The Oregon Shakespeare Festival
  
The Festival began in 1935. OSF is the nation's oldest and largest theatre in rotating repertory. OSF presents an eight-month season of 11 plays—five by Shakespeare and six by classic and contemporary playwrights—in rotating repertory in three theatres: the outdoor Elizabethan Stage (seats 1,190), the Angus Bowmer Theatre (seats 601) and the intimate New Theatre (seats 260-350, depending on audience seating configuration).

  
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Elizabethan Theatre is modeled on Renaissance London's open-air Globe, but OSF's plays are staged under the stars. Unlike the other theaters at the festival, which show contemporary drama as well as Shakespeare, this stage belongs exclusively to the Bard. The 1200-seat theater includes a balcony that was added in the last decade to expand capacity and shut out the clamor of Ashland. That way, when the actors take the stage, you can truly feel like you've traveled back to Shakespeare's time.

Sometimes in the course of a day or two, you'll have the delight of detecting yesterday's noble Roman in today's brow-beaten Neapolitan, or recognize this afternoon's tour-weary comedienne as tonight's tormented queen.
OSF employs approx 450 theatre professionals including more than 70 actors, and one of the pleasures of rotating repertory is seeing those actors play a number of roles.