The Spirit Behind Bowmer in the Park is in the news —
Read all about it in the Ashland Daily Tidings!
The Spirit Behind Bowmer in the Park is a documentary produced by Itty Imprints LLC of Ashland, Oregon.
During the 2011 summer season, the Tony award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival faced the biggest crisis in its 77 year history. On June 17 the main support beam of the Angus Bowmer Theatre cracked along its massive 70 foot length.
Not to be ‘outstaged’, the community got together and raised a tent to delight theater audiences for six weeks while the Bowmer was being repaired.
Under a bed of bright music and galloping pictures, documentary viewers will experience the tent construction and hear from theater artists who helped raise the canvas shrouded stage in Ashland’s Lithia Park.
The Spirit Behind Bowmer in the Park is full of magic!
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From Paul Nicholson, Executive Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (shown below with members of the OSF Board of Directors).
photo: Jenny Graham
"The spirit behind the whole adventure was to keep faith with the audience. That drove every action that took place. It was an incredible experience for all of us.”
Paul, talking about his favorite moments as Executive Director in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "2012 Souvenier Program" :
"Receiving a standing ovation at the 2011 Daedalus Project when Bill Rauch and I walked onto the Elizabethan Stage (in recognition of the Company's work in getting the Angus Bowmer Theatre open again after the beam crisis)."
What a visual and emotional gift to see The Spirit Behind Bowmer in the Park, Cici Brown's new film.
To have the Bowmer Theatre incapacitated by its broken beam felt very personal to me. It was like hearing a dear friend's terrible diagnosis. This film captures the spirit and triumph of the theatre's rehabilitation and return to full activity.
A wider audience can now witness what happened to the beam and how a brave group of people responded, using alternate performing spaces including a theatre in a tent. It is a positive story of people from the town, industry, and the entire Festival company working together so the shows could go on!
— Shirley Patton
From Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
photo: Jenny Graham
"In all my years as artistic director, I’ve never seen anything like what’s been happening."
"Viewing the film brought back the whole beam experience, joyfully."
Darcy Danielson
Production Music Coordinator/Associate Music Director
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
From Robynn Rodriguez, actor
The tent was one thing...
the tent dressing room was another...
where all the women and all the men were together in one room!
photo: Cici Brown
From Christopher Acebo, Associate Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
photo: Jenny Graham
Finding a solution to make Bowmer in the Park happen.
A Final Word from Paul Nicholson
"After the first thing went wrong, everything went right."
photo: Jenny Graham