Crater Lake
Gettin’ Cultured
We embarked on our annual trip to Ashland, Oregon to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival . The “festival” is actually a drama industry that runs from February to November each year. It has three theatres: an outdoor Elizabethan, an indoor that seats about 850, and a smaller, more experimental stage. They produce a lot of plays and playrights other than Shakespeare, so it makes for an interesting week. We’re seeing:
Hedda Gabbler
Antony & Cleopatra
Romeo & Juliet
Continental Divide (2-play cycle) - Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution
Wild Oats
Present Laughter
We started coming here about 12 years ago when our son’s school started taking a gang down. We tagged along with them for a couple of years, then bought our own membership in the Festival and have come every year since, adding more and more days as we found more things to do in the area.
Ashland is just north of the California border on I-5, and about 10 miles south of Medford. Its downtown is full of restaurants and boutiquey stores catering to those attending the Festival, but it’s also home to Southern Oregon State University, so there’s an underlayment of counterculture, at least the sort that college kids play at.
There is some fine hiking and outdoor recreation within 20 minutes’ drive. In fact, we can walk up a street from our lodging and soon be on a National Forest trail. While we’re here, we’ll most likely hike a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, take a drive to Crater Lake and do a little rock climb on an old volcanic plug called Pilot Rock. Mt. Shasta is a distant, but frequent companion on many of our outings.
