Much Ado About Ashland

Every year, Mr. Albertson, a herd of chaperones, and a flock of ACMAnians depart on a trip to a little town in the middle of nowhere called Ashland, OR. Although you will find the same sort of hipster vibe and a variety of coffee shops there as in Portland, there is something very special about the town. As you walk through the streets there is an overwhelming feeling of artistry: in the shops, the people, and the architecture. That is mostly due to the fact that Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. OSF is the only company in the western hemisphere with a full-scale Elizabethan stage, it is also one of the oldest and largest of the professional regional repertory theatre companies in the U.S. It opens it’s doors to many schools each year, and ACMA has the privilege of being one of those. Fingersmith, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Long Day's Journey Into Night were just a few of the plays performed this season, but according to ACMAnians, they were some of the best.

“My favorite play was Long Day’s Journey into Night,” said Ashland super-veteran, Genevive Adams. “ I felt like the script was very applicable to a lot of lives, the actors did a phenomenal job, and it was just really lovely material. I actually just bought a copy of the book.”

The trip was very impactful for a lot of kids this year, because of the variety of plays that were seen, and the depth of the plays themselves, Ashland turned out to be a very important experience. Besides the plays there were also talk-backs and workshops with various actors who worked for the company. Erica Sullivan, one of the leads in Fingersmith, held a talk back with the group Friday morning, she touched mostly on how she came to be an actress and what went into her character development for her role.

First time Ashland attendee Annie Eldridge, was especially impacted by these talkbacks. “ I heard comforting things from successful actors who did not go to art school or even know they would be in theater from the start, about how there was no correct path to a successful career in theater, and that I had more time than I knew,” she said. “I believe being exposed to as many kinds of theater as possible is invaluable to my growth as an artist.”

As an aspiring artist, Eldridge is correct in the fact that exposure to a diverse collection of art is important to development. Trips like Ashland help students to accomplish this. Any artist, be it dancer or writer should be exposed to a range of art, watching these shows, talking about them and experiencing new things all help to further a student’s understanding of their art, as well as the world around them. Ashland is an important type of trip, and very special to ACMA. As the years pass by we can only hope more and more students will get the experience like those who went this year, and hopefully help them grow as students of their art form.

#ashland #schooltrip #oregonshakespearefestival