“Garrett is focused on putting on stage both new works and new approaches to older works, because attracting and reflecting younger and more diverse audiences is fundamental to the entire ecosystem’s survival.”
Die Already Old White Man – Die!
A Play About The Cleansing of Old White Men From The Cultural Ecosystem – They Made! And the Insertion of Young People of Color Who Do Not Recall The Bad Ol Days When Blacks Owned No Shakespearean Culture. No White Folks Need Apply! Revenge – Is Sweet!
By
John Presco
Nataki Garrett wants her achievements to Immortalize her. This idea of being a Immortal, may not be familiar to black people – wherever they are! Greeks, Romans, and Caucasians, have come in contact with immortal philosophies, especially in regards to Jesus! Garrett is conducting a vicious culture war – employing Shakespeare, and the racist idea OLD WHITE MEN – have to go! Why? Because they will never rid themselves of their innate racist ways, that they brought to the New World in order to work their immortal needs out on Native Americans, and then the black slaves they needed here, to make themselves that much more rich and famous! What about Canada that was a member of a Empire and is a member of the British Commonwealth? Do the Canadians enjoy UNADULTERED Shakespeare?
You never mind, Mr. Presco! Smart-ass!
I didn’t NEED to read between the lines when I read the Ambition of Nataki Garrett, to see how vindictive she is towards white culture, that was kept from the female slaves, thus they grew up ignorant but for the Bible and Black Gospel Music, such is the Black History Theme my first love put on at the Hult Center. I video taped most of itm and bid Marilyn Reed to – GO BIG! She was already getting funding for The Inspirational Sounds Gosper Choir, one of the oldest funded groups in Oregon! Her sister co-wrote ‘Fela This Bitch of a Life’ that became a musical in New York. Shanah was close with the Black Panthers.
For several days I have been discovering and compiling amazing history of Oregon, and, in spiritual theory I gave the Oregon Territory to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Rohnda. I own empathy for Harry and Meghan and have given them white ecosystem titles – and land in America. To read they have been “DEMOTED” fits in with my Bond book ‘The Royal Janitor’. Is this THE TITLE the Old White King of England will give his son’s wife? Why? What did she do? Well, it looks like she was doing a Black Woke Number on that Old White Man – and wanted him dead – so the world press will pick up her history that was so grand when she rode a coach along the Long Road to Windsor.
“Can’t he just die, and your brother be king? He’s going to want some of my lime-light, you know. He’s tooooooooo old, and waaaaaaay too white! We just want Young Royals to carry on. Consider what that old white man did to your mother – because she was getting all that attention.”
Does Garret know the story of ‘King Lear’? How much history does she know about Old Man Shakespear? How about Meghan? Does she know any royal history – which includes – her family history that she can not seem TO _______GRASP!
In 1971, I and my Black Brother fought the Mafia for a building on Beacon Hill. We won our court case after they tried to murder me. Shaheeb played Jazz trombone in New Orleans. He said a white man must know twice as much as the black members in order to play with them. Marilyn introduced me to Les MacCann after we bonded at fifteen and sixteen. Meghan and Garrett need A BIG TIME OUT to rethink their approach – TO IMMORTALITY!
Never believe your own propaganda! Does Nataki Garrett – own any love for Shakespeare?
In the play ‘Confederates’ you see the black female slave wanting to shoot the white men who enclaved her. Here is one of my Webb kin who led many Union Soldiers against real Confederates – with real rifles. Alexander is kin to Shakespeare.
John Presco
President: Oregon Shakespeare Society
Relocations: Let’s talk more about OSF – Ashland News – Independent, Nonprofit, Community News
Sir Henry Alexander Webb was usher to the Privy Council of Katherine Parr, Queen Regent of Britian in the 16th century, 6th Queen of Henry VIII of England; to whose influence the future sovereigns Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I owed a great deal.
