Who is OSF?

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.

• We are committed to work toward inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, creating a space of belonging for all audiences and employees—through concrete actions and systemic improvements.
• We nurture and support our artists, attracting and retaining diverse, innovative talent across the organization.
• We believe in the transformational power of collaborative artmaking and performance.
• We recognize the importance of responsible stewardship of resources and sustainable business, financial, and environmental practices.
• We serve the public good and engage with and respect our community of artists, audiences, staff, local citizens, patrons, donors, and the greater theatre community worldwide.

• Established in 1935, OSF is among the oldest and largest professional regional repertory theatre companies in the United States.
• Has the oldest existing full-scale Elizabethan stage in the Western Hemisphere, built on the site of the old Chautauqua theatre established in 1893.
• On March 12, 2020, six days after the opening of the season, the COVID-19 pandemic shuts down all of the theatres, which go dark for the longest period since World War II.
• In June 2021, Cheryl L. West’s Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer reopens the Allen Elizabethan Theatre, the first production to be performed since the pandemic shutdown.
• 2019 Oregon History Maker’s Medal recipient for organization making history through innovation in the arts and community service.
• In 2014, All the Way, commissioned through OSF’s American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle program, won the Tony Award for Best Play. Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, also an American Revolutions OSF co-commission with Arena Stage, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
• Received 1990 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Commendation and 1990 Open Book Award for First Amendment Courage by American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), New York.
• Received the 1983 Antoinette Perry (“Tony”) Award for outstanding achievement in regional theatre and the 1983 national Governors’ Association Award for distinguished service to the arts.
• Offers education and engagement programs that annually intersect with more than 130,000 participants.
• OSF’s audience is drawn from every U.S. state and has also recently welcomed visitors from 37 other countries.