Tag: Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Expanding Travel and the Arts
As we navigate these days in which our world gradually opens up and more individuals become vaccinated, I find myself still turning to opportunities to explore corners which aren't yet available or of which I hadn't previously been aware. Once again a silver lining appears from all the pain and trials of the past year-plus, and I believe some of the innovations, programs and initiatives that came out of this time will remain long after we can all travel and gather freely again.
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A Positive Sign
We got a positive indication this week of one aspect of life here coming back from the near standstill it's been this past year. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Tony-winning regional theater founded in 1935 which produces musicals, world premieres of new productions and commissioned new works as well as Shakespearean plays, announced its 2021 season after being forced to go dark just after the 2020 season opened last year. Located in the college town of Ashland (and conveniently close to my home), the Festival drew theater lovers from across the country and around the world who, along with all the professionals associated with the organization, pumped millions of dollars into the local economy. Restaurants, hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, shops and tour operators relied heavily on a season that ran from February through October each year. You can imagine how deeply the shutdowns and travel bans resulting from the pandemic affected the entire community.
The Year in Review
Today I sat down to write our family's annual Christmas letter, the one that goes out with our cards to friends and family this time of year. On a whim, I pulled up last year's missive and read through it with a mix of emotions. Some of it seemed so long ago even while I realized that I'd written it less than three months before the "normal" world I described in it would be altered forever by the worldwide pandemic. How casually I mentioned going to plays and concerts; visiting friends and welcoming others into our home; celebrating holidays, birthdays and weddings; traveling near and far.
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Too Close to Home
I had intended to write my blog this week about our recent trip to the Oregon coast, but events over the past week have pushed that topic to the back burner. On Tuesday an intense wildfire broke out about 15 miles south of my home in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. Beginning at the northern end of the town of Ashland, home to Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (about which I've written several times), it tore through the small towns of Talent and Phoenix and to the edge of Medford, a city of more than 80,000. We'd had more than a week of 100-plus-degree days, humidity in the low teens and no measurable rain since late June, and that day winds of 20 mph and gusts up to 40 mph pushed the flames up the valley to the northwest.