Rosa Joshi Former NWAAT Artistic Director
ASHLAND, OR (October 12, 2023) – Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) announces major updates to its 2024 season including the addition of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, the appointment of Rosa Joshi as OSF’s new Associate Artistic Director, and the extension of the previously announced 2024 season.
Presented by OSF and Portland Center Stage, and produced in association with upstart crow collective and Play On Shakespeare, Coriolanus will play in the Thomas Theatre July 23 – October 13 following its run at Portland Center Stage April 20 – May 19. This rarely produced and powerful work was translated by Sean San José in a commission by Play On Shakespeare, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and creating modern translations of Shakespeare’s work.
Coriolanus tells a story of civil unrest, political upheaval, and a war hero who is driven to defend and then destroy his own country—a powerful message about the fragility of democracy that will resonate in an election year. San José’s modern verse translation will be produced in collaboration with upstart crow collective, a company dedicated to producing classical plays with racially diverse casts of women and non-binary people, re-imagining these works for a contemporary audience. OSF and upstart crow collective’s previous collaborations include King John (2022) and Bring Down the House (2020).
Coriolanus will be adapted and directed by Rosa Joshi, who will be helming her fifth production at OSF and her first as the Festival’s newly appointed Associate Artistic Director. Throughout her career she has created work independently through self-producing, and in 2006 she co-founded upstart crow collective.
Artistic Director Tim Bond says, “I am ecstatic that Rosa Joshi will be joining OSF this December as my Associate Artistic Director. As a highly sought-after director and accomplished producer, Rosa is committed to creating ambitious productions of classical work featuring women, non-binary and BIPOC artists. She brings a ferocious appetite for discovery as a highly physical and visually imaginative director and bold interpreter of Shakespeare and other classics and contemporary works.”
Joshi was a faculty member of Seattle University for 22 years where she chaired the department of Performing Arts and Arts Leadership. She has also taught at The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and Cornish College for the Arts. She will continue her work as Co-Artistic Producer of upstart crow collective in partnership with Betsy Schwartzand Kate Wisniewski.
Bond added, “I feel very fortunate to have such an accomplished partner to collaborate with as we begin to build our team of artists and producers to meet the challenges and exciting opportunities that rotating repertory producing presents. Rosa will be a tremendous partner in overseeing the nurturing and development of our acting company with her deep training in Shakespeare text analysis, physical theatre, and acting training. It is also thrilling to have Rosa at the helm of the co-production of Coriolanus in our 2024 season.”
On her appointment as Associate Artistic Director, Joshi shared, “I am thrilled to be joining OSF to help Tim realize his vision for the future of the company. OSF has felt like an artistic home to me from the very first time that I worked there. The dedication to artistry, the nurturing of company, the challenge and thrill of repertory producing, along with the commitment to expanding our ideas of what the classical canon is and who gets to tell classic stories on the American stage, all inspires me as an artist and producer.”
The addition of Coriolanus to the 2024 season will make it the 10th production in the Festival’s previously announced 2024 season, which is being extended to October 13. This will allow for an additional four weeks of performances for productions in the Angus Bowmer, Thomas, and Allen Elizabethan Theatres including Macbeth, Born with Teeth, Lizard Boy, Much Ado About Nothing, and Jane Eyre.
Interim Executive Director Tyler Hokama says, “We’re delighted to be adding Coriolanus to the 2024 season. This collaboration with Portland Center Stage, Play On Shakespeare, and upstart crow collective is truly special because it allows us to combine our resources to amplify our shared goals of nurturing artists and reaching more audiences.” Hokama adds, “We’re also pleased to extend our 2024 season through mid-October, offering our audiences even more options and allowing school groups—which are critical to the fabric of our audiences—to join us at the Festival in the early fall of 2024.”
Tickets to Coriolanus and the entire 2024 season will go on sale in November 2023. More information about the 2024 season can be found at osfashland.org/2024.
For media inquiries, please contact Javier Dubon at communications@osfashland.org.
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About the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musicals, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country. OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre. Learn more at osfashland.org.
About Our Collaborators:
Portland Center Stage
Portland Center Stage is the largest theater company in Portland, Oregon, and its mission is to create transcendent theatrical experiences and community programs that break down the barriers separating people. Established in 1988 as a branch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the company became independent in 1994. PCS’s home is at The Armory, a historic building originally constructed in 1891. After a major renovation, The Armory opened in 2006 as the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, the first performing arts venue in the country, and the first building in Portland, to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. Each season, roughly 150,000 visitors attend PCS to enjoy a mix of classical, contemporary, and world premiere productions, along with PCS’s annual JAW New Play Festival, and a variety of high-quality education and community programs.
upstart crow collective
upstart crow collective was co-founded by Betsy Schwartz, Kate Wisniewski and Rosa Joshi in 2006. Its mission is to produce classical plays with racially diverse casts of women and non-binary people, re-imagining these works for a contemporary audience. The work of the collective is text centered, highly physical, visually imaginative and the process centers the experiences of women in the world. upstart crow collective creates opportunities for cis gendered women, trans women, and non-binary people as part of its commitment to include artists who have been traditionally marginalized by the very male Shakespearean canon.
Play On Shakespeare
Since its inception in 2015, Play On Shakespeare has commissioned dozens of contemporary playwrights and translators to translate 39 Shakespeare plays into modern English, with a majority of the commissions being helmed by BIPOC and womxn playwrights. Far from a paraphrasing exercise, each playwright was tasked with matching Shakespeare’s linguistic rigor as they approached the text, preserving rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, meter, imagery, symbolism, rhetoric, and the structure that make Shakespeare’s plays engaging and accessible to today’s audience. Play On Shakespeare partners with artists and organizations across the globe to deliver and advocate for these translations through theatrical productions, podcasts, and publications. Play On Shakespeare is made possible through generous support of the Hitz Foundation. For more information about Play On Shakespeare, reach out to Matt Gross of Heart Spade PR at matt@heartspadepr.com.
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