This past week my husband and I finally attended a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in nearby Ashland, Oregon. We’ve lived here for nearly five years now but just hadn’t made the time to go, even though the company offers nearly a dozen plays each season and they’re always wonderfully staged and performed. Years ago when we lived far away in Portland or even out of state, we scheduled time to make it to at least a few performances a year, but I think the proximity now has made us a bit blasé about attending.

The Festival offers extra inducements to the locals who, like us, may be a bit complacent about getting to the theater. (There are actually three: the Angus Bowmer is a contemporary, 600-seat theater; the Allen Elizabethan, a 1,100-plus outdoor traditional Elizabethan stage; and the Thomas, a flexible space seating 270 to 360 patrons.) From January through March, residents of this county may purchase a variety of ticket packages which allow us to see the shows at much-reduced prices. We chose to purchase a couple of Flex Passes which, at $149 apiece, allow us to purchase five tickets to any performance, as long as a certain percentage of seats still remain to be purchased by the general public. 

The season runs from February through November, and in addition to several Shakespeare works, one can see brand-new plays, contemporary classics, experimental works and musicals — something for everybody. The Elizabethan stage doesn’t open until June, but even in early spring and late fall there are three or four plays at least running in the repertoire each week. We enjoyed a matinee performance of The Tempest in the Bowmer Theatre, and even though it was midweek, the auditorium was nearly full, with several high school and college student groups in attendance. These groups come from some great distances, often taking advantage of their spring breaks and special rates offered to them by the Festival.

We enjoyed our reintroduction to OSF very much, and we certainly look forward to the other four performances we will attend over the coming months. The town of Ashland itself offers plenty for theater-goers to do before and after performances, with appealing shops ranging from unique and vintage fashion to book stores and galleries. A wide range of restaurants, coffee houses and even microbreweries provide lots of choices for dining and wetting one’s whistle. Other options include wine tasting at a number of regional wineries as well as pursuing outdoor activities from skiing (though this year’s drought meant Mt. Ashland didn’t open for the season) to hiking, golfing to salmon fishing.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor