Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the cornerstone of Ashland, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), has been around for 80 years. For a younger person like myself, it’s a little strange to imagine that OSF has been enjoyed since before the Cold War. Since the ’30s OSF has played a crucial role in the cultural development of the hippie hub of Ashland, Oregon.

Longtime OSF artistic director, Bill Rauch, is coming to Hannon Library on March 3, 2016, to let us know what traditions are still the same, what looks different today, and what is coming up in the 2016 season.

Thursday, March 3
6:00 PM
Meese Room

For Rauch, the inspiration to create has never left him:

“We go to the theater to be changed. You can be soothed, even unconsciously, by the non-threatening illusion that everyone sitting around you watching this story is the same as you. But how about a theater where you can trust that you will often be on uncertain and unfamiliar terrain and grow through that, that you won’t be anaesthetized by a comfort of sameness but that you will enter a kind of crucible of our true sameness despite our wildly apparent differences? That’s the theater that we are building here together. That’s the vision:  It’s a theater of ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT and PARTICIPATION, not PASSIVITY. A theater of RISK not SAFETY, a theater of FEARLESSNESS, a theater of CONNECTION.”

Rauch will actively engage audiences outside of the theatre next week when he speaks at Hannon Library. He will discuss the upcoming season, changes at OSF, and his upcoming work based around the Roe Vs. Wade case.

This is a must-see event, so don’t miss out.

The talk is free and open to the public. Parking will be free. For additional information contact Hannon Library at 541-552-6816 or libraryevents@sou.edu.

~ By Alex Mesadieu