For the past four years we have made our annual pilgrimage to Ashland Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival http://www.osfashland.org/. This year the festival celebrated 75 years of continuous operation, which is quite a feat indeed! Every year we struggle with the right time of year to visit the festival because the weather is variable in Southern Oregon. The first year we went early October and nearly froze to death, the following year we went in May and was faced with the rain, last year we went over the Memorial Day holiday and again it was cold. We decided to go mid June this year in hopes of good weather and once again it was cool and overcast; but that didn’t stop us from having a good time.
We purchased our tickets in January deciding on four plays and a backstage tour. The plays we chose were
Hamlet,
Merchant of Venice,
Pride and Prejudice, and
Cat on a Hot Tin 
Roof. At the same time we purchased our tickets we should have secured our lodging but as usual we
didn’t do that but we found lodging a couple of months before we left at the Plaza Inn & Suites at
Ashland Creek. We have stayed all around
Ashland and you can usually find very nice lodging. This was our second stay at the Plaza Inn and we would definitely stay there again but we will make our lodging arrangements earlier so that we can get the room we want.
Ashland Oregon is roughly 350 from San Francisco nestled in the hills
jus
t across the California State line. You’
ve got a few options to get there - - you could fly from San Francisco to
Medford Oregon and get land transportation to
Ashland. Rail is also an option I’m told but we have never figured out how it really works; once someone told us we would have to take a bus to Oakland then a train to
Medford. The other option is to drive where it takes you from 5 – 6 hours depending on stops to get there, this is the option we have chosen every time. We make a fun road trip out of it. For the past two years are good friends from Chicago have joined us for the
Ashland trip. This year they flew in the morning of the 14
th of June, picked up a SUV at the airport and drove to our place to begin the trip.
When they arrived at our place the table was set for brunch, I made a quiche and a mixed green salad with sweet peas (they are so good this time of the year). After lunch we threw our bags in the SUV and took to the road. Our friend RD drove, he prefers driving to riding and we prefer riding to driving so it worked out perfectly!
We arrived in
Ashland early evening, settled into our rooms, and went out searching for wine at
Liquid Asset, one of our favorite places, and a place for a nice relaxing dinner.
Thai Pepper was the restaurant choice for our first evening; we sat on the patio overlooking
Ashland Creek and had a nice meal and a really good refreshing drink. Our first night in
Ashland was an early evening; we slept like new born babies.
The next day was free to explore because our play
wasn’t until 8:30 pm. Following a suggestion f
rom the concierge we went to the
Rough Valley Growers Crafters Market
. Our concierge said it was a short walk, she lied it was a really long walk but we made the most of it. The market was fun when we finally got there; it was light on crafts but had wonderful produce and foodstuff. I bought some wonderful goat cheese, strawberries and chocolate - - a little something for the room. I also, sampled one of the best tamales I have ever had from one of the local vendors - - it was spicy chicken tamale. The
masa was soft and creamy and the chicken was tender and spicy; beautifully seasoned and balanced! After the market we walked back to town stopping off at Co – Op grocery store to pick up a few more items for an in room picnic before the theater.
It’s finally show time first night and Hamlet was our first play. It is important to note that the festival uses a color, race and gender blind cast and they also have deaf actors in the company; this is so provocative which is one of the reasons we love the festival! This Hamlet was edgy set in modern day Denmark. When you entered the theater Hamlet was sitting on stage holding vigil at his father’s casket. He sat there all decked out in his black suite and shades until the play began - - powerful and awesome! Everyone knows the story but this telling made the play fresh.
Side bar: a woman sitting a couple of seats away from me on the front row remembered me from the hotel so she decided to have a little chat with me during intermission where she said “I didn’t like the two antagonist being played as lesbians especially the Asian woman playing a man and I don’t like the Gertrude character - - after all it is Denmark for God’s sake” - - this is a true story. Gertrude was played by an African American woman. My respond to the woman was “the play takes place in modern time - - have you ever been to Denmark because they have all color and types of people living there.” I was going to say something else but she replied “that’s a good point”, she went back to her seat and we never spoke again. We didn’t let that spoil our evening; our friend summed it up perfectly by saying “people like that should stay home”! The woman was from the “bubble” San Francisco. Most of our plays were in the evening so the days w
ere
ge
nerally spent shopping in sales tax
free Oregon and exploring the quaint neighboring town of Jacksonville. Jacksonville is nestled among rolling hillsides of evergreens, at the entrance to the
Applegate Valley Wine Country. Having preserved its gold rush roots from the
1800's, it is one of few towns able to boast its designation as a National Historic Landmark. The quaint brick and wooden buildings now house an eclectic mix of shops, plentiful restaurants, spas, and unique lodging- not to mention fantastic wineries dotted along the valley. Two of my best meals were in Jacksonville; lunched at Bella Union where the Oregon beer wen
t nicely with a delicious roast beef sandwich and dinner one evening at the Carriage House where I had a deconstructed Cesar Salad - - delicious!
