OREGON: Ashland

Our High Class Digs
Despite the ghetto sign, it was a perfectly nice motel.

Delightful Treats
Ashland is full of very fine independent restaurants, and I think every place we ate in Oregon had a menu note stating that the food was local whenever possible and that sustainable practices were supported. Yay, Oregon!

Lithia Park
This is a FANTASTIC park bordering the Shakespeare Theater complex. It was designed by John McLaren, who's most well-known for Golden Gate Park. We took a tour of part of the park with a number of older couples. I love hanging out with the elderly.

Lithium Water Fountains
Drinking three glasses of this water is equivalent to taking one Valium. I didn't get to test this claim, because almost as soon as the water touched my lips, I recalled that I hate mineral water.


OSF Elizabethan Theater
We attended Othello, which I saw at the Utah Shakespearean Festival just last month. I liked the first half of Othello in Ashland better, but Cedar City's production was better for the second half. The last half of Othello in Cedar City was riveting--the audience was completely invested in the story, the death scene was choreographed really well, and Corliss Preston playing Amelia was so consistently ON throughout the play that when she stepped up as the voice of protest in the second half, it was powerful. (Side note: I think I saw James Newcomb who plays Iago in Cedar City this summer at Lithia Park. I chose not to be a crazy theater stalker and ask him if he was him.) The second half of Othello in Ashland wasn't as emotionally effective. The three leads in Ashland were all excellent and the theater is great, though. The theater is an outdoor Globe replica but it's designed to eliminate outside noise.
(This photo is from Wikipedia, not from the performance we saw.)

Sorry, Eliana, I have nothing negative to report about Ashland.