Seattle Gay News
Issue 27, Volume 47, July 5, 2019
Arts & Entertainment Oregon Shakespeare Festival advances social justice
As You Like It (2019): Rex Young (Touchstone) and Will Wilhelm (Aubrey) – Photo by Jenny Graham
by Alice Bloch SGN A&E Writer OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL ASHLAND, OREGON Through October 27
At the beginning of every Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) post-performance discussion, membership coordinator Whitney Reed points out that OSF isn’t just a theater company; it’s a social justice organization. The facts back up her claim. OSF, one of the first theaters to institute color-blind casting, now has the most diverse company in the country. In addition, OSF’s offerings
July theater openings
Photo courtesy of Seattle Shakespeare Company
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer July is, of course, the month when FREE OUTDOOR THEATER begins all over the area (donations always accepted). The official launch is at Volunteer Park for the whole
weekend of July 13 and 14, all day long (see below for the link to the schedule). This month there are also a couple of world premieres and a revamped Gilbert & Sullivan operetta along with other varieties of shows.
see JULY OPENINGS page 2
always include plays about the experience of racial and sexual minorities, written and directed by women and persons of color, with casts that include transgender actors and actors living with disabilities. And have I mentioned that the productions and performances are of the highest quality? This season includes the beloved musical Hairspray, plays about Native Ameri-
can and Cambodian history, a new play about Blackness and queerness, an updated take on The Grapes of Wrath, a tribute to Yiddish theater, a revival of a 1932 version of Alice in Wonderland, a bilingual adaptation of The Comedy of Errors, and three other Shakespeare plays.
see OSF page 6
Agreeably quirky Spider-Man: Far from Home a superheroic home run
Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far from Home – Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures
by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME Now playing
Spider-Man: Far from Home picks things up fairly soon after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Peter Parker (Tom Holland), a.k.a. everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-
see SPIDER-MAN page 5