Monday, July 10Here I am with my Big Chief Notepad and pencil scribbling and scrawling my journal notes. I do miss the speed of the computerized version but this has its merits as well.
We arrived about 2pm at our hotel, The Bard's Inn, and after unpacking, found out that we couldn't log into the internet directly from our room. Not to fear: the front desk has a phoneline that is available so we can check email once a day there. That tends to limit the amount of time that'll be spent on the computer for Brian. Before we left, I notified a few people that I would have limited email availability but the only email I was looking forward to receiving this day would be from someone at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival ("OSF") administrative office.
On Sunday it occurred to me to ask about headsets for the hearing impaired, since I am; I had used one at the Berkeley Rep in March so I knew it would work well for my needs. My email was responded to within minutes from someone diligently working at OSF on Sunday; all she could do, however, was forward my email to another person whom I hoped to hear from on Monday.
As promised, there was an email from Brian Kinsey of the OSF staff:
Marcia--Needless to say, I was much relieved to hear from Brian Kinsey! It made it so much easier to hear the productions; I recall having to strain the last time that we were here!! Poor Brian spent most of his time during those shows "translating" for me what the actors were saying! For future reference, if you ever go to the OSF and you are hearing impaired, you are now aware that infrared headsets are available. If you are completely deaf and wear hearing aids, they do not help you but, if you are hard of hearing or, as in my case, deaf in one ear, you will have your enjoyment of the show enhanced greatly with these devices!My name is Brian Kinsey. I am the Access Coordinator for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Thank you for your note.
The answer to your inquiry is yes, we do have infrared listening devices in the Elizabethan and Bowmer theaters. These devices use infrared to enhance the sounds onstage. We rent them out at no cost to you.
We do, however, require a deposit of a current driver's license, major credit card, current passport, or $20. This deposit is put inside a number slot that matches the number on the headset and the cabinet is then locked for the entire show. At the end of the show you will receive your deposit with the return of the headset.
The rental booth in the Bowmer theater is located just to your left once you enter the front doors into the lobby. The Elizabethan rental booth is located along the concession area next to the elevator. If you have any problems finding either booth, ask the ushers. They would be more than happy to help.
One more thing. These devices are subject to availability. We have a limited amount of devices in both theaters. We have not rented all of the devices in the last couple of days, but there is always that possibility.
My suggestion is to get here when the doors open and rent them immediately. This way you are guaranteed a device.
If you have any other questions or concerns, contact me at 482-2111 ext.425 or by e-mail at briank@osfashland.org. I hope you enjoy your visit with us.
Sincerely,
Brian Kinsey
Access Coordinator
Oregon Shakespeare FestivalI received some emails but didn't respond to all of them at that time-- I had a hard time using the keyboard on the laptop and deferred my use to reading through and responding to urgent emails. [If you had sent me an email and didn't get a response until Friday (or later), I apologize but it was the keyboard on the laptop-- couldn't fit my fingers at my usual typing speed!] Brian continued to review his email and I went back to the room to rest for a bit, never quite allowing myself to actually nap. When he returned to the room, we went off for a walk around downtown Ashland. Not many stores or restaurants were open because there are no plays on Monday ("Dark Monday"). There wouldn't be enough sales without the Shakespeare tourists so many places don't operate on Monday either.
When we turned to leave the driveway of our hotel, we looked and across the street was a deer! We were three blocks from the downtown area and there was a deer!! Across the street from our hotel were a row of bed-n-breakfast houses and the deer was very peacefully tasting of the bushes and flowers in the gardens of those old Victorians. It was just amazing to me to see a deer in what was so close to fairly busy buildings and streets!
Anyway, we walked around downtown for awhile, reading the menus on the open and closed restaurants until we finally decided on Martino's for dinner that night. Brian had a tasty Minestrone soup and I had my usual, Caesar Salad prior to our Fettucine con Scampi being delivered. Yes, we ordered the same thing but it just sounded so good: sun-dried tomatoes and seven large shrimp with an alfredo sauce over fettucine noodles-- it was wonderful!!
