Word: ashland
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...twilight slips over the hilly college town of Ashland, Oregon, the sweet summer evening seems too balmy and starry for whiling away indoors, even to the holiday throngs who have journeyed to attend the theater here. Fortunately they need not choose between pleasures. Night after night, vividly costumed Shakespeare -- preceded by madrigals and heralded by a flag raising and trumpet fanfare from the topmost gables of a Tudor stagehouse -- unfolds beneath an open sky, turning edification into festival...
...park in Louisville, Kentucky; the grounds of a legendary mansion alongside the Hudson River; New York City's Central Park; and dozens of other locales. According to Felicia Londre, secretary of the Shakespeare Theater Association of America, the U.S. has about 100 outdoor Shakespeare festivals. Some have grown, like Ashland's, into major institutions offering varied repertoires. Others operate just a few weeks a year. Nearly all rely on a lot of novice, non-Equity players. But almost all are thriving. Americans seemingly cannot get enough of the Bard in open air in summer -- though they are conspicuously less eager...
Other theater executives have noted a similar, almost fetishistic audience passion for Shakespeare. Even his problem plays have much more box-office appeal than masterpieces by almost anyone else. Says Bill Patton, Ashland's executive director, who has overseen its rise since 1948: "Some of Shakespeare's popularity may be that it's certified as good for you, so audiences can congratulate themselves on their intellectuality, even though this was popular entertainment for its time and still is. Also the plays are taught in school, so people feel familiar with them...
Whatever shortcomings artists may see, audiences seem to want Shakespeare outdoors more than ever. New troupes spring up each year as stage entrepreneurs discover what Ashland's founder, Angus Bowmer, learned in 1935. He staged boxing matches as a way to defray the costs of his outdoor Shakespeare shows. The boxing lost money. From the start, the Shakespeare turned a profit...
...Ashland, the tall sign at Silton Glass said, "Good luck Eric and 20 Miles To Go." As I walked by, the owner, Frank Tetschner, was taking Eric's name down with a pole twelve feet long. I asked him if Eric had decided not to run, or if they had had a recent falling out. No, Frank said, he had promised another friend, Nona, that he would put her name on the sign and he couldn't fit both names at once. Eric would have to be content with a photograph of the sign with his name...