The Capital Journal from Salem, Oregon • 28

ft without 0 an mances are gimmicks pen or -1 i aaKespeare year. Lecture teams last year covered 171 schools from grades 3 through 16, and more than 6,000 students from 223 schools' attended, special matinees. With the indoor theater it's now possible to winter, and spring seasons for which the company is reduced but nonetheless active. The Oregon Arts Commission, with a modest grant, is beginning to see that Ashland's venture fhas. enormous value to the whofe state.

My own first Ashland visit was in 1964 and since then the group's advances have been immense. That year there were 70 performances in two cities (12 of them for California's Stratford Summer Festival). This year the total will be 217 performances at, so far, around 90 per cent capacity, with the usually sold-out final six weeks likely to raise that percentage much higher. As for the future, Dr. Bowmer-and his let's-makeit-work-on-time wife, Gertrude, are more hopeful than seven years ago.

Apart, probably, from San Diggo's B. Iden Payne, Dr. Bowmer is the onman in the country to have produced all' 37 6f Shake-, speare's plays. He's played 32 roles in them in 43 different productions and has such confidence in them that he laughs at directors who feel they have to be produced for "relevance," musing aloud that "the play I enjoyed doing social counterpart to Athenian highlife. that it must be.

In Shakespearean works, actresses get fair-, ly short shrift but the girls, given their chances; are the men's equals. One to watch, is Brooklyn's Fredi Olster, an enchanting Helena, a resourceful Beatrice and Laura for the Williams' play. One might go on but the point is that the leads are clearly experienced and share a forgotten discipline: Speech. In general, I found Ashland's speech well above average and was delighted to settle for too much care rather than not enough Finally, I enjoyed the luxury of getting the company's level not from a single production but from several, Around the productions have grown a lar-dening of subsidiary activities. The area people have created their own supporting organizations, ushering, catering, financing.

Running through August, the Institute of Renaissance Studies offers college credits for seminars on several themes under respected scholars from all over the land. In the manner'of Ontario's Stratford, Ashland now has an information center, presenting an informative film, and a tour of the building complex. Radio programs, plus an NBC network special, are weekly events. Most important, 1 Oregon and California schools are now being reached throughout the the flow of scenes the -plays originally had, a reversal of the elaborate picture-stage setting that engulfed them for a century of sot Opened a year ago," the indoor Angus Bowmer theater has the latest in design, a fan-shaped auditorium with continental (no aisles) seating and a stage that can thrust out' but also reach back for picture-stage effects. There are 74 actors in the company and 100 more people on the unseen staff.

The players are experienced and professional and all veer from major roles to small ones. "Henry IV" for instance boasts two splendid actors, Ric Hamilton as Hotspur, Tom Donaldson as Hal Terse. Sinewy Hamilton is a California native, trained in Texas and has three other roles: f'Ado's" Benedick, "Menagerie's" Tom, and "Dream's" Demetrius, a range of fellows to whom he brings striking subtleties. Donaldson, tall and blond, is a native New Yorker, off-Broadway alumnus, creator of Cafe La Mama characters whose Hal is worthy of any company, Scarcely visible in several of the plays, J. Steven White (Illinois-born) steps out as an absolutely brilliant, daring puck for "Dream," a performance of marvelously conceived detail and elan.

So often forced in many productions, the play-within-a-play of Ashland's "Dream" is accomplished with rollicking, rich humors, the the plays straight. Gimmicks to update (or "make established favorites are considered unworthy and the outdoor performances race along, as they did in Shakespeare's day, without intermissions. The audiences are a stirring reflection of the theaters' appeal. They are of all ages. "No bare feet" is the only rule ofdress and the audience costumes are informalYtfiiete a California car with the day's fishjpg gear strapped on top, there's a busload of lyfts from Portland and several seat spaces are Reserved for wheelchairs at a convenient ramp.

The audiences are strikingly attentive, responsive and, at the end, enthusiastic. That Oregon nights are chilly for outdoor sitting is blithely accepted; blankets are for rent This year's productions are: "Much Ado About Nothing," "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream," "Macbeth," "Henry IV, Part One," Man For All Seasons" and "The Glass Menagerie." The adjoining theaters couldn't be more different, though designer Richard L. Hay miraculously has made the new interior one seem an inevitable modern extension of the original outdoor amphitheater. The latter originally was constructed in 1947 in the tudor style of London's fortune theater in Shakespeare's time, stucco and timber, a thrust stage, a scheme which made possible I've done it twice, 10 years apart, and I'm always learning somethingabout that play some people claim Shakespeare didn't even i Because his successor, Jerry Turner, has been on hand either as, actor or director for nine seasons, Dr. Bowmer is confident of the "Our job now is to broaden across the state" and that's my job as development Each year Mrs.

