A look at Ashland and this year's Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Lyra
(quote, excerpts)
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Shakespeare tops the bill at Oregon festival
By Erik Gleibermann
Globe Correspondent / May 25, 2008
ASHLAND, Ore. - Many a Shakespeare lover wishing for theatrical
immersion dreams of this small town in the foothills of the Siskiyou
Mountains 15 miles from the California border. This is where Puck
spreads romantic havoc and Othello descends into a jealous boil. They
are this season's leading personages in what for decades has been
America's most extensive Shakespeare festival.
Attending plays naturally takes center stage on a visit to this artsy
community of 20,000, but Ashland works a fuller enchantment when the
visitor moves from spectator to imaginative participant. Initiate a
conversation on Main Street with one of the many actors in the
company, or stroll inside Lithia Park at dusk envisioning a forest
fairy silently slipping behind the trees.
When I walked down the hill from the outdoor Elizabethan Theater into
the park after a matinee performance of "Coriolanus," I detected the
cadence of rhyme. Approaching the playground, I discovered a father
pushing his daughter on a swing while reciting Robert W. Service's
whimsical "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man" in rhythm with her downward
swoops.
In just a day one can feel a part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
community, in large part because many actors like to connect with
visitors. They lead backstage tours, participate in conversational
prologues before performances, and, because of the village lifestyle,
have time to hang out.
"I remember seeing Mercutio in the market last year the day after
attending a performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' and chatting with him in
the checkout line," said Stacy Buckley of Danville, Calif. "I don't
think that's going to happen on Broadway."
Public performance in Ashland dates to the late-19th-century
Chautauqua movement when the town was a prominent stop on the cultural
circuit. The festival officially began in 1935 with a production of
"Twelfth Night" and has presented the Shakespeare canon of 37 plays
three times.
A rotating repertory structure involving about 80 actors allows
audiences to witness interesting theatrical juxtapositions. Fifteen
hours after crossing the stage as the rarefied Queen Hippolyta in "A
Midsummer Night's Dream," Shona Tucker exchanges her royal robe for an
apron in "Fences" to become Rose, the deep-hearted preserver of family
integrity in a Pittsburgh working-class home.
Ashland may be a modest community in a pastoral setting with only one
main avenue cutting through town, but expect ambitious and provocative
theater from productions that stake out new ground. The stark tragedy
of "Coriolanus" casts imperial Rome in the garb of a contemporary
hyper-militarized America, while the fairies of "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" upend the Tinker Bell stereotype as edgy figures inhabiting an
industrial nightclub underworld under neon stars.
After the curtain falls or a beautiful afternoon invites a theatrical
break, explore the town's quaint center. From the festival complex off
Pioneer and Main streets, walk past the Tudor-style Elizabethan
Theater and down the steps to discover terraced trails and a Japanese
garden inside 93-acre Lithia Park, so named for the lithium in its
spring waters.
Following the creek that runs along the edge of the park and passing
over a footbridge brings one to the central plaza filled with a ragtag
cast of busking musicians and jugglers. Over the course of a warm
Saturday I listened to guitar, xylophone, and didgeridoo players.
And take advantage of the beautiful mountain setting with a tour
through the Applegate Valley. Pack a picnic and follow Main Street
north as it becomes Route 99 through Talent, Phoenix, and the historic
village of Jacksonville, then cut over onto Route 238. Outside the
tasting room at Valley View Winery is a patio where you can take in a
view of the Siskiyou Mountains. If your theater schedule does not
begin until evening, take a rafting excursion on the Rogue River or
climb the 80 miles (from Medford) to Crater Lake, the deepest body of
water in the United States.
To sustain the spirit of the play, look for opportunities to extend
the Shakespearean motif beyond waking hours. I hoped to serve thematic
unity by staying at A Midsummer's Dream bed-and-breakfast, wishing to
discover what airy visions might visit my sleep. But romance and
tragedy crossed when I found myself assigned the Othello suite. Would
inexplicable jealousy now unsettle my dreams? Maybe the woman
occupying the Desdemona suite downstairs could offer reassurance. She
seemed comfortable enough in that room despite knowing the terrible
fate that befalls Othello's wife in her boudoir.
In Ashland, Shakespeare can never be put to rest.
book...@yahoo.com
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The thing I associate Ashland with, besides the upbeat community
spirit of Oregonians, is its location in the remote forest. Must be
conducive to Shakespeare productions featuring the pastoral aspect and
perhaps the Forest of Arden. Makes me wonder just how important the
Arden function is to Shakespeare over-all. AYLI has an Arden setting.
1. His mother is an Arden.
2. He probably was familiar with the haunts of Arden, as Stratford is
on the southern edge.
3. Perhaps game poaching on private estates in the environs of Arden
determined his fate with his nemesis, Luce.
4. One of the Ashland B&Bs is Forest of Arden (very pricey).
To read about "The Forest of Arden in Our Minds," see the site at
http://www.shakespearesallskapet.se/forestofarden.pdf
Greg Reynolds
>
> --------------------
>
> The thing I associate Ashland with, besides the upbeat community
> spirit of Oregonians, is its location in the remote forest. Must be
> conducive to Shakespeare productions featuring the pastoral aspect and
> perhaps the Forest of Arden. Makes me wonder just how important the
> Arden function is to Shakespeare over-all. AYLI has an Arden setting.
