Theater in My Veins

by Laura Jones

“Every time I walk into one of the theaters in Ashland, I'm reminded of the feeling of seeing magic on stage for the first time.”

My great-grandmother grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in Berlin. Their house was filled with art, and the whole family loved theater. They had to leave Germany… for obvious reasons and they eventually ended up coming to California, but they had to leave most of their artwork behind.

When they arrived and had settled, my great-grandmother decided that she wanted to continue to go to the theater and make sure her children appreciated the arts. So she started to bring her family to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every year. When they started out, they would go in the winter and camp in tents in the snow at a park on the edge of town. My grandma and her brother were just little kids. They kept these trips up for years.

My mom remembers being fourteen and watching my great-grandma go up to a group of large motorcyclists staying in the same park and firmly asking them to be quieter at night because, well, no one could sleep. They were always quiet after that and remembered my family pretty well.

My mom has gone to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival too every year since she can remember, and until four years ago my great-grandmother came with us. Ashland is basically my second home. We go in summer now, but it's the same energy. We're still there for our fix of theater, still there to spend some time in a different world.

It's a beautiful little town surrounded by mountains and filled with family-owned restaurants, bakeries, boutiques and bookstores. Lithia Park, right next to the theater, is where my great-grandma and I tossed bread into the pond dutifully ignoring the "Don't Feed the Ducks" sign, where I played on the grass and screamed on the swings when my toes touched the trees.

And, Ashland is where I learned to love theater. The first play I ever saw was there. I don't remember what it was anymore, but every time I walk into one of the theaters in Ashland, I'm reminded of the feeling of seeing magic on stage for the first time.

There are three theaters in Ashland and the outdoor one, the Elizabethan, was built to emulate the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare's plays were first performed. It's a beautiful theater, but not in the traditional way that old theaters are beautiful. It's not painted intricately or lit by a giant chandelier. The stage has two stories and a big spiral staircase leading between. Characters often pop out of windows from backstage. Because it's outdoors, on summer evenings the Elizabethan Theater is always warm in the way that only summer evenings are meant to be.

This is where I was inspired to get into theater myself. This little town showed me what it looks like to take an audience's breath away, what it's like to have them on the edge of their seats or laughing and crying at the same time.

When you watch a really good play, you see the actors feel all the emotions in real time. You watch another person laughing or in pain and it's happening right in front of you, and as humans we can't help but feel some sort of reaction to that. It is the most intimate form of interaction a person can have with a stranger because, you just watched someone dig deep into their soul and find the realest feeling they could and lay it out in front of you. It's vulnerable in a way that nothing else is.

I was always shy, but the more shows I saw, the more I felt pulled toward this world. I basically whispered my first audition for Grease in seventh grade. But as I studied more, I grew more confident. And when I started getting into stage managing, I realized that I was able to do this because being vulnerable as an actor had taught me that I was strong enough to be a leader, to tell my own metaphorical motorcycle gang that they needed to be quieter.

And I realized that the one problem I'd had as an actor was solved. I hated that I could never watch the show and be part of the action. But as stage manager, I can be involved in every piece of the thing I love most, and watch it happen. And I've found all of this because my great-grandma knew that this mattered. That theater mattered.