1960s

Let’s give them more than Shakespeare.

Highlights of the decade: The first non-Shakespearean play from the Elizabethan era, The Duchess of Malfi, was produced in 1960. This is somewhat in debate, as Angus Bowmer had produced You Can’t Take it with You in 1939 at the Holly Theatre in Medford, OR. In the Fall of 1961, the Vining Rep experiment was revived. In 1964 the Festival celebrated the Bard’s 400th birth-day with 70 performances in two cities: 58 in Ashland and 12 at the first annual Stanford University Summer Festival at Palo Alto, CA. In 1966 the Festival began staging a yearly lyric opera in the Varsity Theatre as a way to accommodate the rapidly expanding patron base. The 1967 production of The Taming of the Shrew sold out before the opening, the first time this ever occurred. In 1969 construction begin on the Angus Bowmer Theatre, which would allow OSF to extend the season beyond the summer months.

1960s Production History