Official: OSF, Ashland will feel recession
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the rest of Ashland will be impacted by a recession that could last beyond 2009, OSF Executive Director Paul Nicholson warned more than 150 people who attended a town hall meeting hosted by the festival on Monday night.
"This really is an immensely severe recession," said Nicholson, adding that he has heard predictions that it could take two to three years for the national economy to recover.
The economic downturn may be the most severe situation that people in today's workforce have ever experienced, he said.
Despite the second-highest attendance rate in its history, OSF faces a $750,000 deficit for this year. People are buying cheaper tickets and returns on the nonprofit organization's investments and endowment fund are down because of the stock market slide, Nicholson said.
"That's far and away the worst deficit we've ever seen," he said.
Nicholson said OSF went through two recessions in the 1980s relatively unscathed, but this time is different.
OSF will cover the 2008 deficit with its reserves. The last plays of the season are scheduled for Sunday.
OSF officials announced last week that they will cut $1 million from the 2009 budget, leaving a remaining budget of $25.5 million. No staff will be laid off at this time, but vacant positions will go unfilled and OSF is making other cuts as well.
OSF is raising the base price on tickets for 2009 by 3 to 4 percent, but will keep offering $20 seats in C Sections of its theaters. It also plans a host of specials, especially for local residents, Nicholson said.
OSF is already selling tickets for next season and will have an idea of how sales may go for the year by the end of November. Historically, pre-sold tickets make up 65 percent of total ticket sales, he said.
Nicholson said OSF will share information about how ticket sales are going through press releases and information on its Web site at www.osfashland.org. He said he realizes how important ticket sales are to tourism-dependent businesses around town like bed and breakfast inns and restaurants.
Artistic Director Bill Rauch said audiences won't see a difference in the quality of the play sets and costumes. Only 2.5 percent of the budget is devoted to materials, with the bulk — 70 percent — going to pay people's salaries.
OSF is moving ahead with plans to stage Clifford Odets' "Paradise Lost," even though it has 24 characters. Set during the Depression, the play may have special resonance with audiences in 2009.
Rauch said more actors in the theater company have signed up to perform in three plays, rather than the more typical two.
"One of the contributions the acting company is making is they're working very hard next year," he said.
OSF will stage 11 plays, including four works by William Shakespeare, a play by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka set in Africa and Meredith Willson's musical "The Music Man."
OSF is also continuing its commitment to commission new plays based on American history. The festival announced seven commissions in June. Playwrights and historians will meet in November at the University of California at Los Angeles to begin exploring ideas, said Alison Carey, the director of the "American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle" program.
The first play could be staged as soon as 2010, she said.
Under the direction of Associate Producer Claudia Alick, the free Green Show performances in the courtyard branched out to include 52 different acts with more than 400 performers who gave 126 performances. She said that format was actually far less expensive than in the past, when OSF hired a dance troupe for the Green Show.
Several audience members said the Green Show was much better this year and attracted local residents with its varying performers.
OSF also held its first six-day Festival Latino, which featured everything from a taco-vending trailer to plays with Spanish captions. OSF sold 600 tickets for the captioned plays, Rauch said.
Rather than planning several days that focus on Latino culture, OSF will have more plays with Spanish captions spread throughout 2009. A days-long festival format may return in 2010, he said.
Audience members also asked about OSF's relationship with the city government.
"I wish the city would commit to supporting tourism and OSF," Nicholson said.
He said OSF gets only 5 percent of the revenues from the city's hotel tax even though it is a major destination for tourists.
The Ashland City Council and mayoral elections on Nov. 4 represent a "pivotal moment" for the city politically and for OSF. If elections go a certain way, that could have severe consequences for OSF, Nicholson said.
But he declined to name which candidates he thinks would support OSF and tourism.
"You're going to have to read my mind on that," Nicholson said.
Several audience members asked what they could do to encourage a strong relationship between OSF and the city government.
Nicholson responded that OSF needs to reach out more with activities like Monday night's town hall meeting so that residents know the challenges and difficulties the festival faces.
Rauch said people need to focus on celebrating what Ashland has, such as great restaurants, inns, theater companies and galleries. He said the town has an extraordinary sense of community.
"We're all in this together," he said.
Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com. To post a comment, visit www.dailytidings.com.
