Picto Diary - 13 October 2018 - The Book of Will (OSF)

Above: TIMDT observes Monkey Puzzle tree. Britt Garden Country Park. Jacksonville, OR. 13 October 2018.

Jacksonville, OR. 1851 gold rush town. Then, #2 town in Oregon.

Gold discovery accidental. Some local's mule went lame. A gold nugget was found in hoof crevasse.

Jovial trolley tour guy drives through old Chinese district and praises Chinese workers for their contribution in building Jacksonville.

Two years ago, I visited another gold rush town, Barkerville, BC. There, the BC Provincial Governor, in 2016, had just erected a monument with a brass plaque on which was written, to the effect, "we Canadians formally apologise for the racist way we treated Chinese workers here in Barkerville."

I asked a docent at Barkerville, "what's with the apology about the Chinese?"

She said, "its embarrassing...
unnecessary. The Chinese who worked in Barkerville returned to China wealthy men." — at Britt Garden County Park.

Above: Aunt Joyce, TIMDT, and Bishop. Ashland, OR. 13 October 2018.

Mwah (sic) and parfois TIMDT have been visiting Ashland, Aunt Joyce, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) annually, sometimes twice a year, for the last 20 years.

The Ashland visits are the highlight of my year. I have known Aunt Joyce longer than any other person. She was living at our home in Provo, UT when I was born in 1945.

I revel in Joyce's good humor, her accounts of her growing up experiences (which include stories about my Mom and my maternal grandparents), and insights from her own experiences in life. We have a great time together, attending plays and eating out in Ashland's great restaurants.

In retired life, Joyce worked at the OSF membership booth at Ashland's Bowmer theater for several years. Her experiences working with OSF gave her insights about the theater, which, when conveyed to me, enhanced my own theater going experiences.

I haven't seen the entire Shakespeare canon yet at OSF, but, I'm almost there. I look forward to channeling friend/Aunt Joyce's theater insights on my future visits to Ashland.

Above: "BOOK OF WILL" by Lauren Gunderson. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Elizabethan Theater, Ashland, OR. 13 October 2018.

Pre play image of theater stage from our seats near the back.

Three years after Shakespeare passing, cronies including, Kings Men (Richard Burbage etc.) and fellow playwrights (Ben Johnson etc.) join together to compile and publish the First Folio.

At the time, only half of Will's plays were available in printed form and the other half were available, in haphazard, poorly edited quarto format.

Will's cronies knew that the years of Shakespeare had been something special. Seeing his works bastardized and watered down for profit by unscrupulous operators would destroy any hopes for a lasting Shakespeare legacy.

The play, based on real events, brings to life the trials and tribulations of creating the certified Shakespeare...the First Folio. Raising money was hard, and a lot of undeserving and unscrupulous characters wanted in on the game.

We take for granted too much of our history these days. But, considering the impact that Shakespeare has had on our. culture, we are lucky that his friends didn't let his legacy die.

Via this well performed OSF debut theatrical offering, Lauren Gunderson has shed light on an important segment of our cultural history.

— atElizabethan Theater Ashland.

Note: Apropos the girls with the colored hair in the image foreground. TIMDT noted to me that she noticed two major cohorts around downtown Ashland. One. Well heeled geezers... retired people, there to see the plays. And, two, young arty types, likely actors, stage hands, theater students. Many of the latter sported millennial accents like colored hair, facial jewelry and tattoos.

Addendum:

Sounds like OSF is lucky to get rid of the smoke—Rauch means smoke in German. I can not think of anything more delightful than watching two lesbians play the lead in Oklahoma! Good that the smoke is dissipating, kein Wunder that revenues are down.

Hope that OSF gets back to “normal”, if there is a normal anymore, with a constitutionalist creative director.

The left wing crowd has almost demolished the Brecht Theater in Berlin—Bertolt must be turning over in his grave. He was a Marxist but had an eye for color and matching his players faithfully to the script.

The Monk ,
Gooseberry, UT

Hi Steve: this was a good, fair minded review of what has been happening at OSF. Thank you for explaining it so well.

We have also enjoyed the high quality performances over the years, but have been very selective as they have increasingly become 'weirder'. ( the black woman who played Marion the librarian in Music Man several years ago was excellent--but it just seemed so out of place in a mainstream middle America classic---same with their production of 'Our Town" where the female lead was a petite Asian Indian actress and the male lead was an above average in height white guy, the juxtaposition of these two was always startling). What is it that Bill Rausch wants me to think/feel/learn/change from this?? You are correct, they are really at a crossroads. It will be interesting to see what turn they will make and the resulting outcome.

Thanks!

Sara,
Palo Alto, CA