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OSF welcomes 10 millionth customer Bob Pennell photo Ashland resident Richard Anderson on Thursday was the 10 millionth visitor to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He was given a gift basket including two free tickets for the honor. By BILL VARBLE All Richard Anderson had in mind was a play. "Two Sisters and a Piano," to be exact. But here is Janeen Olsen intercepting him at the door to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Theatre in Ashland Thursday afternoon to tell him the news: Anderson is OSF's 10 millionth theater-goer. And here is Shakespeare's executive director, Paul Nicholson, welcoming Anderson as Olsen thrusts a box of goodies into Anderson's hands. "This is special for us," says Olsen, Shakespeare's marketing director. "We want it to be special for you." He does a double-check. "Ten million?" "Since 1935," Nicholson says. "I canceled a tennis match and a massage," Anderson replies. The festival began in 1935, drawing 500 play-goers to Angus Bowmer's experiment. It took until 1987 to hit 5 million visitors. Number 9 million came in 1998. Last year, attendance hit almost 350,000. When it became clear that visitor number 10 million would show up, the festival's Amy Richard says a gift basket was made up containing two tickets to one of next year's plays, tea, jam and an Oregon Shakespeare Festival ruler. The festival's outdoor Elizabethan Theatre is closed for the season now, but plays continue at the Bowmer and the Swan through Oct. 28. The Swan was a Chevrolet dealer's service shop in the 1920s. It debuted as a theater in 1977, designed by the festival's Richard Hay. It's a makeshift space that audiences like for its intimacy but must enter through the backstage area. It's being replaced by a new theater. But this day people are clustered around it waiting for number 10 million like characters in an absurdist play. "Why is everybody standing around?" asks one woman going in. Told the answer, she hurries through, saying, "I don't need to be that!" People mill about, the fountain gurgles and Main Street traffic roars until the unsuspecting Anderson shows up just after 1:15 p.m. "This is like being on TV," he says, facing TV cameras. Anderson, of Ashland, says he enjoys the theater and averages seeing maybe one play a month. "I like contemporary plays a lot," he says. He says he's meeting his wife for the play. She's already inside. "She'll be surprised," he says. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.