The lights went back on at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year. The pandemic years wiped the region's biggest theater company off the stage, almost completely.
OSF returned to something like its regular schedule this year, but with a shorter list of plays, lower ticket prices, and some public complaints about the offerings. They range from grousing about the lack of Shakespeare works at a Shakespeare festival to death threats against Artistic Director Nataki Garrett.
Now that there's a pause--all but the Christmas show closed just before Halloween--we sit down with Garrett to talk about this year and the future. There's a determination to build upon the successes and use the problems as opportunities to learn.