Green Show Performances Return To OSF June 15

Free outdoor entertainment returns to the "Bricks" June 15 when the women of Shrew offer up improvised Shakespeare on the Courtyard Stage as the first Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show performers of the season. The Green Show begins with the official opening of the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre and continues through October 14, six nights a week at 6:45 p.m. The full schedule of free performances by local, national and international acts is available here.

"As this year's curators, we were eager to lean into the Green Show's deep tradition of presenting diverse and collaborative seasons, and remain committed to the venue's cornerstones of community, representation and collaboration," say co-Interim Community Producers Jess Carr and Cassie Fetty. "The 2018 Green Show is a composition of cultural richness with notes from an array of geographic and social communities. We are excited to welcome an eclectic variety of new artists this season, like singer-songwriter and activist Raye Zaragoza and Bay Area interdisciplinary arts collective Jazz Mafia Kinesthesia, as well as a number of returning favorites such as Phoenix and Four Directions, the international award-winning Taiwanese musical group A Moving Sound and so much more. We hope to see you on the Bricks!"

The 2018 Green Show season includes the return of a collaboration with Southern Oregon University through which SOU acting students build and perform an unfiltered kids-view of Shakespeare on July 31 and Aug. 2. The lineup also features three collaborations with the Britt Festival: the Britt Guitar Trio on June 17; Sounds and Sweet Airs featuring OSF artist Miriam A. Laube, Britt Music Director Teddy Abrams and guests July 29; and the Britt Orchestra String Fellows Aug. 5.

Highlights also include Urban Jazz Dance Company's mix of professional Deaf and Hearing dancers July 7; DanceAbility International mixed-abilities dance company June 30 and Aug. 11; and Infinite Flow - A Wheelchair Dance Company June 31 and Aug. 11. Medford-based Ballet Folklórico Ritmo Alegre will share their exuberant, colorful dances on Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16. Coinciding with the 2018 OSF OUT Weekend will be the Green Show's first ever drag show on Sept. 29, as well as award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, performer, writer and LGBTQ activist Ryan Cassata on Sept. 28 and 30. In resonance with Indigenous People's Day on Oct. 8, Canadian Mohawk Two-Spirit singer-songwriter Shawnee will perform Oct. 5 and 7.

In addition to Carr and Fetty, the Green Show is presented thanks to the efforts of Technical Manager Benajah Cobb.

2018 Green Show Partners are Ogden Roemer Wilkerson Architects (June), Avista (July), Lithia Auto Stores (August) and The Standard (September and October).

Founded by Angus Bowmer in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents an eight-month season of up to 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals and world-premiere plays. OSF's play commissioning programs, which include American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, have generated works that have been produced on Broadway, throughout the American regional theatre, and in high schools and community theatres across the country. The Festival draws attendance of more than 400,000 to approximately 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals.

OSF invites and welcomes everyone, and believes the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures and traditions enriches both our insights into the work we present on stage and our relationships with each other. OSF is committed to equity and diversity in all areas of our work and in our audiences.

OSF's mission statement: "Inspired by Shakespeare's work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory."

To post a comment, you must register and login.