ï l,
Page A 6
‘
fflb serW r______________
lu n e 6 , 2 0 0 7
Shakespeare Festival Spotlights Diversity
con tin u ed
fro n t Front
T hese are big questions that
have been seriously addressed by
festival staff, w hich in the past sev
eral years has steadily built pro
gram s to attract audiences o f color
from nearby urban areas and co n
duct outreach into the grow ing
L atino com m unities that dot the
region.
A shland - a postcard scene sur
rounded by rural farming com m uni
ties and population from statew ide
and C alifornia - could be ju st an
other sleepy stop along 1-5, but
since 1935 their love o f theater has
set it apart from their neighbors.
Now, in a world where attracting
ju st one type o f audience do esn ’t
quite cut it. the festival seeks other
w ays to set A shland apart by ex
panding their playbill, cast and au
dience. In the w ords o f Diane Holt,
director o f audience developm ent,
O SF understands that to represent
the world you m ust understand the
w orld’s diverse cultures.
Holt explained the beginnings of
theirdi versity program, dating back
to the late 1990s, when they began
to place greater em phasis on hiring
actors o f color and launched cam
paigns to find new audiences.
H istorically, the w ord diversity
h a s n ’t been sy n o n y m o u s w ith
southern Oregon - but O SF has
worked hard to build a com pany o f
world-class actors, directors and
artists that m irror the array o f clas
s ic ,
c o n te m p o r a r y
an d
Shakespearean plays. A ttracting
theatergoers from Portland, the San
Francisco Bay area and beyond,
they’ve em bodied the idea that the
ater knows no race or gender, only
the integral lesso n so f love, fam ily,
tragedy and com edy.
Eventually, actors o f colorcam e
to represent at least 25 percent o f
the com pany com prised o f around
80 members. But at the sam e tim e
things were slightly one-sided:
“Now that we had m ore than a
third o f the staff with actors o f
color, we looked out into the audi
ence. which was mostly white,” Holt
recalled.
Holt began to hear, through feed
back from actors and staff, a per
ception in the African A m erican
com m unity that southern O regon
w asn’t a safe place to stop.
Not long after the revelation. Holt
said a white man from My rtle Creek,
a small com munity outside Ashland,
paid her a visit after seeing an A u
gust W ilson play.
He said it broke his heart to see
such w onderful African Am erican
plays, but no A frican A m ericans in
the audience.
T he man gave the festival a small
grant, their first funding to attract
people o f color, and in 1999 they
received another larger grant for
outreach in the local Latino co m
m unity. In 2(X) 1 another cam paign
broadened their audience, moving
right along in expanding beyond
their rural boundaries.
This past year, festival officials
joined Portland’s Partners in D iver
sity to recruit new board mem bers
and sent an actor to the quarterly
Say Hey, NW netw orking event. A
couple tim es this year, actors have
led com m unity discussions about
the plays, held most recently at a
church in northeast Portland.
With full momentum, OSF recently
hired a new artistic director, Bridget
B. Sullivan, whose job, which starts
next month, will be tocontinue reach
ing out into surrounding com m uni
ties and Portland as well as into
California, Seattle and Vancouver,
W ash.
Originally from upstate New York
piioto by S arah B i . ount /T he P ortland O bserver
and a longtime A tlanta resident,
Sullivan has the dual perspective of Representatives o f the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland are known for introducing theater and Shakespeare to low-income
being a minority in a rural and white high schools. Pictured from left are OSF Development Director Diane Holt and company actors Nancy Rodríguez, René Millán and
setting and having lived in one o f the Armando Duran.
most diverse cities in the country.
Now, as a relatively new Oregonian
from Portland, she is recei ving a crash
course in southern Oregon culture
after visiting for the job interv iew.
“M y short time in Ashland al
lowed me to see there was a certain
energy,” she said. “It could be the
creative energy but I also got the
sense that A shland w as serious
about accepting diversity in their
community.”
And from what her new colleagues
have told her. the tim ing couldn't be
better.
“Everyone has made reference to
The audience development director with the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival, Diane Holt (left) meets with actress Greta
Oglesby, who appears in this season's “Gem o f the Ocean" and
“The Tempest.”
P o r t l a n d O b s e r v e r T k u to R e v i e w
2007
‘the tim e is now , ” she said. “The
tim e is perfectly aligned to m ake
diverse changes across the board.
O S F is c o m m itte d to m a k in g
changes that will benefit A shland
and region as a w hole.”
S ullivan is already busy g ener
ating enough ideas to m ake your
head buzz, including plans to jazz
up w eekend getaw ay tours that
already originate from Portland and
O akland. Calif. S h e'd like to see
brochure’s printed in Spanish, part
nerships with local theaters and
radio show s, and she plans to build
a relationship betw een the festival
and inner city kids in com m unities
w ith schools that may not have art
program s.
It’s unclear how exactly Sullivan
will affect the festival, but as our
state adapts to cultural changes in
altitudes and acceptance, it’s good
to know A shland can look to its
g reatest strength, the festival, to
nurture this ideal.
