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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 24, 2004 Frye leaving OSF to teach By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings Andrea Frye, an eight year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival stage, both as an actor and director, will soon be moving on to another part of her life and career. She joins G. Valmont Thomas as the second veteran actor to leave the festival. Thomas is taking over the theater department at the University of Nebraska. Frye has accepted a position as a visiting artist at Dillard University in New Orleans, and will also spend some time at the University of Michigan. "I will be helping at Dillard to revise the curriculum," she said. "We will also have a search for a department chair and I will be a part of that process. And we will be opening up Black Box Theatre at Dillard. "I will be taking 'Macbeth' there and that will open the Black Box Theatre." But before she can prepare herself for departing from Ashland, she is immersed in directing "A Raisin in the Sun" at OSF. Opening night for the production was last night and "Raisin" runs through Oct. 31. Dillard is primarily black university. Frye said she believes it is her, and other black Americans', imperative to tell their story. "Our imperative is to promote the ideas that are important to us," she said. "We have been an oppressed people in this country and as such have many things to say about liberty, freedom and dreams. It has been necessary on our African-American campuses to do African-American work." Another of the black classics is "Porgy and Bess." Frye feels Dillard is the right place to produce that play. "We have been talking about that," she said. "Dillard has an extraordinary department of music. And we are talking about doing a joint production of 'Porgy and Bess.' Mr. Gershwin did a good thing and he researched it for a long, long time to get it right." Frye agreed with the adage that once you come here to Shakespeare and Ashland, you don't want to leave. "It is an extraordinary place to work," she said. "The best work in the world, the best directors, the best designers work for nine to 10 months out of the year in lovely, extraordinary Ashland." Frye said the artists she has worked with in her eight years at the festival are among the best in this country. Libby Appel, artistic director at OSF, said Frye's loss will be felt in the theater community. "Andrea has been a great asset to the company both as an actor and director," she noted. "Her work as a director has been acclaimed for its sensitivity and depth and I have every expectation that 'Raisin in the Sun' will fare just as well as 'Two Sisters and A Piano.'" Appel added that Frye came to OSF to do "Seven Guitars" with Kenny Leon and she fast became a valuable actor in the company. "Her work on 'Virginia Woolf,' 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Playboy of the West Indies' are particularly notable," Appel said. "We will miss her next year but she is a member of the OSF family and I have hopes she will return to us again." Frye is leaving the door open to come back when her time at Dillard is over. "I am committed for the next year to be away from here. But I would love to come back from time to time and direct," she said. "I have a family here at OSF. You couldn't ask for a better place to work." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams