Oregon Shakespeare Festival may change theater due to fires

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a major tourist draw in southern Oregon, is exploring changes to its famous outdoor theater after losing millions because of smoky wildfire conditions in 2017 and 2018.

The annual summer theater festival uses Ashland High School’s indoor theater when smoke shuts down its outdoor 1,190-seat Allen Elizabethan Theatre, and the festival has added matinee performances at that theater as well.

The festival is looking for a permanent solution to volatile air quality issues, Paul Christy, the festival’s acting executive director, told the Ashland Tidings. The festival has hired a prominent professional in theater construction to explore ideas for a rebirth of the Elizabethan Theatre, he said.

Ideas include a retractable roof and a redesign of the seating to encircle the stage so theater-goers are closer to the actors, he said.

The festival suffered a $2.6 million loss in 2018, hard on the heels of a $2.8 million loss in 2017, according to the festival’s 2018 annual report, which is being released to the public.

About $2 million of the festival’s $2.6 million loss in 2018 can be attributed to smoke issues, according to the report.

Tourism to the Rogue Valley dropped off, and the festival had to cancel nine performances and move 17 performances from its outdoor Elizabethan Theatre indoors to Ashland High School. The show went on at the festival’s two indoor theaters.

Christy acknowledged the festival would make more money if it only staged popular musicals and well-known plays. But the festival is committed to rotating through all of William Shakespeare’s plays, even the less popular ones, he said.

“It does mean that sometimes we’ll see empty seats,” Christy said.