The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Presents The DAEDALUS PROJECT, A Benefit For AIDS/HIV 8/17

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites the public to its 22nd annual Daedalus Project, a benefit for AIDS/HIV organizations, on Monday, August 17. Last season OSF distributed $62,000 and hopes to exceed that this year.

This year's event will feature a play reading at 1:30 p.m. in the Angus Bowmer Theatre and a 7:30 p.m. variety show on the Elizabethan Stage/Allen Pavilion. Tickets for the play reading are $15; tickets for the evening variety show are $25 and $30. Tickets are available at the Box Office at 15 South Pioneer Street, by calling (541) 482-4331 or online at www.osfashland.org. Sunday's 5K Run & Walk will not be held this year.

This year's play reading, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika, will be directed by OSF actor Robynn Rodriguez, who directed last season's Daedalus reading of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. Perestroika takes up from the end of Part One, Millennium Approaches, wherein an angel had crashed through the ceiling of young Prior's apartment. The play's 1993 New York Times review said "Perestroika...does not go out in a blaze of glory. It goes out in a blaze of compassion, which may be better. The virtues that Mr. Kushner demonstrated in the initial installment-an intrepid theatricality, stinging intelligence and an engaging proclivity for undercutting himself with humor-remain intact. Mankind will save itself. Or no one will. That is the daunting reality of Mr. Kushner's huge drama and also its humane promise. The choice is ours."

Actors in the play reading are: KT Vogt, Kjerstine Anderson, Christopher Liam Moore, Sarah Rutan, Tyrone Wilson, Rex Young, Tony DeBruno, and Jonathan Haugen, with stage directions by Robert Vincent Frank.

Prior to the evening variety show at 7:30, the band Hamfist will take to the Green Show deck and entertain from 6:15-7:15, playing a mix of Americana, bluegrass and cowboy music.

The evening variety show takes place in the Elizabethan Stage/Allen Pavilion. The show, once again emceed by Ray Porter, features guitar solos, original dances, songs, poetry and skits performed by OSF actors, company members, and artists from the community. The finale of Act One is the ever-popular Underwear Parade. Audience members vote with their dollars for their favorite underwear contestants during intermission. In 2008, the underwear parade gathered record-breaking contributions, raising $8,269 for the project.

Be sure to check out the Daedalus Art & Treasures Sale in the Angus Bowmer Theatre lobby on the afternoon of Monday, August 18. The sale and silent auction includes items crafted by members of the OSF company such as paintings, sculpture and other hand-crafted works of art, signed photographs, plus other opportunities like sharing coffee or a meal with a company member. The Art & Treasures sale raised more than $5,000 in 2008. A benefit sale of T-shirts, baked goods, lemonade, and other concessions will occur on the bricks Monday during the afternoon and early evening hours.

A beautiful handmade quilt fashioned by Ann Stephens, a veteran member of the OSF Costume Shop will be raffled off at the Daedalus event. Raffle tickets can be purchased now for $2 each at the OSF Welcome Center, at the front desk in the Administration building, or on the OSF bricks on the day of the event. The quilt is on display in the Welcome Center and features fabrics from 2009 costumes signed by the actors who wear them.

OSF artistic associate James Edmondson had the original idea for an AIDS/HIV fundraiser 21 years ago. The late OSF Artistic Director Emeritus Jerry Turner named the event The Daedalus Project after the story of Daedalus from Greek mythology. Daedalus and his son, Icarus, were imprisoned in a labyrinth by King Minos, and by crafting wings from wax and feathers, Daedalus created a way out of the maze.

Following each year's benefit, the Festival distributes proceeds to local, regional, national and international organizations HIV and AIDS charitable organizations. In 2009, OSF distributed funds to the following:
OnTrack, Inc. - Alan F. Collins AIDS Project, Medford: $40,000
Harm Reduction Center of Southern Oregon (Josephine, Douglas, Curry, Coos counties): $12,000
Siskiyou County HIV/AIDS Foundation (SCHAF): $7,000
Africare: $3,000

Rita Sullivan, Director of OnTrack, said recently, "During the past year, the Center for Disease Control acknowledged that for nearly a decade the number of new HIV infections per year in our country has been grossly underestimated. We now believe that more than 55,000 infections occur in the United States each year with people younger than 25 comprising half this figure. In light of this sad statistic, our prevention strategies and efforts to care for those already infected remain dramatically relevant. These needs, particularly on a local level, are not balanced by available public funding sources, and the survival of organizations such as our Alan Collins AIDS Project depends entirely upon privately generated donations. If this were the sole reason for the existence of the Daedalus Project, we could not thank all of you at OSF enough.

"Beyond the necessity to stem an epidemic of unimaginable proportions and respond with compassion to the tragedies it has created, we value the Daedalus Project for its inspiring reminder that life in its joyous diversity is a journey well worth the challenges it entails. On August 17th, whether you are on the stage or in the seats of the Elizabethan Theatre, whether this is your first Daedalus or your twenty-first, you may number yourself with pride among a unique assembly of caring souls. You have joined the thousands who make this annual pilgrimage to Ashland to rekindle in the world and in our hearts the flames of remembrance, celebration, community and hope."