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OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 'Access for All' campaign goal set at $5.1 million Accessibility project already has $3.78 million in donations and pledges, needs another $1.32 million Comment By Bert Etling Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Bert Etling Daily Tidings Posted Jul. 6, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 6, 2016 at 8:56 PM By Bert Etling Daily Tidings Posted Jul. 6, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 6, 2016 at 8:56 PM » Social News The “Access for All” campaign to fully fund reworking of what amounts to a town square for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival officially kicked off Sunday. It will take a total of $5.1 million to cover costs of a reworking of “The Bricks,” the open performing space on Pioneer Street at the hub of OSF’s three main theaters and home to the popular free Green Shows, as well as other accessibility projects in and around the Angus Bowmer and Allen Elizabethan theaters. Of that, $3.78 million has been raised, leaving $1,320,000 to go, OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch told about 200 OSF members and players and friends in the Allen Elizabethan Pavilion. The first of three phases in the project is already done. An elevator was installed in the Angus Bowmer Theatre, a wheelchair lift installed in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre and a lift for a loading dock between the two were installed in the theaters’ off-season from November to February. Hallways were also enlarged and an accessible restroom relocated. The second phase is set to start in November and be complete by June, in time for the start of the 2017 outdoor theater and Green Show seasons. The sloped lawn at the center of The Bricks area will be slightly enlarged and given a slightly steeper slope from improved viewing and listening for audience. Seating spots on walls off the lawn will be increased five-fold, and spaces for audience members using wheelchairs will be added. A third phase will created additional wheelchair seating spaces in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. “What those bricks offer to us truly is incredible,” said Christiana Clark, an OSF actor who served as master of ceremonies for the Access for All launch. “It truly is the life-force generating area for us … It is the pumping in the heartbeat of what we have built in the lifeblood here at OSF … now we’re going to be transforming this space into something into something even greater and more inclusive.” “As someone who has a disability who works on The Bricks,” said Claudia Alick, the OSF community producer who oversees the Green Shows, “who has to walk through The Bricks all the time, I am so, so very excited we’re creating a more accessible area for everyone to work in, for our artists to work in … dancers in wheelchairs mounting the greenshow stage, audience members with walkers, or me with my walker, so deeply excited we’re going to to be creating more access for everyone, artists and audience. “The Bricks are not only a space for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival company, they’re also a space for the entire community.” “It’s another step forward for the most outstanding theater organization in the United States of America,” said state Rep. Peter Buckley, who helped secure $1 million in state lottery proceed funds for the Access for All project. “The case we made for the arts infrastructure is a solid case. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is an economic driver for our region and our state — not only a point of pride for how much respect it has around the country and around the world, it actually drives the economy of Southern Oregon.” “This is not a beautification project or a landscape remodel,” Rauch said. “This is a project that really, sincerely, opens up our campus for everybody.” Donors of a significant gift that served as a “catalyst” for the campaign, Joel Axelrod and Judy Yin Shih, “realized it was the center of the city and wanted to make The Bricks more welcoming,” said OSF Executive Director Cynthia Rider. The couple, Ashland residents for about five years, have donated $1,050,000 to date for the Access for All campaign: an initial gift of $500,000, a pledge to match up to $500,000 in donations by others going forward, and $50,000 for the third phase wheelchair seating. Axelrod and Shih have made other significant contributions to OSF, including funds for a sound system and education program. “When you love a community so much, you want to take good care of it,” Shih said. “The OSF Bricks has always been a social gathering place, and it feels like the heart of OSF, so to renovate The Bricks to make it even more welcoming and accessible to everyone seemed to make sense to us and to give back to the community … we can all be involved in making this community space our own.” “The voices of the theater,” added Axelrod, “are representative of what we are as a healthy community.” “The Access for All campaign is doing so much more than making a prettier landscape out there,” Clark said in closing. “It’s making art that makes thinking that makes the difference in the way you look at life. We gather together … to share moments that become memories. The Bricks are our shared heartbeat, and we need you to keep that heart beating strongly for all for a long time.” Read more about the plan on the OSF website by clicking here . Email Tidings Editor Bert Etling at [email protected], call him at 541-631-1313 and follow him at www.twitter.com/betling . By Bert Etling Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Bert Etling Daily Tidings Posted Jul. 6, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 6, 2016 at 8:56 PM » 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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