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OSF lawsuit heads to hearing Judge refuses festival's bid for dismissal By CHRIS BRISTOL GRANTS PASS -- An Ashland man who brands the Oregon Shakespeare Festival a "medieval kingdom" handily won the first round in his lawsuit against the festival. As a festival patron and benefactor since 1982, Philip Lang believes state law entitles him to take a look at the nonprofit organization's books. The festival refused total access, so he sued. The dispute is not as petty as it sounds. Festival employees narrowly defeated a union vote earlier this year, and Lang believes full disclosure of its finances could bring a different result. In a brief hearing Thursday, Josephine County Judge Allan Coon rejected the festival's motion to dismiss and set the case for a full hearing. In doing so, the judge declared the case a priority and directed his clerk to schedule the first opening on his civil docket. No date had been set by late Thursday. "David pricked Goliath," a jubilant Lang quipped after court recessed. Lang filed suit July 6 after the festival refused to provide him with a number of financial documents, including budgets for the past three years and a host of job classifications and employee pay ranges. A psychotherapist whose doctoral dissertation involved an organizational study of the festival, Lang says he plans to use the records to reform the festival's growing "corporate mentality." He accused the festival of achieving success -- the 1999 season set attendance and revenue records -- at the expense of its mainly non-union employees, and said management uses its power in Ashland to silence opposition. The festival began in Ashland in 1935, and has grown since into a nationally recognized theater. "That organization is a medieval kingdom," Lang said. "It always has been." The ruling Thursday was only a preliminary skirmish, and the underlying merits of the case have yet to be decided. Coon took the case at the request of presiding Jackson County Judge Ross Davis, who recused himself because his wife is a member of the festival board of directors. Another Jackson County judge also declined to hear the case. In a phone interview late Thursday afternoon, festival Executive Director Paul Nicholson defended the motion to dismiss as simply an attempt to force Lang to clarify his demand for records. The court's ruling was neither unexpected nor a defeat for the festival, he added. "We always anticipated this would go to a hearing," Nicholson said. "We just asked for clarity. He's already received a substantial amount of the information he asked for." Told that Lang has said he wants the records as part of an attempt to unionize the festival's employees, Nicholson expressed surprise. "He's being deceptive," Nicholson said. "He's told us he wants the information for post-doctoral purposes." When asked what difference it made, Nicholson paused for a moment. "We're just not willing to give him information he's not entitled to have," he said. "It's as simple as that." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA