On the Trail of the Bard
I feel the need to mention once again that we’re headed for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon tomorrow. This will be our 11th year. We started going when our son was in middle school and we tagged along with a group from his school. After he graduated, we bought a membership and started going on our own.
Ashland is just south of Medford, and just north of the California border on I-5. It’s a small, picturesque town whose main industry is the Shakespeare festival, which runs from February to November each year. What’s terrific about it, in our estimation, is that you can walk up a street, verge onto a gravel road, and be walking on Forest Service land within a mile and a half. The Pacific Crest Trail winds through the Siskiyou Mountains just outside town, and there are so many hikes in the area that we’ve extended our visits a little longer each year as we add them to our repertoire.
The last several years, we’ve also been taking a day to drive over to Crater Lake, which is a real treat, although snowpack around the lake may limit our hiking opportunities.
Oh, yeah. We’re also going for the intellectual stimulation of the plays. We’re seeing:
- Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III
- Comedy of Errors
- The Visit, by Friedrich Durrenmatt
- A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- The Royal Family by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
That’s a pretty full week of theater. After seeing the Hanks above, we estimate that we have to see only one more Shakespeare play to “hit for the cycle”.
Our plane is at 10:30 tomorrow. I’m PUMPED. More later, from the road.
