The Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is like dying and going to the theatre.

If there were a theatre Nirvanna, if there were comfort and joy beyond the veil, if there were a place for good little theatre geeks to go ... it would look a lot like this. This place is so goddamned, motherfucking, cocksucking, buttbucking cool that it's painful.


Three stages: the Black Swan Theatre [smaller, intimate, black box]; the Domer(sp?) Theatre [their main indoor theater]; and their main theatre - built on the foundation of the first area chataqua grounds, America's first Globe replica Elizbethan theater. It's insane.

Their fare is Shakespeare, classics, modern classics, and original works ... and all in repertory. This season they will do Richard III; Twelfth Night; Love's Labour's Lost; The Philanderer, Shaw's 2nd play; Gibraltar; Room Service; The Belle's Stragtegem; The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Marlowe; Napoli Milionaria; Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; and By the Waters of Babylon. (I'm assistant directing The Philanderer and Babylon.) They're dedicated to approaching each show as if the script was published yesterday. They're dedicated to featuring non-White acters through both color specific and color blind casting. They're just amazing.


They are the oldest repertory theater in America. They pull people from all over the West with the average travel distance of their patrons being 200 miles. In the summers, they have a modern dance troupe in residence. They have an extensive education department. They have a resident composer, a resident movement specialist, a resident dramaturg, a resident speech specialist ... it's insane! They have so much!!

And they are so nice! You don't understand. This is theatre, right? I mean, my mantra for the last year and a half has been, "Theatre would be the greatest occupation in the world if not for the people." Theatre people are not supposed to be nice. Theatre people are not supposed to be humane. They're petty and selfish and cruel and authoritarian and childish and manipulative and abusive and they make horrible bosses. Theatre is supposed to be Broadway bullshit where as an actress, you have to make sure that your eyelashes are not longer than the leading lady's. Theatre is supposed to be directors yelling at and belittling actors who take it because there are 50 people outside freezing and starving who will take their spots in an instant. I mean, when I got into my apartment here (which is great, by the way) there was a little welcome dish with cereal (one healthy, one sugary), chips (one Cheetos, one Ruffles), bars (one Power one Nutri-Grain), and a selection of teas (caffeine and herbal) and coffees. Plus they had left one light on in the apartment so that it wouldn't be dark, and they had the clock radio on so that I entered with quiet classical music playing. I later learned that this was all intentional. What is up with that?

They've done all they can to make all the new people feel welcome. I've been greeted and have shaken hands with so many people. The first two festival people I met gave me hugs. I just got a note in the mail from their volunteer organization inviting me to a brunch for new members of the company. I'm so close to saying, "Geez, people! I'm only going to be hear for two months. You can focus on more important people than me. At this point, I'd be just grateful to clean your toilets."


And therein lies the rub. The OSF has many, many resident staff, but it has more people that are just passing through. People from Portland, from the Bay Area, from New York, from Texas. All these people who pass through and then head out into the cold, cold world. Just like me. So it begs the question ... what's worse, never seeing the ideal ... or just getting a taste from the garden before being thrown back into the desert?