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Threats against OSF director are acts of cowardice By Muil Tribune Editorial Board Oct 09, 2022 12:00 AM A A Most of us manage to go about our business without constant fear for our physical safety. There are times when we do feel that fear — walking alone in a dangerous neighborhood after dark, for instance — but for the most part, we can be reasonably confident of returning home in one piece. So it is disconcerting, to say the least, to learn that a member of our Southern Oregon community does not have that confidence. In fact, Nataki Garrett, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is now accompanied by a private security team when she ventures out in public. According to a report last month by National Public Radio, Garrett has received death threats. The specifics of the threats were not disclosed, and the festival understandably declines to comment, citing security reasons. We can surmise, however, that the threats may be related to programming decisions the festival has made under Garrett’s leadership. The current season includes a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” with a diverse cast, “King John” with an all-female and non-binary cast, and a new play focusing on oppression experienced under slavery and in modern-day academia. OSF, founded in 1935, is one of the oldest and largest nonprofit theaters in the country. While the Shakespeare canon is still a key part of its offerings, it has developed a national reputation for mounting ambitious productions by present-day playwrights, including premiers and commissioned works, that explore the human condition in all its complexity. In recent years, OSF productions of Shakespeare have also pushed boundaries, setting the familiar plays in modern times with modern costumes. That hasn’t always sat well with the festival’s core subscriber and donor base, which is predominantly white and increasingly older. If the regional theater is to survive, it must broaden that audience, and that is some of the impetus behind programming that speaks to a younger demographic about issues that matter to them. It is also because creative arts such as theater have always sought to challenge their audiences, to break new ground, to create something new, not just trot out Elizabethan plays in period costumes they way they always have. Shakespeare’s work was revolutionary in his own time, taking on issues of class and inequality, and changing the very language we speak. The notion that an artistic director working to advance that tradition in the 21st century would face threats against her personal safety is appalling. Theater audiences will embrace some of the changes and resist others — that’s a common thread that runs through all creative endeavors, from music to theater to art, and it’s healthy for the community to have that conversation. But those who see the changes as some kind of attack and lash out with threats of violence have forfeited the privilege of participating in the conversation at all. They are acting not out of conviction, but cowardice.