Ashland, Ore.--Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch has put the finishing touches on the design teams for OSF's 75th anniversary year. The 2010 season was announced in March, but a few directors had not yet been announced. Those included, in their directorial debut at OSF, Darko Tresnjak, who will direct Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on the Elizabethan Stage, and Liesl Tommy, who will direct Lynn Nottage's Ruined, the recent recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play.
Tresnjak was Artistic Director for The Old Globe's 2004-2008 Shakespeare Festivals, and he is the recipient of many awards, including the Alan Schneider Award for Directing Excellence. Tommy has directed at numerous regional theatres in the country and most recently directed the world premiere production of Tracey Scott Wilson's The Good Negro, a co-production that premiered at Dallas Theater Center and transferred to The Public Theater in New York.
"Our 2010 season celebrates the milestone of our 75th anniversary by looking backward and forward," Rauch said. "We commemorate OSF's first season with the two Shakespeare plays produced by Angus Bowmer in 1935, and observe the launch of American Revolutions: the United Stages History Cycle, the cornerstone of our efforts to commission future dramatic masterpieces, with American Night. The artists who will interpret this dizzying array of plays are some of the most significant and dynamic talents working in the American theatre, and include beloved OSF veterans and newcomers to OSF.
The 2010 season will be anchored by four plays by William Shakespeare, and in a nod to OSF's first season, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, directed by RAUCH, and TWELFTH NIGHT directed by TRESNJAK, will open in June on the outdoor Elizabethan Stage. Also playing in repertory outside is HENRY IV, PART ONE, directed by PENNY METROPULOS, a longtime veteran with OSF, former associate artistic director, and the first woman to direct this play at OSF. HAMLET, directed by BILL RAUCH, will open at the top of the season in the Angus Bowmer Theatre and run throughout the season.
Also opening in February in the Angus Bowmer Theatre is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, an adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan based on Jane Austen's hugely popular romantic tale of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Artistic Director Emerita LIBBY APPEL will direct. Alongside this great British classic, OSF, after 26 years, will bring back Maggie, Brick, Big Daddy and Big Mama in Tennessee Williamss great American classic CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. CHRISTOPHER LIAM MOORE, director of this seasons Dead Mans Cell Phone, will stage this turbulent tale of the decay of a Southern family.
The fourth show to enter the repertory in the Angus Bowmer Theatre (in April) will be the delightfully frothy and romantic musical SHE LOVES ME (music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joe Masteroff) based on the Hungarian play Parfumerie--which also gave rise to the 1940 film The Shop around the Corner and Nora Ephron's 1998 remake You've Got Mail. The production will be directed by award-winning artist REBECCA TAICHMAN, a self-confessed lover of musicals and winner of the Harold Prince Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical. Taichman returns to OSF after 14 years, when she interned in the literary office and worked on several play readings.
Staying true to his mission of bringing world classics to OSF stages, Rauch commissioned internationally recognized director and writer Ping Chong to adapt THRONE OF BLOOD, Akira Kurosawa's 1957 film, for the stage. The film is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in feudal Japan. PING CHONG will also direct. The play opens in July.
In the New Theatre, Lisa Kron's WELL will open at the top of the season directed by OSF Associate Artist and actor JAMES EDMONDSON. The play follows a daughter's comic metatheatrical journey to understand her mother's illness. Opening in March and directed by TOMMY is Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning new drama RUINED, about a tough businesswoman, Mama Nadi, and the women she protects and profits from amidst a bloody conflict that rages outside. OSF has also produced Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy in 2000 and Intimate Apparel in 2006. The final show to open in the New Theatre is the first of the commissions for American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle, announced in June 2008. AMERICAN NIGHT by Culture Clash will be directed by New York-based and Obie Award-winning artist JO BONNEY. The play weaves multiple narratives about ordinary people who, in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, resist the status quo and sacrifice their well-being for the benefit of others.
The 2010 season will begin previews on February 19 and close on October 24. The season will be two weeks shorter than in 2009, but only one week shorter than in 2007. Depending on the impact of the economy and on audience response, it is possible the season would be extended for one week in October. A decision on this will be made early in summer 2010.
A complete list of the design teams is provided here.