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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Medford-Jacksonville bike path becomes part of larger effort Medford clinics testing experimental treatments Public meetings, Sept. 1-5, 2014 Elusive owls get new home in Cascades Back-to-school time still conjures memories Crime, Courts and Emergency Services Emergency Services Medford police training program more than a video game Emergency Services Firefighting will close part of Lost Creek Lake over Labor Day weekend MPD crosswalk sting leads to several tickets Politics and Elections Gold Hill mayor faces challenger; other races have one candidate each Medford proposes new rules for pawn shops to help nab thieves Lack of incumbents, pot issue draws 10 for Medford council races Council members in Gold Hill dodge voter recall Bill Pullman campaigns for Oregon GMO labeling law Education Back-to-school shopping can add up RCC program helps prepare Latinos for college SOU launches leadership degree program Medford charter school opens with many changes, including its name Superintendent welcomes staff to a new school year Environment Elusive owls get new home in Cascades Judge won't block release of water Ashland marchers won't give up on climate change message OR-7 could be recollared next month Deadly deer virus may be spreading State news Nation - World Obituaries James (Jim) Michael Giancarlo Janie Sparks Georgia A. Lind Shirley Helen Beal Roberts Lorraine Antcha Dimoff Mattos Weather Photo Galleries Since You Asked Videos Web Cams Mail Tribune 100 Sports Latest Stories Mariota, Oregon steamroll South Dakota Timbers blank Whitecaps Wortman pulls off shocker at SOGC Beavers win opener against Portland State Dobry, Fagan win 4K run Varsity 541 College Sports Mariota, Oregon steamroll South Dakota Beavers win opener against Portland State SOU splits on final day of Merced tourney Plenty to improve upon in Corvallis Raiders open with a rout Pro Sports Timbers blank Whitecaps Wortman pulls off shocker at SOGC With heavy heart, Kuchar hovers around the lead Champ Bailey, Michael Sam among cuts Super seniors strong at SOGC Community Sports Super seniors strong at SOGC Crenshaw pulls off upset in SOGC Murphy claims victory in Stroke Play Championships South Korea downs Chicago for World Series title Results / Standings Business Latest Stories Earlier than normal pear harvest coming up short of expectations Blog: Who Loves Coffee? 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Wilderness for Kalmiopsis has served us well Editorials Charter schools prove to be option not obstacle Blistering lawsuit filed in Cover Oregon fiasco Other views: OLCC operates with little oversight Our View: A vote for common sense in Gold Hill Our View: It's not the gear; it's how the gear is used Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor, Aug. 29 Letters to the Editor, Aug. 28 Letters to the Editor, Aug. 27 Letters to the Editor, Aug. 26 Letters to the Editor, Aug. 25 Guest Opinions Wilderness for Kalmiopsis has served us well The summer of my discontent: An open letter to Bill Rauch The power of local philanthropy Who I am and why I want to serve on the City Council Lifestyle Latest stories Backpacking is glorious in the "Oregon Alps" Hot tips for a cool (shade) garden 'Super-Agers' are coming fast Columnist for a Day: The collection-plate formula still works Shift into the Rose City spirit Food What does 'natural' really mean? Fielding labels in search for a good egg The focus is on hospitality at Jaxon Vineyards Community blog: Silky stew or quick saute is summer's symphony Community blog: Onion pickles can wait for home-canning lull Home and Garden Hot tips for a cool (shade) garden An August checklist for your garden Green Scene: Diagnosing common tomato troubles Lawn talk Tips for keeping backyard birds cool this summer Health 'Super-Agers' are coming fast Community blog: It happened again... Community blog: What the Brain Isn't - Mind or Love Community blog: The Unfriendly Skies (continued) Healthy Aging: Iron girls galore Hiking Faith Religion briefs Religion briefs Community Blog: Is Peace Possible in the Middle East - Part three of four Religion briefs Community Blog: Is Peace Possible in the Middle East part 2 Milestones and Achievements New Arrivals Engagements Wedding: Ivanov-Leftin New Arrivals Shayla Brooke Grether and Jesse Levi Tanner Columnist for a Day Healthy Aging Tempo Latest stories Bill Maher at Britt Festivals From business professor to artist Gypsy Soul performs at EdenVale Winery The Jeff Stanley Trio at Lounge South Alan Berman Trio at the Imperial Theater OSF presents 'The Alchemy of Gender' Randall Theatre extends 'Godspell' 'Pump Boys & Dinettes' opens at Camelot Theatre Film festival kicks off annual 'Daedalus Project' Review: The joy of 'Godspell' is infectious Music Brent Norton: A Rogue Valley Experience Bill Maher at Britt Festivals Gypsy Soul performs at EdenVale Winery The Jeff Stanley Trio at Lounge South Alan Berman Trio at the Imperial Community Events 5 Things to Do This Weekend From business professor to artist Shady Cove Tie Days Swap Meet 'Prints From the Plateau' at the Rogue Gallery Nature Walks in Lithia Park Dining Wild River Brewing & Pizza Co. NW Raw Kelly's Crepes Basil & Berries Tempo Videos Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obituaries TV Listings Movie Listings Oregon Outdoors Oregon Healthy Living Magazines & Special Sections NEWS NOW Firefighting will close part of Lost Creek Lake over Labor Day weekend ... Wind shifts should rid Rogue Valley of smoke ... Saturation patrols planned this weekend ... Firefighting will close part of Lost Creek Lake over Labor Day weekend ... Wind shifts should rid Rogue Valley of smoke ... Saturation patrols planned this weekend ... Tao of Shakespeare By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 18, 2014 @ 2:00 am Updated Aug 18, 2014 at 10:40 AM By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 18, 2014 @ 2:00 am