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On the Bricks, January 2017

An auspicious start

Ovation Awards: Luis Alfaro. Photo: Christopher Acebo.

In the months and weeks leading up to the beginning of a new OSF season, there is excitement, there is exhaustion and, frankly, there are inevitable moments of trepidation. Have we chosen the right combination of plays? Will they earn the good early buzz that helps pack houses all season? Will our approach to the classics reveal new wrinkles and truths? Will our new plays resonate with audiences here and, ultimately, with those beyond our stages?

Then there are days like last Friday, when the 2017 finalists for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History were announced. There on the list were three American Revolutions commissions—Roe by Lisa Loomer, Sweat by Lynn Nottage and Indecent by Paula Vogel—as well as runaway 2016 hit Vietgone by Qui Nguyen and, for good measure, 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac, who is among our 36 Play On! playwrights. Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way was the co-winner of the inaugural Kennedy Prize in 2013, and at least one OSF commission has been among the finalists every year since, including Party People by UNIVERSES (back this season with the world-premiere musical, UniSon!) two years in a row.

The stellar news continued this week, with OSF Playwright-in-Residence Luis Alfaro winning the LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Award for Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, one of our first four shows of the U.S. Bank-sponsored 2017 season. Stir in the fact that Playbill has reported Sweat and Indecent will be the only works by living female playwrights on Broadway this year, that Roe has opened at Arena Stage and will move on to Berkeley Rep in March, and that we’ve already added performances of our Thomas Theatre productions, and you’ve got a pretty potent antidote to those pre-season jitters as we enter the final weeks before Julius Caesar, Shakespeare in Love, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles and Henry IV, Part One get the 2017 party started.

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Family Days are here again

The Yeomen of the Guard: Leah Anderson, Kate Hurster.

…and Flex Passes aren’t far behind. The dates for our 2017 Family Days are freshly up online, so please help us spread the love of theatre to the next generation! These special $30 performances are accompanied by a free, fun and informative Prologue before the play with our talented Education staff. At least one member of your party must a youth between ages 6 and 17; tickets are subject to availability and may be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 800-219-8161.

Flex Passes will go on sale Feb. 1 and MUST be purchased by Feb. 28 for the 2017 season. The cost for a five-ticket Flex Pass is $175—that’s just $35 per ticket for specially selected performances! Flex Pass performances are chosen throughout the season, with seating available in all sections except Box Seats. Starting Feb. 1, call or visit the Box Office at 800-219-8161 to purchase your Flex Pass, as they are not sold online.

Spotlight on Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar: Armando Durán.

Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar over 400 years ago about events that took place over 2 millennia ago, but director Shana Cooper (The Unfortunates, Love’s Labor’s Lost) and her team are finding striking parallels to our society today as they dig into the text in rehearsals. “I think as a parent it’s just become suddenly abundantly clear how we do really have this horrific inheritance of violence that we seem insistent on passing down from generation to generation,” Cooper says in a director interview, “and that’s exactly what’s set up in Julius Caesar in terms of how the characters are structured generationally. And so I hope that the play, in a way, can be a call to action to all of us, but particularly the students, to make powerful choices as they decide what kind of future world they want to build.” Cooper further delves into her thoughts on the 2017 production—which is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest—here.

News and events

Your faithful OSF communications team is pleased to share the first episodes of the new OSF Podcast Series, available on our website and on SoundCloud. We kick it off with a two-part interview with Alison Carey, director of American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, covering the latest American Revolutions updates and Alison’s passion for creating art that addresses climate change and global warming. Then we meet Amrita Ramanan, OSF’s new director of literary development, who tells us about the role of a dramaturg in the rehearsal room and her professional journey to OSF.
The Ashland New Plays Festival (ANPF), in collaboration with our Hitz Foundation-supported Play on! project, is producing a dramatic reading of Octavio Solis’ translation of Edward III on Monday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall at Southern Oregon University. Dawn Monique Williams, director of 2017’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, will direct the reading. Tickets will be available for purchase on the ANPF website in mid-February.
Our incredibly hard-working Community Productions team encourages performers to apply for the 2017 Green Show by Feb. 1 to ensure they’re able to consider all their stellar applicants. Our equally dedicated Education team is accepting applications for the life-changing Summer Seminar for High School Juniors through March 31. Current job openings festival-wide include Help Desk Technician, Line Producer, Shop Supervisor and Ushers.

Where are they now?

Keep up with your favorite OSF actors past and present on our Where Are They Now? page. Have information on any OSF alumni you'd like to share? Email us!

OSF YouTube Channel: Check out our Snapshot Series

Each season we go behind the scenes to talk with the artists that create the sets, props, costumes and more. Find our videos on Youtube, and then check out our production trailers, director interviews and other OSF videos.