After dinner, we strolled back to our hotel room at a leisurely pace, stopping by the hotel office to ask for a wake-up call for 8am. The last three mornings, I've been up way too early so maybe I'll finally sleep in a bit! The problem is that the next morning, Tuesday, was the day we were to have our Backstage Tour so we didn't want to sleep in too much or we'd miss it-- thus, the reason for the wake-up call!
Its a funny thing about how we landed at The Bard's Inn: I had thought that The Bard's Inn was a different hotel, in a different location of the theatres. As it turns out, when we got to Ashland, this is the closest hotel to the theatres but it is in the opposite direction from where I had remembered it to be located! Another thing that was peculiar, needless to say, was that my first choice of hotel was at one time going to be called "The Mark Antony Hotel" but, apparently, they've landed on the name of it to be "Ashland Springs Hotel". It is one of the "great" Grand Hotels that was supposed to open in June, 2000. They couldn't guarantee the room price to me at the time that I was making reservations because they weren't sure what they were going to charge for rooms by the time they opened. Considering that the hotel wasn't opened in June of 2000, I'm glad we didn't make our reservations there!! In fact, they weren't open this month either! They "expect" to be open in August of 2000 but, I doubt it-- they'd have to do a lot of work on the hotel to be done by then! It makes you wonder what kind of notice they would give to people who had reservations for June and July, doesn't it? I'm sure glad we weren't stuck with that situation!! As it turns out, The Bard's Inn was a nice hotel; its a "Best Western" that has three different buildings at the intersection of Helman and Siskiyou. All very nicely cleaned and well-kept-- Highly Recommended!
Tuesday, July 11
I woke up before the wake-up call (of course) and took my shower. During the course of getting dressed, I was surprised to find that I couldn't remember if I had or had not unpacked my back brace. I didn't want to be without it (more like I couldn't be without it!) because a lot of walking and standing tends to make my back feel like its going to break the rest of my body in two pieces!! Not good!! Needless to say however, The Reluctant Packer had a major chuckle about that one! I did find it-- layered between sweatshirts-- so there was no real harm done to my credibility and record of being the "Perfect Packer".
After continental breakfast (included with the room charge), we strolled the three (long) blocks to the theatre section and around Lithia Park. Lithia Park is below the theatres and is named for the mineral content of the water from the springs there. They offer a taste of the water at a fountain in the park but, I'm a little chicken about drinking something other than regular bottled water.
The Backstage Tour was interesting: there was a 20 minute introduction by Lou Morgan Douthit, a dramaturg for the company, who explained everything that was going to be shown to us as well as what a "dramaturg" does for a living. Good stuff!! Lou mentioned on the tour that over the course of the 65 year history of the OSF, they have performed the canon of plays completely six times. Some plays have been produced more frequently than others, i.e., Hamlet is in its tenth production this year. The tour itself was then broken out into groups of about 20 people with someone from the company leading each group. Shane Rogers, Stage Operations Technician, lead our group and gave us a well-informed discussion of the catacombs of the area beneath the Elizabethan and Bowmer theatres in addition to the overall history of the theatres and how the entire company evolved to the 10-month schedule that it offers today. Highly Recommended!!
We lunched at Louie's Bar & Grill on cheeseburgers-- delicious and done to perfection! From there, another stroll through Lithia Park to the duck pond-- one of my favorite places! Then, it was back to the theatre area for The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Angus Bowmer Theatre. This is not a Shakespeare play, so stop racking your brains-- there isn't a 38th play in the canon!! This is a play by Hart & Kaufman about their friend, "Alexander Woollcott, critic, author, lecturer, radio personality and outrageous self-proclaimed know-it-all". I'd never seen it before although Brian had worked a production of it in one of his past lives so he was familiar with the story. I enjoyed it for its spontaneous-seeming humor and the cynicism of the "Sheridan Whiteside" character-- it was a great production to start us off!