We enjoyed the afternoon at
Fiasco Winery leaving there with wine, balsam
ic vinegar, mustard and
wonderful memories; Dave the proprietor was awesome. We went to the Rough Valley Cheese Shop where we tasted an assortment of cheeses and brought home smoked blue cheese. The
Lillie Belle Farms Handmade Chocolate shop supplied us with salted caramels.
We had a lovely visit at
The Rough Valley Gallery and a market in
Medford. Honestly,
Medford lacked a lot to be desired although we did find a little outlet mall with two shops were we were able to purchase a couple of pieces of clothing at a real discounted price.
Our second play was
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I loved – loved – loved the set in all of it’s simplicity and the character of Britt was excellently played as the numb alcoholic. The next night we saw
The Merchant of Venice in the Elizabethan outdoor theater; I love that theater, it’s beautiful to see a play as it would have been performed in the 17
th century because you had to suffer to enjoy the experience. The days were cool in
Ashland and the nights in an open arena was frigid. Because I experienced the Elizabethan stage last year I was somewhat better prepared this year; I put on pretty much all of the clothing that I brought with me - - next year I am bringing a blanket!!!!
Our last day in
Ashland started with a
back stage tour - - the tour took me back to my days in costume design at the Goodman Theater. It is amazing to see all of the back stage work that goes into producing a play. We saw the set of Pride and Prejudice, our last play as it was being
pre
pared for the matinee performance and the tour ended on the stage of the Elizabethan Theater. The back stage tour led by one of the actors was a highlight of the trip. After the back stage tour we had lunch at
Standing Stone Brewery before our matinee performance. We dined there earlier in the week and decided to return; I h
ad ribs and sweet potato fries one time and a pizza the next but my husband ordered the burger both times and it was really good. The next time I eat at
Standing Stone Brewery I’m going straight for the burger.
I’m not a real big fan of Jane Austin but I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice the play, sitting to my left in the theater was two young girls and they were quite demonstrative in their enjoyment of the play and it rubbed off on me. Once again Ashland delivered a wonderful experience!
Saturday morning we loaded up the SUV with our luggage and new purchases and took to the road towards San Francisco. We stopped for gas in
Yreka and stumbled into a street fair The State of Jefferson Vigilance Committee Re-
enactors! Folks were dressed up in western gear all over town and there was a Chili contest. We stayed for about an hour mingling with the towns’ folk and we tasted all nine chilies in the contest, and voted. This stop was a very nice surprise! One more stop at a farm stand to pick up a basket of stone fruit to bring home.
Our friends visited with us for a few more days in San Francisco and I made a Cherry
Clafoutis (Julia Child’s recipe) with the cherries we picked up at the farm stand. We had a ball and we are looking forward to our next adventure!
own simple version of eggplant parmesan. Starting with one large egg
plant, I sliced it, dredged it in floor (with a little salt & pepper), then into an egg bath (3 eggs and 3 tablespoons water) and coated the eggplant in panko. A little trick I learned along the way was to let the eggplant stand for about 30 minutes before moving to the next step in the preparation which was browning the eggplant in a hot skillet with olive oil.
sauce using can crushed tomatoes, roasted garlic, basil, salt, pepper and red wine. I cooked the sauce for about 20minutes until all of the ingredients melded together, then I blended the sauce so that it with be smooth and full bodied. This preparation would work just as well w
ith any good prepared tomato sauce or using your favorite tomato sauce recipe. My eggplant parmesan is more method than recipe' it is to inspire you to create your own.
After browning the eggplant I placed them in a baking pan, covering the eggplant with sauce and parmesan cheese; I added another slice of eggplant on top with a little sauce and topped it with mozzarella cheese. Into the oven on 350 degrees the dish went for 20 minutes then onto the plate. The eggplant parmesan was served with a mixed green salad with a sherry wine vinaigrette. The texture of the dish was perfect, a little crust on the outside and a nice tender inside.
own simple version of eggplant parmesan. Starting with one large egg
plant, I sliced it, dredged it in floor (with a little salt & pepper), then into an egg bath (3 eggs and 3 tablespoons water) and coated the eggplant in panko. A little trick I learned along the way was to let the eggplant stand for about 30 minutes before moving to the next step in the preparation which was browning the eggplant in a hot skillet with olive oil.
sauce using can crushed tomatoes, roasted garlic, basil, salt, pepper and red wine. I cooked the sauce for about 20minutes until all of the ingredients melded together, then I blended the sauce so that it with be smooth and full bodied. This preparation would work just as well w
ith any good prepared tomato sauce or using your favorite tomato sauce recipe. My eggplant parmesan is more method than recipe' it is to inspire you to create your own.
After browning the eggplant I placed them in a baking pan, covering the eggplant with sauce and parmesan cheese; I added another slice of eggplant on top with a little sauce and topped it with mozzarella cheese. Into the oven on 350 degrees the dish went for 20 minutes then onto the plate. The eggplant parmesan was served with a mixed green salad with a sherry wine vinaigrette. The texture of the dish was perfect, a little crust on the outside and a nice tender inside.
