Our 81-year-old company continues to blaze new trails in American theatre, particularly this year in addressing issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. OSF is proud to announce that, for the first time, a majority of the acting company are people of color. This season's production of The Winter’s Tale will be OSF's first time telling a Shakespeare play through an Asian-American lens, and in October we'll host the fifth national Asian American Theater Conference & Festival (more on these in the summer issue of Prologue). We also continue to tackle the ongoing issue of gender equity.
Breaking ranks with a largely male-dominated profession, the set designers for the first four shows of OSF’s 2016 season are women, one of whom is also designing the costumes. In addition, we have a higher percentage than usual of women adapting and writing plays—Penny Metropulos and Linda Alper (Great Expectations adaptation), Marisela Treviño Orta (The River Bride), Lisa Loomer (Roe) and Andra Velis Simon (The Yeomen of the Guard adapter).
The big news on campus this year is the opening of OSF’s state-of-the art Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center. It meets the needs of today’s actors and directors in splendid fashion and pays quiet tribute to OSF greats Bill Patton and Richard L. Hay, whose work has made possible what we do today.
Our six plays this spring season also have a magical way of combining past and present. The River Bride and Great Expectations, plays set on opposite sides of the globe, in different time periods and with very different styles, both talk about the unexpected gifts life hands us and the hard lessons in love that come with them. Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s tightly meshed play about the disguises people wear in the service of love, finds a delightfully appropriate home in 1930s Hollywood. The Yeomen of the Guard shows that Gilbert and Sullivan’s late-1800s book adapts hilariously well to the gusto and twang of country-western music. Vietgone, set in 1970s Vietnam and an Arkansas refugee camp, juxtaposes the piercing pain of exile and the humorous, salty jargon of today.
And lastly, some OSF folks share tales of what it was like to know and work with our incomparable friend, the late actor Catherine E. Coulson, to whom this season is dedicated. We hope you will enjoy our plays this year, all infused with her intelligence, compassion, humor and warmth.
U.S. Bank, proud sponsor of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1978