Oregon Shakespeare Festival Announces Reopening

ASHLAND, ORE.: Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has announced that they will reopen for in-person performances on July 1 in the outdoor Allen Elizabeth Theatre. Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer by Cheryl L. West is slated to run through Oct. 9.

“Fannie is a perfect show with which to reconvene in-person at OSF after a year of theatre shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and of urgent social uprisings,” artistic director Nataki Garrett said in a statement. “This music-filled play about a towering figure in the fight for Civil Rights is an inspiring call to action to continue Hamer’s work.”

Fannie tells the story of the Mississippi-born civil and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, providing a first-person account of her life and alternating between biography and song. Henry Godinez will direct and Felton Offard will serve as music director. Fannie is a co-commission of the Goodman Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. It will run at the Goodman in October and at Seattle Rep in early 2022. Read More: AmericanTheatre.org