Henry V, Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2012 Photo by T Charles Erickson

In Bill Rauch’s final season as the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the almost 85-year-old festival is making changes partly in response to climate change and forest fire smoke that has canceled many outdoor shows in the past few years.

The festival will run 10 plays instead of 11 during a slightly shortened season, which will open for previews March 1 instead of late February, and end before Halloween. In addition, the outdoor plays on the Allan Elizabethan Stage will open earlier in the year (bring those rain jackets, rain pants, and foot warmers, friends). An 11th play, a bilingual adaptation of The Comedy of Errors by OSF playwright in residence Luis Alfaro, will run in an experimental “Community Visit” program and be performed somewhere on the OSF campus later in the season (that last part is a little scary, and we look forward to hearing more details). Note: Look for reviews of the four opening plays from this season over the next few days!

Here’s a portion of the press release:

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 2014. Bill Rauch. Photo: Jenny Graham.

Bill Rauch announces OSF’s 2019 season

Rauch’s final season as artistic director features classics and new plays in equal numbers, plus a pilot bilingual Community Visit Project

Ashland, Ore.— Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) Artistic Director Bill Rauch announced the Festival’s 2019 playbill today. The season, which will be Rauch’s last at the artistic helm, celebrates Shakespeare, classics and new plays, including two American Revolutions commissions and a pilot Community Visit Project that will take a bilingual Play on! translation into community venues throughout the region.

“The process of season selection has never felt more challenging nor the final result more emotional and bittersweet as with this, my final season as artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” Rauch said. “We always want the best theatre audience in the world to have the most exciting, vital mix of plays possible, and at the end of our eight-month selection process we have arrived

 at an equal number of classics and new work that epitomize our mission to reveal our collective humanity.”

Previews will begin March 1 and the season will officially open March 8 and continue through Oct. 27, 2019.

In 2019, 10 mainstage shows will be joined by a pilot Community Visit Project production of a bilingual Play on! translation of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. The production will travel to regional venues beginning in the summer, and performances will be held in an OSF theatre later in the season.

Rosa Joshi, who directed Henry V this year and will direct As You Like It in 2019

The 2019 season includes some changes to the production schedule—including a slightly later season opening and earlier starts for some other shows—in response to patterns of patron demand and to adjust to the potential effects of wildfire smoke. The production slot that has typically closed in July will run all season, providing audiences something previously impossible: opportunities to see the entire lineup in just one visit.  Four plays will open earlier, including the three outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre productions. Not opening a show in April means the Angus Bowmer Theatre will not have to close for tech rehearsals during a peak time for school group visits.

“This adjustment to the 11-play model that has become common here in recent decades is one that allows us to focus on building a strong and sustainable future for OSF that is rooted in equity and engagement across the organization and with our audience,” said Executive Director Cynthia Rider. “This change will allow access to more of our plays for more of the season, will increase the number of outdoor performances, and we anticipate will help make workloads more manageable for our staff at peak times in the season.”

Community Visit Project

Luis Alfaro: Playwright/adapter of Comedy of Errors in 2019. Photo: Jenny Graham.

The 11th production of the 2019 season will be a bilingual (Spanish and English) adaptation of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS by OSF Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence Luis Alfaro, commissioned as part of the Play on! Shakespeare translation program. This Community Visit Program pilot production will be the final project Bill Rauch will direct as OSF’s artistic director, and the first Play on! translation to be produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The Comedy of Errors marks a pilot of multiple initiatives: OSF’s first-ever Community Visit Project, a pairing of a new work and a Shakespeare play, and OSF’s first-ever fully bilingual work of art that can be experienced and enjoyed by monolingual Spanish-speaking, monolingual English-speaking and bilingual audience members.

The cast of The Comedy of Errors, which will be shared with the world premiere of Octavio Solis’s Mother Road, will perform Alfaro’s bilingual adaptation without sets and with minimal costuming and props at community venues throughout the region in the summer, and performances will be held on the OSF campus later in the season. Further details of the program will be announced this spring.

“It feels so right to be sharing our resident playwright’s bilingual adaptation, and our first full production to have emerged from our Play on! program, as my final project as OSF’s artistic director,” Rauch said. “Our theater was born as a courageous community effort in 1935, and I could not be more proud that we will develop and then share this vibrant new version with our community partners.”

2019 SEASON AT A GLANCE (preview performances to closing dates)

ANGUS BOWMER THEATRE

As You Like It March 1 – October 27

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Rosa Joshi

#AsYouLikeItOSF

Hairspray March 2 – October 27

The Broadway Musical

Book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan

Music by Marc Shaiman

Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman

Based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters

Directed by Christopher Liam Moore

#HairsprayOSF    

Mother Road March 3 – October 26

By Octavio Solis

Directed by Bill Rauch

World Premiere

#MotherRoadOSF

Indecent July 4 – October 26

By Paula Vogel

Directed by Shana Cooper

American Revolutions

#IndecentOSF

THOMAS THEATRE

Cambodian Rock Band March 6 – October 27

By Lauren Yee

Featuring songs by Dengue Fever

Directed by Chay Yew

#CambodianRockBandOSF

Between Two Knees April 3 – October 27

By the 1491s

Directed by Eric Ting

World Premiere/American Revolutions

#BetweenTwoKneesOSF

How to Catch Creation July 23– October 26

By Christina Anderson

Directed by Nataki Garrett

West Coast Premiere

#HowToCatchCreationOSF

ALLEN ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Macbeth May 28 – October 11

OSF actor and 2019 Alice in Wonderland director Sara Bruner

By William Shakespeare

Directed by José Luis Valenzuela

#MacbethOSF

Alice in Wonderland May 29 – October 12

By Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus

Adapted from Lewis Carroll

Directed by Sara Bruner

#AliceInWonderlandOSF

All’s Well That Ends Well May 30 – October 13
By William Shakespeare

Directed by Tracy Young

#AllsWellOSF

COMMUNITY VISIT PROJECT PILOT

The Comedy of Errors Dates TBA

A bilingual Play on! adaptation and translation by Luis Alfaro

Directed by Bill Rauch

World Premiere

#ComedyOfErrorsOSF