Angus L. Bowmer retired in 1971, and leadership of the Festival passed to Jerry Turner, who widened the Festival repertory to production of classics by the likes of Molière, Ibsen, and Chekhov. When Turner retired in 1991, actor/director Henry Woronicz took control through 1996. OSF then recruited Libby Appel from the highly respected Indiana Repertory Theatre. She served as Artistic Director from 1996 through 2007. Bill Rauch succeeded Libby Appel as Artistic Director, serving from 2008 to 2019. He incorporated musicals and non-western plays into the annual selection, and sought connections between classic plays and contemporary concerns. He also started the Black Swan Lab in which 15-20 OSF actors developed new works for the stage.
Artistic Directors
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Artistic Directors
Angus L. Bowmer, Jerry Turner and Henry Woronicz. Angus L. Bowmer, Jerry Turner, Libby Appel and many more. Angus L. Bowmer, Jerry Turner, Henry Woronicz, to name a few. Angus L. Bowmer, Jerry Turner and others.
who directed the first friday the 13th movie
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Sean S. Cunningham
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where was he born?
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New York City
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how did he start his career?
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Cunningham's first jobs after graduating from Stanford included managing theater companies such as New York's Lincoln Center as well as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
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where did this latter mentioned festival originate?
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Ashland, Oregon.
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who are some directors associated with this festival?
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He was artistic director from 1991 to 1995.
Henry Woronicz | Oregon Shakespeare Festival years
The show made its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon on June 3, 2015, with an opening on June 13. The production ran until October 10 and was directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar. In 2016, Michael Mayer replaced Iskandar as director. Also joining the re-imagined creative team were music supervisor Tom Kitt (who previously worked with Mayer on American Idiot) and Magruder to adapt Whitty's original libretto.
Head over Heels (musical) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2015)
Angus L. Bowmer (September 25, 1904 – May 26, 1979) was the founder of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, United States. During his tenure as artistic director, he produced all 37 of William Shakespeare's plays and performed 32 Shakespearean roles in 43 separate stagings.
Angus L. Bowmer | Introduction
In August 2019, Bill Rauch left the position of Artistic Director. Nataki Garrett is his successor, and she is the sixth person to hold the position.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The 2010s
“Expanding an audience’s horizons doesn’t necessarily mean doing new work,” he said in a 1987 interview for the festival’s program notes. The danger isn't so much not doing new work as in ignoring the old work. Besides, just because a play was written a long time ago doesn't make it old.”
Jerry Turner (theater director) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Jerry Turner (1927–2004) served as artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 1971 to 1991. He transformed the festival from a summer program for semi-professional actors into one of the top regional theaters in the country by leading the Ashland, Oregon-based company beyond its Shakespearean repertoire. He produced plays by Bertold Brecht, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, and August Strindberg and added the Angus Bowmer Theatre in 1970 and the Black Swan in 1977 to the festival's original theater, the Elizabethan Stage.
Jerry Turner (theater director) | Introduction
Richard L. Hay (born 1929) is the Principal Theatre and Scenic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Richard L. Hay (scenic designer) | Introduction
Finally, 15-20 unpaid Internships of two to four months annually provide emerging artists and administrators with hands-on experience by pairing them with a Festival staff member in the assistant's area of interest. Internships may fulfill academic requirements determined by recipient's home academic institution.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Professional staff
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1935 by Angus L. Bowmer. From late February through October each year, the Festival now offers 800 to 850 matinee and evening performances of a wide range of classic and contemporary plays not limited to Shakespeare to a total annual audience of nearly 400,000. The Festival welcomed its millionth visitor in 1971, its 10-millionth in 2001, and its 20-millionth visitor in 2015. At any given time between five and eleven plays are offered in daily rotation six days a week in its three theatres.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Introduction
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1935 by Angus L. Bowmer. From late February through October each year, the Festival now offers 800 to 850 matinee and evening performances of a wide range of classic and contemporary plays not limited to Shakespeare to a total annual audience of nearly 400,000. The Festival welcomed its millionth visitor in 1971, its 10-millionth in 2001, and its 20-millionth visitor in 2015. At any given time between five and eleven plays are offered in daily rotation six days a week in its three theatres.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Overview
The OSF professional staff is organized into administrative, artistic, education, and production sections. The paid staff of about 675 is organized into administrative, artistic, education, and production sections. The administrative staff of approximately 200 is supervised Acting Executive Director Paul Christy(2019- ) who follows past Executive Directors Cynthia Rider (2013-2018), Paul Nicholson (1995-2012) and William Patton (1955-1995). The Director of Finance and Administration supervises the physical plant (custodial services, maintenance, and security), accounting, IT, mail room, and receptionists. The Director of Marketing and Communications supervises the box office, membership services, archives (see below), publications and media, marketing, and audience services, which itself includes house managers, ushers, concessions, and access staff for handicapped patrons (see below).