Wilson and Webb | Rosamond Press
Proud White People Will Give New Names | Rosamond Press
ec·o·sys·tem
noun
ECOLOGY
- a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.”the marine ecosystem of the northern Gulf had suffered irreparable damage”
- (in general use) a complex network or interconnected system.”Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem”
Lear, the aging king of an ancient pre-Christian England, decides to retire. He will divide his kingdom between his three daughters, leaving them and their husbands to rule jointly. But before he tells them which portion of land they will receive, Lear demands that they answer one little question: which of them loves him the most?
Lear’s elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, praise their father obsequiously, and he rewards each of them—along with their husbands, Albany and Cornwall—with a third of the kingdom. He saves the best land for his favorite daughter, Cordelia. Cordelia, however, refuses to make a dishonest, toadying display of her love for her father as her sisters have. Outraged at her resistance, Lear curses and disowns her, ignoring the protests of his loyal advisor Kent, whom he exiles for his resistance. The King of France nevertheless marries Cordelia on the strength of her own merits, and Cordelia reluctantly departs, leaving her father in the care of her sisters.
“I want OSF to exist well beyond me, 25 years from now and a time when I won’t even be here on Earth, I want it to still be here,” Garrett said. “And that means that my mandate is to rethink the way we do things.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the argument that Mr. Rothschild made in his second column
A Rhetoric ‘Time Out’ For Shakespeare | Rosamond Press
Rothschild’s opinion started a community conversation, said Bert Etling, who edits Rothschild’s column at Ashland.news. People who love OSF but don’t love the new mission have posted on Facebook and participated in letter-writing campaigns to Garrett’s office.
“People don’t want to lose control of things that are important to them and if they feel that something is being taken away, they’re going to protest that and they’re going to make their discomfort known,” Etling said.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Demoted on Royal Family Website (usmagazine.com)
King Lear Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary
The Black Doll of Sawtell
Posted on June 22, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have Been Demoted on the Official Royal Website
Mehera Bonner
Wed, September 28, 2022 at 10:01 AM·1 min read
In this article:
Charles IIIKing of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms
Meghan, Duchess of SussexAmerican actress
William, Prince of WalesDuke of Cambridge
Prince Andrew, Duke of YorkSecond son and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born 1960)
Catherine, Princess of WalesWife of William, Prince of Wales
Anne, Princess RoyalDaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The royal family’s extended mourning period following Queen Elizabeth II’s passing has officially ended, meaning changes to royal titles and the royal website are now underway. Prince William and Kate Middleton have been promoted on the family’s website to Prince and Princess of Wales, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been “demoted,” according to reports from Page Six.
The outlet notes that pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “pushed all the way down to the bottom of the list.” Turns out, the couple used to be listed right below William and Kate, but after stepping away from senior royal duties, they were pushed directly below Princess Anne. However, in the wake of Charles becoming King, the couple is now at the bottom of the page right before disgraced royal Prince Andrew (who is listed last).
Meanwhile, it doesn’t appear as though King Charles has made any decisions on whether Meghan and Harry’s children, Archie and Lilibet, will be able to use their Prince and Princess titles, or have HRH status. But a decision should be coming soon now that the royal mourning period is over.
“Harry and Meghan were worried about the security issue, and being prince and princess brings them the right to have certain levels of royal security,” a source recently told The Sun. “There have been a lot of talks over the past week.” The couple is also reportedly “insistent that Archie and Lilibet are prince and princess,” but “have been left furious that Archie and Lilibet cannot take the title HRH,” said the source. “That is the agreement—they can be prince and princess, but not HRH because they are not working royals.”
Relocations: Let’s talk more about OSF
August 18, 2022
The reinvention of OSF is a major gamble, and it comes at a time unpropitious for gambling
By Herbert Rothschild
I used my column last week to catalyze a community conversation about the offerings at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Thank you to everyone who sent responses directly to me, posted them on the Ashland.news Facebook page, and submitted letters to the editor. I’d like to keep the conversation going because OSF is not only a treasured arts organization but also has a major place in Ashland’s economy and national identity.
