Bill Rauch

Bill Rauch succeeded Libby Appel as the fifth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in June 2007. As artistic director he is responsible for selecting eleven plays each season as well as their directors, design teams and cast.

Biography

Rauch graduated from Harvard College in 1984 where he was a recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize for outstanding graduating artist. He has taught at University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, California State University Los Angeles and the University of California Irvine as a Professor of Directing and Community Based Theater. [cite web | title=UC Irvine Drama Department | url=http://drama.arts.uci.edu/faculty/rauch.html | accessdate=2008-06-23] Rauch has directed plays at South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Arena Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and many others. He co-founded the community-based Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles, where he was artistic director for twenty years, during which time he directed over forty plays. [cite web | author= | title=Face Art Changes Lives: Cornerstone's Bill Rauch Testifies Before Congress | url=http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/1999/09/how_facetoface.php | publisher=American Theatre Magazine | date=1999/09 | accessdate=2008-06-21]

Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Before becoming artistic director, Rauch directed "Handler" (2002), "Hedda Gabler" (2003), "The Comedy of Errors" (2004), "By the Waters of Babylon" (2005), and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (2006) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Known as a risk-taker, he is moved by programming that combines Shakespeare, other classics, contemporary work, and plays commissioned for the company. His vision for OSF includes the production of at least one new play per season. He is also interested in launching a major cycle of new plays that explore United States history. An occasional epic text from outside the Western canon such as a Sanskrit, African, or Japanese classic may join the theatrical offerings. He is making direct connections between classic plays and contemporary concerns, exploring beyond the Western Canon to incorporate Asian and African epics into the Festival, and reaching out to youth. Inspired by Shakespeare's history plays, he has initiated a series of original plays focusing on American history. [cite web | author=Kendt, Rob | title=Bill Rauch's Oregon Trail. | url=http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/Oct06/brauch.cfm | publisher=Theatre Communications Group | date= | accessdate=2008-06-23] . [cite web | author=Barnard, Jeff | title=Bill Rauch Faces Change at Shakespeare Festival | url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2008001452_shakespeare17m.html | publisher=Seattle Times | date= | accessdate=2008-06-23]

References

Information from the archives of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Used with permission of Amy Richard, Media Relations, OSF: [e-mail]