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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 14, 2005 Casting call starts OSF preseason And so the new Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2005 preseason is underway, the company call coming last January 4, formally signaling the beginning of rehearsals for the upcoming season, with approximately 46 actors, stage managers, assistant stage managers and production assistants back at work. Denise Baratta Ashland Daily Tidings Derek Mohler saws set and stage pieces Wednesday in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production room. The scene shops and costume shops, however, have been busy since last October and December respectively, building sets and designing costumes for the 2005 productions. The scene shops will build sets for 11 plays based on the set designer's specifications. Costume shops do the same based on the costume designers specifications. Measurements for actors are kept on file year-to-year, using a wide range of vendors from across the country. Some 45 costume shop personnel - designers, design assistants, cutters, stitchers, dyers and wig designers - are now fully engaged in crafting costumes and costume props, such as armor, jewelry and crowns. The first four plays of the new season are "Richard III," "The Philanderer," "Room Service," and "By the Waters of Babylon." According to Eddie Wallace, Assistant to the Media Relations Director, "Casting for the plays took place last summer (July 2004 for the 2005 season). Roles that are not cast with current company members are filled with actors from New York, Los Angeles or other cities where our artistic team has held auditions." Wallace said that rehearsals take place in various halls on the OSF campus and the cast gets on the actual stage a few weeks into rehearsal and then returns to the rehearsal hall until technical and dress rehearsals (adding lights, sound and costumes) begin. Plays rehearse six days a week with Monday off. Behind the scenes, so to speak, are the stage managers whose role it is to make sure all runs smoothly. They assemble and maintain the "prompt book," also known as the rehearsal copy of the script. They work with the Director and the Department Heads to schedule rehearsals and outside calls. They also assume active responsibility for the form and discipline of rehearsals and performances and are responsible for the technical running of each performance. The administrative personnel (development, marketing, administration) have been working year round, crafting marketing campaigns, development appeals, and Web site updates. The new 11-play season will feature two world premieres, an all-new translation, as well as American and Shakespearean classics. Robert Schenkkan's new play, "By the Waters of Babylon," commissioned by the Festival, will be directed by Cornerstone Theater Company Artistic Director Bill Rauch in the New Theater. The play touches on the lives of a recent widow and a Cuban immigrant and how the power of redemption, forgiveness and creativity helps to heal them. Octavio Solis' "Gibraltar" was also commissioned by OSF and will be directed by Liz Diamond. "Gibraltar" is a contemporary fable about a woman whose husband has recently died under mysterious circumstances. When a stranger enters her life, the two find the worlds merging in the stories they weave together and the characters they bring to life. Also playing in the New Theater with "Gibraltar" and "By the Waters of Babylon," is August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," part of the award-winning playwright's 10-play cycle and nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play (1985). This production will be directed by OSF Associate Artistic Director Timothy Bond. "We are looking forward to a special season," said Amy Richard, media relations manager. "We are not only celebrating our 70th year, but we are also dedicating this season to the former Artistic Director, Jerry Turner, who died Sept. 2, 2004. We're offering everything from the first great Elizabethan tragedy in English ("The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus"), written in 1592 by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Christopher Marlowe, to a world premier production of tender, sweet romance ("By the Waters of Babylon") by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan. And we have nine other classic and contemporary plays that include farce, comedy of manners, drama and melodrama. Something for everyone." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's Slippers men's slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Memory Foam Mattress college loans alternative student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation trillion cut diamonds Currancy Exchange Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams