The Black Swan served as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 3rd theater from 1977 to 2001. I was here sometime in the late 1980s when a friend's parents lived in Ashland and our gang would come up a weekend of revelry and theater.
This Building was originally an automobile dealership, and was acquired in 1969 as a second-floor scene shop and first-floor rehearsal hall for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Company members began using it to stage "Midnight" readings for one another, and is a practice continued to this day. They invited friends who brought other friends, and the place became an underground hit.
The Artistic Director at that time recognized the opportunity to take risks with unconventional staging and subjects, and called for its development as a third OSF theater. That was a challenge as the place could hold only 138 seats, all within five rows of the stage. That required a certain amount of "tucking and squeezing." Each director also had to solve the problem of an immovable roof support in the middle of the stage, which inevitably became an integral part of many plays. For example, in one scene, with a horizontal piece added, it became a painting of a crucifixion.
The Black Swan reverted to its earlier roles as working space in 2002 when it was replaced by the New/Thomas Theater. In 2011 it also became the home for the Black Swan Lab, which serves as an incubator for new writers and cutting edge dramatic works. Each year, several OSF actors are assigned to the Lab as one of their three regular repertory assignments. One graduate of the Black Swan Lab that I particularly enjoyed during the 2012 Season was "All The Way". read more