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Professional staff
Anthony Heald, Howie Seago, Tyler Layton, Kelvin Underwood, and Judith-Marie Bergan
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Active
The Director of Development supervises institutional giving and major gifts. The Director of Human Resources manages employees, volunteer and events programs (see below), safety, and a professional development program called FAIR (Fellowships, Assistantships, Internships, and Residencies) that provides students aspiring to a career in theatre with direct experience of best practices across all aspects of professional theatre. Fellows work directly with senior management while expanding their personal networks. Three residencies varying from four to eleven months are exclusive to the Dramaturgy and Literary Management Department. Twenty-five to thirty Assistantships annually provide hands-on opportunities in virtually every area of the organization by pairing recipients with an appropriate OSF staff member for an average of three months.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Professional staff
Cunningham, and Cindy Im.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Alumni Actors
Angus L. Bowmer retired in 1971, and leadership of the Festival passed to Jerry Turner, who widened the Festival repertory to production of classics by the likes of Molière, Ibsen, and Chekhov. When Turner retired in 1991, actor/director Henry Woronicz took control through 1996. OSF then recruited Libby Appel from the highly respected Indiana Repertory Theatre. She served as Artistic Director from 1996 through 2007. Bill Rauch succeeded Libby Appel as Artistic Director, serving from 2008 to 2019. He incorporated musicals and non-western plays into the annual selection, and sought connections between classic plays and contemporary concerns. He also started the Black Swan Lab in which 15-20 OSF actors developed new works for the stage.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Artistic Directors
Her forté and passion are fostering and developing new work. She has produced over 150 mainstage, black box, and developmental projects including world premieres of Book of Will, Two Degrees, Zoe's Perfect Wedding, The Great Leap, and American Mariachi. She directed the world premiere of Pussy Valley, and the U.S. premieres of Jefferson's Garden and BLKS, and in her first effort in her new position, the imaginatively staged 2019 Oregon Shakespeare production of How to Catch Creation. In the announcement from OSF, Rauch stated, “She is a rigorous and thrilling artist; a thoughtful, confident leader; and a big thinker."
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Artistic Directors
The word "Shakespeare festival" may have originated from the professional company operating out of Stratford-upon-Avon in the late 19th century. From 1886 to 1919, Frank Benson directed 28 spring and six summer "Shakespeare festivals" at the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford. In 1935 the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, or OSF, was founded in Ashland, Oregon, USA. Originally named the "Oregon Shakespearean Festival"; the name was changed in 1988. Angus L. Bowmer, founder of OSF, wrote in 1954 that Shakespeare Festivals have in common the following attributes: 1) established firmly in one place; 2) repertoire (staging a variety of Shakespeare plays) and 3) a physical stage similar to that used in Shakespeare's lifetime.
Shakespeare festival | Origins
Bing Crosby served as an honorary director of the Festival from 1949 to 1951. Charles Laughton visited in 1961, saying "I have just seen the four best productions of Shakespeare that I have ever seen in my life." Laughton begged to play King Lear, but died in 1962 before he could fulfill the dream. Stacy Keach was a cast member in 1962 and 1963. Duke Ellington and his orchestra presented a benefit concert in 1966 that brought many luminaries to Ashland.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | History
There had to be, as designer Richard Hay put it, a "certain amount of tucking and squeezing." Each director had to solve the problem of an immovable roof support in the middle of the stage. For instance, in one production, it became a crucifix after adding a horizontal piece. The theatre reverted to its earlier roles in 2002 when it was replaced by the New Theatre, now renamed the Thomas Theatre. Among those roles are rehearsal space, meeting and audition rooms, classes, and since 2011 as a home for the Black Swan Lab (see above).
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Black Swan
The Box Office (J on the OSF campus map above) is on the same courtyard as the Thomas Theatre. The Festival acquired the Administration Building (C) in April 1967. Forming the northern boundary of the campus, the building houses the artistic, business, education, group sales, literary (D), human resources, development, and community productions offices as well as the mailroom. The adjacent Camps Building (A) houses the members' lounge, communications and marketing offices, and a meeting room. The Festival's costume shop occupies the Pioneer Building at the northwest corner of campus and an annex in the Administration building. The staff of over 60 creates the costumes and accessories in three main studios on the lower floor of the building and in an extension of the Administration Building.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Other buildings
Inspired by Shakespeare's 37 plays, Rauch also initiated a 10-year program to commission up to 37 new plays collectively called American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle, 32 of which have been commissioned and ten of these have reached the stage, several to great acclaim including Tony awards. Nataki Garrett succeeded Bill Rauch as the sixth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in August 2019. She earned her MFA in directing from the California Institute of the Arts and has more than 20 years of experience as a theatre administrator, director, producer, playwright, educator, activist and mentor, most recently as acting artistic director of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Associate Dean of the undergraduate acting program at California Institute of the Arts School of Theater.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Artistic Directors
Braille, large print, and audio playbills are available for all productions.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Access Service Program
The remainder of the building is given over to downstairs and upstairs lobbies, concessions, access distribution, archives (see below), storage, laundry room, green room, quiet room, warm-up room, dressing space for 18 actors, showers/restrooms, costume and wig rooms, stage manager's office, maintenance space, and storage for props and set pieces.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Thomas Theatre
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has grown from a summer outdoor series in the 1930s to a season that stretches from February to October, incorporating Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean plays at three theaters. The OSF has become the largest regional repertory theater in the United States. The Oregon Cabaret Theater features musicals and comedy throughout the year. Opened in 1986, the dinner theater occupies a former First Baptist Church built in Mission Revival style. The Ashland Independent Film Festival, which shows international and domestic films of almost every genre, takes place each April in the Varsity Theatre downtown. About 90 films are shown during the five days of the festival.
Ashland, Oregon | Arts and culture
Print materials include annual reports, brochures, calendars, correspondence, course handouts, course readings, news clippings, newsletters, photographs, posters, scripts, statistics and survey reports, study guides, and teacher information kits, guides, and resource kits. Audio and video recordings include radio broadcasts and school visit program performances.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Archives
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival occupies a campus adjacent to Lithia Park and the Plaza in Ashland, Oregon. The primary buildings are the three theatres, Carpenter Hall, and the Camps, Pioneer, and Administration buildings, all surrounding an open central court, locally known as "The Bricks" that ties everything together into an architecturally coherent whole and facilitates movement. It also provides a stage for the nightly Green Shows (see above) from June through September. Other facilities include the Black Swan, which serves as a laboratory for the development of new plays, the production facility, the costume shop, classrooms, the Hay Patton Rehearsal Center, and the costume shop.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | OSF campus
R. Scott Phillips was named executive director in October 2007, succeeding Founder Fred C. Adams at the helm of the Festival. Adams functioned as executive producer emeritus and executive director of the Festival Centre Project until his death in 2020. David Ivers and Brian Vaughn were named artistic directors in 2011. A six-member executive council works with Phillips, Ivers, and Vaughn as the day-to- day leadership. A thirty-person volunteer regional board of governors oversees all long-range planning, marketing, and development of the Festival and is chaired by Mark Moench. The Festival employs thirty-two people year-round. The production company consists of approximately 250 individuals.
Utah Shakespeare Festival | Leadership
OSF is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the not-for-profit theatre world, and a member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America. It operates under contracts with Actors' Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Inc., an independent national labor union.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Professional memberships
A list of the number of times the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has produced each of Shakespeare's plays is available below. It counts only main stage productions produced in Ashland and at OSF Portland. The Festival has completed the canon of the first folio four times: the first time with Troilus and Cressida in 1958, and the remaining times with Timon of Athens in 1978, 1997, and 2016. "*indicates shows not part of the First Folio canon."
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Cumulative Shakespeare Canon Productions
Libby Appel (born May 14, 1937) served as the fourth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) from 1995 to June 2007. Appel directed more than 25 productions at OSF, and her artistic vision influenced the 11 plays presented each year during her tenure. Despite the festival's name, she placed increased emphasis on new works. “We have made major connections with world playwrights, artists whose voices we’re particularly interested in.” Appel said. “We commission playwrights, we develop plays here; we have playwrights in residence. We’re a world force now, and I’m really proud of that.”
Libby Appel | Introduction
The professional staff is augmented by approximately 700 volunteers, some also members of other organizations, who contribute approximately 37,000 hours each year. Volunteers help patrons as roving Bricks Ambassadors who welcome visitors to the campus and answer their questions, staff the Welcome Center and Green Show information table, facilitate informal post-matinee discussions, provide concierge services for visiting student groups, and serve as volunteer ushers and ticket takers in the three theatres. Behind the scenes, volunteers help in the archives, box office, costume shop, costume warehouse, development office, fitness center, light shop, mail room, marketing office, scene shop as well as with office tasks such as copying, filing, preparing mailings and sorting incoming mail.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Volunteers
OSF also provides a broad range of educational programs for middle schools, high schools, college students, teachers, and theatre professionals. The company consists of about 675 paid staff and 700 volunteers.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Overview
Richard L. Hay has since 1950 been Actor, Lighting Assistant, Technical Director, Art Director, Designer and Technical Director, Resident Scenic Designer, and Principal Theatre and Scenic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, interrupted by occasional stints at other theatres. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has dedicated its 2009 season, the fiftieth anniversary of the Elizabethan Stage which he designed, to Richard Hay. Over more than half a century, Hay has designed four theaters and 245 productions, 112 of them by Shakespeare, for the Festival. He has designed sets for every single one of Shakespeare’s plays two times, and he has designed sets for The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Henry V and Much Ado about Nothing five times.
Richard L. Hay (scenic designer) | Career
They transcribe interviews, help with actor auditions for visitors from other theatres and serve as attendants in the company fitness facility. Volunteers assist with access services such as data collection for periodic audience surveys. They help staff numerous events that comprise the annual Daedalus fund raiser (see above), drive company vehicles on specific errands, and direct traffic during dismantling and movement of sets into storage at the end of the season.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Volunteers
Also in this area are offices and fitting rooms for the costume designers and costume design assistants, a costume props area and a vented paint room. Upstairs is a dye room, lounge, laundry, storage room, and office. During the height of costume production each season, a wig shop and additional studio is open in the basement of the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The Festival acquired Carpenter Hall (I) in October 1973, renovating it to accommodate lectures, concerts, rehearsals, meetings and Festival and community events. The Bill Patton Garden (K) provides the venue for free informal summer noon talks by OSF actors and staff.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Other buildings
Several theaters underwent name changes for the 2013 season. The New Theatre finally gained a formal name as the Thomas Theatre. The Elizabethan Stage and Allen were united under one name as the Allen Elizabethan Theatre, thanks to a $3 Million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. In 2014, the Festival announced their Canon in a Decade initiative. In the next ten years, from 2015 to 2024, the Festival would be producing the complete Shakespeare Canon to honor the 80th anniversary of the festival. This project is in progress, and may have been affected by shut downs due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The 2010s
Powers Boothe, Stephanie Beatriz, Daniel Davis, Jean Smart, Catherine E. Coulson, Harry Anderson, Edward Winter (actor), Enid Kent, Joel David Moore, Peter Frechette, Jay Karnes, Kim Rhodes, Laurence Ballard, Jeanne Paulsen, Ty Burrell, Gretchen Corbett, Eileen DeSandre, Bruce Abbott, Jenny Mollen, Jonathan Adams (American actor), Patrick Page, Anthony Lee (actor), George Peppard, Henry Woronicz, Larry Carpenter, Catherine Butterfield, Kelly AuCoin, George Hitchcock (poet), David L. Boushey, Jahnna N. Malcolm, Keith Fowler, Michael O'Sullivan (actor), Michelle Beck, Danny Bruno, Brandis Kemp, Linda Marshall, Frankie J. Alvarez, Margot Bennett (actress), Javier Muñoz (actor), Alma Martinez (actress), Jim B. Baker, Duane Boutte, Michael Winters (actor), Denis Arndt, Tala Ashe, Nico Santos (actor), Shona Tucker, Dennis Day (Mouseketeer), Sean S.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Alumni Actors
Henry Woronicz (; born 1954) is an American actor, director, and producer who was formerly the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 1991 to 1995. He was an actor and resident director there starting in 1984. In addition to his work at OSF, he has acted and directed in many other theaters, and has extensive film and TV credits.
