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Losses push OSF to rethink outdoor theater By Vickie Aldous Jul 22, 2019 06:12 PM A A The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is exploring changes to its outdoor theater after suffering $5.4 million in financial losses during its wildfire smoke-filled 2017 and 2018 seasons. OSF officials held a town hall-style meeting with the public Monday afternoon, reviving a past festival tradition of annual public meetings. OSF has a backup plan to use Ashland High School’s indoor Mountain Avenue Theatre if smoke shuts down the festival’s outdoor 1,190-seat Allen Elizabethan Theatre this summer. It also added matinee performances at the 400-seat high school theater that go on regardless of smoke. So far this year, skies have remained clear of wildfire smoke. But OSF Acting Executive Director Paul Christy said the festival is looking for a permanent solution to volatile air quality issues. OSF has hired a prominent professional in theater construction to explore ideas for a rebirth of the Elizabethan Theatre, he said. “We’re in the middle of that design process,” Christy said. Ideas include a retractable roof and a redesign of the seating to encircle the stage so theater-goers are closer to the actors, he said. Christy said OSF would have to make the case to the community and donors that changes are needed. He cautioned that OSF hasn’t decided yet whether it will pursue the project. OSF suffered a $2.6 million loss in 2018, hard on the heels of a $2.8 million loss in 2017, according to the festival’s 2018 Annual Report, which is being released to the public. About $2 million of OSF’s $2.6 million loss in 2018 can be attributed to smoke issues, according to the report. Tourism to the Rogue Valley dropped off and OSF had to cancel nine performances and move 17 performances from its outdoor Elizabethan Theatre indoors to Ashland High School. The show went on at OSF’s two indoor theaters. Christy said OSF is working to improve its operational efficiency — from making sure it has the right number of employees to conserving water and electricity. Layoffs followed the money-losing 2018 season. After a question from an audience member, Christy acknowledged OSF has also suffered financially due to some of the plays it has chosen to perform. He said OSF would make more money if it only staged popular musicals and well-known plays. But Christy said the festival is committed to rotating through all of William Shakespeare’s plays, even the less popular ones. OSF is also backing up-and-coming playwrights. “It does mean that sometimes we’ll see empty seats,” he said. People who attend OSF productions can be sure they are seeing cutting edge theater, Christy said. While some departments at OSF have suffered layoffs, such as the educational outreach component of the organization, the festival is adding staff in marketing and development, he said. OSF generates 60% of its revenue from earned income such as ticket sales, concession sales and grants. The remaining 40% comes from donations, Christy said. For most theater organizations, those percentages are flipped, with other theaters relying heavily on donations, he said. “We’re going to try and move that needle in the other direction,” Christy said. He said raising ticket prices to cover the full cost of plays isn’t feasible. “It would just be beyond the means of our patrons,” Christy said. Although OSF offers a host of discounts and deals to lower the price of tickets, the cost of many premium seats on summer weekends has soared past $150 each. On other fronts, Christy said OSF is making progress on equity, diversity and inclusion. After a pay study in 2017, OSF created a more equitable pay structure that ensures fair compensation for its lowest paid workers, he said. All members of OSF’s 600-plus person company attend equity, diversity and inclusion training that builds teamwork. They are shown how to eliminate words and terms from their vocabulary that can seem like microaggressions to others, Christy said. Microaggression is a term referring to brief and commonplace speech or behavior, whether intentional or not, that can be insulting toward people of color. Christy said people of color now make up 70% of the acting company, and 50% of OSF senior leadership staff are people of color. “Our company is leading the charge on this,” he said. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous. Open to the sky, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre is vulnerable to wildfire smoke. Photo by Kim Budd