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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us August 18, 2005 Daedalus Music, song and dance to highlight OSF’s 18th annual AIDS/HIV benefit On the Cover: Kenoth Shane Patton , Green Show dancer and a member of Dance Kaleidoscope, performs at the 2004 evening variety show. Photo by Jenny Graham, courtesy OSF. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites the public to its 18th annual Daedalus Project, a benefit for AIDS/HIV organizations, on Sunday and Monday. This year’s event will again feature a Sunday morning 5K Run & Walk, a Monday play reading at 2 p.m. in the Angus Bowmer Theatre and a 7:30 evening variety show on the Elizabethan Stage/Allen Pavilion. Tickets for the play reading are $10, and $25 and $30 for the evening show. Tickets are available at the box office at 15 S. Pioneer St., by calling 482-4331 or online at www.osfashland.org. Events kick off at 7:30 a.m. Sunday with the 10th Annual 5K Run & Walk, sponsored by OSF and Providence Health System. The run begins on South Pioneer Street at the Festival Bricks and winds 3.1 miles up Pioneer Street from the Festival along Granite Street cutting briefly into Lithia Park and then back to Pioneer Street. Call 482-2111, ext. 422 for registration information. The fee/donation is $20 and includes a T-shirt. Registrations will be accepted up until 10 minutes before race time. A reading of Cheryl L. West’s prize-winning play “Before It Hits Home” will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The play had its premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Cheryl West’s other plays are “Jar the Floor,” “Play On!,” “Holiday Heart,” “Puddin ’n’ Pete” and “Birdie Blue.” “Before It Hits Home” was the first play that delved into the issues of AIDS in the African-American community. It is the story of Wendal, a covertly bisexual African-American jazz musician who has just been diagnosed with the AIDS virus. His relationships with fiancée, lover, family and friends are tested, and in the end a tentative reconciliation brings the family together to face this crisis. The reading is directed by OSF associate artistic directors Timothy Bond and Penny Metropulos. Cast includes Mirron Willis, Julia Pace Mitchell, Tyrone Wilson, Greta Oglesby, Jaclyn Williams, Abdul Salaam El Razzac, Kyle Haden, Travis Bond, Julie Oda and Terri McMahon. Tickets to the reading are $10. Call 482-4331 or buy online at www.osfashland.org. Following the reading a benefit sale of T-shirts, baked goods, lemonade and other concessions will occur in the courtyard. From 6 to 7:15, the performance ensemble of the Mukombe Mirimba Club of the Ashland Public Schools and The Rhythm Kings will offer free entertainment on the courtyard deck before the evening variety show begins. OSF actor Ray Porter , emcee of the 2004 Daedalus event, will also emcee this year's benefit. Jenny Graham | Courtesy OSF OSF sound technician and musician Frank Sullivan performs on the banjo in the 2004 evening show. WHO BENEFITS Following each year’s benefit, the Festival distributes proceeds to local, regional, national and international HIV and AIDS charitable organizations. In 2004, OSF distributed funds to the following: • OnTrack, Inc. - Alan F. Collins AIDS Project, Medford $ 28,000 • AIDS Support and Prevention of Josephine County (ASAP) $ 9,500 • Douglas County AIDS Council $ 3,500 • Siskiyou County HIV/AIDS Foundation (SCHAF) $ 4,500 • Africare $ 3,000 This year’s evening variety show at 7:30 p.m. on the Elizabethan Stage/Allen Pavilion will be emceed by OSF actor Ray Porter. The show features guitar solos, original dances, the Daedalus chorus, songs, poetry and skits performed by OSF actors and company members. The finale of Act One is a tantalizing knock-your-pants-off Underwear Parade, emceed by OSF actor Dee Maaske. Audience members vote with their dollars for their favorite underwear contestants during intermission. The underwear parade has contributed as much as $4,000 to the benefit. At the top of Act Two, the winning raffle ticket for a beautiful quilt designed and created by members of OSF’s Costume Shop is drawn and the winner announced. This year’s quilt, “Starry, Starry Night,” was designed and constructed by costume shop cutter Ann Stephens, with help from Claire Bunch, Heather Brooks and Tasha Brooks. The quilt incorporates fabrics from the costumes in all of this year’s productions. The quilt is on display in the OSF Information Center on the corner of East Main and Pioneer streets until the day of the Daedalus Project. Raffle tickets are $2 and may be purchased at the Information Center, the Tudor Guild Gift Shop or at the front desk in the administration building. New this year is a raffle for a “Follow Your Folly” Electa Beach Cruiser bicycle, generously donated by the New Belgium Brewing Company. This limited-edition bicycle is a beautiful green and white classic cruiser — a must for one-speed aficionados. Tickets are $2 and available at any of OSF’s concession stands or bars and at the front desk in the administration building. Ticket holders need not be present to win either the quilt or the cruiser. The evening show will close with a special candlelight witnessing ceremony to remember those who have died of AIDS. “Local organizations that work with people living with HIV and AIDS have historically received very little public funding,” said Rita Sullivan, Director of OnTrack Inc. in Medford. “This is particularly true of the Alan Collins AIDS Project in the current fiscal year, as all public funding has been removed. Without the generosity of the Daedalus Project, fiscally challenged human service organizations would find it impossible to assist those already infected and continue efforts to prevent new infections. Apart from important funding, the Daedalus Project has provided for people with AIDS and their loved ones a haven at Alan’s House in which to celebrate the lives of those they have lost and the inspiration to continue to struggle, hope and dream.” The late OSF Artistic Director Emeritus Jerry Turner named the Daedalus Project after the story of Daedalus from Greek mythology. Daedalus and his son, Icarus, were imprisoned in a labyrinth by King Minos, and by crafting wings from wax and feathers, Daedalus created a way out of the maze. It is estimated that there are more than 43 million people worldwide who are infected with HIV. Government officials estimate that more than 1 million Americans are living with HIV or AIDS and about 25 percent of these individuals do not know that they are infected. Of the 40,000 new HIV infections that occur in the U.S. each year, half are under the age of 25. Oregon’s total number of AIDS cases since 1983 is 5,666 (as of July 2005), including 167 cases in Jackson County. It is estimated that there are 120 to 400 people living with HIV or AIDS in the Rogue Valley. 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