The Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Last week my wife and I vacationed in Ashland, Oregon and attended the Oregon Shakespearean Festival. Ashland is close to the California border and close to Medford, Oregon where I was born. When I was about seven years old, we moved away from Medford, but we would return to see friends from time to time. It was during one of those visits that my parents took me to Ashland to see a Shakespeare play (my first one). A couple of years later they took me to see another play.

That first time in 1972 I instantly fell in love with live theater in general and Shakespeare in particular. My mother had prepared me by reading me the synopsis of the play we were going to see, The Taming of the Shrew. I liked the fact that I could follow the story well even though they were talking with fancy archaic words. I found it funny. I also did not mind seeing pretty actresses in low-cut costumes (I was nearly a teenager after all). My father was hard of hearing, so my parents paid for us to sit in the first or second row. The problem with this is that we were in what I called the “spray zone”. Being a large open-air theater, the actors had to forcefully project their words to be heard all the way to the back. That means that more than just sound came out of their mouths. But it also meant that I was really close to the action and could see every expression and nuance from the actors.

After seeing those first two plays, we moved again, then I grew up and moved away and got married. When we moved back to Oregon I wanted to show my wife the Shakespearean Festival. She and I saw our first play together there in 1987 and she loved it as much as I did. We also loved the town of Ashland. It is a fun artistic community with lots of great places to eat. It also has a beautiful long meandering park called Lithia Park. The park was designed by John McLaren who also designed San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. We have been back to Ashland many times over the years. At one point we were going every year for about eight years in a row. We don’t quite maintain that frequency today, but we still go often.

I love reconnecting with Shakespeare, and I love seeing the creative ways they bring these stories to life. My parents are long gone now, but going to this festival is also a way to reconnect with them.

Star Liner

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