C atch “G em o f the O cean’’ or
one o f 10 oth er perform ances, in
cluding S h ak esp eare's “A s You
L ike It” and “T he T em pest” during
th e 2 0 0 6 -0 7 s e a s o n r u n n in g
through O ctober at OSF.
KELIS. R&B star, genre buster
Shattered » ra /
In f in it i G 3 5
by
K athleen C arr
The Infiniti G35 sedan has been
reconfigured for 2007. The body o f
the four-door sedan is updated,
giving it a tight, more buff look but
without forfeiting its signature styl
ing cues. Inside, there's a richer,
w arm er look and feel, with perfor
mance-oriented enhancem ents that
add to the driving experience.
The substantially reworked 2007
engine may entice a driver to have
a heavy right foot, delivering its
added power smoothly and strongly
right up to the borderline m otor
cycle-level, 7500-rpm red line. The
b en e fit is th a t e s tim a te d fuel
econom y for the 2007 m odel is up
over the 06, by one mile per gallon,
at least for those w ho can resist the
implicit urge.
T he G35 buyercan choose from
four versions: a nicely equipped
entry-level model with leather trim
and autom atic clim ate control; the
Journey model with dual-zone air
conditioning, a navigation system,
a prem ium audio system , and a self-
adjusting cruise control; the G 35x
with all-wheel drive; and a revised
Sport model with upgraded front
seats, active four-w heel steering
with variable ratio pow er steering
and a firm er suspension that turns
the G 35 into a serious sports sedan.
The new, 2(X)7 Infiniti G35 sedan
com es in four m odels, all pow ered
by the sam e 3.5-liter V 6 engine
making 306 horsepower. Tw o trans
m issions are available, a five-speed
autom atic with m anual-shift m ode
and a six-speed.
Ride and handling stay consis
tent in the G 35 with the notable and
com mendable exception o f the Sport
m odels with four-w heel steer. The
autom atic model changes gears the
qu ick est and, interestin g ly , the
glass ceilings and plastic expectations.
Coloring inside the lines
is so not hot.
Leave th a t fo r the conform ists
w I*
) A
•-».
- * r ’
♦*
v Jr
' 7 -
4 «
»
\
»
’•
Specifications: 3.5 Liter 24-valve V6 Engine: Five speed auto
matic transmission with manual shift mode; 19 mpg city, 26
highway mpg, $33,450 MSRP, price tested $36,800.
sm oothest with cither the shift le
ver or the colum n-m ounted paddles
and under full throttle; it's like a
pow er shift but w ithout the clutch.
The transm ission has the ability to
handle the powerful engine. Infiniti
has m ade changes to 80 percent o f
the en g in e’s m ajor com ponents
w hich were redesigned. Variable
ex h au st valve tim ing has been
added, for exam ple. A beefier en
gine block, m odified pistons and,
o f course, new coding in the engine
m anagem ent com puter have en
dow ed the engine with a higher rev
lim it, now 7500 revolutions per
m inute versus last year's 66(X) rpm.
S tandard across the m odel line
up are le ath e r-a p p o in ted u p h o l
stery ; au to m atic c lim a te co n tro l;
po w er d riv er and front p assen g er
se at; p o w er w in d o w s, o u tsid e
m irrors and central locking; A M /
F M /C D /M P 3 stereo w ith au x il
iary au d io input; m u lti-fu n ctio n
trip c o m p u ter; se v en -in ch , co lo r,
center-dash, LCD m onitor; tilt and
te lesco p in g steerin g w heel; a n a
log gau g e clu ste r that tilts w ith
the steering co lu m n : alum inum
in te rio r trim ; R F ID -b ased , k ey
le ss ig n itio n ; H ID , b i-x e n o n
h ead lam p s; fo ld -d o w n , rea r c e n
ter arm rest w ith lo ck ab le, trunk
p ass-th ro u g h ; and p ain ted , a lu
m inum -alloy w heels.
The N avigation Package co n
sists o f a G PS-based system em
ploying a 30GB hard disc drive
(which displaces the in-dash, six-
C D changer to the trunk and co n
tains a 9.5GB partition for user-
recorded audio tracks); M P3-ca-
pablecom pact flash m edia slot ( also
used to copy audio to the H DD and
update the m ap database); lane
guidance, w hich preps a driver for
a left or right exit ram p from a free
w ay; voice recognition for clim ate
control, audio and navigation; and
a three-m onth trial subscription to
Sirius or XM satellite radio, the
latter including real-tim e traffic in
form ation w here available.
The 2007 Infiniti G 35 offers a
highly com petitive sports sedan
class. And it’s definitely com peti
tive, w ith its slick sty ling, co m fo rt
able interior, pow er and handling
on par with any o f its peers. For
people w anting a sports sedan
that’s as accom m odating o f its pas
sengers as it is rew arding for its
driver, the new G 35 is hard to beat.
Break the rules.
The all-new crossover from Ford.
265 horsepower with impressive fuel economy/
BOLD
Audio input jack for MP3 players.
www.fordbolilmovesurban.com/edg8
Class-exclusive Panoramic Vista Roof.™”
THE ALL-NEW EDGE
• f PA estimated fuel economy is city/hwy 18Z26 fWD ’ • Class is Medium Crossover Vehicles with 6-cylinder engines standard