We went back to the hotel, after the play, and changed for dinner. We planned it so that people who had a play to see that evening would be in their plays when we were eating-- fewer fellow diners to worry about that way! We also planned it so that we could see the Green Show which is a staged production of music and dance that is shown on the green in front of the Elizabethan Theatre every night. Each of the Green Shows is themed to match the play that will be in the Elizabethan, i.e., "Poison" was the Tuesday night production and Hamlet was the production in the theatre. With the artery-n-veined leotards, it was extremely well-done as usual. We recognized several of the dancers from when we were here two years ago-- they were younger then but their talent has improved!
After the Green Show, it was off to dinner at The Black Sheep!! This time we did order different foods: Brian ordered the blackened snapper and I had the filet-mignon medallions, starting our dinners with "market salads" was an excellent idea, as well. My medallions were tender with the burgundy sauce that made them melt-in-my-mouth! Brian loved his snapper, repeatedly commenting on the flavor (he doesn't get fish at home since I typically don't eat anything but shellfish). The veggies, a mixture of zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and green and red pepper were sauteed to perfect tenderness with just the right amount of seasonings. I finished my meal with black coffee but Brian had the chocolate tort with rasperry sauce-- yes, yes, we had to roll him back to the hotel that night!
Wednesday, July 12
Wednesday was to be our busiest theatre day so, with that in mind, we decided that we'd prefer to have sandwiches in the room in between shows so that we could change our clothes. We went to the grocery store and after returning to the room to refrigerate the deli meats, went downtown again to the Tudor Guild Gift Shop to buy our usual: Christmas Ornaments! A friend had asked us to pick up a program so that, along with three ornaments crawled its way into our arms-- I also bought a sterling silver pendant to put on a silver chain that Brian gave me a few months back (on our trip to Morro Bay in February).
In the afternoon, we saw a production of Henry V done very well-- I was a little surprised by the production in that there was one television monitor that spelled out, literally, where the scene was set. I found this to be very unusual but I could see where it would be a help to people who weren't familiar with the history of King Henry V. Overall, it was a splendid production with a bit of humor thrown in, as the Bard is apt to do from time to time.
We went back to our hotel to change for the evening performance but, ended up only having a sandwich and heading back to downtown, once again to stroll into Lithia Park to check on the ducks.
A Special Note: I have always considered "The Theatre" (said with a strong British accent) as special. The performers rehearse and we expect them to perform at a certain level; why shouldn't we, the audience, be as much of an expectation to the actors? In other words, I've always felt that you should "dress" for the theatre and in the past, have felt highly offended when people didn't. I believe I made the comment in my discussion of the New York theatre that people were just too touristy when they attended the play there. When Brian and I went to the theatre with his parents in March, he kept telling me not to dress up-- I couldn't think of what to wear because I needed to dress for the theatre!! I compromised by wearing a denim dress and felt casual but, I was still in a dress so that I felt more "dressed" for the theatre.
For the matinee on Tuesday and Wednesday, I agreed with Brian and dressed casually-- very-- for the theatre. To me, that was okay because it was the afternoon. We intended to go back to our room in between the plays and change into "dress" clothes, i.e., me wearing a dress and Brian wearing dress pants and shirt. He managed to talk me out of it but then, the only thing I had to wear were shorts or pedal-pushers so, I went very casually to the theatre that night!! It took a bit of getting used to but we certainly were not the exception but the rule. The vast majority of theatre attendees were dressed as we were with the few being those who were in "dress" clothes.
The Green Show for Wednesday was called "The Fruit of Love" and tied into the theme of Twelfth Knight which was the Elizabethan Theatre production for that evening. There was a professional photographer at the production for "picture postcard" purposes we presume and, although they apologized for her possibly getting into the path of audience viewing, she never once stood or rose in anyone's line of vision that I saw. The play on Wednesday night was good, as usual-- I'm not sure that its possible for it not to be liked by anyone! Its a story of twins that are separated at the time of a shipwreck: "Viola" and her brother, "Sebastian", don't see each other for an undetermined amount of time but, in the interim, Viola (as a means of protection) dresses as a boy and is the eunuch to a very rich man, "Orsino", that she ultimately falls in love with. While she's falling for Orsino, Orsino is nursing the unrequited love of "Olivia" who has fallen in love with Viola's male character. It actually all does work out so that the "right people" are with the "right people" but, it is humorous and a rollicking bit of fun to get there!