Henry Woronicz | Introduction
In April 2011, it was announced that following the retirement of thirty-five year veteran artistic director Gil Seeley, the ensemble is headed by Ethan Sperry, Director of Choral Activities at Portland State University.
Oregon Repertory Singers | Directors
The Angus Bowmer Theatre seats between 592 and 610 patrons depending on configuration. Although about half the size of the outdoor theatre, it more than doubled audience capacity by making it possible to hold matinee performances and to extend the season into spring and fall.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Angus Bowmer Theatre
Ironically, the profit from the plays covered the losses the boxing matches incurred. The Festival has continued ever since (excepting 1941–1946 while Bowmer served in World War II), and quickly developed a reputation for quality productions. Angus Bowmer's first wife Lois served as art director, creating both costumes and scenery during the formative years of the Festival from 1935 to 1940. In 1939, OSF took a production of "The Taming of the Shrew" to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco that was nationally broadcast on radio. The lead actress, learning at the last minute the broadcast would be to a national audience, suffered a panic attack, was rushed to the hospital, and the stand-in took over.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | History
The advisory board for Oregon Shakespeare Festival Portland was reformulated as the board of directors of the PCS, and Elizabeth Huddle was hired in May 1994 as the producing artistic director. Huddle had previously served on the PCS's search committee for a new artistic director, but decided to put her name in for consideration. In 1994 the PCS had a budget of US$2.2 million, and over 11,000 subscribers. In May 1995 the company's financial numbers for its transitional 1994–1995 period with its new artistic director were reported to be a deficit of $240,000. The company experienced what "The Oregonian" described as a "jarring divorce" from the OSF.
Portland Center Stage | 1988–2000
A chart emphasizing the repertory nature of OSF lists all the actors and their parts in the plays. The Festival also publishes a "Bard Scorecard," which lists all of William Shakespeare's Plays, the years OSF produced them, and allows repeat patrons to cross off which plays they've seen towards completing the canon.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Publications
In 1893, the residents of Ashland built a facility to host Chautauqua events. In its heyday, it accommodated audiences of 1,500 for appearances by the likes of John Philip Sousa and William Jennings Bryan during annual 10-day seasons. In 1917, a new domed structure was built at the site, but it fell into disrepair after the Chautauqua movement died out in the 1920s. In 1935, the similarity of the remaining wall of the then-roofless Chautauqua building to Elizabethan theatres inspired Southern Oregon University drama professor Angus L. Bowmer to propose using it to present plays by Shakespeare. Ashland city leaders loaned him a sum "not to exceed $400" (approximately ) to present two plays as part of the city's Independence Day celebration.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | History
Begun at and by OSF, Play on! has become an independent nonprofit organization.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Play on!
Before he became artistic director he spent seven years at Oregon Shakespeare Festival acting in many roles: as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and the title roles in many productions, including "Peer Gynt", "Cyrano de Bergerac", and "Henry VIII". His early directing credits included "Romeo and Juliet", "Henry IV, part 2", "Other People's Money", and "Master Harold ... and the Boys". In 1991, he followed Jerry Turner as OSF's third artistic director. After assuming the role of artistic director, Woronicz continued to act and direct. During those years he directed Pravda, "Hamlet", "The Rehearsal", "Cymbeline", and "All's Well That Ends Well".
Henry Woronicz | Oregon Shakespeare Festival years
Terrence O’Brien is an American theatre director. O'Brien is a graduate of University of Notre Dame, and received advanced training in acting and directing at American Conservatory Theater, A.C.T. in San Francisco. He is the Founding Artistic Director of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, which began in 1987 with a modest outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, produced in cooperation with the 29th Street Project. In 1988, the Festival moved to Boscobel, a Hudson River museum estate in Garrison, New York. Once in its new home and under a big tent, the festival grew dramatically, from its first season audience of 230 to 37,000 in 2010.
Terrence O'Brien (director) | Introduction
Each year, three plays are staged in the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre, three or four in the intimate Thomas Theatre, and four or five in the traditional Angus Bowmer Theatre. OSF has completed the entire Shakespeare canon of 37 plays in 1958, 1978, 1997, and 2016.[1] It added non-Shakespearean plays in 1960. Since 2000 there has been at least one new work each season from playwrights such as Octavio Solis and Robert Schenkkan, several of which have gone on to other venues and numerous awards (see below). A complete list by year and theatre is available here: Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Overview
He learned Swedish, and later learned Norwegian, and returned to the U.S. to become Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s second producing director, then its artistic director (a title change only), retiring in 1991. Turner died of heart failure on September 2, 2004.
Jerry Turner (theater director) | Biography
"Manahatta" premiered as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at the Thomas Theater on March 28th, 2018. It was directed by Laurie Woolery, with the only cast member returning from the pre-premiere production being Tanis Parenteau (Jane Snake/Le-le-wa'-you), and a premiering cast of Sheila Tousey (Bobbie/Mother), Rainbow Dickerson (Debra/Toosh-ki-pa-kwis-i), Steven Flores (Luke/Se-ket-tu-may-qua), Danforth Comins (Joe/Jakob), Jeffrey King (Dick Fuld/Peter Minuit), and David Kelly (Michael/Jonas Michaelius). The show was met with critical success, and ran until October 27th, 2018.
Manahatta (play) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Under the principal supervision of longtime executive director James Ralph, the festival has been under the artistic leadership of a diverse group of music directors, including Cajun fiddle master Michael Doucet, American conductor James Paul and jazz pianist & composer Dick Hyman. Under the dual leadership of Hyman and Paul from 1998 to 2006, OFAM undertook a series of highly diverse and innovative programs that was established by Doucet and Paul in 1997 and continued with Paul and Hyman through 2001. In 2002 the festival introduced musical theater to its production mix and shifted its principal focus to the exploration and celebration of the American Songbook, leaving its art music initiative in the hands of its other annual concert programs.
