On a recent day at the Angus Bowmer theater in Ashland, Oregon, crews prepared for the 2024 season. Large sections of a castle that resemble black stone were tied into the rigging and lifted into the rafters above.
Actor Kevin Kenerly is playing the namesake role in Shakespeare鈥檚 Macbeth, the first show opening this season.
Kenerly has performed in every theater at OSF, and knows all of the quirks that actors have to take into consideration when working there. One of those involves making sure actors move around the stage so that everyone is able to see them.
鈥淭here's also a space right about where that little cone is in the center of the stage,鈥� he said, pointing from a small room above the audience seating. 鈥淭hat sounds like a really lovely spot. You stand on it and you speak into the space, but it's dead. It literally sounds like you're whispering if you speak from that space.鈥�
Kenerly has been an actor at OSF for 29 years. He stayed because it was easy to learn stagecraft by working with other actors, some of whom had been performing for twice that long.
鈥淲e are a unique institution. We are in the middle of nowhere and people fly across the world to come and visit us and buy tickets to the 7 to 11 shows we are doing,鈥� he said.
Another OSF veteran returned to Ashland for the 2024 season. Artistic Director Tim Bond was the associate artistic director at OSF under Libby Appel until 2007. He said their productions are a balancing act between performing Shakespeare and introducing new plays to the stage.
鈥淚t was a company really committed to classics and doing Shakespeare, obviously, and a few new plays,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut then we really started working on bringing more diverse playwrights, more diverse actors into the company and designers as well.鈥�
Back then, Bond said, the company worked hard to bring in new voices to the theater space. Twenty years ago, he started a successful career development program.
鈥淭hat brought us many, many administrators, artists and artisans, many of whom are still with us actually on staff, and then many who I鈥檝e met all over the country,鈥� he said.
Bond is hoping to restart that program in 2025, as well as other programs and initiatives that took a backseat during the pandemic. One of those is improving OSF鈥檚 community engagement.
The organization鈥檚 rocky recovery has threatened Ashland鈥檚 tourism economy. Katharine Cato from Travel Ashland said they鈥檝e shifted towards promoting other reasons to visit, including wineries and outdoor recreation. According to a , more people listed restaurants or outdoor activities as a motivator to visit than OSF.
鈥淚t isn鈥檛 necessarily healthy to have all our eggs in one basket,鈥� Cato said. 鈥淎nd that, at one time, was OSF. But things broke open during the pandemic.鈥�
OSF is bringing back their business alliance to collaborate on events. They鈥檙e also restarting their volunteer programs. Bond said he understands the city and the theater rely on each other to thrive, and that means making sure everyone is involved.
鈥淚 have a lot of friends here and a lot of old associates from all the years I was here that I'm reconnecting with,鈥� Bond said. 鈥淎ll of us on staff are very keenly aware of how we can connect and collaborate more with the community.鈥�
In 2023, OSF held emergency fundraisers to raise around $10 million to keep the theater running. Bond said the company is now on more stable financial footing.
They鈥檝e had to work on convincing people to return to the theater after being gone for so long. So far, that鈥檚 been successful, he said.
鈥淲e're projecting that we'll be 33% larger in our audiences this season than last year. So far, we're on track, but we've got a long way to go.鈥�
Bond is excited for this season to bring the theater back to what it once was. He said this is the first year that OSF feels like it was back in 2019.
鈥淚t's really important for people to know that coming in community with others has been taken away from us through the pandemic,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the theater is one of the great ways to get that back. And when you get it back, you will realize how much you've been missing it.鈥�
