OSF Receives NEA Grant to Support U.S. Premiere of 'SECRET LOVE'

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has been awarded an $80,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the 2015 U.S. premiere of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land. OSF is one of 919 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant, which will help fund 73 performances as well as surrounding education and audience engagement events for Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, a hugely popular play in China and Taiwan by Taiwanese playwright Stan Lai, who also translated the play into English and will direct at OSF.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, "I'm pleased to be able to share the news of our support through Art Works, including the award to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The arts foster value, connection, creativity and innovation for the American people and these recommended grants demonstrate those attributes and affirm that the arts are part of our everyday lives."

"Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is an example of how art can transcend borders, languages and time and speak to the core of our common humanity," said OSF Executive Director Cynthia Rider. "It is an honor and an affirmation of the significance of this international collaboration to be recognized and supported by the NEA and also by our theatre peers from across the country who served who served on the grant review panel."

Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land will run April 15-October 31, 2015, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The production is garnering high levels of support and enthusiasm among donors and sponsors. Among them are the show's Producing Sponsors, Judy Shih and Joel Axelrod, who have played a key role in bringing Lai and Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and whose financial support of the play represents the largest gift OSF has ever received for a single production. Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is also the recipient of a $125,000 Creative Heights grant from the Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation.

Art Works grants support the creation of art, public engagement with art, lifelong learning in the arts, and enhancement of the livability of communities through the arts. The NEA received 1,474 eligible applications under the Art Works category, requesting more than $75 million in funding. Of those applications, 919 are recommended for grants for a total of $26.6 million.

Since its founding by Angus Bowmer in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a major theatre arts organization that presents a nine-month season consisting of 11 plays that represent a mix of Shakespeare's canon, classics, musicals, and new works. Inspired by Shakespeare's work and the cultural richness of the United States, OSF believes we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory.

Pictured: Stan Lai, playwright and director of "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land." Photo by Jenny Graham.