A festival by any other name is not Ashland's
By Jonathan Allen
Oregon Daily Emerald
It’s hard to believe that the Ore
gon Shakespeare Festival can get
any better. But with the announce
ment of long-time festival support
er Paul Allen’s Foundation for the
Arts $6 million donation, the fu
ture is even brighter for the theatri
cal pride of the Northwest.
“Our goal in offering the lead gift
was to serve as a catalyst encourag
ing additional support,” Jo Allen
Patten, executive director of the
foundation said Friday in a press
release. “The Festival is a tremen
dous asset to our region and we are
proud to support its efforts.”
Highlighted by three beautiful
theaters, an eight-month season of
11 plays — four by Shakespeare —
and 450 theater professionals from
around the country, the Festival
has grown into a performing arts
paradise that reached a total atten
dance of 374,246 in 1999.
The Festival has been a virtual
mecca for performing arts lovers
since the late 19th century when
the Chautauqua movement began
bringing entertainment to rural ar
eas of the country. The movement
died out in the early 1920s, but it
firmly planted the roots for a first
class festival that with the Allen
family’s donation is poised to
launch well into the 21st century.
Since its official beginning on
July 2,1935, with a production of
“Twelfth Night,” the Festival has
delighted theater-goers with a
strong foundation of historic
stages and professional actors.
The Festival has the oldest ex
isting full-scale Elizabethan stage
in the Western Hemisphere,
which was built on the same site
and is still surrounded by the ivy
covered walls of an old Chau
tauqua theater established in 1893.
Two smaller theaters, the Angus
Bowmer Theatre and the Black
Swan, house indoor events and
plays by eight different creators
besides Shakespeare.
But the outdoor season began
June 16, and that means the Eliza
bethan Theatre and the bard of all
bards will take center stage every
day except Monday from now un
til October.
The three plays performed in the
outdoor, 1,200-seat Elizabethan
Theatre this year are “Hamlet,”
“Twelfth Night” and “The Taming
of the Shrew.” “Henry V,” which is
put on in the Angus Bowmer The
atre, is the only Shakespearean
play not in the outdoor theater.
For Shakespeare fanatics, seeing
his plays performed live is an op
portunity too good to pass up.
“It was gratifying to actually see
these plays I have been reading
performed live,” said Marie Vever
ka, a 22-year-old English major at
the University who traveled to the
Festival as part of a class. “Seeing a
movie about one of the plays is
nothing compared to actually see
ing one on stage.”
While Shakespeare’s stage and
the two smaller ones provide a his
toric feel that only the Festival can
offer, the real stars of the show are
the actors. The more than 400 the
ater professionals that grace these
stages for eight months a year
bring the written word of nine dif
ferent playwrights to life in a live
setting that should not be missed.
“I think it is important to see
these plays performed in the
medium they were designed for,”
Veverka said. “Shakespeare did
not write these plays to be read. He
wrote them to be watched.”
Some of the other plays include
The Elizabethan Theatre is home to Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ this summer
“The Trojan Women” by Euripi
des, “The Night of the Iguana” by
Tennessee Williams and “Force of
Nature” by Steven Dietz.
Another interesting note to this
year’s festival is that the Black
Swan’s 23-year reign at the Festi
val will soon be coming to a close.
According to Media Associate
Robert Hackett, a capital campaign
designed to raise $20 million —
which the Allen family’s donation
propelled to a flying start — will
go in part toward building a new
theater to replace the Black Swan.
For more information on times
of shows, tickets prices and ways
to support the Festival, check out
its Web site at www.orshakes.org.
Oregon Festival of American Music
Twin Rivers Traditional
Music Festival 2000
American
Fiddle
Masters
Mark O’Connor
Michael Doucet avec BeauSoleil
Vassar Clements
& The Little Big Band
The Anger-Marshall Band
Saturday, August 26 - 2:30 pm
Cuthbert Amphitheater
Tickets: 682-5000
Information 687-6526 orwww.ofam.org
Bank of America.
Hilton
Eugene & Conference Center
WEEKLY
Summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Elizabethan Theatre
Hamlet by William Shakespeare, June 6 - Oct 7
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, June 7 - Oct 8
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, June 8 - Oct 6
Angus Bowmer Theatre
Henry V by William Shakespeare, Feb 18 - Oct 29
The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart, George Kaufman, Feb 20 - Oct 28
The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams, Feb 19 - July 9, Sep 19 -Oct 29
The Trqan Women by Euripides, July 26- Oct 28
The Black Swan
Wit by Margaret Edson, Feb 24 - June 24
Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, Mar29-Oct29
Stop Kiss by Diana Son, Ju ly 4 • Oct 29
source: wwwoishakes-otig
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