Today, we began with the first of four “Theatre Reflections” with Tyrone Wilson. Tyrone has led the Theatre Reflections sessions most of the times we’ve come to OSF with Road Scholar, and I always enjoy his sessions.

Today’s session took us through the history of OSF with special emphasis on how costumes have changed over the years, with the goal of looking at different ways to deal with Shakespeare today (does Shakespeare have to be adapted, whether in setting, language, or costuming, or should you always use the setting in the play, the “original” text and Elizabethan costumes?). Tyrone’s used the same slides before, but his presentation is always different, and today was no exception.

Our next speaker was Donya Washington, a Festival Producer at OSF. She took us through her artistic journey and talked about what a producer does (basically, a producer fixes problems!). It was an informative and interesting session.

It was cool and windy, so instead of taking us all out to the Bricks Courtyard to have our lunch (sandwiches from Greenleaf), they got the sandwiches delivered to the hotel and we ate inside.

After lunch, we had our first performance of the session – OSF is dark on Tuesdays this year, so we had a private performance of Chappati instead. Robin Goodrin Nordli and Michael Elich were the performers; they’re both OSF veterans and are married in real life. The play was produced by Rogue Theatre Company, which was founded by Jessica Sage, who had been our leader at our last pre-pandemic OSF Road Scholar program.

I really enjoyed the play; Robin and Michael did a great job of connecting with me (and the rest of the group) and making the play come to life. There was even a talkback!

We were free for the rest of the day, so we took advantage of the nice weather to walk through Lithia Park. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the weather.

We walked along Ashland Creek for most of the length of the park.

On our way back to the hotel, I saw a poster for what might be an interesting show – but we’ll be elsewhere, so I guess I’ll just have to imagine it.

We had dinner at Skout Taproom on the plaza; the beer was good, the food was decent, but the service was slow. I’d consider going back, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

This year’s edition of the Road Scholar Feast for the Senses began today with a tour of the OSF theaters. We had two guides today, Jonathan Luke Stevens (we’ll see him on stage later this week) and Kirsten Giroux, OSF’s Associate Director of Education & Engagement – they worked well together and gave us two different views of OSF’s operations.

Jonathan took us backstage at the Thomas Theatre; he even took us into the understory of the theatre, an area we hadn’t seen on previous tours, and showed us the machinery which raises and lowers parts of the stage to allow for prop movement and interesting actor entrances and exits.

We’d been able to visit the costume department in previous years; this time, we visited an exhibit OSF had set up in New Place showing costumes, props, stage management tools, and more (it’s really for school classes).

Lunch was at the Brickroom on the Ashland Plaza; we hadn’t been there before. It was OK, but suffered from time constraints – they probably should have had us pre-order.

After lunch, we went to a new winery, Hummingbird Estate, for a tasting. We left with a GSM, a Malbec, and a white Pinot Noir (it’s quite bright but definitely tastes like Pinot).

We returned to the hotel for “Stage Management 101” from Emily Robinson, who’d been our tour guide the last two times we’d come to this program. She explained what a stage manager does and why she loves being one.

Dinner was back on the Ashland Plaza at Oberon’s, where Diane and I both had Shepherd’s Pie. It was pretty good but would have been better with a beer.

And then it was back to the hotel for one more lecture, this one on “Costumes and Quick Changes” by Andrew Beyer. He took us through the role of the wardrobe department throughout the run of a show, and then showed us some of the tricks that make quick changes possible.

We left the hotel in Redding about 10am; we didn’t need to be in Ashland until 3pm, so we took our time and stopped frequently, mostly for pictures of Mt. Shasta! Here’s the mountain from the Castella Vista Point.

And here are two photos from the Weed Rest Area.

We finally lost sight of the mountain and drove onward to Jacksonville for lunch at the Back Porch Bar & Grill; neither of us thought it lived up to its Yelp reviews.

We made a brief stop at Harry & David, then headed for the Ashland Springs Hotel to check in.

There’ve been a few changes in Ashland since our last visit. Our favorite travel shop, Travel Essentials, has closed; so has Standing Stone Brewery, and lots of storefronts are sporting new businesses. And Oregon Shakespeare Festival is operating a reduced schedule, which makes a huge difference to the town.

The rhythm of the Road Scholar program is different, too; we’ve already had a lecture (in the past, Sundays were just “getting to know you” sessions).

It’s good to be back, even with the changes.

We’re on our way to Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the first time in four years. We stopped in Fairfield for lunch at Lebanese Spoon; it was fine, but I’d try something other than the chicken shawarma next time because it was on the bland side.

We had a little trouble getting to the restaurant because of Fairfield’s Juneteenth Celebration; the main drag, Texas Street, was closed and there were booths set up on either side of the street. We wandered around for a bit but didn’t find anything we had to buy. :-)

The rest of the drive to Redding was easy, and we got to the hotel about 4:30. As usual, we’re staying in the Towneplace Suites off Hilltop Drive. We normally drive into downtown Redding for dinner, but this time, we decided to see what we could find within walking distance and ended up at Kelly’s Pub and Wine Bar for beer and pizza; the atmosphere was nice, the beer was good, and the pizza was OK.

I’d brought an Amazon Fire Stick with us so we could watch Ted Lasso. The TV was under the control of the hotel’s magic box, and the “input” button on the remote didn’t do anything. Usually, disconnecting the magic box from the TV frees up the TV to behave properly, but it didn’t help this time. I finally found the trick online: plug your device into the HDMI 2 input on the magic box, then use the hotel’s remote to select “Streaming” and then “Direct Connect”. Then hit “OK” and all will be well.

We took another walk after dinner, and I enjoyed the clouds.

I woke up a little after midnight today and noticed that the nightlight in the bathroom was out. I also noticed that the clock in the bedroom was dark. I didn’t put those two facts together (I guess I wasn’t really awake) until nearly 3am, when our Amazon Echo woke me up when it started to glow brightly, and I realized that the power had gone out sometime after we went to sleep and had just been restored.

This morning, I looked at my phone and found a number of messages. PG&E had sent three – one just before midnight telling me that our house was one of 12 without power due to equipment failure, one telling me that a crew was on the way, and one telling me that power had been restored. I also got two messages from Enphase, our solar system provider, telling me that we’d gone off-grid at 11:24pm and that power had been restored at 2:53am.

We’d had to choose six circuits to keep powered up in the event of a problem. We’d chosen the circuits powering the computers, the cooktop, the kitchen outlets, and the refrigerator. This was the first test of the battery’s ability to keep the house functioning, and it worked as planned – the refrigerator behaved just as it did the rest of the day, and the network (and computers) all stayed up.

I’d decided not to back up any lighting circuits because it’s easy to get a couple of rechargeable LED lanterns and keep them charged; I guess I really ought to get those lanterns sometime soon!