The gist of that column was the extraordinarily provocative assertion that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival should stage the plays of Shakespeare. Not because Shakespeare needs OSF. As long as there is theater in the English-speaking world, his plays will be staged. As I write, they are being staged in parks across the United States, including New York City, Nashville, Dallas, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago and three locations in Montana, to name but some.
And contrary to those who believe that Shakespeare attracts only old white folks and thus — after four centuries of popularity — will fall into oblivion when people my age die off, I cite the experience of Rosa Joshi, a middle-aged woman of South Asian descent who has produced Shakespeare’s plays at various theaters, including OSF, and currently teaches theater at Seattle University. In an interview on the Seattle Shakespeare Festival website, Joshi recalls falling in love with Shakespeare at age 14 when she was a schoolgirl in Kuwait.
The question, then, is not whether Shakespeare needs OSF but whether OSF needs Shakespeare. Its current leadership seems determined to find the answer to that question by staging fewer and fewer of his plays— three this season, only two next year. The definitive answer will take the form of attendance numbers and income from ticket sales. We’ll see.
Let me advance this discussion now by returning to the issue of demographics. While, in general, Shakespeare’s audience is not confined to old white folks, old white folks probably represent the largest single component of OSF’s audience, and a large majority of those who travel from other places to see the plays. I suggest that this is because of the cost. It’s one thing to pack a picnic basket and attend a performance of Shakespeare in the city park. It’s another to come up to Ashland from the Bay area to attend several performances and pay for lodging and meals out.
How shall we respond to such a reality? Shall we view it through the lens of our current culture wars, resent white “dominance,” and gamble that a different OSF will attract audiences of equivalent size but different demographics? It’s unlikely that such a strategy will succeed for OSF, because there is so little racial and ethnic diversity locally. And even if that strategy fills the seats in OSF’s three theaters, it won’t fill the hotels, restaurants and shops that depend heavily on visitors.
Let’s say that what we are witnessing is a desire to expand audience demographics by heavily emphasizing contemporary plays in the belief that, if they are well done, people who can see such plays in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle will come nonetheless to see them here without the inducement of Shakespeare.
That’s a major gamble. OSF’s uniqueness was its highly professional productions of Shakespeare’s plays, originally only in the Elizabethan theater (the first such in the U.S.). That was what brought people to Ashland, and many returned year after year. Absent an emphasis on Shakespeare, OSF’s uniqueness will disappear.
Not only is the reinvention of OSF a major gamble, it also comes at a time unpropitious for gambling. COVID-19 struck a major blow to all performing arts organizations, and they are still struggling to recover. Smoke from wildfires, plus record-breaking heat waves, added to OSF’s woes. Under such circumstances, most enterprises play to their strengths. In its 2021-2022 season, for example, The Metropolitan Opera staged Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” its first work by a black composer, and Brett Dean’s contemporary “Hamlet,” but the offerings were heavily weighted toward tried-and-true works like Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Gudonov.”
In the future, it’s unlikely that the environmental conditions for OSF will get better than they have been so far this year. Yes, COVID-19 is still around and has caused a few cancellations of OSF performances when it hit cast members, but it hasn’t shut down the theaters. And my understanding is that this will be the norm for the foreseeable future. Also, we’ve experienced only a few bad smoke days, and the worst heat days have been fewer and not as bad as last year. Given global warming, however, smoke and heat will only increase. So OSF’s strategy for recovery needs to demonstrate major promise of success by the end of this season.
I urge people to keeping talking about this subject — among yourselves and with OSF management as well as in this publication. The stakes for Ashland are high. I’d bet on Shakespeare.
Herbert Rothschild is an unpaid Ashland.news board member. Email him at herbertrothschild6839@gmail.com.
Rosamond Press 