Bowmer and I escort a theater tour for a month in the British Isles, but apart from that, retired now from the college, I'll be on duty." To succeed Bowmer, Jerry Turner resigned his post as drama chairman for the University of California at Riverside and his present main concern is to expand the winter and spring, seasons in the indoor theater. A great believer inlaying to his audiences and not a handful of critics, Turner is mulling )Id play? but is not averse to new ones. With Turner Is his wife, Mary, a former member of the company, which makes the visitor suddenly realize that for several days now he's met or whose wife, or also is a member of the company, as actress, singer, dancer or technician. The season ends Sept. -12.

Head for tn Rogue River Valley, though you'd better checK through one of the box offices scattered through California, Washington and Oregon. By RICHARD L. COE LA Times-Washington Post Service ASHLAND, This town of 10,000 has an outdoor theater seating 1,200, a spanking tiew indoor one accommodating 600 and their six current plays have a quality in performance the equal of any theaters in the land. An hour by air from San Francisco, Or: egon's Rogue River Valley is a comparative Eden in today's America. It produces fruit and lumber for the nation; is free from industrial smog and the visitor almost regrets telling, another soul about it for fear of ruining it all by a land rush.

The theaters began in an odd way. On the fourth of July, 1935, an afternoon prizefight was scheduled, and to whoop things up further, Angus Bowmer, of Southern Oregon College, thonght it might be fun to present a Shakespearean play in the evening. The play outsold the prizefight. The war years excepted, the, Oregon Shakespearean Festival Association has been getting bigger every year. Without founder Bowmer now its development consultant, Ashland's two stages gave the playwright top position.

From Shakespeare the list has been expanded to include Tennessee Williams, Tom Stoppard, Robert Bolt, Joseph Kesselring as well as Molierej Beaumont and Fletcher. Dr. Bowmer and his followers believe in giving the most, is Can you beat it, -'Peri Wagon show by students is rev we A i iift 111111 mt Lr 3i -t "i vi I 'The King wants a son Cardinal Wolsey (Garry Mooore of Oklahoma City, Okla.) tries to convince Sir Thomas More (Raye Birk of Ashland) to aid him in influencing the Pope to grant King Henry VIII a divorce, from his wife, Catherine in Robert Bolt's 'A Man for all Who's gbing to pay? Page 2 CAPITAL JOURNAL Salem, Oregon, Saturday, August 14, ,1971 and make it easier for them to work in theaters." The theater began operating July 26. Audiences of more than 300 have prompted Butler to make even bigger plans for next summer. He said thatf in medieval times, "the theater was confined to the church.

Then it moved out into the community, with wagon theaters going down the streets in processions. "Each wagon would put on a play and then was replaced by another wagon. The audience Sat on the corner and was able to see several companies put on several He said the theater fits in well with Ashland's Shakespearean Festival. There are two festival actors in the Wagon Theatre just for the fun they get out of it. The 40 students, who hope for theater or teaching careers, come from the three coast states, with a few from the East.

There also are 15 highschool and community college students, taking part. There are a total of 14 plays in the. theater, all directed by the Each actor has three or four roles in the 14 plays. "This could be the first Wagon Theatre since the 15th century. At least, I haven't heard of it being revived any place Butler said.

By PAUL W. HARVEY JR. Associated Press Writer ASHLAND In 14th century England, actors traveled in wagons and put on plays on street corners. The Wagon Theatre has been revived in Ashland by the 1 40 summer students of Southern Oregon College's Speech Communications and Theatre Arts Department. The students put on three one-hour performances daily in Ashland's Lithia Park.

Each play runs from 10 to 40 minutes. The morning performances are for! children, and the afternoon and evening shows are for all ages. While the theater itself is a replica of a 14th century wagon, the plays are more modern. The students, with only $1,000 to spend, acquired an 80-year-old freight wagon. They put sides on it that fold down to form a stage, added space for costumes, and installed some minimal stage props.

David Butler, an instructor in the department and director of the. Wagon Theatre, said it is an ideal teaching tool. "It enables us to teach all phases of the theater, including costuming, acting and directing," he said. "There are distractions during performances and acoustics are poor. These provide good discipline for the students Mistress Quickly (Diana -Bellamy of Tampa, Bardolph (Henry Kinney of Houston, Texas) to Fla.) of the Boar's Head Inn attempts to get Sir tie their tavern debts in Henry the Fourth, Part One John Falstaff (Jim Baker of Conrad, Mont.) and at the Shakespearean Festival in Ashland.

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