Hi. It's Friday, July 14, 2000 and we just returned from a trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at Ashland. It's been running since 1935, That 65 years is broken with only a 7 year hiatus around WWII, while founder Angus Bowmar was in the Army, and rebuilding the theatre (which had burned to the ground). This is our second trip to Ashland together, the first being our honeymoon, two years ago.

There aren't many pictures of the theatres, nor any of the productions, as the Festival requests that photographs of sets and plays are the property of the artists. For more information, I can commend you to the website, http://www.orshakes.org/. For the same pictures, but a different viewpoint, keep an eye on my lovely Marcia's site, http://www.dutchgirl.net/, in the section entitled Meanderings.

For each picture here, the thumbnail is a link to a medium large image, 800x600 pixels, ranging in size from about 35K up to one image over 100K. The HiRes link that accompanies each thumbnail is a link to the camera original, at 1280x960 resolution - these range from 175K to over 400K. We took the Olympus D-450 Zoom with a 32M SmartMedia card - this allows over 70 SHQ images. After each shooting session, we used the preview LCD to review the pictures and cull out the worst shots and the blindly repetitive. We didn't have the laptop setup to download from the camera - there just wasn't enough time.

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Above, left to right. Two shots from a roadside vista point, of Mount Shasta, taken from the south. Then three snaps of the duck pond - ducks are very relaxing to watch.

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Above, left to right. Ah, right, some more of the duck pond. This particular duck pond is in Lithia Park, in downtown Ashland, and right below the theatres up on the hill. In the left-most, the two ducks were being especially photogenic for us. Then there are two shots from the bridge crossing Ashland Creek (which also runs through downtown), one upstream and one downstream. The right-most shot is the first of many pictures from the Green Show.

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Above, left to right. The Green Show is a free entertainment put on by Dance Kaleidoscope, a nine member troupe, in conjuction with Terra Nova Consort. The shows, of which there are three distinct, are played out "on the green" (actually a small stage between the theatres), each night before the gates open at the Elizabethan Theatre. This first show is paired with Hamlet (which we did not see), and is called Poison.

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Above, left to right. The themed music and dance is chosen to highlight each night's performance in the outdoor theatre. The relation between "poison" and Hamlet is left as an exercise for the reader.

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Above, left to right. After many agonizing dances of indecision, death takes our protagonist, yet the dance continues.

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Above, left to right. Lead across the Styx, then a bow or two to close the night's entertainment. Prior to this show we saw The Man Who Came To Dinner. An excellent production, well acted and rollicking good fun. Second from the right is the view from our hotel balcony, across to Mount Ashland, some 7 miles distant. Also on Tuesday, we took in the Backstage Tour. This is the only time that pictures may be taken at the outdoor stage of the Elizabethan Theatre. Here you see (at right most above) the green flag flying, indicating that a romance or comedy is playing this night. That tells me that these shots were taken Wednesday, as well.

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Above, left to right. At left, another picture, this of the stage at the Elizabethan. On Wednesday we took in Henry V, and (IMHO) the best of the plays we saw during our stay. On a minimal set, with mostly period costume (though interpreted, rather than fanatically correct), the war that the young King used to cement his rule was played out, climaxing at the battle of Agincourt. This Wednesday evening's Green Show (starting with the second snap) is called The Food of Love.

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Above, left to right. Lots of excellent paired, solo and ensemble dances within this performance.

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Above. As this night's performance was Twelfth Night, The Food of Love performance reflected the varied roles and attitudes about relationships, love, and gender.

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Above. As with other shots, above and below, I have done my best with the equipment at hand. Using a flash to freeze the dancer's in motion or flight would have caused problems, so the flash remained holstered. Therefore any blur you see may be interpreted as artistic license by your's truly.

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Above. Flying boys and a marvelous solo dance by (I think) Alicia.

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Above. Terra Nova Consort provides not only marvelous music for the dancers, but vocals as well.

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Above, here's the wrap for Food of Love. Twelfth Night is the Bard's tale of twin brother and sister, separated by a storm at sea - Viola disguises herself as a man that she might have safety, and is drawn into a web of wooing and romance. Superb show, well played. The last picture, to the right, is the first of many from the last night's Green Show.

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Above. Thursday night's Green Show, Mars vs. Venus, preceded The Taming of the Shrew. The battle of the sexes, played out within the theatre later, was a fine meal for which the apetizer provided by Dance Kaleidoscope and Terra Nova Consort made a perfect complement.

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Above, sung as a duel, danced as several.

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Above. And grateful you should be, that we don't make you suffer further.

We were gone for 5 days. We took in 4 plays, 3 Green Shows, and a backstage tour in 4 days and nights in Ashland. Whee-hooo. Home again. Thanks for coming along if you got this far. Later.

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