Oregon Stage Works ( "OSW") was established as a tax exempt 501 (c) (3) non-profit performance group in October of 2002 in response to an outpouring of community support for the creation of a professional theatre company focusing on the staging of developing and master American playwrights. Inspired by the diversity of American society, Oregon Stage Works is dedicated to enlightening artists and audiences alike with creative and challenging interpretations, and simultaneously embracing a community of all ages and cultures with affordable professional theatre.
In December of 2002, twelve of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's most significant actors donated their time and talents to mount six benefit performances of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters in OSF's Carpenter Hall. All proceeds were donated to help in the creation of Oregon Stage Works. Running concurrently with Love Letters was our first full production: Inspecting Carol , by Daniel Sullivan. This holiday comedy had a very successful run In OSF'S Black Swan Theatre.
Last January we entered into a four month contract with the Ashland Springs Hotel. With over $20,000 in donations from our many supporters in the community and $7,890 in funds generated by the OSF Love Letters benefit we were able to install a lighting and sound system and series of screens and seating risers designed by Jay Fenton - Richard Hay's associate scenic designer at OSF - that converted the hotel's dinning room into a charming and functional theatre space. Our residency at the hotel was quite successful with a beautifully staged production of Lanford Wilson's drama Talley's Folly and a splendid presentation of Peter Shafffer's Lettice and Lovage.
Our reading series, also at the hotel, included Irwin Shaw's 1939 play Gentle People; three new works by local playwright Margaret Brian, and a series of new and classic American one-act plays preformed by students from Oregon Stage Works training program, Craft of The Actor.
On July 21, we staged a standing-room-only production of Eric Bentley's Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been , performed by OSF actors and staff and a number of community leaders. We followed this with a three week sold out run of Conor Mcpherson’s award winning play The Weir . The Weir was produced in the Black Sheep restaurant with music by Pat Oscannel.
With the help of a great many supporters and over 120 volunteers who did everything from production support, coordination and construction to performing, house managing and administrative work. We have successfully met the rigors and expenses of a nomadic theatre company. From the beginning, however, we understood that our greatest challenge would be fulfilling the promise of OSW by finding a permanent producing facility. After many months of negotiating, we have now entered into a very reasonable five-year lease, including two five-year options with the A Street Market Place LLC.
Oregon Stage Works’ new theatre is just three blocks from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and will approximate the Black Swan in size. OSF's Richard Hay, Rick Anderson, and Jay Fenton participated In the new theatre's design.
The remodeling of the A Street space is scheduled to be completed between March 31 and April 30, 2004. It includes: sound proof walls, a new floor, a heating and cooling system, restrooms, theatre entrances and the creation of a comfortable audience space. We have every expectation that Oregon Stage Works’ new home will continue the development of Ashland, Oregon as a national center for the performing arts.
We plan to open the new theatre space in May of 2004. Our first subscription season will include Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot alternating with Panama, a new American play by Michael Folie. Our first subscription season will also include a staged reading of Nickel and Dimed, a new American play by Joan Holden, based on the novel Nickel And Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich; Lobby Hero by kenneth Lonergan; the Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, a new play commissioned for the 2004 holiday season, and a planned production of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, produced with actors from OSF in an educational partnership with Science Works Hands-on Museum.
Oregon Stage Works will also produce a full reading series of classic and new American plays, along with a local playwrights unit, a new play development program and performances evolving out of OSW’S training program, “Craft of The Actor.” Furthermore, in an effort to support local performing groups and to continue building a diverse audience base, we have formed a residency program that currently includes The Ashland New Plays Festival .