Seniors visit annual Shakespeare fest

Danny Langhorne
Editor-in-Chief

For more than 25 years, the senior trip to Ashland, Oreg., for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been a part of the senior experience.

A busload of 52 seniors drove to Ashland last weekend accompanied by Ms. Callahan, Ms. Guss, and later joined by Ms. Ruth and former SBHS teacher Mr. McEachen.

This year’s trip was exclusively for seniors in AP English Literature classes.

“It’s fun (for students) to go with a group of like-minded students to a fun and beautiful town,” said Ms. Callahan.

During their time in Ashland students stayed at the Bard’s Inn, the traditional hotel for SBHS students.

In order of appearance, the plays that the students saw were The Clay Cart, Welcome Home Jenny Sutter, Fences, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“Usually there is a weak link in one of the four, which is diappointing, but this time all four were excellent in different ways,” said Ms. Ruth.

Students were fortunate to talk with actors Michael J. Hume (The Clary Cart) and Gwendolyn Mulamba (Welcome Home Jenny Sutter) to discuss their process in being cast for roles, becoming the character and their history with the festival.

The actors talked with students the day after they had seen their respective plays.

Students were given a backstage tour of the theaters by the actors from the festival where they would be watching the various plays.

They showed how much work both actors and stagehands have to put into the hundreds of shows during the season from February to October.

Students had a lot of free time to shop and visit the many different restaurants in Ashland between the different events.

Coffee Shops, Lythia Park and organic restaurants were a few of the places where students could be found passing the time.

Plenty of music and dancing went on in the rooms of students at the Bard’s Inn.

When students filled out their checks to pay for the trip, they were asked to make them payable to the Ashland Shakespeare Club.

According to Ms. Callahan, this was done to keep the money in an account at SBHS.

She attributed the need for an account on campus for easier access to pay for costs of the trip.

A spot on the trip roster cost $370, but payment plans and scholarships were worked out with students who would have trouble paying.

“It is just easier for us to keep the money here rather than going to the school district,” said Callahan.