BY ANNA GRACE
JENNY GRAHAM
theater
Homeless Plays Seek Shelter
OSF and the Ongoing Battle of the Ashland’s Broken Bowmer Beam
W
ith a sickening crack! scores
of actors were driven from
the stage, out of their dressing
rooms and onto the bricks. The Bowmer
Theatre in Ashland, home to fi ve of Oregon
Shakespeare Festival’s dozen shows this
season, is closed for an indeterminate
number of weeks, forcing the company to
put on plays wherever they can fi nd a few
footlights.
For those of you who have little
background in structural integrity, here’s
the skinny: The main supporting beam
of the Bowmer Theater cracked. This
massive 70-footer is the backbone of the
whole theater (which dashes the popular
belief that David Kelly is the backbone of
all OSF theaters). When the Bowmer was
built in the late ‘60s, glulam beams were
all the rage. They still are.
Glulam is an economical replacement
for big, solid pieces of old-growth timber.
You take a bunch of sticks, bond them with
some heavy-duty adhesive and, voila! —
a beam. Which sounds about as smart as
agglutinating a bunch of words together
and calling it an essay (though that never
stopped me).
The failure of Bowmer’s beam has
kicked more than a third of the plays in
a truly awesome OSF season out on the
streets — where, in fact, they are thriving.
With only one performance of one
show canceled, OSF and its many friends
have scrambled to keep the season
running. Southern Oregon University,
the city of Ashland, a couple of event
planning groups, the Ashland Parks staff
and wealthy patrons, alongside dedicated
Ashlandites, have all pitched in to help
OSF move on the with the show.
Most of the Bowmer productions have
settled in what they’re calling “Bowmer
in The Park.” Actual genius Christopher
Acebo (you remember him, mastermind of
the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof set?) designed
a tent to shelter the homeless plays.
Beginning July 7, August: Osage County,
Measure for Measure, The Imaginary
Invalid and The African Company
Presents Richard III will play al fresco
until somebody gets that beam fi xed. To
Kill a Mockingbird landed at the Craterian
Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford for the
month of July.
Getting the plays settled in new spaces
has taken more muscle and imagination
than procuring matching pedicures for
every mandrill monkey in Equatorial
Guinea. Coming in strong for the most-
work-created-by-the-big-beam-break
award would be the costumers. Imagine
setting up dressing rooms all over town
and shuffl ing the appropriate clothing,
wigs, make-up, etc., for every misplaced
play. And they’re still running production
on three of the season’s upcoming shows.
It is somewhat surprising, then,
that OSF costume shop manager Chris
McNamara should fi nd herself in charge of
setting up the new performance tent. Why?
“I volunteered,” she says, as though it’s
the most natural thing in the world. So a lady
who is really good at coordinating the arrival
of brocades with belt buckles and accurately
placing poke bonnets in their appropriate
era fi nds herself negotiating big, heavy
trucks into Lithia Park. “It’s something I’ve
never done before,” McNamara says wryly.
When I ask how the fi rst show in the
tent played, she laughs: “I was in my
offi ce, creating more signs!” It seems
patrons still need to know where to park
their cars and how to fi nd a bathroom. But
once the details have cleared, McNamara
says she hopes to see a production thriving
in the tent. “It harkens back to the old
Chautauqua days of Lithia Park,” she adds.
Excitement in the park is all very well,
but many readers would still prefer the
air-conditioning and awesome experience
of the Bowmer. The cracked beam is on
its way to shouldering the theater once
again. Western Wood Structures has been
hired to rig up some cables and mess
about with pins and epoxy, which will
result in the same venerable old glulam
with the strength of a modern beam. And
in a major break from traditional theater
repair practices, there will be no duct tape
involved in the process.
We can only imagine the fi nal price,
what with the labor for shuffl ing the
shows, the lost ticket sales and the creation
of a new space, not to mention the cost of
repairing the beam.
Patrons across the country are pitching
in to the best of their abilities — patrons like
Charlotte Lin and Robert Porter. Longtime
members of the Artistic Director’s Circle,
last year the couple from Bellevue, Wash.,
donated $25,000 to sponsor Pirates of
Penzance. This summer, Lin and Porter are
giving $50,000 to support the upcoming
season, and tossing in an additional $2,500
to the Bowmer Society. Why?
Because they can. An engineer by trade,
Porter says he was dragged to the festival
30 years ago by his wife and her parents,
and was hooked. Since then, Porter and
Lin have become increasingly committed
to giving their fi nancial support to the
theater. “It’s all about cash fl ow,” Lin says.
“The festival has always been so prudent
with their money. We wanted them to be
able to continue their fi scal responsibility.”
Porter says he believes that much of the
credit for OSF weathering this crisis goes
to artistic director Bill Rauch. “Bill is an
amazing person, an amazing director,” he
says. “He understands the theater on so
many levels.”
According to Porter, Rauch’s goodwill
campaign with the town of Ashland has
paid off. “This crisis has shown that while
the space is important, it’s not what brings
people to [OSF],” he explains. “It’s the
relationship between the audience and the
actors.”
As I sat with girlfriends, discussing
epoxy and wood grain over drinks at Lucky
Noodle, I pondered the passion we all feel
for the Bowmer. What is it about that space
that felt invulnerable to us?
The Bowmer has been home to a hundred
magical journeys. It is where many people
in this area saw their fi rst play, as a middle-
schooler unwillingly bused down only to
have her imagination ignited by Shakespeare.
And judging from the trembling hands and
shuffl ing walks of some patrons, it may be
where many see their last play.
This is the space where we waged epic
battles, fell in love, occasionally fell asleep
and, ultimately, understood the human
condition a little more clearly, one play at
a time. My heart beats faster every time I
fi nd my seat in the Bowmer and settle in
for another adventure. We love the space as
much as we love what happens in it.
Angus L. Bowmer, founder of the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, said of the
Bowmer that: “Every theatre person who
steps in can feel excitement built into the
design because of the close audience-actor
relationship.”
He was right. Ultimately, however, our
experiences are larger than any theater,
and the commitment of OSF audiences
is stronger then the most modern glulam
beam. In the end, it is community that has
held up the theater.
ew
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24 JULY 14, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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