Feste (Rodney Gardiner), Toby Belch (Daniel T. Parker) and Andrew Aguecheek (Danforth Comins) are always the life of the party in OSF’s Twelfth Night. Photo: Jenny Graham.
Ah, Ashland. I’m heading down there this weekend to take in the winter openings at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival – and looking forward to one of my favorite weekends of the year.
This time I’ll even get to be on stage.
Here’s what’s on tap:
Twelfth Night. This is the play that opens the weekend Friday night in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. As directed by Christopher Liam Moore and designed by Christopher Acebo, the Shakespeare comedy is set in 1930s Hollywood. Sara Bruner plays Viola/Sebastian, with Gina Daniels as Olivia, Elijah Alexander as Orsino, Ted Deasy as Malvolio, and the affable Daniel T. Parker as Toby Belch.
Great Expectations. OSF veterans Penny Metropulos and Linda Alper adapted, and Metropulos directs, this version of the Dickens classic, opening in its world premiere in the Bowmer Saturday night. The two women were behind the musical Tracy’s Tiger and a musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors, though this doesn’t seem to be a musical.
Benjamin Bonenfant is Pip, heading up a cast that includes Al Espinosa, Michael Elich, Richard Howard, Derrick Lee Weeden and others.
The River Bride. This new work by Marisela Treviño Orta opens Sunday afternoon in a world premiere in the Bowmer Theatre. Directed by Laurie Woolery, the play is set in Brazil and draws on Amazon folklore to tell the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives just days before a wedding. The ensemble cast includes Jamie Ann Romero, Nancy Rodriguez, Carlo Albán, Armando McClain, Triney Sandoval and Vilma Silva. Mariana Sanchez designed the show.
The Yeomen of the Guard. Gilbert and Sullivan return to OSF – remember that spectacular Pirates of Penzance? – in a show that opens Saturday afternoon in the black-box Thomas Theatre. Directed by Sean Graney, the production has an American country-western setting. Patter sung to bluegrass?
Even odder, a substantial number of audience members (who bought the improbably named “promenade seating”) will be on stage for the show and, at least in small ways, perhaps taking part.
I’ll be onstage myself on Sunday, making my OSF debut.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes Jeremy Peter Johnson, Joseph Anthony Foronda, Anthony Heald, Michael Sharon, Kate Hurster, Britney Simpson, K. T. Vogt, Leah Anderson, Michael Caruso and Jesse Baldwin.