Oregon Festival of American Music | Organization History
Differences from year to year are largely accounted for by variations in seating configurations in the theaters and total number of performances including occasional cancellation of outdoor performances due to windborne smoke from distant forest fires, particularly in 2018. In addition to its economic importance to the region, OSF is an active community member. It often participates in Ashland's Martin Luther King celebration, Juneteenth celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Fourth of July Parade. The Green Show (see above) and Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic are free. The Daedalus Project is an annual fund-raising event managed by company members since 1987 in support of HIV/AIDS charitable organizations.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Economic importance
OSF archivists develop, preserve, and maintain a comprehensive collection of documents and oral histories, drawings and photographs, audio and video recordings, and artifacts pertaining to the artistic and administrative history and heritage of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Collecting, organizing, and preserving these materials of what otherwise is an ephemeral art form to archival standards is an ongoing effort aided in part by grants. The archives may be searched online. Collections are available for research, although some collections have restrictions, and permission must be obtained for their use. The Archives include Education department records from 1947 on and document the department's programming and structural evolution.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Archives
Production history of plays performed by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, .
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Introduction
The scripts didn't arrive on the set until three minutes before air time. The Festival achieved widespread national recognition when, from 1951 to 1973, under the direction of Andrew C. Love (1894–1987), NBC broadcast abbreviated performances each year that were carried by more than 100 stations nationally and, after 1954, on Armed Forces Radio and Radio Free Europe. The programs won favorable reviews from critics that drew audiences to the Festival from around the country. The programs led "Life" magazine to do a story on the Festival in 1957, bringing even more people to the plays. The NBC programs and the subsequent attention go a long way to explaining how a tiny out-of-the-way timber town in the Northwest became a theatrical and tourist Mecca.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | History
The Tudor Guild, a separate non-profit corporation, operates the Tudor Guild Gift Shop (B) and Brass Rubbing Center (K), where visitors can make facsimiles of 55 historic English brasses under expert guidance. Just off campus, a purpose-equipped fitness center helps actors stay fit for physically demanding roles that often require acrobatics, fights, and pratfalls.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Other buildings
The festival did not present any productions from 1941 to 1946. This was due to World War II and a fire that burned down the festival's original Elizabethan Theatre. In 1951, actors from the summer acting company formed the Vining Repertory. This "edition" of the festival was created to present plays in indoor venues that allowed the season to utilize more of the year when winter weather would prohibit outdoor performances. They performed for three seasons in a local venue known as the Lithia Theatre before a fire destroyed the stage, stock, and records. The name "Vining Repertory" was in honor of the brothers who founded the Lithia Theatre and who had died just before the creation of this "sub-company".
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The Post-War Years (Late 1940s & 1950s)
All playgoers are offered a complimentary "Playbill" with a synopsis of the plays, cast lists, artist biographies, and directors' statements. All members receive spring, summer, and fall issues of "Prologue", containing articles on directors, actors, costumes, props, and plays. "Illuminations", a comprehensive guide to each year's plays, is sold in the Tudor Guild gift shop and given to higher-level donors. "Illuminations" includes synopses, themes, information on playwrights and historical and other contextual information. Each year, the Festival publishes "Teachers First!" providing information on the season's plays, including age suitability, the seasonal calendar, ordering and discount information. The annual "Souvenir Program" includes photographic highlights of each play and special articles along with pictures and biographies of actors, playwrights, and the many people who work behind the scenes.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Publications
Rauch became the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's fifth artistic director in 2007, after five seasons at the Festival as a guest director. As visiting director at OSF, Rauch directed "Handler" (2002), "Hedda Gabler" (2003), "The Comedy of Errors" (2004), "By the Waters of Babylon" (2005) & "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (2006). During his 17 seasons at OSF, Rauch directed seven world premieres including, "Mother Road, LA Comedia of Errors, Off the Rails, Roe, Fingersmith, The Great Society, All the Way, Equivocation" and "By the Waters of Babylon". He also directed 19 other plays at the Festival including; By Shakespeare: "Othello, Richard II, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "The Comedy of Errors"; Others: "Oklahoma!, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, The Pirates of Penzance, The Music Man, The Clay Cart, Hedda Gabler, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler and Handler." Rauch directed several OSF plays at other theatres, including "Equivocation, All the Way and The Great Society" at Seattle Rep; "The Pirates of Penzance" at Portland Opera; "Equivocation and Roe" at Arena Stage; "Roe" at Berkeley Rep; and "Othello, Fingersmith and All the Way" at the American Repertory Theater for which he twice won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award for Best Director.
Bill Rauch | Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival
An April 1968 report by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research of the University of Oregon pointed to the lost economic opportunity represented by the thousands of people the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was turning away each year. It further noted that the Festival had become an important economic engine for southern Oregon, and recommended addition of an indoor theatre. This led the City of Ashland to apply to the Economic Development Administration of the Department of Commerce in Fall 1968 for a $1,792,000 project grant with the Angus Bowmer Theatre as the keystone. The plan also called for a parking building, a remodeled administration building and box office, a scene shop and exhibit hall that later would become the OSF Black Swan, landscaping, and street realignment.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Angus Bowmer Theatre
However, they pressed Bowmer to add boxing matches to cover the expected deficit. Bowmer agreed, feeling such an event was in perfect keeping with the bawdiness of Elizabethan theatre. The Works Progress Administration helped construct a makeshift Elizabethan stage on the Chautauqua site, and confidently billing it as the "First Annual Oregon Shakespearean Festival", Bowmer presented "Twelfth Night" on July 2 and July 4, 1935, and "The Merchant of Venice" on July 3, directing and playing the lead roles in both plays himself. Reserved seats cost $1, with general admission of $.50 for adults and $.25 for children (approximately equivalent to $, $, and $ in 2019).