> 1. His mother is an Arden.
> 2. He probably was familiar with the haunts of Arden, as Stratford is
> on the southern edge.
> 3. Perhaps game poaching on private estates in the environs of Arden
> determined his fate with his nemesis, Luce.
> 4. One of the Ashland B&Bs is Forest of Arden (very pricey).
>
> To read about "The Forest of Arden in Our Minds," see the site athttp://www.shakespearesallskapet.se/forestofarden.pdf
What seems funny is that though we know Duke, Rosalind, Celia,
Orlando, et al. all escape to or are banished to or visit the Forest
of Arden, we don't where they are from to begin with.
Greg Reynolds
Art Neuendorffer
>>
>> The thing I associate Ashland with, besides the upbeat community
>> spirit of Oregonians, is its location in the remote forest. Must be
>> conducive to Shakespeare productions featuring the pastoral aspect and
>> perhaps the Forest of Arden. Makes me wonder just how important the
>> Arden function is to Shakespeare over-all. AYLI has an Arden setting.
>>
>> 1. His mother is an Arden.
<<Eve Arden (Eunice M. Quedens, April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990)
was an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning American actress. Her
almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and
leading roles, but she is perhaps best remembered for playing the
sardonic but engaging high school teacher in the classic Our Miss
Brooks (radio and television).>>
..
. Madison High School
. Rydell High School
.
> bookb...@yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>> 3. Perhaps game poaching on private estates in the environs
>> of Arden determined his fate with his nemesis, Luce.
. The Comedy of Errors: III, i 2
DROMIO OF EPHESUS: Let my master in, Luce.
LUCE: [Within] Faith, no; he comes too late;
And so tell your master.
-----------------------------------------------
<<Our Miss Brooks was a hit on radio from the outset; within eight
months of its launch as a regular series, the show landed several
honours including four for Eve Arden. Arden had actually been the
third choice to play the title role. Harry Ackerman, at the time CBS's
West Coast director of programming, wanted Shirley Booth for the part,
but as he told historian Gerald Nachman many years later, he realised
Booth was too focused on the underpaid downside of public school
teaching at the time to have fun with the role. Lucille Ball was
believed to be the next choice but she was already committed to _My
Favorite Husband_ and didn't audition.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Miss_Brooks
Margaret Davis (Jane Morgan) was Miss Brooks' absentminded landlady,
whose two trademarks are a cat named *MINERVA* and a penchant for
whipping up exotic and often inedible breakfasts.
-----------------------------------------------
> bookb...@yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>> 4. One of the Ashland B&Bs is Forest of Arden (very pricey).
TOUCHSTONE: Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I;
. when I wasat home, I was in a better place:
. but travellers must be content.
.
> bookb...@yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>> To read about "The Forest of Arden in Our Minds," see the site athttp://www.shakespearesallskapet.se/forestofarden.pdf
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Greg Reynolds <even...@core.com> wrote:
>
> What seems funny is that though we know Duke, Rosalind, Celia,
> Orlando, et al. all escape to or are banished to or visit
> the Forest of Arden, we don't where they are from to begin with.
------------------------------------------------------------
<<In [Thomas Lodge's _Rosalynd_ (1590)] the dead father of the young
hero was called Sir John of Bordeaux... and the wrestler is serving at
the court of Torismund, King of France. There was once a Torismund who
ruled the Visigoths in 451, and that tribe did, indeed, control
southwestern France at that time. "Rowland" is best known as a
Frankish warrior who died at the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778, which
was fought in the Pyrenees about 130 miles south of Bordeaux.>> -
_Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare_
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<From the 12th to the 15th century, Bordeaux regained importance as
part of the English realm, following the marriage of Duchess Eleanor
of Aquitaine with the French-speaking Count Henri Plantagenet, born in
Le Mans, who became, within months of their wedding, King Henry II of
England. The city flourished, primarily due to wine trade, and the
cathedral of St. André was built. It was also the capital of an
independent state under Edward, the Black Prince (1362-1372), but in
the end, after the Battle of Castillon (1453) it was annexed by France
which extended its territory. >>
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. King Richard II Act V, scene VI
. [Enter EXTON, with persons bearing a coffin]
.
EXTON: Great king, within this coffin I present
. Thy buried fear: herein all breathless lies
. The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,
. Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
book...@yahoo.com
My right-brain perspective of the travel from court to Arden forest by
these courtiers is that of the necessary communication between
book...@yahoo.com
<eve...@core.com> wrote:
My right-brain perspective on the travel from court to Arden forest by
these types is that it signifies the necessary travel between
intellect and emotions required. Could be a definition of poetry,
which is what they find, similar to Captain Kirk's visit to another
planet for recreation where they gambol about refreshingly.
In the US, there is an old-boys' sort of exclusive club for VIPs that
regularly meets in the woods on the Pacific Coast somewhere, where
they supposedly do anything they want among themselves in high
entertainment/revelry. Wouldn't surprise me if it had something to do
with Arden. bb