Ashland Beckett Shorts
New Festival from Award-Winning Playwright
by Kimberly Colburn
Ashland-based playwright Octavio Solis is internationally known for his writing. His plays Mother Road and Quixote Nuevo have been produced in many places nationally over the last few years. But now, he's taking over downtown Ashland October 24-27 and with Protagonist Events is producing the Ashland Beckett Shorts, a spectacular one-weekend-only festival of Samuel Beckett's rarely seen short plays (and one prose piece set to an original musical composition).
He was inspired to create this one-time only festival during the pandemic. Solis has long been attracted to the bleak but comic vision of Beckett’s works, but found new resonance in his short plays while in lockdown. “I find comfort and solace in the courage of his unblinkered imagination,” Solis explains. “Staring into the void and laughing at it is utterly basic to our daily lives, and yet it is so suppressed, so “unnamable”, that we hardly realize we are doing it, much less coming to terms with the meaning of those seemingly futile gestures.”
The festival aims to celebrate the newfound resonance of Beckett’s experimental work with the Ashland area. The festival will transform non-traditional theatre spaces into immersive performance venues in the heart of downtown Ashland, where attendees will journey from one location to another to experience each unique piece. Rain or shine, participants will witness Beckett's work in its true form and push the boundaries of what theatre is -- in the way Beckett intended.
Solis reached out to Seattle-based dramaturg/producer Kimberly Colburn with Protagonist Events to produce the event with him. Like the producers, the artistic team features artists with a national presence who have a connection with the Ashland community.
Universes, known for their theatrical fusions, are bringing that sensibility to Krapp’s Last Tape, one of Beckett’s best known short plays.
Composer Michael Roth is reviving his composition that was personally sanctioned by Beckett himself: Imagination Dead Imagine, wherein a string quartet listens to voices on a laptop and responds.
Jackie Apodaca, Artistic Director of the Ashland New Plays Festival, directs physical actors James Donlon and Alina Cenal in Act Without Words II.
Oregon-based company Puppeteers for Fears will bring their unique (and adult) approach to puppeteering in What/Where, the last play Beckett wrote.
Accomplished solo performer Amanda Moody will bring Not I to life inside a display case window
91-year-old local actress Dee Maaske performs Rockaby.
Local artist Cody Bustamante is creating special works for each piece to be included in the program, and more visual arts integration is in process, like a special commemorative poster that will soon be up around town. "What an amazing collection of talent!” exclaims producer Colburn. “The energy around this project illustrates how much we all share Octavio’s love of Beckett’s dark humor in the face of futility, and we want every aspect of the festival to inhabit that world.”
Availability is limited to four performances, happening nightly and cannot be increased! Tickets to the festival go on sale on October 1, and early access ticketing is available only for sponsors beginning September 23. For tickets, to sponsor the festival, or for more information, go to ashlandbeckettshorts.com.