Ashland, Ore.--As the Oregon Shakespeare Festival prepares to close on November 2, it is also readying for membership presale for 2009 tickets to begin on November 6. While members have the benefit of purchasing tickets before the general public, anyone can place an unseated order at any time after November 6 by mail, fax or on the web. The Box Office will process ticket orders by member category through November 23; ticketing for the general public begins on November 24. For information about membership or to place orders after November 6 visit www.osfashland.org, or call the Box Office at (541) 482-4331 or toll free at (800) 219-8161; fax ticket orders to (541) 482-8045.
Information about the 2009 plays will be available on the OSF website shortly after the close of the season. Always of interest is the casting for the season. The full cast lists will be available on the website in early November, and a sneak peek reveals that some OSF veterans will return next season, including Terri McMahon, Mark Murphey, John Pribyl and Derrick Lee Weeden.
Artistic Director Bill Rauch, in looking forward to the new season, noted in the recent Prologue member magazine a compelling paradox about theater: "We lie in order to reveal truth. Theatre is an illusion, a fictitious world for audiences to enter to get deeper into the truth of humanity. That paradox will be explored in a trio of plays: Shakespeare's Henry VIII and Macbeth and a world premiere play by Bill Cain, Equivocation. Rauch adds, "Even Harold Hill, the iconic conman in The Music Man, ends up using lies to achieve real community transformation.
In addition to these plays, OSF will produce Wole Soyinka's drama, Death and the King's Horseman, the American classic by Clifford Odets, Paradise Lost, and a handful of comedies: Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well and Much Ado about Nothing, Carlo Goldoni's commedia farce The Servant of Two Masters, and a new adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote by Octavio Solis.
In a quick preview of the casting, actors in various roles include: Macbeth: Peter Macon as Macbeth, Robin Goodrin Nordli as Lady Macbeth, Kevin Kenerly as Macduff; Death and the King's Horseman: Derrick Lee Weeden as Elesin, G. Valmont Thomas as Praise Singer, Rex Young as Simon Pilkings; The Music Man: Michael Elich as Harold Hill, Gwendolyn Mulamba as Marian Paroo, Richard Elmore as Mayor Shinn; Dead Man's Cell Phone: Sarah Agnew as Jean, Jeffrey King as Gordon, Catherine E. Coulson as Mrs. Gottlieb; Equivocation: Anthony Heald as Shag (William Shakespeare), Jonathan Haugen as Cecil and Christine Albright as Judith; The Servant of Two Masters: Mark Bedard as Truffaldino, Kate Mulligan as Beatrice, Eileen DeSandre as Brighella; Henry VIII: Elijah Alexander as King Henry VIII, Anthony Heald as Cardinal Wolsey, Vilma Silva as Queen Katherine; Don Quixote: Armando Durn as Don Quixote, Josiah Phillips as Sancho Panza; Much Ado About Nothing: David Kelly as Benedick, Robynn Rodriguez as Beatrice, Sarah Rutan as Hero, Juan Rivera LeBron as Claudio; All's Well That Ends Well: Danforth Comins as Bertram, Kjerstine Rose Anderson as Helena, Dee Maaske as Countess Rossillion, James Edmondson as King of France; Paradise Lost: Michael J. Hume as Leo Gordon, Linda Alper as Clara Gordon, Tony DeBruno as Sam Katz.
For play overviews, synopses, interviews, full cast lists, videos and more, visit OSF's website in early November.
(end)