Oregon Shakespeare Festival

I graduated high school in 1964 with a few honors, but with no affection for the works of Shakespeare. However, the good news is that I met a new friend that summer, who would later be promoted to the high status of brother-in-law, and one day he said, "Hey, let's drive to Ashland and see a play."

"Drive 300 miles to see a play?" I snorted. "We can't find a play somewhere here in Portland?" Fortunately, Jim prevailed over my worse judgment, and before long we were sitting under the stars in the Elizabethan Theatre of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The play was Merchant of Venice, the first Shakespeare play I had ever literally seen. I may have missed a summer during my impoverished college days, but other than that it's been an unbroken string of annual visits, usually multiple visits, first with my bride (the other great benefit I derived indirectly from Jim's friendship), and then with our children and lots of other people's children who have been my English and Drama students over the years.

Shakespeare's plays were not written to be read (they were deliberately not published so that rival companies could not easily pirate them), but to be seen. English teachers, do your best to get students into the theatres where those plays are being performed, wherever you might live and whatever the level of acting proficiency you can find. If you're close enough to Southern Oregon to make Ashland your destination—and groups from several surrounding states seem to think they are close enough—then please do your best. This Shakespeare Festival, born in 1935, has received a deluge of awards including a Broadway-based Tony Award for best regional theatre. Visit the website to see what's going on there currently and what they're planning for next year. (The Festival has expanded to include works by many other playwrights as well, but their Shakespeare productions continue to be the heart of the Ashland experience.)

I like to tell the story of the one time my wife and I visited London, and one of our must-see attractions was the reconstructed Globe Theatre, on the very site of Shakespeare's original structure. We had watched a very few minutes of Macbeth when we whispered to each other almost simultaneously, "Ashland is better."

After accompanying students to probably 100 performances at the Festival's three theatres over (thus far) 40 years, I'm just here to give you my personal and professional recommendation of this great educational resource. Be circumspect about the moral tone of any particular production you might be considering (Shakespeare wrote virtually no stage directions, so directors have a very free hand about staging, costuming, etc.) but you would exercise that kind of caution about any play you were taking students to, wouldn't you? The Festival does pretty well at giving recommendations on age-appropriateness, I can sometimes give more detailed guidance in that department, and of course we always welcome "reviews from you's" after you've seen a production.

For those of you who live close enough to consider it, you might also look into our Shakespeare 4 Believers summer seminar trips.

And finally, if you live outside of God's Country in the Northwest, you probably have other theatres you can explore and recommend. Let us hear from you!