West Coast Premiere Of HOW TO CATCH CREATION Opens At OSF

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open How To Catch Creation, helmed by Incoming Artistic Director Nataki Garrett in her OSF directorial debut, on July 27 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are July 23, 25 and 26, and the play runs through Oct. 26, 2019.

Spanning more than 40 years, How To Catch Creation is a tender story of love, longing, having your heart broken and simply existing. Playwright Christina Anderson, winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Award, explores the universal act of creation, through the experiences of four lives in 2014 that intersect and collide in the most unpredictable ways, while the mid-1960s run a parallel course in a series of fast-paced, intercut scenes. In the earlier storyline, G.K. Marche black, queer, feminist writer living in San Francisco's Tenderloin-writes her latest novel and navigates the shifting dynamic in her romantic relationship due to lifechanging news from her partner. Decades later, the implications of that moment still echo in the lives of four individuals.

"The beauty of the way that Christina Anderson constructs this storytelling is that it truly is about the process of creation and discovery, where the characters are on this journey to begin to realize who they are and the legacy they want to create for themselves," says Garrett. "It's about the complex simplicity of relationships and friendships, but also how difficult it is to move through the practice of building relationships when the rest of your life starts to take over."

Anderson, who discovered playwriting at age 15, believes the plays should be a dance. "They should be choreography, a painting that slowly starts to develop itself," Anderson says in OSF's Illuminations magazine. She is also cognizant of how space and time affects storytelling, constructing a series of rapid short scenes that tend to shift frequently between locations. How To Catch Creation, as many of her plays, is told in layered time with the past and present bleeding into one another.

"I find that Christina Anderson's artistry is particularly potent in the way that she creates characters who have dimension, tangibility, complexity and cohesion," adds Rebecca Clark Carey, voice and text director. "I'm in awe of how she puts language into the characters' mouths that has such precise weight and shape, and at the same time feels so effortless."

The cast of How To Catch Creation features Chris Butler as Griffin, Christiana Clark as Tami, Kimberly Monks as Riley, William Thomas Hodgson as Stokes, Greta Oglesby as G.F Marche and Safiya Fredericks as Natalie.

Scenic design for How To Catch Creation is by Emmy-nominated set designer, Jason Sherwood in his OSF debut. Kaitlyn Pietras (Mother Road, Mohada, Unison) is project designer, costumes are by Dede M. Ayite (The Wiz, Unison, Henry IV Part I & II) and lighting design is by Xavier Pierce (Othello, Shakespeare in Love) - all three are recurring members of OSF's production teams. T. Carlis Roberts is composer and sound designer, also in their OSF debut, Roberts is currently Associate Professor of Music at University of California, Berkeley. Robert C. Goodwin is production dramaturg and Rebecca Clark Carey is voice and text director. Sarah Lozoff is intimacy director and U. Jonathan Toppo is fight director. Molly Norris is production stage manager and TaiReika L.A. is production assistant.

How To Catch Creation is sponsored by Sid and Karen DeBoer, The Kinsman Foundation and The Teel Family Foundation.

Upcoming engagement programming related to How To Catch Creation includes a Festival Noons conversation with actors Greta Oglesby, Christiana Clark, William Thomas Hodgson and Safiya Fredericks on August 7. Tickets and information are available at osfashland.org/FestivalNoons.

A sign-interpreted performance is scheduled for the September 8 matinee performance at 1:30 p.m. Contact the Box Office at 800-219-8161 or email boxoffice@osfashland.org to purchase tickets in the Deaf Community section; these tickets not available online. Information on additional accessibility accommodations is at www.osfashland.org/Accessibility/.

How To Catch Creation tickets are available at the OSF Box Office, or online at www.osfashland.org/HowToCatchCreation.

OSF's full 2019 playbill includes As You Like It, Mother Road, Indecent and Hairspray - The Broadway Musical in the Angus Bowmer Theatre; How To Catch Creation, Cambodian Rock Band, Between Two Knees and La Comedia of Errors (also in performed in other venues) in the intimate Thomas Theatre; Macbeth, Alice In Wonderland and All's Well That Ends Well in the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.

The 2019 season continues through October 27 and is sponsored by U.S. Bank. Check ticket availability for all shows at www.osfashland.org or call 800-219-8161.

Biographies of directors, designers and actors for the 2019 season can all be found at osfashland.org/en/company/osf-company/.