Oregon Shakespeare Festival Presents On-Demand Stream of 2014 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Oregon Shakespeare Festival is offering its 2014 production of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, directed by Kent Gash (Robert O'Hara's Barbecue, Cori Thomas' Lockdown) and choreographed by Byron Easley (Kirsten Childs' The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, the Classical Theatre of Harlem production of The Tempest), for on-demand streaming on the Festival's website, June 1-26. Tickets, $15 (or $25 for a two-show package with OSF's current virtual presentation, Snow in Midsummer), are on sale today.

In Gash's staging of The Comedy of Errors, Antipholus and his servant, Dromio, go looking for family they lost years ago. Traveling from the rural South, they journey to the big city and find themselves in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. And, surprise: suddenly there are two identical Antipholi and two identical Dromios, which has everybody in town (including significant others) seeing double. To make matters worse, another family member is about to be executed for breaking local law. Laughs fly as the clock ticks in Shakespeare's farce about the craziest family reunion ever.

Gash says of the play, "What I love about The Comedy of Errors is that it is comedy, and great fun, but also that it's comedy with a lot of heart, and it's backbone, or spine, or structure, is really about a family being brought back together." Of his staging, he says, "I've chosen to set the play in the Harlem Renaissance because so much of the African-American experience in this country has been about families being separated. And that really begins in slavery: families were sold apart from each other, couples were broken apart, families were destroyed by the system of slavery because it was all about economics. And so, often, after Reconstruction and, really, ever since, you would be walking somewhere, you could be in a city far away from where you're from and what you think your origins are, and you'd see someone across the way, or you'd meet someone, and you'd think 'I recognize you, we're from the same tribe, I recognize myself in you.'"

The cast of Gash's Comedy of Errors features Rodney Gardiner* (Dromio of Louisiana, Dromio of Harlem), Tobie Windham* (Antipholus of Louisiana, Antipholus of Harlem), Omoze Idehenre (Adriana), Monique Robinson* (Luciana), Jerome Preston Bates* (Egeon), R.J. Foster* (Duke Solinus), Bakesta King* (Courtesan), Mildred Ruiz-Sapp* (Dr. Pinch, Luce), Ramiz Monsef* (Angelo, Police), Franchelle Stewart Dorn* (Emilia), Steven Sapp* (Balthazar, Police), Keith Leroyal (First Merchant, Second Merchant), and Mark Murphey (Gustave the Butler, Jailer, Police). Understudies were Kevin Kenerly*, Tyrone Wilson*, R.J. Foster*, Bakesta King*xq, Keith Leroyal, Anasazi Bhakti, Britney Simpson, Russell S. Yamamoto, and Corey Porter.

The creative team includes Jo Winiarski (scenic designer), Kara Harmon (costume designer), Dawn Chiang (lighting designer), Shawn Duan (projection designer), Justin Ellington (composer), Matt Callahan (sound designer), U. Jonathan Toppo (fight director), Dawn-Elin Fraser (voice/text director), and Martine Kei Green-Rogers (dramaturg). Jeremy Eisen was the production stage manager.

Videography and sound recording is by Richard Stucker. The post-production team includes Josh Horvath (post-production sound editor), Benajah Cobb (caption management), Amy Miller and Caro Zeller (captioning), and Micah Stieglitz (post-production editing and color grading).

For more information visit: https://www.osfashland.org/

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