The Tony Award–winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival, located in Ashland, Oregon, will celebrate its 75th anniversary this 
season, and they are committed in focusing on producing great plays for their audience.
Artistic Director Bill Rauch recently noted, “OSF’s founder Angus Bowmer famously said that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was neither a director’s nor a playwright’s nor even an actor’s theatre; but our theatre belongs to our audience. It’s been true for all of our 75 years, and as we embark on creating art for another 75 it will be because of our audience’s continued support.”
The 2010 season opens on Friday, February 26, with William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Hamlet, directed by Bill Rauch. Then on Saturday, February 27, it’s Tennessee Williams’ intensely rich drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Christopher Liam Moore, who directed last season’s hugely popular Dead Man’s Cell Phone. At 8pm that evening, audiences will be treated to an adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy and J. R. Sullivan of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, directed by OSF artistic director emerita Libby Appel. The final opening of the weekend is Lisa Kron’s comedy Well at 1:30pm on Sunday, February 28, directed by OSF veteran James Edmondson.
In honor of Angus Bowmer’s first two productions in 1935, OSF is anchoring the outdoor Elizabethan Stage season (opening June 11-13, 2010 and running through October 10) with the plays Bowmer chose for that first season, 75 years ago: Shakespeare’s ever popular comedy Twelfth Night, directed by guest artist Darko Tresnjak, and The Merchant of Venice, directed by Bill Rauch. Also playing on the outdoor stage is Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One, directed by another OSF veteran, Penny Metropulos.
Later this season is the musical She Loves Me, directed by Rebecca Taichman (April 24), and the world premiere stage adaptation by Ping Chong of the film by Akira Kurosawa, Throne of Blood (July 24). Ping Chong also directs. Opening in the New Theatre on March 27 is Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Ruined, directed by Liesl Tommy, and on July 3 the world premiere of American Night will open.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2010 season runs from February 18 through October 31, offering 766 performances of 11 productions. Ashland is located near the Oregon – California border with Alaska Airlines offering non-stop service from Seattle to nearby Medford, OR. This is a must do annual event.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (February 19 – October 30)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (February 20 – July 4)
Pride & Prejudice (February 21 – October 31)
Well (February 25-June 18) by Lisa Kron.
Tickets remain available for many performances.
For more info about the festival visit www.osfashland.org.
