By Kelley Ashford
February 18, 2010
ASHLAND, Ore. -- The Oregon Shakespeare Festival opens its 75th season Friday night.
Angus Bowmer founded OSF over seven decades ago. He was an English instructor who moved to Ashland to teach at what is now Southern Oregon University. In 1935, Bowmer convinced Ashland city leaders to revive a tradition of July 4th celebrations with an addition of a Shakespearean festival. It quickly began attracting audiences by bringing in young talent.
"When I first came here, the vast majority of people who worked with us here, this was sort of their first professional job," Oregon Shakespeare Festival Executive Director Paul Nicholson said.
That was the case for one of the leading directors at the Artists Repertory Theater in Portland. Artistic Director Allen Nause began his career in theater acting and directing for OSF in the 1970s and 80s.
"In those days we worked every show. We worked seven days a week, and it prepared me to do repertory theater, doing great roles over the long haul at a very high level," Nause said.
Now, Nause mostly works behind the scenes as a director. During his days with OSF however, Allen performed in dozens of plays from Shakespeare to modern classics and worked with other big names that also got their start in Ashland.
"If you go through and look at that company in 1975 it reads like a Who's Who of American Theater. It was an amazing group of creative people to be involved with," Nause said.
Allen says he stays in touch with some of his festival alums, including Film Actor William Hurt. The two are getting back together to work on a theater project this summer.
"The festival's like this magnet, you know, it draws people, it always has," Nause said.
Head down to Los Angeles, and you'll find another name in entertainment impacted by OSF. Ty Burrell is now known as funny-dad Phil Dunphy on ABC's Modern Family. Long before he began his acting career, Burrell grew up in the Applegate and in Ashland, where he saw first hand how the Oregon Shakespeare Festival affected the local community.
"When you live there, you start to understand that it's a presence. It's part of the identity of the city and an identity that we're really proud of. It's one of those rare towns that is actually founded, in a way, by a creative source," Actor Ty Burrell said.
Ty credits OSF for inspiring his acting career. He worked as a bartender for the festival while in college.
"I would go on my breaks and watch the plays and then those guys eventually, we became buddies, and they started telling me, 'you should try acting' basically," Burrell said.
More than 10 years later, Burrell spends his days doing just that, but he never forgets his roots.
"The people who work at the festival have become the fabric of Ashland... It's a lovely, lovely group of people to set the tone for the town," Burrell said.
The tone of the town is exactly what brought one successful actor to Ashland. Anthony Heald is most recognized as Doctor Chilton in the 1991 Oscar winning film The Silence of the Lambs.
Heald spent years working in film and television and in New York Theater, but has settled down in Southern Oregon to act for OSF.
"The big difference between film and television and working in theater is in the theater, you get to do it from start to finish, over and over and over again. It's circular, and every time you do it, you learn more, you get deeper," Heald said.
Last season, Heald played the lead roll in Equivocation, a play actually about Shakespeare and his company. This season he's taking on the Elizabethan stage as Shilock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. The play will run along with Twelfth Night in honor of the festival's very first season.
"It consisted of two plays, and they were Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night. So on this, the 75th Anniversary season, we're doing Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night," Heald said.
Heald says he has been perfecting his part since last July even though the play opens in June. Despite the long hours, he says the curtain has called on his Hollywood career and he is ready to break a leg in Ashland for years to come.
"I feel like my career is taking me here. Oh yeah, I'm 65 now. I intend to be working well into my 80s and I hope to have it all happen right here at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival," Heald said.
