With the warm weather approaching, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival season has opened. Here is a brief look at this much-celebrated west coast phenomenon–a great place to visit.
Last month we enjoyed a visit to the festival. It occurs in Ashland, in southern Oregon. Many folks from the Bay Area ritualistically attend the festival every season, but this was our first time. We had so much fun and were astounded with the outstanding performance.
The town of Ashland is small, population 21,000, and it is evident from the first drive through that the entire town is dedicated to the Shakespeare Festival.
Throughout the town, streets and restaurants are named after Shakespeare characters or the theater.
The festival takes place in the middle of Ashland on a 4-acre campus, surrounded by restaurants and shops catering to theatre-going patrons as well as local residents.
Founded in 1935 by Angus Bowmer, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival is one of the oldest and largest professional non-profit theatres in the country. It has grown from one original Elizabethan theater, America’s first…to today’s three theaters offering Shakespeare and non-Shakespearean plays.
This remarkable bas-relief sculpture, shown below, is entitled “Street Scene.” It is a 14-foot-high bronze sculpture located downtown on East Main Street and depicts more than a dozen Shakespearean characters. Created by sculptor Marion L. Young, it is also lit up at night.
Each season, from March through October, this rotating repertory theater company performs ten different plays in the outdoor and indoor theaters.
The main performance this year is Shakespeare’s tragedy MacBeth, directed by Evren Odcikin. It started in mid-March and will be performed every week until mid-October.
We had the supreme honor of watching this world-class production.
These are the three witches, below, courtesy Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Double, double toil and trouble….
There is a plaza downtown, too, where local markets, residents and visitors gather. We ventured here early in the morning to do some birding in the nearby park.
The theatre festivities and downtown plaza are within walking distance to Lithia Park, a 93-acre park in a forested canyon along Ashland Creek.
We spotted a male western tanager in breeding here, bright yellow with a flaming red head. Chickadees and other songbirds joined us, and mallards and pond turtles occupied the ponds.
Lithia Park also features an inviting Japanese Garden.
They were in their spring when we visited, so the dogwood trees and rhododendrons were gloriously in full bloom.
There is a mellow, welcoming feel to Ashland with its gentle landscapes in town, and majestic mountains on the outskirts.
Dramatic performances and sweet street scenes, enhanced by forested walks through Lithia Park–it’s a wonderful way to spend an easy, pleasant time in Oregon.
Written by Jet Eliot.
Photos by Athena Alexander.
More info:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Wikipedia
Oregon Shakespeare Festival official site for tickets and info
Jet Eliot 