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | History
Following the 2005 production of "Henry V", Dr. Paul Rathburn retired from his role as Producing Artistic Director. The company's Artistic Director from 2006 - 2012 was Jay Paul Skelton. The current Ryan Producing Artistic Director for the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival is Grant Mudge. The resident lighting designer for the festival since its inception has been ND Associate Professor Kevin Dreyer.
Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival | History
The Ashland New Plays Festival (ANPF) is a nonprofit organization in Ashland, Oregon that encourages playwrights in the creation of new works through public readings. The organization was founded in 1992 and is managed by a volunteer board of directors and artistic board, ANPF's flagship festival is a playwright competition that culminates in the reading of four new plays culled from hundreds of submissions. The festival features professional actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the community. In 2011 more than 200 playwrights participated through submissions and at the festival.
Ashland New Plays Festival | Introduction
A new production directed by Bill Rauch ran at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from July 27 through October 28, 2017.
Off the Rails (play) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Murnau, shot on location in Athena, Oregon (with a score composed by John Paul and performed by a string quartet; "A Soldier's Tale" by Penny Allen, and James Ivory's first international hit film "Shakespeare Wallah", with James Ivory attending. The special Oregon Cartoon Institute Day at the festival featured Bill Plympton.
Marylhurst University | Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival
It features a morning fun run, an afternoon play reading, an "arts and treasures" sale and an evening variety show and underwear parade.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Economic importance
One of the original founders, Dan Peterson, died in 2008.
Idaho Shakespeare Festival | History
Royce Saltzman retired in 2006 and was replaced as Executive Director by John Evans, a former BBC producer and published Benjamin Britten scholar. Since Evans's arrival in 2007, the festival has expanded to include concerts throughout Oregon, including at Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and Bend's Tower Theatre. Recent seasons have also included collaborations with other regional arts organizations, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Eugene Ballet. The Festival has also completed its first endowment campaign, raising over $10 million. The 2010 festival, billed as a 40th-anniversary gala year, included appearances by Thomas Quasthoff, Pink Martini, Bobby McFerrin, Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.
Oregon Bach Festival | The festival in the 21st century
The 60s confirmed the demand for an indoor venue that permitted performances in colder months. Vining Rep continued for another year in a new venue: a local movie theatre called The Varsity Theatre with the dressing rooms in a trailer behind the venue. Later in the decade, the festival used the Varsity for matinee performances of Ballad Operas, but were soon able to raise enough money to build a new indoor space: The Angus Bowmer Theatre.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The 1960s
The festival is governed by a volunteer 44-member board of trustees; managed by 12 permanent staff members; serves as an artistic home for 180-plus artists, technicians, and service personnel; and hosts hundreds of community volunteers each year.
Idaho Shakespeare Festival | Organization
The Shakespeare Theatre Association of America was organized at a meeting held January 12 and 13, 1991 at the Folger Library and the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. Sidney Berger, Producing Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and Douglas Cook, Producing Artistic Director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, invited the producers, artistic directors and managing directors of over thirty-seven Shakespeare festivals and companies from the United States and Canada to this meeting. Berger was elected the first President, and Cook the first Vice President.
Shakespeare Theatre Association | History
The late Ruben Sierra, alumnus and former faculty member, created one of the country's first ethnic theatre companies, The Group Theatre (formerly the Group Theatre at the Ethnic Cultural Center), which was later led by Tim Bond, a directing graduate of the UW who served as associate artistic director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 11 years and producing artistic director for Syracuse Stage and who is now Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Even the enormously successful Oregon Shakespeare Festival was founded by alum Angus L. Bowmer. More recently, the Washington Ensemble Theatre was founded in 2004 by nine alums representing every one of the school's programs.
University of Washington School of Drama | History
Murnau, shot on location in Athena, Oregon (with a score composed by John Paul and performed by a string quartet; A Soldier's Tale by Penny Allen, and James Ivory's first international hit film Shakespeare Wallah, with James Ivory in person. The special Oregon Cartoon Institute day at the festival featured Bill Plympton.
Oregon Cartoon Institute | Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival
The early 2000s saw the decommissioning of the Black Swan Theatre as a venue for the regular season and the construction and opening of the New Theatre that would later be renamed as the Thomas Theatre in 2013. The Black Swan closed at the end of the 2001 season on October 28, and the New Theatre started performances in March 2002. The decade also saw a change in leadership. In 2007, Libby Appel's ended her tenure as the Artistic Director. The 2008 season was the first for Bill Rauch, who became the fifth person to assume the role.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The 2000s
Lee is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Young Jean Lee | Theater
The limitations stemming from adapting an existing building as the Black Swan led to the design and building of a third theatre that provided flexible seating and increased capacity while maintaining the intimacy of the Black Swan. Opened in March 2002 and originally named the New Theatre, it was renamed the Thomas Theatre in 2013 as a result of a generous $4.5 million gift from a group of donors. The name recognizes the contributions of longtime OSF development director Peter Thomas, who died in March 2010. The Thomas Theatre expands the possibilities for experiment and innovation while maintaining the intimacy of the Black Swan, no seat being more than six rows from the stage.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Thomas Theatre
In the early years, OSF only produced works of Shakespeare. In July 1939, OSF was invited to present their production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Golden Gate International Exposition. The performance was broadcast nationally over NBC Radio. The interest drawn up by the national broadcast may have been the necessary exposure that allowed the Festival to return following World War II.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The Early Years (1930s)
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, directed by Andrew J. Traister.
