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OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL OSF to expand The Bricks Funding campaign to add seating, make courtyard wheelchair accessible By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune Posted Jul. 6, 2016 @ 5:10 pm By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune Posted Jul. 6, 2016 @ 5:10 pm » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2325,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> The “Access for All” campaign to fully fund reworking of what amounts to a town square for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival officially kicked off Sunday. It will take $5.1 million to cover costs of remodeling “The Bricks,” the open performing space on Pioneer Street at the hub of OSF’s three main theaters and home to the popular free Green Shows, as well as other accessibility projects in and around the Angus Bowmer and Allen Elizabethan theaters. About $3.78 million has been raised so far, leaving $1.32 million to go, OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch told about 200 OSF members, players and friends gathered Sunday in the Allen Elizabethan Pavilion. The first of three phases in the project is already done. An elevator in the Angus Bowmer Theatre, a wheelchair lift in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre and a lift for a loading dock between the two were installed during OSF's off-season from November to February. Hallways also were enlarged and an accessible restroom relocated. The second phase is set to start in November and be complete by June, in time for the start of the 2017 outdoor theater and Green Show. The sloped lawn at the center of The Bricks area will be enlarged and given a steeper slope for improved viewing and listening for the audience. Seating spots on walls off the lawn will be increased five-fold, and spaces for audience members using wheelchairs will be added. A third phase will create additional wheelchair seating spaces in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The festival had planned to start replacing its courtyard by fall 2007 after the city of Ashland, which leases the land to OSF, requested that the courtyard project be complete before the start of the 2008 season. But OSF decided staff and leadership changes at that time, combined with a torn-up courtyard, would create too much chaos, OSF officials said then. The start time was pushed back to fall 2008, but budget problems during the recession put it on hold again. “As someone who has a disability who works on The Bricks,” said Claudia Alick, the OSF community producer who oversees the Green Shows, “who has to walk through The Bricks all the time, I am so, so very excited we’re creating a more accessible area for everyone to work in, for our artists to work in … dancers in wheelchairs mounting the Green Show stage, audience members with walkers, or me with my walker, so deeply excited we’re going to to be creating more access for everyone, artists and audience. “The Bricks are not only a space for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival company, they’re also a space for the entire community.” State Rep. Peter Buckley helped secure $1 million in lottery proceeds for the Access for All project. “The case we made for the arts infrastructure is a solid case," he said. "The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is an economic driver for our region and our state — not only a point of pride for how much respect it has around the country and around the world, it actually drives the economy of Southern Oregon.” “This is not a beautification project or a landscape remodel,” Rauch said. “This is a project that really, sincerely, opens up our campus for everybody.” Donations totaling $1.05 million by Ashland residents Joel Axelrod and Judy Yin Shih served as a catalyst for the campaign. The couple also donated funds for a sound system and education program. “When you love a community so much, you want to take good care of it,” Shih said. “The OSF Bricks has always been a social gathering place, and it feels like the heart of OSF, so to renovate The Bricks to make it even more welcoming and accessible to everyone seemed to make sense to us and to give back to the community … we can all be involved in making this community space our own.” “The voices of the theater,” added Axelrod, “are representative of what we are as a healthy community.” Reach Ashland Daily Tidings Editor Bert Etling at [email protected]. By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bert Etling for the Mail Tribune Posted Jul. 6, 2016 @ 5:10 pm » Comment or view comments Terms of Service /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » 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 Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site 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. 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