Slightly Eclipsed Super Moon Edition September 2024
An eight hundred pound gorilla by definition has a lot of impact on the place where it resides. In my little town of Ashland – population of some 20,000 folks in a very remote part of the country – the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is such a creature. It has a profound effect on the aesthetic and the financial well-being of our community.
If it falters somewhat, as it did when Covid coincided with a regime for whom attitude seemed the priority, what had been the largest attended repertory theater in the country suffered badly and our town suffered with it. Thankfully, the pandemic is behind us and new leadership under Artistic Director Tim Bond and interim Executive Director Tyler Hokama (and late breaking news – new Executive Director Gabriella Calicchio) – is raising up OSF phoenix-like from the ashes of that terrible time.
Entertainment is a broad field of activities, and live performance, particularly theater and the arts, has a long way to go in fully recovering from the past few seasons of depression. They will have to evolve and adapt. But through it all, we are reminded of the immense importance they have on our quality of life and the vibrancy of our place. Next season will be the 90th in OSF’s storied history and it promises to be awesome. Our town will only be the better for it. “Break legs” never sounded so good.
At the other end of the spectrum, size-wise if not in aesthetic importance, are our Valley’s small, independent theaters: Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Camelot, the Craterian, Collaborative Theatre Company, Ashland New Plays Festival, and the newest of them all – at least in its current iteration under Jessica Sage – the Rogue Theater Company.
Each of them has its place and its following, audiences that overlap from one to another, and productions that run the gamut of the industry from the ridiculous to the sublime. To these we should add student productions at Southern Oregon University Oregon Center for the Arts and the area’s high school theaters, which often exceed expectations and never lack for enthusiasm. When it comes to trodding the boards, our cup runneth over.
Sage in particular has carved out a unique niche for Rogue Theater. She jumped into the void locally by producing a few one and two-handers outdoors at a local winery with big name talent when the pandemic was raging and many of our finest actors were out of work. Her confidence grew along with her audiences into what is now a full season of top notch shows with a litany of terrific players on hand. Hers is a great new addition to the arts scene in Ashland that looks to be here for the long run. Kudos!
Whether it takes a village to raise an actor we can’t say. But we know first hand it takes a village to celebrate one. When Ashland’s favorite son, Anthony Heald, turned 80 last August 25, nearly the entire town responded to wife Robin’s invitation to join her in honoring the man. His acting credits span a lifetime on Broadway, theaters all over the country, film, television, and a part-time lighting job at a local preschool, so there’s a lot to honor. It was a helluva party for a helluva guy.
The empanada truck took up most of the driveway, a lifeguard staffed the pool where kids frolicked and the rest of us tried unsuccessfully to avoid their splashing, tables sprawled across the yard where people of every gender, color, religion, and attitude (except bad) were seated deep in conversation, and several exceptionally gracious people served food, cleared plates, pointed out treats you might have overlooked among the bounty, and made certain you were cared for and wanted for nothing.
Tony and Robin greeted each and every person who attended, shared a laugh, a hug, a story, and a thank you for joining the party. When the bell rang out and the crowd quieted, Robin held forth eloquently, albeit from copious written notes, on life with the celebrant. Their children, Zoe and Dylan, added their sweet sentiments. Appropriately, Tony had the last word. “When you reach 80,” he said, looking at the throng gathered in his honor and speaking with the presence of someone who’s used to the spotlight, “you realize it’s your wife, your children, and the people in your life that matter.”