Tag: Tales from the Vault

Bob Scott was a great fan of Shakespeare and other playwrights, and a great friend of the Festival. Though he died in August of this year, he is alive in our minds and hearts. Through his estate he has left us a fine parting gift.



The Archives has received a collection of 232 items which Bob owned, most of which include a bookplate indicating that they are from the collection of Robert Edward Scott.

We have had the Spring (Winter?) Company Call in the Angus Bowmer Theatre since January, 1971. That Prologue read: “From Kalamazoo, Michigan to Ashland, Oregon, the Festival’s 1971 Stage II acting company members have traveled many miles to be a part of the Ashland ‘experience.’ Twenty-seven Festival veterans and newcomers from theatre centers throughout the country have been cast in the spring repertory.” Is anyone here from Kalamazoo this year?

We make connections around here, lots of them. This year we reconnect with The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, first done here in 1979. Jerry Turner directed that show and this year it is dedicated to him. Jim Edmondson acted in it and this year he directs it. Richard Hay, Todd Barton and Douglas Faerber worked on that show, as they do again this year...

With the recent production Ellington at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre and news that one Green Show will feature Ellington, it behooves me to mention that the man himself took the stage of our Elizabethan Theatre on June 5, 1966 to raise funds for the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The Revels!! launched our second quarter century and brought luminaries—and 150 reporters—to this fair city.

As part of her work for Wit (produced in 2000), Lue Douthit consulted the Archives. Knowing the reputation of Margery Bailey, Lue thought perhaps Dr. Bailey would be a good model for the scholarly and academic Professor E.M. Ashford, a character in the play performed by Catherine E. Coulson.



So why Margery Bailey? Who was she and why is she the only woman, among men, to grace the wall at the back of the reception desk?