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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Gap fire eclipses 17,500 acres but is slowed by cooler, moist marine air ... Local wineries earn gold ... Voter information for Jackson County ... Gap fire eclipses 17,500 acres but is slowed by cooler, moist marine air ... Local wineries earn gold ... Voter information for Jackson County ... GUEST OPINION Guest Opinion: 'Spinning into Butter' — lessons from a long summer Comment By Sean McEnroe DailyTidings.com By Sean McEnroe Posted Sep. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Sean McEnroe Posted Sep. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News A few years ago, Rebecca Gilman’s play “Spinning into Butter” was performed in both Portland and San Francisco to great acclaim. Set in a fictional college town, the play describes an incident of racial hostility on campus that snowballs into a series of community traumas. It is a brilliantly told story, both because it points out the forms of racism that yet exist in ostensibly liberal communities, and because it illustrates how quickly our collective emotional responses to racism can threaten courtesy, free speech and cultural pluralism. At the end of the summer of 2016 here in Ashland, the script is uncomfortably familiar. If you are just returning from a long summer holiday, here’s what you missed in Ashland. In June an Oregon Shakespeare Festival actress had a disturbing encounter with a mentally ill transient who berated her with threats and racial epithets. The incident provoked much discussion about racism in Ashland, and led to a number of public events and community forums. In this emotionally charged atmosphere, the leaders of OSF singled out perhaps the least expected organization for criticism: a local bookstore owned by a friendly, educated and unassuming political liberal. Shakespeare Books & Antiques on downtown Main Street has long displayed a nicely curated collection of banned books. The assortment of titles shows the wide variety of reasons that different works have been suppressed by public and private organizations in the past. This summer, OSF's artistic director and executive director, Bill Rauch and Cynthia Rider, took exception to the inclusion in the display of Helen Bannerman’s 19th-century children’s book, "The Story of Little Black Sambo," a work set in colonial India and illustrated with paternalistic, racial caricatures. Rauch and Rider threatened to withdraw all OSF business from the bookstore unless the book was taken down from the display. The events themselves are described in more or less the same way by all parties. Shakespeare Books, a much beloved shop, is now going out of business, and will likely be a vacant storefront by the end of this year’s theater season. This brings me back to Gilman’s “Spinning into Butter.” I have long hoped that OSF would perform the play, but this now seems unlikely. Both the play’s title and its central metaphor are drawn from Bannerman’s "Little Black Sambo" — in other words, without the book, the play makes no sense. This kind of complex referencing of new political art to older and sometimes troubling literary sources is a key element in much of the best theater performed in America today — the kind of art that OSF generally celebrates. The Shakespeare Festival has staged many of the most challenging and thoughtful dramas on race I have seen: not just well-known works like “Two Trains Running,” but also new works like “Water by the Spoonful” and specially commissioned ones like “Party People.” These are plays with unsettling themes, and ones that shock the audience with their language and imagery. OSF’s pact with its patrons has always been implicit: keep an open mind, get over your initial shock, and you will be rewarded with brilliant, politically incisive drama. Each season we have been. Those who harbor any lingering suspicion of the Ashland bookstore owners’ motives, should visit Shakespeare Books & Antiques — before it closes for good — and scan the shelves for themselves. They will soon find Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright and many other familiar names on the book spines. Like OSF, it’s a good place to learn about our nation’s complex historical and literary heritage. It appears we are too late to save Shakespeare Books & Antiques. It is not, however, too late to save the reputation of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Bill Rauch and Cynthia Rider have taken a position that is untenable for the leaders of an institution devoted to the artistic exploration of political history. If they are unwilling to distance themselves from their actions this summer, it is time for the OSF board of directors to distance themselves from Ms. Rider and Mr. Rauch. Sean McEnroe lives in Ashland. By Sean McEnroe DailyTidings.com By Sean McEnroe Posted Sep. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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