100 Things I Love About Ashland

1. Picnicing in Lithia Park
2. Wading in Ashland Creek
3. Ashland Band Concerts
4. Ballet in the Park
5. Lithia Park duck pond
6. Lithia Park stone balancers
7. Swimming in the reservoir
8. Hiking in Oredsen-Todd Woods
9. Bear Creek
10. Ashland Food Co-op
11. Downtown Restaurants
12. Tourists (of all ages)
13. Peace Marchers & Women in Black
14. Varsity Theater
15. Ashland Street Cinemas
16. Ashland Independent Film Festival
17. DJ's Video
18. Street side bike paths
19. The Bike Path (through town)
20. Oregon Shakespeare Festival
21. The Green Show
22. Tudor Guild
23. Artwalk, First Friday
24. YMCA
25. Longhairs in Lithia Park
26. Students crossing Siskiyou
27. Grizzly Peak
28. Cross Country skiing at Buck Prairie
29. Daniel Meyer Pool
30. Ashland High School
31. The Community Garden
32. Active City Politics
33. Artisan's Market
34. Farmer's Market
35. Briscoe School Artwing
36. Outrigger Canoe Paddling on Emigrant Lake
37. Swimming at Emigrant Lake
38. The Water Slides
39. Christmas tree hunting
40. Mushroom hunting
41. City Hall in Downtown
42. 4th of July Parade
43. 4th of July Fireworks
44. Christmas Parade
45. Christmas Lighting Downtown
46. Oregon Stageworks
47. Jeff Golden, on JPR
48. ScienceWorks
49. Great Bookstores
50. Clean, maintained streets
51. Clean, maintained city parks
52. Southern Oregon University
53. Jefferson Public Radio
54. Skateboard Park
55. Bocce Ball courts
56. Ashland Public Library
57. New Firehouse
58. Slow speed limits by schools
59. Cars that stop for pedestrians
60. Friendly cash register people
61. Strangers saying hello
62. Dog Park
63. Buses that carry bikes
64. Rogue Valley Peace Choir
65. North Mountain Park nature center
66. Local DMV67. Mount Ashland
68. The Daily Tidings
69. Pilot Rock
70. Solar Panels on Civic Center
71. Friendly Police Officers
72. Free in-city buses (now low cost)
73. Solar Power Rebates
74. Earth Day Celebration
75. Seeing Shakespeare Actors off stage
76. Ice Skating at Darex Rink
77. Water play at Garfield Park
78. Daily train noise
79. Ashland recycle center
80. The Plaza
81. Lithia water (yucky, but cool)
82. Used book stores
83. Great Public Statues
84. Halloween Parade
85. The Bear Creek Greenway
86. Declaration of Independence Reading
87. Willow Wind Community Learning Center
88. Ski Swap
89. Labyrinth at the Episcopal Church
90. Unpredictable weather
91. Two Hot Weeks of Summer
92. No McDonald's!
93. Street Musicians
94. Japanese Garden at Lithia Park
95. SOU Rock Climbing Wall
96. Snow you can drive in
97. Flowered lampposts & boulevards
98. The Bike Swap
99. City maintained hiking trails
100. Civic Pride & Love of Ashland!

Tom DuBois, your local Grilla Bites owner

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Selected for Shakespeare for a New Generation

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation, a major initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

OSF received a $25,000 grant to support 200 performances of four Shakespeare plays, related classroom curricula, and 350 actor workshops, pre-and post-show discussions, classes and teachers' programs for 300 schools (15,000-17,000 student tickets) in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

While OSF has always had a strong education department with far-reaching educational programming, continuing trends in the field of education have affected student attendance at the theater. This grant will help OSF offer discounted performances to student groups; expand the distribution of theater education materials to teachers; encourage participation by teachers in OSF's professional development programs; reduce program fees for schools; and identify new and increased private support for education.

Fifteen, or two-thirds, of the Festival's education programs focus on students and teachers. These 15 programs reach culturally, economically and geographically diverse schools from across the western United States. Student attendance was 53,477 for the 2005 season, February through October 2005. The touring School Visit Program reached another 70,504 students in four states (CA, OR, WA, KS), bringing the total number of students served by OSF to 123,981 for the year.

The NEA's Shakespeare for a New Generation initiative gives high school and middle school students throughout America the opportunity to experience Shakespeare's works through high-quality productions and educational activities. It is the fourth phase of Shakespeare in American Communities, launched in September 2003, which has already reached more than 500 communities, 18 military bases, and 1,500 schools across all 50 states. This is the largest Shakespeare tour in American history.

"What is most remarkable about our Shakespeare for a New Generation program is that it not only benefits students across the nation by bringing them to live theater, often for the first time, but that the program also helps their teachers by making their English assignments literally come to life from the page to the stage," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "For the theater companies, it gives them the opportunity to become known by a whole new generation."

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2007 Calendar Of Plays

Angus Bowmer Theatre

As You Like It
William Shakespeare
Feb. 16 – Oct. 28

The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov world premiere
adaptation by Libby Appel
Feb. 17 – Jul. 8

On The Razzle
Tom Stoppard
Feb. 18 – Oct. 28

Gem of the Ocean
August Wilson
Apr. 17 – Oct. 27

TartuffeMolière
translated by Ranjit Bolt
Jul. 25 – Oct. 27

New Theatre

Rabbit Hole
David Lindsay-Abaire
Feb. 22 – Jun. 22

Tracy's Tiger
World premiere musical.
Linda Alper, Douglas Langworthy,
Penny Metropulos, Sterling Tinsley.
Based on novella by Wm. Saroyan
Mar. 28 – Oct. 28

Distracted
Lisa Loomer
Jul. 3 – Oct. 28

Elizabethan Stage

The Tempest
William Shakespeare
Jun. 5 – Oct. 6

The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare
Jun. 6 – Oct. 7

Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
Jun. 7 – Oct. 5