acoustics. Vomitoria, the traditional name for entryways for actors from under the seating area, were added and the lighting scaffolds were eliminated.[7]
Each year, three plays are offered in rotation Tuesdays through Sundays in the Elizabethan Theatre from late June to early October.
[edit] Angus Bowmer Theatre
The 600-seat indoor Angus Bowmer Theatre of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival opened in 1970. It increased audience capacity by over 100 percent 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 US$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. US$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 Rosencrantz 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. All seats are within 55 feet (17 m) 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.[8]
[edit] Black Swan Theatre
The Black Swan served as the festival's third theatre from 1977 to 2001. The building, originally an automobile dealership, was bought in 1969 as a second-floor scene shop and first-floor rehearsal hall. Company members began using it to stage "midnight" readings for one another. They invited friends who brought other friends. Artistic Director Jerry Turner recognized the opportunity to take risks with unconventional staging and subjects, and called for its development as a third OSF theatre. Fitting a theatre into the existing building was challenging. It could hold only 138 seats, all within five rows of the stage. There had to be, as designer Richard Hay put it, a "certain amount of tucking and squeezing." Each director had to solve the problem of an immovable roof support in the middle of the stage. In one scene, with a horizontal piece added, it became a painting of a crucifixion.
[edit] New Theatre
In March 2002, the New Theatre replaced the Black Swan, which again became an ancillary building for rehearsals, meetings, and classes. It expands the possibilities for experiment and innovation while maintaining the intimacy of the Black Swan. Thomas Hacker and Associates of Portland designed the building. Richard Hay designed three possible seating and staging modes. In Arena mode, a stage of 663 square feet (61.6 m²) is surrounded on all four sides by 360 seats. In Three-quarter Thrust mode, a 710-square-foot (66 m²) stage is surrounded on three sides by 270 seats, and in Avenue mode, a 1,236-square-foot (114.8 m²) stage provides 228 seats on two sides. There is a trap room under the stage and a fly loft at one end. A computer controls 300 circuits and over 400 lights of various types. The remainder of the building is given over to downstairs and upstairs lobbies, concessions, access distribution, archives, storage, laundry, green room, quiet green room, warm-up room, dressing space for 18 actors, showers/restrooms, costume and wig rooms, stage manager's office, maintenance space, storage for props and set pieces, and trap. The "Bricks" ties the three theatres together into an architectural whole and facilitates movement. It also provides a stage for the nightly Green Shows from June through September.
[edit] Other buildings
The Festival acquired the Administration Building (G) in April 1967. Forming the northern boundary of the campus, the building houses the Box Office (H), artistic, business, communication, education, human resources, marketing, and volunteer offices, the scenic design studio, and the mailroom. The Festival Welcome Center (I), on the northern side of the building facing Main Street, offers information about OSF and Ashland, houses a small exhibit of costumes from past shows, and adjoins the Margery Bailey Room, otherwise known as the Education Center. The adjacent Camps Building (K) houses the membership lounge, development offices, and a meeting room.
Just off the courtyard, the Pioneer Building (L) houses the Festival's costume and costume props shop. The staff of over 60 creates the costumes in three main studios on the lower floor of the building.[1] Also on that floor are offices and fitting rooms for the costume designers and costume design assistants, a costume props area and a vented paint room. Upstairs is a dye room, lounge, laundry, storage room, and office. During the height of the costume production each season, another working studio is open in the basement of the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Costumes from past shows are warehoused off-campus in a 7,500-square-foot (700 m²) facility housing some 15,000 costumes and 10-15,000 costume props such as armor, boots, crowns, shoes and wigs.
The Festival acquired Carpenter Hall (M) in October 1973, renovating it to accommodate lectures, concerts, rehearsals, meetings and Festival and community events. The Bill Patton Garden (N) provides the venue for informal summer noon talks by OSF staff. The Tudor Guild, a separate non-profit corporation, operates the Tudor Guild Gift Shop (J) and Brass Rubbing Center (O) where visitors can make rubbings of facsimiles of 55 historic English brasses under expert guidance.
