This morning we woke up to the constant pounding rain on our window. We were so surprised. A rare occurrence for Ashland. Luckily it blew over about eleven, and just in time for our day to start. Today we went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Open house.
We started with a tour of the costume department. To our surprise, it is a huge deal to get the initial design of the costumes until they hit the floor for rehearsal. Most plays have about 10 people per play working on up to 60 elaborate costumes. Every detail from the jewelery and shoes to the elaborate beaded work and accurate costume representation for the period is taken in to consideration. All of the costumes are available for other production houses and individuals to rent at the end of the season.
Next we went to the stage and prop design department a down the street from the theater. All of the stages and props are custom designed each season. All the stage sets are donated to local schools or throw away at the end of the season (since each play, even if it is done by OSF again, has a different director and designer with a different idea of how the play should look). Although the props are all put online at the end of the season to be rented by people all over the world.
We we able to chat with one of the prop designers for Don Quixote. He showed us some of the props for the play and explained that most of these particular props were all made from everyday items, including tires to make a vulture and garden gloves to create the owl.
We never did get anyone to tell us an est. cost for a play, but it would not be cheap. These plays are labors of love for one persons vision of the play. There was one backstage tour for the new theater, but we missed it. We decided we will take the full backstage tour another day.
(Me inside the float)
I spent the afternoon walking the farmers market with my Mom and Will. I eventually wandered over to the river and found myself on a crowded bridge squeezing between a sweet old couple so i could get a glimpse of the boats racing on the river. I have never seen the town so full of people!
Sunday was our relaxing fun day. We traveled about thirty min. up the road to Howard Prairie Lake. It was picturesque. They have a huge dock with fishing and boats for rent. We will definitely be back, especially since it was 93 here and 78 at the lake.
We spent part of the afternoon cruising the town by foot. We saw our local friendly deer family feasting on trees, enjoyed the towns sidewalk sale, and ventured through some of Lithia Park. It was a lovely lazy afternoon! After Memorial day it will be a busy and fun summer for us, so a final relaxing weekend was great!
This morning we woke up to the constant pounding rain on our window. We were so surprised. A rare occurrence for Ashland. Luckily it blew over about eleven, and just in time for our day to start. Today we went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Open house.
We we able to chat with one of the prop designers for Don Quixote. He showed us some of the props for the play and explained that most of these particular props were all made from everyday items, including tires to make a vulture and garden gloves to create the owl. 