Thursday, July 13
Our one attempt at sleeping in was thwarted by the early "wake-up" call of a housekeeping person banging on the door! We'd forgotten to put out the "Do Not Disturb" sign so they tried to come in to clean-- no, they didn't make it in but it wasn't fun trying to be heard through the very thick door to the outside!! We were both yelling for them to come back later and finally, they understood!! Note For Future Reference: Always remember to bolt the door-- prevents the housekeeping staff from entering the room prematurely!!
Once we were awakened by the pounding on the door, however, it was difficult to go back to sleep so we got up and, instead of having the continental breakfast at the hotel, we decided we would go out for a hot breakfast. That being part of the plan, however, we knew we wouldn't have much of an appetite for a lot of food after a big breakfast at 11am so we also decided to have sandwiches again before the show that night.
We drove up to Medford for breakfast and to see the Harry & David Outlet that everyone had been raving to us about. There's a big pear/apple manufacturing plant for Harry & David on Highway 99 on the way up that gives tours but we weren't in the mood for that (our hair isn't blue enough yet, I guess). Anyway, we found a little something up there for a gift (can't tell you what or who it is for!) but nothing much rattled our chains to go home with us. We had decided that we would drive to Klamath Falls on Thursday, too, not realizing how far away that was from Ashland. We were about an hour out and had only gone 17 of the total 62 miles to Klamath Falls-- twists, turns, curves, and inclines again! Being fresh out of our Highway 1 ride down the coast, I thought it was a good thing to turn around and plan this trip for another time; Brian agreed so we went back to the freeway.
On our way from Medford to the Klamath Falls exit, we saw factory outlet stores and decided that we would go back to them on our way. Here, we had a little more success at things that were screaming to come home with us: Brian found a beautiful blue vase for me which I love and, we found a 12-muffin teflon coated baking tin-- not as easy to find as you would think! There were tea kettles and knife sharpeners that were screaming for us to grab them as well-- yes, we had a good time!
Thursday evening's Green Show was titled "Mars vs. Venus" and, for me, paired with The Taming of the Shrew, I thought this was the best of the three productions. The stage was set-up to look like a boxing ring and, unlike the last time that we were in Ashland two years ago, the singers (Nicholas Tennant and Kay Hilton) took an active part in the arrangement and choreography that was staged. It was very well done, as usual!!
I must tell you: These dancers are excellent and, while the pictures that Brian took are beautiful, they really don't do the dancers, musicians and singers justice!! You really need to go and see the Green Show and the OSF for the full experience!
On to the Play: Our last play was The Taming of the Shrew which I was the most eager to see. The only production I'd ever seen of it was the movie with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and even that was a long time ago!! I was not disappointed!! This production was staged with the Induction as a part of the play within the confines of a pub and it was great fun!!
One of the fun parts of going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, especially our second time around, was seeing the actors that we'd seen so many times before in very different roles: James Edmonson as "Ernest W. Stanley" in The Man Who Came to Dinner and "King Charles VI" in Henry V; Ray Porter as the "Montjoy" in Henry V and "Sir Toby Belch" in Twelfth Night; Robynn Rodriguez as "Katherina" in The Taming of the Shrew and "Maggie Cutler" in The Man Who Came to Dinner; and possibly the most stark contrasting roles that of Dan Donahue as "King Henry V" in Henry V and "Sir Andrew Aguecheck" in Twelfth Night. Recognizing their faces, barely beneath the self-applied make-up and hair pieces, is a joy especially when you realize it after you've seen the play! For whatever reason, we didn't look at the Playbill until much after we had seen Twelfth Night-- we were very surprised to find that it was King Henry himself who had played the part of Sir Andrew!! What a difference in characters!! It is this kind of talent that keeps us and many other patrons returning year after year.
This is a new tradition for Brian and I but one we will enjoy for many, many years to come!