[edit] Organization
OSF is a non-profit corporation managed under US and Oregon law by a 32-member Board of Directors nominated and elected for eight-year terms. OSF is supported in part by corporate and individual donors through annual non-voting memberships at various levels, planned giving, or direct support of specific plays. In 2006, the endowment had a net worth in excess of US$30 million that returns about US$1.2 million to support the operating budget of about US$24 million per year. It is managed by seven trustees who are selected for five-year terms by the Board of Directors.[9]
[edit] Professional staff
Apart from approximately 90 actors and 25 musicians and dancers, OSF is organized into administrative, artistic, education, music and dance, and production staffs.
The Executive Director, Paul E. Nicholson, supervises an administrative staff of approximately 125 people. They include human resources (which includes the volunteer and special events coordinator), information technology, marketing and communications (box office, membership, publications, archives, media, members lounge and audience services which itself includes house managers, ushers, concessions, access staff for handicapped patrons), physical plant staff (custodial services, maintenance, security), and receptionists. Associate producers, voice and text director, resident designers and design assistants, designers, guest directors, composers, choreographers.
The artistic staff of approximately 100 is under the direction of an artistic director and includes an associate artistic director, composers, choreographers, dramaturges, designers and design assistants, directors and assistant directors, and voice and text director, approximately half of whom are guests for a single season.
The production staff of approximately 125 is responsible for costumes, lighting, properties, scenery, sound, and stage operations. Costumes are produced by a staff of about 70 (artisans, cutters, designers, dyers, first hands, hair and wig specialists, stitchers, technicians, and wardrobe managers). Scenery is built by a staff of technicians, carpenters, a welder, an engineer and a buyer and moved by a crew of 24 stagehands; lighting staff number 8, and sound and properties each are managed by staffs of 6 each. A production stage manager, eight stage managers and three production managers ensure the smooth operation of the three theatres and a deck manager coordinates the Green Show.
The education staff of nine includes the director and associate director, education coordinators and assistants, curriculum specialists, and resident teaching artists. Twelve actors participate in the annual School Visit Program and about a dozen company members and guests assist in teaching for the programs described above. In addition, the FAIR manager recruits college and university students from across the United States for internships on the administrative, artistic, education, and production staffs.
[edit] Artistic Directors
- Angus L. Bowmer (1935-1971)
- Jerry Turner (1971-1991)
- Henry Woronicz (1991-1996)
- Libby Appel (1996-2007)
- Bill Rauch (2008-present)
[edit] Publications
All playgoers receive a Playbill with a synopsis of the plays, cast lists, and directors' statements. All members receive prologue, [sic] a magazine with selected articles on directors, actors, costumes, props, and plays each season. illuminations [sic] is a comprehensive guide to each year's plays that includes synopses, themes, information on playwrights and historical and other contextual information to better understand the plays themselves.
Finally, detailed information on the plays and OSF itself are included in the annual Souvenir Program. It includes photographic highlights of each play and special articles along with pictures and biographies of actors, playwrights, and the many people who work behind the scenes. A chart emphasizing the repertory nature of OSF lists all the actors and their parts in the plays.
[edit] Professional memberships
OSF is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the not-for-profit theatre world, and a member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America. It operates under contracts with Actors' Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union.
[edit] Productions
[edit] 2008 season
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[edit] 2009 season
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[edit] References
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations. |
- ^ a b The People of OSF: Our Company Members. Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-30.
- ^ a b c d Murphy, M. "The Stage is Set for a Meteoric Success. A Tradition of Shakespeare 1935-2005", Ashland Daily Tidings.[not specific enough to verify]
- ^ Oregon Shakespeare Festival Archives. Used with the permission of Amy Richard, Media Relations, OSF: media@osfashland.org
- ^ Zoglin, Richard. "Bigger than Broadway!", Time, 27 May 2003. Retrieved on 2008-05-30.
- ^ "Shakespeare 2007", Ashland Daily Tidings, 2007.[not specific enough to verify]
- ^ a b Bowmer, Angus (1978). Shreds and Patches: The Ashland Elizabethan Stage. Ashland, OR: Oregon Shakespeare Association. OCLC 6040869.
- ^ Oregon shakespearean Festival Association. Shakespeare 1970. Ashland, OR: Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association, 1970.
- ^ Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association. Stage II. Ashland, OR: Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association, 1970
- ^ Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2007 Souvenir Program. Ashland, OR: Oregon Shakespeare Festival (pages 64-107)
[edit] External links
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival official website
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival at the Internet Broadway Database
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