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Saratogans seeking Shakespeare are visiting Ashland, Ore.
By Willys Peck
A SHLAND PILGRIMAGE: Summer wouldn't be summer for many Saratoga/Los Gatos folks without a requisite visit to Ashland, Ore., to revel in the Bard and other playwriting greats. It's a mere seven-hour drive (counting an hour lunch break), and, of course, you don't have to go in summer.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival extends from February to October, surprisingly enough. However, plays in the outdoor theater aren't on the docket until June. By this time Ashland has warmed up and rain is infrequent. Since productions in the high season are mostly sold out, rainchecks are nonexistent. So you take your chances on the outdoor scene.
Mary Lou and Jack Taylor are avid Ashland-goers and they remember having to exit one of the plays as thunder, rain and lightning spewed forth, which would have been appropriate had King Lear been holding forth.
But there are two other theaters--the copious Angus Bowmer, usually housing the classics, and the New Theater in-the-round, which features newer plays and lesser-known playwrights. For some, that's the most appealing Ashland aspect--seeing plays you've never seen before and are unlikely to see elsewhere.
Ashland, the home of Southern Oregon University, also emphasizes the educational aspects of theater. Elderhostel guests study the plays in the morning and see them mounted in afternoon and evening. Audrey Christensen has followed that pattern and feels the better you know the play, the more you get out of it.
Christensen, who taught Julius Caesar to eighth-graders in both Switzerland and San Jose, thinks people don't appreciate Shakespeare until they're at least 30, so figures she gets more out of it each year, despite having been born and raised on Shakespeare's turf.
Weeklong workshops are offered, too. Saratogans Tessie and Phil Young took one such and remember it fondly, particularly that year's production of Richard III.
Bob and Ginny O'Reilly of Los Gatos are Ashland regulars as well. This year's Taming of the Shrew was the best they've ever seen, and that's saying a lot, what with the O'Reilly penchant for theater jaunts to London and New York, as well as Ashland.
This year's production took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the perennial battle of the sexes and received the ultimate tribute--a standing ovation.
SCI FI AWARD: Mark Jansen's sci-fi book for young readers, titled Apers, has just been awarded the 2006 Eleanor Cameron Award for Middle Grades, one of three categories of Golden Duck Awards for excellence in children's sci-fi literature.
These are the only science fiction awards worldwide for young readers--on the level of the Hugo Awards for adult sci-fi and fantasy, Jansen says. Golden Duck winners include writers such as Bruce Colville, Lois Lowry and even J.K. Rowling, so Jansen is in illustrious company.
Inner Journey, 222 N. Santa Cruz, carries the book. Cathy Young is the proprietor. Apers was co-written with Barbara Day Zinicola and is the story of a new order of life being created for manual labor but evolving into a species with a high degree of intelligence and the surprising results therein. It's set in California's Central Valley.
NEW DIRECTORS: Jeff Anderson, principal of Saratoga High School; Bryan Knysh, founder/president of Think-and-Learn, Inc., an online learning company based in Saratoga; and Lane Weiss, superintendent of the Saratoga Union School District, are all new additions to the board of community station KSAR15.
Tom Stoiber, KSAR15 board chairman, called it a strengthening move for increased TV and video education in the community.
PHILANTHROPIST: Saratogan Pat Colvin, recently honored for his donation to the new baseball center at the University of Illinois-Chicago, was senior VP of GNDL before his retirement. GNDL is a direct sales vitamin and food supplement company based in Fremont. The Colvins have four grown children and five granddaughters.
HONORING WWII VETS: History San Jose offers a Day of Remembrance on Aug. 12 at History Park in Kelley Park. The day honors the veterans of WWII, whose ranks thin daily. One highlight will be town meeting-style forums led by Leigh Weimers on how WWII changed America and the world.
Saratoga docents for History San Jose include Harlan Snyder and Marilyn and George Quentin.
Got a tip for Saratoga Sampler? Send email to mac@impruve.com.
