Oregon Shakespeare Festival Actors Telling the Story

by Mary Z. Maher, Alan Armstrong

Interviews with actors at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Oregon.

Genres: Theatre

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Mary Z. Maher (Ashland, OR) is the author of the performance classic Modern Hamlets and Their Soliloquies and the biography Nicholas Pennell: Risking Enchantment, as well as several articles on Shakespeare in performance on stage, film, and television. After a teaching career at the University of Arizona, she retired as professor emerita to the home of the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival and continues teaching, coaching, lecturing, and writing."

Reviews

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a yearly destination for me. It is a true rep theater where you can immerse yourself in several offerings over a few days, and where you can experience seeing new plays, familiar favorites, musicals and, of course, Shakespeare's works.. It is amazing to see actors taking on several different roles as well as acting as understudies in yet another. And, this is the book that tells about twelve long time OSF actors telling their stories about how they chose the profession, how they got to Ashland, and how they ply their craft. It is a book that all up-and-coming actors should read. I enjoyed it especially because I had seen many of the plays they talked about. It is interesting to hear their side of the story.

My one and only concern was that it was edited so that each individual story followed the same structure, and I felt that somehow it made it more difficult for each of the personalities to shine through the writing. Sometimes you got a glimpse of the differences, but because of the way each actor's information was presented, it sometimes seemed a bit dry and/or similar. I especially enjoyed the actors talked about the plays I saw. But, it was interesting to see how each one approaches the script, the rehearsals, and the performances.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a longtime playgoer at OSF (and someone planning to retire them), I am fascinated by what makes the theater and its fabulous repertory company tick. The actors who wrote chapters for this book came from diverse backgrounds but were universally thoughtful and interesting as they described their processes and professional goals.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the actors interviewed in this book found me at intermission one night and asked how I like the show so far. I was not prepared for this question and so took a moment to think of a helpful answer. He cut me off saying, "If you have to think that long then you are going to say something negative and I don't want to hear it." He wanted only praise.

That incident seems to be a mark of all the dozen interviews in this book. Nobody substantively complains, nobody is critical of other actors, the directors, and the inhumane ways that OSF handles some things, such as casting. The actor just referred to is well known to have hated being in a certain play because his costume embarrassed him. He praises that production without reservation in this book. Selective memory? Perhaps. Did he come to enjoy the role after his initial complaints? Also, perhaps. I find actors to be quite candid one on one. Nobody seems very candid in this book except in their praise.

Perhaps this is understandable. Knocking the Festival that employs you is a poor strategy for being offered a contract next year. Nevertheless, the lack of candor diminishes the book while belying one meaning of the subtitle.

I am also bothered by the format. The authors asked interview questions, recorded the answers, then removed the questions. The result is a free form, stream of consciousness approach that suits the most articulate actors well, Tony Heald and John Tuffs are outstanding in this, but many other interviews are formless and rambling. Including the questions would have given structure to the actor's comments. They would have seemed less full of themselves for the apparent self-absorption would have a clear and worthwhile purpose. The answers would have also seemed more meaningful.

I will also fault the authors for only including two women in the dozen actors interviewed. The book is such a sausage factory! I could understand this if the book were restricted to actors in their Shakespeare roles for Shakespeare, of necessity, had just 3 or 4 boy actors to play women per play and so wrote few female characters, but the interviews go far beyond the Shakespearean roles to include many contemporary plays and this makes the neglect of female actors a real problem.

The book is informative in several ways and I will quote it a time or two in my current work, but it should have been better.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional insight into the minds and lives of some of the most highly regarded actors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival company. Not a bad word said, those are on tape but not in the book. Maher and Armstrong are the perfect scholars to have interviewed these OSF actors and edited their comments. Superb

[Blaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the format of this book, which is in the style of an essay by each actor rather than a Q&A with the author. These are all actors who I've seen at OSF many times; in many cases I've seen the specific performances they talk about. They are a talented group and I found it very interesting, and sometimes surprising, to hear what they have to say about the world of the theatre behind the scenes.