OSF to Take Productions on the Road

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has annonced that that audiences across the country will be able to enjoy OSF productions in their own theatres.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California announced today that OSF's 2015 production of GUYS AND DOLLS, directed by Mary Zimmerman, will open December 1, 2015 and run through December 20. Both an audience and critical favorite, the show has been playing to sold-out houses since its opening on February 28. Critics have hailed it as "bold and exuberant," "a sure bet" and "a Guys and Dolls that has more than just dynamite singing and dancing...this one has real heart. And plenty of magic."

Joseph Haj's PERICLES, playing all season in OSF's intimate Thomas Theatre, will head to Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. and run November 13-December 20. Then at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, incoming Artistic Director Haj makes his Guthrie directorial debut with this same production of Shakespeare's poignant and adventure-filled romance play. The show will run January 16-February 21, 2016. The Oregonian described the production as "magical" and a "must-see" theatrical experience. The Mail Tribune said, "Once in a while, a play grabs you in its first moment and whisks you to another world, one more vivid than ours, where you have powerful experiences until you're released back into everyday life, changed, when the actors take their curtain call. This is one of those deals."

The Guthrie will also stage THE COCOANUTS (November 14, 2015-January 3, 2016), the OSF-commissioned version adapted by Mark Bedard and directed by David Ivers (2014). A huge hit with audiences because of the cast's aptitude for improvisation and humor, the show was never the same twice and ran for the season with 119 performances and closed at 95% of capacity.

In addition, SWEAT, the American Revolutions co-commission with Arena Stage by Lynn Nottage and directed by Kate Whoriskey, after closing its run at OSF this season on October 31, will tour to Arena and play in the Kreeger Theater January 15-February 21, 2016. The production begins rehearsals at OSF on June 2.

Also running at Arena Stage April 1-May 8, 2016 is the Tony Award-winning and OSF-commissioned ALL THE WAY by Robert Schenkkan (2012). The "sure-fire, action-packed hit" (Huffington Post) is seeing a number of productions in theatres throughout the country, including Zach Theatre in Austin, Texas (April 8-May 10, 2015), and will be produced at Dallas Theatre Center (co-production with the Alley Theatre) March 3-27, 2016.

OSF's world-premiere production of THE UNFORTUNATES will be staged at American Conservatory Theatre's Strand Theater in the 2016 season. An audience favorite in the 2013 season, one reviewer described the show as "a glorious, bluesy, mythical, downtrodden, uplifting paean to the power of music to stir the soul." (Mail Tribune).

Founded by Angus Bowmer in 1935 and winner of a 1983 Tony Award for outstanding achievement in regional theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival presents an eight-month season of 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and new works.. The Festival also draws attendance of more than 400,000 to almost 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals. In 2008, OSF launched American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, a 10-year cycle of commissioning new plays that has already resulted in several OSF commissions finding success nationwide.

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