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All the stage's a classroom Young Pip (Bodhi Johnson) has a frightening encounter with the escaped convict Magwitch (Derrick Lee Weeden) in "Great Expectations." Photo by Jenny Graham, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Friday Sep 9, 2016 at 5:54 PM Sep 9, 2016 at 5:54 PM Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings @Joe_Zavala99 To what extent may one reasonably lose their mind for true love, surrender to fate and still be considered sane? Is the criminal justice system merely a superficial standard of morality and where does this construct leave room for an individual’s conscience? What are the qualities of a great leader and at which point does passivity cease to be a strength? Theater connoisseurs who watch an Oregon Shakespeare Festival production next week may grapple with these questions and countless others as they shuffle back up the aisle toward their parking spot, and while doing so there’s a decent chance they’ll be alongside judges considering the same themes, but for class credit. These gavel-wielders are students in a class called “Ethics in the Law: A Novel Approach,” offered by the National Judicial College, and they’re en route, bound for Ashland from across the country to watch three OSF plays — “Twelfth Night,” “Richard II” and “Great Expectations” — after which they’ll discuss the ethical dilemmas posed within the plays and how those dilemmas relate to the judiciary. This marks the 14th time that the National Judicial College, based in Reno, Nevada, has hosted an ethics in the law class in Ashland. Founded in 1963, the NJC bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of judicial education, teaching 3,000 to 3,500 judges each year in over 100 residential, offsite, web-based and online courses. The course will be taught by Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger of the Ohio Supreme Court. According to Lanzinger, the course originally combined the ethics and literature components, called for judges to read novels and short stories and was held in Reno. At some point in the early 1990s, an NJC faculty member who happened to be an Oregon Shakespeare Festival fan decided that the moral dilemmas which infuse many of the plays staged here could be used as a teaching tool. Soon, the class was restructured, tickets were purchased, judges were flown in and the NJC was mining the OSF for nuggets of wisdom. “So, we’ll have the wonderful opportunity of having three productions in your city,” said Lanzinger during a phone interview from her home in Toledo, Ohio (she works in Columbus). “It’s always a real treat. The course ends on Thursday so we have a real full week. We work the judges very hard.” This year, 16 to 18 judges from as far away as Florida are scheduled to arrive in Ashland on Sunday and watch their first play, “Great Expectations,” directed by Penny Metropulos, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre the same day. Next is “Richard II,” directed by Bill Rauch, in the Thomas Theatre on Tuesday, and they’ll end with “Twelfth Night,” directed by Christopher Liam Moore in the Angus Bowmer Theatre on Wednesday. Lanzinger said the course is a popular one and the judges get a lot out of it, which is why the NJC has kept coming back. “Generally speaking, the judicial ethics component is important for any state court judge — probably federal court as well, but the National Judicial College really focuses on state court judges,” she said. “When you’re talking about ethics and you’re talking about standards of conduct and so on, usually it can be a sensitive area, it can be an area where individuals feel, ‘We’ve read the rules, what more can be said?’ The important thing, though, is for us to have the opportunity to kind of step back and really think hard about what it means to be a just judge, be a fair judge, and how to treat individuals in our court. Are we as impartial and unbiased as we possibly can be? What issues do we have to consider when we’re looking at thorny ethical problems? How should we approach them? It’s a very intense questioning that has to go on.” And it doesn’t hurt, Lanzinger added, that the judges have the opportunity to explore those questions in a place like Ashland, far away from their daily grind. “It allows people to, first of all, relax in Ashland,” she said. “It’s a beautiful little city. I love coming there and getting refreshed. So, it’s kind of a retreat, and it’s also an important time to work through some issues that may have arisen for the judges. We deal with a stressful job, so there’s a component that we have on poetry, which is one of my favorite sections. And we talk about how it’s kind of nice to occasionally get out of the legal briefs and reading all of that, and maybe read metaphorical thoughts about the big issues in life, and that’s a good thing. Judges generally will say that the course has refreshed them and kind of has revitalized them and they’re very appreciative of having it in Ashland because they have those wonderful productions.” As far as the plays themselves, Lanzinger said she’s careful to select productions with an eye toward the big questions. “First of all, we always look at what is being offered at the festival, so we kind of plan on getting the plays that will be the most beneficial for what we’re trying to do,” she said. “So the ethical components in ‘Richard II’ for example, losing power and using power and how it may apply to the judicial role — it’s very good. In ‘Twelfth Night’ we’re going to probably be talking about gender issues and how you look at participants. Especially nowadays with changes that have occurred in the courts, do we have any difficulty in being fair and making sure that we are not just fair but we appear to be fair as well? For ‘Great Expectations,’ we have a wonderful chance to think back to what prisons and what courts were like historically and then talk about the ways that courts have changed and what the role of the court in the community is.” The class format is pretty straightforward. For instance, Lanzinger said, the class will be given an introduction to "Great Expectations” Sunday prior to watching the show, and discuss what they saw immediately following while it’s still fresh in their minds. Later, those judges in NJC’s master’s program will have a final exam to take home with them. A former English major and theater fan, Lanzinger has attended other festivals. When asked why NJC continues to make OSF its destination of choice, her answer may make founder Angus L. Bowmer himself blush. “Well, we certainly think it’s the best in the country,” she said. “I’ve had the chance to also go to Stratford, Ontario (Stratford Festival) and I have to say that the two venues are just delightful, as well as the Shaw Festival. “I know that you have such a long history … and every year it just seems to get better and better. You have a national reputation and it’s worked well in the past, and we just hope that we continue to have a fruitful relationship.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99.