This year, we mark the 50th anniversary of our beloved Elizabethan Stage. In honor of that milestone, we dedicate OSF’s 2009 season to Richard L. Hay, the remarkable theatre artist who designed our existing outdoor stage a half-century ago. Richard also designed our indoor Angus Bowmer Theatre and New Theatre, as well as 200+ productions in all three spaces. He is still an unstoppable creative force, this season creating the set design for two world premiere adaptations of comedic classics: “The Servant of Two Masters” and “Don Quixote.” With this season of plays, we have aspired to create a kaleidoscope of classic and new work that reflects Richard’s life-long love of our art form, his visionary artistry and his deep commitment to our company and audience. Read more...

In summer 1950, Richard L. Hay got a phone call from Bill Patton, his roommate at Stanford University. Patton said he was stringing lights at a little theater called the Oregon Shakespearean Festival up in Ashland, and he could use some help. Read more...

It was early April and Jackie Williams, having worked late at Lark’s restaurant the night before, grumbled herself awake and was still protesting as she walked through the doors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Angus Bowmer Theatre. Read more...

During a performance of “The Music Man” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival earlier this year, a baseball went flying through the theater and rolled across the stage. The ball the actors were expecting. The wild throw — as well as the nonexistent catch — they were not. But 17-year-old Kyle Barnes, the pitcher, was already ad-libbing. “It rolled all the way across the stage, and almost off, almost into the pit,” Barnes said, reliving the horror, “so we ad-libbed what we were doing.” Read more...

“Don Quixote” on the Elizabethan Stage? What, exactly, is OSF planning to do with Miguel de Cervantes’ classic, sweeping 17th century novel? Give the audience a good, rollicking romp, that’s what. Read more...

For the Tidings Please to remember the fifth of November Gunpowder Treason and Plot We know no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot — Traditional Anonymous since the 17th Century Read more...

Libby Appel, the former artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, has returned this season to direct Clifford Odets’ “Paradise Lost.” She won critical acclaim in 2007 for adapting and directing Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” In “Paradise Lost,” members of an American family face the loss of their home and business during the Depression. “The Cherry Orchard” portrays an aristocratic Russian family on the brink of losing its estate and beloved cherry orchard. Read more...

This is the third time Kate Buckley has directed “Much Ado about Nothing,” but it’s her first time staging the show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and she’s not worried about repetition. Read more...

If ever there was a reason to arrive to the theater early, the Green Show is it. Before the sun goes down and the stage lights come up, the bricks of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival will fill with theatergoers for free performances as varied as the plays themselves. Read more...

From June 2 to Aug. 9, the show starts at 7:15 p.m. From Aug. 11 to Oct. 4, the show starts at 6:45 p.m. Shows last approximately 35 minutes. Admission is free — just come to the OSF bricks! For more information, visit www.osfashland.org/greenshow. Read more...

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