Local artists on the bill for Ashland fest

Bay Area fans of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival can enjoy the first section of the renowned theater company’s 2021 season without having to make the trek to Ashland, Ore. And when the theater transitions from digital to inperson offerings, top Bay Area artists are also part of the lineup.

The season begins with recordings of shows from the 2017 and 2018 seasons, screened on O! — the theater’s digital broadcast service. “Julius Caesar” (March 127) is directed by Shana Cooper and choreographed by the Bay Area’s Erika Chong Shuch, bringing with it a fresh resonance after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

Up next are Mary Kathryn Nagle’s “Manahatta” (March 29April 24), which makes connections between 17th century and presentday oppression of Native Americans, and Frances YaChu Cowhig’s “Snow in Midsummer” (May 329), about a wrongfully convicted woman and the survivor who must clear her name. (The show reenvisions

the classical Chinese drama “The Injustice to Dou Yi That Moved Heaven and Earth.”) Laurie Woolery and Justin Audibert, respectively, direct.

When health authorities allow, OSF plans to switch to inperson shows, starting with “August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned” starring Steven Anthony Jones, who triumphed in the oneperson show in a 2019 collaboration by Marin Theatre Company, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and Ubuntu Theater Project (now called Oakland Theater Project). New Theatre-Works Artistic Director Tim Bond directs.

The inperson slate continues with the West Coast premiere of Mona Mansour’s “Unseen,” about an American photographer found unconscious at a Syrian massacre site with no memory of how she got there. Evren Odcikin directs. Next is Dominique Morisseau’s “Confederates,” directed by Nataki Garrett. The world premiere time-travels between two stories of Black women: a former slave turned Union spy and a college professor. The company concludes this series with its first winter production, “It’s Christmas, Carol!” by Mark Bedard, Brent Hinkley and John Tufts.

Also throughout the year, the company plans to offer new online pieces, including “The Cymbeline Project,” conceived by Garrett and created and directed as a multiepisode piece by Scarlett Kim; “You Go Girl!” — a short film, written by Zoey Martinson and directed by Shariffa Ali, about a Black standup comedian scattering her mother’s ashes among the trees of southern Oregon; and 19 micro-commissions of digital art, including a piece by Chong Shuch, Rowena Richie and Ryan Tacata, all of whom have strong Bay Area ties.

Subscriptions to the first threeshow digital series are $40, or $15 per show. Call 8002198161 or visit www.osfashland.org.