The Birthday Party (play) | 1981
Turner directed more than 40 productions at OSF, including "The Iceman Cometh", "Julius Caesar", "King Lear", "Long Day's Journey into Night", "Major Barbara", "Macbeth", "Mother Courage and Her Children", "Pericles Prince of Tyre", "The Tempest", and "The White Devil". He directed a number of his own translations of Swedish and Norwegian plays including "The Dance of Death", "An Enemy of the People", "The Father", "Ghosts", "Peer Gynt", "Rosmersholm", and "The Wild Duck". Turner loved both classical texts and new work, and always sought to find in both ways to surprise and stimulate audiences. He was considered both a risk-taker and a traditionalist.
Jerry Turner (theater director) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival
She not only increased the representation of non-white actors in the company to more than a third, she raised the number of new plays in the festival's mix. Appel has been intent on attracting an audience that is both younger and less white, while keeping the sophisticated seniors who flock to Ashland. “For me, it’s about the truth of the play in the moment that I’m living,” Appel says. “I think to contemporize the speech, or bastardize it, is dumbing it down.” In 18 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Appel directed: "Pride and Prejudice", "Paradise Lost", "A View from the Bridge", "The Cherry Orchard" (her own adaptation from an original translation), "The Tempest", "The Winter’s Tale" (2006 and 1989), "Bus Stop", "Richard III", "Napoli Milionaria!," "Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three" (co-directed with the adapter, Scott Kaiser), "Richard II"," Macbeth", "Saturday, Sunday, Monday", "The Trip to Bountiful", "Three Sisters", "Henry V", "Hamlet", "Henry IV, Part Two," "Measure for Measure", "Uncle Vanya"," King Lear", "The Magic Fire" (also at the Kennedy Center), "The Merchant of Venice", "Breaking the Silence", "Enrico IV" (the Emperor), "The Seagull" (Portland).
Libby Appel | Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Festival opened the 2020 season on February 28. On March 11, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the performances and remaining openings of all shows to be cancelled indefinitely. By the end of March, the Festival was hoping to present a smaller season that would open Labor Day weekend. The plan was to present the four shows that had already opened with the addition of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre. On May 8, it became apparent that ongoing social distancing restrictions in Oregon would prohibit a fall season and all shows for 2020 were cancelled.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Productions
They are the only company in Montreal to consistently produce a Shakespeare production each year. The company's first Artistic Director was Cas Anvar (followed by Kevin Orr and then Paul Hopkins) and the current Artistic Director is Amanda Kellock.
Shakespeare in the Park festivals | Repercussion Theatre (Montreal)
Portland Center Stage was founded in 1988, and was the "northern sibling" of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland, Oregon, and continued as a branch of OSF until 1994. The company was originally known as "Oregon Shakespeare Festival Portland". Its first production was "Heartbreak House". Dennis Bigelow was PCS's first artistic director and was let go by the OSF in 1992. A two-year transitional process began in 1993, during which the OSF maintained a supervisory role over PCS. "The Oregonian" reported that the OSF's artistic director Henry Woronicz "couldn't figure out how to integrate the two closely enough for his liking, and he was unwilling to have Portland go its own way without supervision".
Portland Center Stage | 1988–2000
The 2018 season is Willis’s first programmed as Artistic Director.
St Lawrence Shakespeare Festival | Introduction
Berwick Hall was christened as the first permanent home of the Festival in October 2017. In 2017, Matthew Halls was unexpectedly dismissed as artistic director.
Oregon Bach Festival | The festival in the 21st century
Richard L. Hay designed the theatre space. Architects Thomas Hacker and Associates of Portland designed the building. The contractor was Emerick Construction, and acoustical engineering was provided by Dohn and Associates. The seats can be arranged in three configurations. In arena mode, a stage of is surrounded on all four sides by 360 seats. In three-quarter thrust mode, a stage is surrounded on three sides by 270 seats, and in avenue mode, a stage provides 228 seats on two sides. There is a trap room under the stage and a fly loft at one end. A computer controls 300 circuits and over 400 lights of various types.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Thomas Theatre
The play was first produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It premiered April 15, 2009, and closed on October 31, 2009. Seattle Repertory Theatre in partnership with Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented the play in Seattle from 18 November through 13 December 2009. As in Ashland, it was directed by Bill Rauch with Anthony Heald, Christine Albright, Jonathan Haugen, Richard Elmore, John Tufts and Gregory Linington. The play appeared at the New York City Center in March, 2010 with John Pankow, Charlotte Parry, Remy Auberjonois, Michael Countryman, David Furr and David Pittu. Garry Hynes directed.
Equivocation (play) | Productions
$896,000 was approved in April 1969, to match an equal amount to be raised through private donations. The fund drive quickly exceeded its goal and ground for the new theatre was broken on December 18, 1969. The theatre was ready just five months later and opened with a production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," selected to recognize the Shakespearean origin of the Festival but to signal that the Festival also was ready to broaden its horizons by incorporating modern plays into its repertoire. Reinforcing that signal, "The Fantasticks" and "You Can't Take it with You" were also presented during that first six-week season.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Angus Bowmer Theatre
In addition to the plays, since 1951 a free outdoor "Green Show" drawing audiences of 600 to 1200, often including non-playgoers, precedes the evening plays from June through September, Wednesday through Saturday nights, from a modular steel stage with a sprung floor for the dancers, a removable wheelchair ramp for performers with disabilities, and built-in storage facilities that eliminate carting equipment from and to distant storage facilities. Originally, it offered Elizabethan music and dancers. From 1966 until 2007 it consisted of three Renaissance-themed shows in rotation inspired by the plays showing in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre. Beginning in 1990, live music was supplied by resident ensemble The Terra Nova Consort, with numerous guest musicians, and Elizabethan dancers.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Green Show
On Jan. 14, 2013, Sneed announced that he was leaving CSF to take a position as executive director for the Arvada (Colorado) Center for Arts and Humanities. Associate Producing Artistic Director Timothy Orr was tapped as the interim director. The 2013 season — "A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, Richard II" and "Women of Will: The Overview" — saw a 17-percent increase in ticket revenue, which allowed the festival to pay off loans for capital improvements to the Rippon theater and make a voluntary contribution to the college in an effort to repay debt underwriting.
