OSF sets records in 2009

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Richard (Richard Elmore) performs as Macbeth for the King (John Tufts) and Cecil (Jonathan Haugen). Photo by Jenny Graham.

By Vickie Aldous

Ashland Daily Tidings

November 03, 2009

The play may be the thing, but the Oregon Shakespeare Festival also counted on a strong acting company, a loyal audience and a diverse marketing strategy to cast a record-setting season in 2009.

OSF Executive Director Paul Nicholson and Artistic Director Bill Rauch discussed the just-concluded season, as well as future directions for the theater company, during a Monday night town hall meeting in the Angus Bowmer Theatre that drew more than 100 people.

"2009 will go down as a record-setting year for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival," Nicholson said.

Few would have predicted such an outcome.

Last fall as the national economy was in meltdown mode, OSF began rounds of budget cuts that eventually totalled $1.7 million. OSF officials anticipated that attendance would drop to 370,000 and that theaters would be only 81 percent full, Nicholson said.

Instead, OSF ended its 2009 season with an attendance figure of 410,000 and its theaters were at 89 percent capacity, he said. That produced record revenues of $17.1 million.

Nicholson said OSF would not have done so well if the work on stage was not strong enough to attract Rogue Valley residents and people from hundreds of miles away.

He also credited OSF's audience, which he said is willing to look at plays in new ways and support the theater company.

Varied marketing strategies, including appealing to locals with regular offers, holding events for young adults and families and posting videos on OSF's Web site, helped attract patrons, Nicholson said.

In the past, knowing how to get deals on discounted tickets was almost like knowing a secret handshake, he said.

"We don't want it to be a secret," Nicholson said about OSF's heavily marketed deals for Rogue Valley residents.

Close to 60,000 tickets were sold to people in the Rogue Valley, said Mallory Pierce, the festival's marketing and communications director.

OSF tripled the number of people who took part in family day events, as well as the number of people who were involved in special events aimed at those between ages 19 and 35, she said.

OSF, like many theaters around the country, attracts students and retirees, but has greater difficulty drawing in the "missing middle" of young working adults and parents.

"It's a really important part of our future," Nicholson said.

Audience members praised many of OSF's decisions for the 2009 season, including an offer of a free ticket to anyone who hadn't seen a play there, hosting a series of events in honor of Oregon's 150th anniversary of statehood, premiering the critically acclaimed play "Equivocation," staging the popular "The Music Man" and showcasing a range of performers for the free Green Show.

The evening featured not only a report from OSF officials, but also a chance for them to hear from their patrons.

One man in the audience noted that his adult children chose which plays they would attend by viewing videos on OSF's Web site. He recommended the theater company build up a library of videos about what goes on behind the scenes, and keep the videos on the Web site.

A volunteer at OSF's Welcome Center — located in a highly visible location at the corner of East Main and Pioneer streets — said visitors don't know they can enter the center to get information about OSF. The volunteer recommended posting a sign that could say "Information Inside."

One woman praised the vivid imagery in a new brochure that has been mailed out for the 2010 season, which will run from Feb. 19 through Oct. 31.

Plays for next season include Tennessee Williams' classic, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Lynn Nottage's play "Ruined," about a brothel in a war-torn country and "Throne of Blood" — a version of "Macbeth" set in feudal Japan.

OSF will premier "American Night," which was created through the company's American Revolutions program to forge new plays inspired by the nation's history.

Next season's musical, "She Loves Me," will follow on the heels of "The Music Man," which filled the Angus Bowmer Theater to 96 percent of capacity for the 2009 season.

In recognition of its 75th year, OSF in 2010 will present William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and "The Merchant of Venice," the two plays that were staged by Angus Bowmer in the festival's first season. Other Shakespeare plays next year will be "Hamlet" and "Henry IV." The company also will present an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and "Well," which explores health and illness.

OSF will host CutureFest in October 2010 to explore a variety of cultures.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.