Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is one of the oldest and largest professional nonprofit theatres in the nation whose programming reaches national and international audiences. Founded in 1935 and located in Ashland, its purpose is to create world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
OSF has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to an internationally renowned theater company that presents a diverse selection of up to ten plays and musicals each season between the months of March and October, including works by Shakespeare, as well as other classic and contemporary playwrights. In 1983, OSF received the Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, and its productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres. Over its 89-year history, OSF has historically had an accomplished resident company of artists performing plays in rotating repertory.
OSF’s three main theatre spaces provide a dynamic platform for showcasing a diverse and broad range of theatrical productions. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre accommodates 1,190 patrons and is a fully outdoor theatre with orchestra and balcony seating. The more intimate Angus Bowmer Theatre accommodates 600 audience members and is a traditional, indoor theatre space. The Thomas Theatre is a smaller and extremely versatile stage, with seating capacities ranging from 270 to 360 depending on the configuration, where OSF presents new works and explores familiar plays in ways designed to challenge, excite, and illuminate audiences. OSF also hosts free outdoor concerts and other eclectic evening performances in the summer months at its Green Show on its informal Courtyard Stage. OSF also owns and leases an additional array of properties in addition to the theatres and production building. OSF’s 70,000-square-foot state-of-the-art production facility is located nearby in Talent, OR, and houses costume rentals/storage, props, scenery, and automation.
The upcoming 2024 season at OSF presents a powerful, diverse range of large and small-scale shows. Among these are iconic works from Shakespeare’s canon including a thrilling new production of Macbeth directed by former OSF Associate Artistic Director Evren Odcikin, Much Ado About Nothing directed by longtime OSF favorite Miriam Laube, as well as stories inspired by Shakespeare’s works such as Born with Teeth, a dark comedy which tells of an imagined encounter between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Rosa Joshi will be directing a new translation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus featuring a cast of female and non-binary performers. Also included in the upcoming season are a series of one-person shows featuring cherished OSF alumni and an award-winning new musical, Lizard Boy.
Additionally, OSF offers extensive educational opportunities for students, teachers, and theatergoers of all ages during the performance season. Designed to foster a deep appreciation of theater, these offerings include student matinees, post-show talkbacks, workshops, lectures, and community engagement activities. The 2024 season will also usher in the return of OSF’s School Visit Program, which introduces students to live theatre and Shakespeare’s plays in performance by bringing teaching artists into schools.
OSF is deeply committed to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) work and initiated programs and training sessions to promote awareness and identify issues of concern more than 20 years ago. OSF’s FAIR (Fellowships, Apprenticeships, Internships, and Residencies) Program was launched by then Associate Artistic Director Tim Bond more than two decades ago as a means of enlarging and diversifying the pool of candidates for leadership roles in theater. After the national social justice movement and the publication of the We See You White American Theatre manifesto in 2020, OSF deepened and expanded its IDEA work by addressing institutional disparities, structural inequities, and equitable systems change. Appointing a Director of IDEA continued efforts to advance OSF’s invested time, resources, and effort into organizational change with the goal of making OSF a more inviting, safe, and equitable space.
OSF has a 21-member board of directors led by Co-Chairs Diane Yu and Rudd Johnson. Tim Bond became the seventh Artistic Director of OSF in September 2023, having previously served as Associate Artistic Director from 1996 to 2007, and Tyler Hokama currently serves as the Interim Executive Director. There are approximately 184 full-time and 147 part-time employees, 29 full-time seasonal workers, and an extensive network of dedicated volunteers at OSF. Its artists operate under OSF’s own collective bargaining agreements with Artists Equity Association, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and Stage and Choreographers Society.
OSF is a destination theater where eighty percent of its audience members travel more than 125 miles to attend performances. Prior to the pandemic, OSF’s annual estimated economic impact on the State of Oregon was over $120 million.
For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2024, OSF has an operating budget of $35 million with a third of revenues from earned income and the remainder supported by contributed income and interest from its approximate $28 million endowment. It is anticipated that the fiscal year 2024 will result in a 33% increase in ticket sales with a return to a 10-production season, its largest increase since the pandemic closures shuttered theatre venues across the nation.