Colorado Shakespeare Festival | 2013
The 1970s began with the first season in the new Angus Bowmer Theatre. In 1977, after being used for company-only play performances and staged readings, the Black Swan Theatre became another venue presenting shows as a part of the main OSF season. The Black Swan was used for more experimental or intimate productions.
Production history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | The 1970s
The Black Swan (G on the OSF campus map above) served as the Festival's third theatre from 1977 to 2001. The building, originally an automobile dealership, was bought in 1969 as a scene shop and rehearsal hall. Company members began using it to stage "midnight" readings for one another and invited friends who brought other friends. Artistic Director Jerry Turner recognized the opportunity to take risks with unconventional staging and subjects, and called for its development as a third OSF theatre. Fitting a theatre into the existing building was challenging. It could hold only 138 seats, all within five rows of the stage.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Black Swan
In Southern Oregon, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, held in Ashland, is also a tourist draw, as is the Oregon Vortex and the Wolf Creek Inn State Heritage Site, a historic inn where Jack London wrote his 1913 novel "Valley of the Moon".
Oregon | Tourism and entertainment
OSF is a non-profit corporation managed under US and Oregon law by a 32-member Board of Directors nominated and elected for eight-year terms. The endowment itself has a net worth in excess of $30 million that returns about $1.2 million to support the annual operating budget. It is managed by seven trustees who are selected for five-year terms by the Board of Directors. OSF is supported in part by corporate and individual donors through direct support of individual plays and annual non-voting memberships. These are offered at eleven levels beginning with a $35 basic membership, each with its own privileges such as ticket discounts, members' presale, access to the member's lounge and a 10% discount in the Tudor Guild shop.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Organization
In 2014, Plummer presented "A Word or Two" again, at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
Christopher Plummer | Stratford Festival
Founder Kristy Edmunds left PICA in 2005 to become artistic director for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. She is now Artistic & Executive Director of the Center for the Art of Performance (CAP) at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Mark Russell (producer of The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival and former director of P.S.122) and Cathy Edwards (former director of programming for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas) operated as the organization's two guest artistic directors from 2006 until 2011. Angela Mattox, the former Performing Arts Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, was hired as the organization's permanent artistic director in 2011.
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art | Leadership
Play on! paired 36 playwrights with dramaturgs working in concert with 17 different theatres and academic institutions commissioned to translate all 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare into contemporary modern English. Each playwright was asked to respect the language, meter, rhythm, metaphor, image, rhyme, rhetoric, and emotional content of the original. The goal was 39 unique side-by-side companion translations that are both performable and useful reference texts for classrooms and productions. While each playwright took his or her own approach, Kenneth Cavander, the playwright who undertook and completed this task for "Timon of Athens" felt that the trick was to leave what is immediate and alive to our ears in the original untouched and only elsewhere to unpack whatever might hinder the free flow of the story in a way that is clear, not over-reverent, and above all, actable, so that the result is clear and compelling to a contemporary audience while preserving the spirit of the original.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Play on!
As a Guest Director at The University of Washington in the summer of 1930, he staged Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Love's Labour's Lost on an Elizabethan style, on a temporary Thrust stage. The productions inspired a young graduate student, Angus L. Bowmer, who acted in and staged managed the productions. Bowmer went on to incorporate these staging concepts when he founded the Oregon Shakespeare Festival five years later. Payne directed Shakespeare's Cymbeline at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1956, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1961. In 1934, Payne and Thomas Woods Stevens edited and produced several short (one hour) productions of Shakespeare plays that were presented during the second year of the Chicago World's Fair (Century of Progress) at a crude reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater.
Ben Iden Payne | Inspiration on other theaters
In 1998, Terra Nova was joined by modern dance troupe Dance Kaleidoscope. This collaboration continued through 2007. In still another innovation by Bill Rauch, the Green Show was revamped in 2008. The shows now vary widely with performers such as a dance group from Mexico or India one night, clowns doing ballet on stilts the next, and a classical music quartet on another. A fire show, juggler, or magician might be seen along with improv, metal, or rock-n-roll variations on Shakespeare. Individual performers, groups, choirs, bands, and orchestras may present Afro-Cuban, baroque, blues, classical, contemporary, cowboy, funk, gospel, hip-hop, jazz, mariachi, marimba, poetry, marionette, renaissance, or salsa, sometimes combined in unexpected ways.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival | Green Show
"Seven" and "Zodiac" director David Fincher graduated from Ashland High School. Director Brad Bird graduated from Corvallis High School. Simpsons creator and cartoonist Matt Groening graduated from Lincoln High School. Director Todd Haynes lives in Oregon. Director Gus Van Sant has achieved commercial and critical acclaim for his films, including "My Own Private Idaho", "Drugstore Cowboy", "Good Will Hunting" (which earned Van Sant a best director Oscar nomination) and "Elephant" (which won the Palme d'Or and a best director award at the Cannes Film Festival). Will Vinton Studios, a famous producer of animated films (especially clay animation); noted for the feature film Return to Oz, the California Raisins television commercials of the 1980s, Eddie Murphy's television show The PJs.
Culture of Oregon | Filmmakers