Updated Aug 18, 2014 at 10:40 AM » Social News A funny thing happened to Scott Kaiser as he completed the Shakespeare canon, the 38 plays generally attributed to William Shakespeare. When he served as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's voice and text director on a 2009 production of "King Henry VIII," Kaiser could finally say he'd worked on each of those plays either as an actor, coach, teacher or director. But about that time he began to notice something he hadn't seen before. Sprinkled throughout the plays were elements that Kaiser, currently OSF's director of company development, recognized from his college years as Taoism, the ancient Chinese system of philosophy and spirituality said to stem from the teachings of Lao Tzu. In Shakespeare, as in Taoism, there is veneration of the flow of nature. The is an acceptance of impermanence. A reverence for the healing power of love, a stress on forgiveness, a plea for moderation and simplicity. And that's just for starters. So is he saying Shakespeare was an Asian mystic? "No," Kaiser says. "But we've lost touch with the spiritual roots of theater. If you go back to ancient Greece, the community gathered for a celebration of their connection to the land and the gods." Tracing such an idea from ancient China to Elizabethan England led Kaiser to write "The Tao of Shakespeare," a new book from his Muse of Fire Books (183-page paperback, $9.56 at amazon.com). "It's a mashup of Shakespeare and Lao Tzu and modern times," he says. The title joins such neo-Taoist works as "The Tao of Physics," "The Tao of Pooh" and "The Tao of Willie" (which is about country singer Willie Nelson). Some of Shakespeare's later plays, including "The Tempest" and "The Winter's Tale," have often been seen as embodying spiritual values such as forgiveness, but Kaiser says he sees themes common to Taoism and Buddhism even in the seemingly nihilistic "King Lear," a play whose world is so bleak it often leaves audiences shaken. "Lear is a primary example," Kaiser says. "Here is a king with great wealth and power that have corrupted him. And he gets stripped of everything, every possession, his power, friendship ... Only then does he gain wisdom. His enlightenment is the arc of the play." Kaiser's relationship with Shakespeare goes back 40 years, to when he was 15 and playing Bottom, the rustic weaver in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in a high school play. "It was great to get laughs," he says. "A lot of people were surprised. I was shy, and getting up in front of people wasn't something my friends expected." He figures if he'd been born in a shtetl, or small Jewish village, in Poland, as were his ancestors, he may have been fascinated by the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, and studied in a yeshiva, or school of Jewish studies. But he was an American kid, and there was college, and then 40 years of being fascinated by Shakespeare. Another instance of that fascination is Kaiser's new play, "Love's Labors Won," which picks up four years after the end of Shakespeare's play about the King of France and his scholarly buddies giving up women. The play's premier run is Nov. 14-23 at Seattle University, with Kaiser directing. In his years with the OSF, Kaiser worked on nearly 100 productions, directed, conducted workshops and taught at theater companies and conservatories around the nation. Then he started seeing this spiritual thread. "Initially it was about finding things that sounded like Taoism or Buddhism," he says. "I started collecting quotes, many more than are in the book (about 180). The more you look the more you find." He found himself walking around the hills above Ashland pouring over rehearsal notes from plays he'd worked on over the decades. He immersed himself in Taoist and Buddhist texts and writers from Herman Hesse to Eckhart Tolle and the Dalai Lama. He came to the conclusion that important themes from the ancient wisdom texts and the works of Shakespeare often matched up in surprising detail, and that both had a lot to say to people in the present day. For example, Lao Tzu says, "Silence is a source of great strength." In "Richard II," Shakespeare has Mowbray say, "Truth hath a quiet breast." And Kaiser writes, "Only when we surrender / To life's few certainties / ... Can we walk through life / With a quiet breast ... " Another thing that characterizes both Taoism and Shakespeare is a love of paradox, Kaiser says. "The Tao is difficult to read," he says. "It asks you to see two sides of everything simultaneously ... to accept things that contradict each other." The Tao Te Ching abounds in mind-twisting thoughts such as, "Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know." And, "The further one goes, the less one knows.” And "the name that can be named is not the eternal name." Similarly, Kaiser says, Juliet describes herself as loving Romeo and hating him, and she describes him as now a raven and now a dove. In "The Tempest," the magician Prospero is brought to the realization that forgiveness is superior to revenge, taught in part by a nature spirit, which is quintessentially Taoist. Kaiser doesn't always come down on one side of a question. For Hamlet's "to be or not to be speech," he asks whether suicide is an act of cowardice and selfishness and a violation of nature's way, or whether it's an act of courage, love and compassion. "It's not a book where I'm going to offer a simple answer," he says, perhaps sounding a bit like a sage. "The idea is rather to meditate on it." Reach freelance Medford writer Bill Varble at [email protected]. By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 18, 2014 @ 2:00 am Updated Aug 18, 2014 at 10:40 AM » 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. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs 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. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2014 Local Media Group, Inc. 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