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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 17, 2005 Theater-goers to a matinee showing of �Room Service� exit during a light rain Thursday. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven SOGGY SEATS OSF prepares for wet weather as it opens the 2005 outdoor season By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune The show must go on — unless it’s outdoors and the rain is just too much. With clouds looming and the annual Feast of Will picnic already canceled, Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors are keeping their doublets crossed in hopes that a hard rain ain’t a-gonna fall. William Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night" is set to open the OSF’s outdoor season in Ashland tonight, followed by Christopher Marlowe’s "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" Saturday and Shakespeare’s "Love’s Labor’s Lost" Sunday. "A chance of showers doesn’t sound that bad," OSF spokeswoman Amy Richard says. "But there’s a lot of talk about rain." The festival’s policy is that if it rains in the first hour and 15 minutes of a play, and the play is canceled, or people choose to leave, rain vouchers will be given. The vouchers may be used for another show this season or next season. After 75 minutes no vouchers are issued. The Tudor Guild next to the theater has rain ponchos for sale. Advertisement The last time an outdoor opening was rained on hard enough to drive people out was in June 1998, when a storm struck "The Comedy of Errors" on Sunday of opening weekend. Forty-nine people left, out of 1,134 tickets sold. A Mail Tribune review said "raindrops as big as puppy’s paws" fell on the uncovered stage and the forward seating area during most of the play’s first hour. The balcony, box seats and several rows near the back of the theater are covered, but most seats are not. Actors may wear capes to protect costumes from rain, and stage business may slow for safety on a wet stage. Most people when it rains choose to gut it out. In 2001, 119 tickets were returned for rain vouchers. In 2002 there were 103. There were 203 in 2003, 236 last year, and 36 for a "Twelfth Night" preview on June 7. "I think we have tough actors and tough audiences," Richard says. Northwest weather can be unsettled in June, and the Rogue Valley’s long, hot summer sometimes doesn’t set in for real until July. But the weather gods have been generally, if not always, good to OSF. The first time an outdoor opening was canceled was in June 1970, when "The Comedy of Errors" was called off at 8:15 p.m. It was only the seventh cancellation of a play since 1935, and it came the night after "The Merchant of Venice" inaugurated the OSF’s new, indoor Angus Bowmer theater. The hard-luck plays have been "The Comedy of Errors" and "Richard III," both of which have been struck twice. It rained once on the aptly named "The Tempest." On opening night in 1956, a 30-minute shower just before curtain time drove off about one-quarter of the crowd for "Richard III." The outdoor Elizabethan was the festival’s only theater in those days. "Showers turned to drizzle about curtain time, and stage hands cleared the stage of what water they could before the play started," a review said. In 1995, rain began falling just before the beginning of Shakespeare’s "Richard II," but it wasn’t heavy enough to drive people out. One of festival’s worst weather debacles was in August 1954, when one show was canceled and another moved to Medford High School. The OSF board decided then that although future performances might be canceled, none would be moved. In July 1978, rain forced cancellations of plays two nights in a row, "Richard III" and "The Tempest." The festival that year refunded more than $30,000, a record. The cancellation of a single sold-out opening today could result in vouchers of double that amount. Richard thinks a little rain, unwelcome as it may be, sometimes leads to a memorable show. "The actors look out and everybody’s sitting there," she says. "It creates a different kind of actor-audience dynamic. Everybody’s putting out that extra effort." Actors and audience alike may be forgiven for hoping there’s no connection between weather and the play. As Feste the fool sings in "Twelfth Night," "For the rain it raineth every day." Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers dvd-r helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Auto Insurance Mesothelioma Home Equity Loans Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Canadian Pharmacy Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Payday Loans Air Purifiers Advertisement s