ASHLAND, Ore. — Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Nataki Garrett has resigned from the organization, with her last day slated to be May 31.
According to a news release from OSF, board member Octavio Solis will take on additional responsibilities to help with the transition. Solis said the organization will immediately search for their next artistic director.
“We are actively conducting a search for an interim Artistic Director to ferry the company through the season, to which we are unwaveringly committed,” Solis said in the news release. “In the meantime, we, the board, along with the staff, artists, and audiences, offer our steadfast guidance and support to the company as the 2023 season opens.”
OSF’s Board of Directors Executive Committee will work on development, marketing and finance work during the transition, the release said. Board members Tony Drummond and Diane Yu will serve as co-leaders of the leadership transition — a temporary board structure that OSF expects to last for three to four months.
The announcement comes nearly a month after OSF announced an emergency fundraising campaign to help them through the 2023 season and beyond, with a goal of raising $1.5 million by June, citing challenges from the pandemic that have affected the theatre industry as a whole.
“OSF will continue to fundraise to complete the season. Garrett was instrumental in helping to launch the campaign, inviting Kamilah Long, Director of Development, to OSF to launch the current grassroots campaign, which has raised $1M in one week,” the release said. “By honoring and building from Garrett’s work and carrying the legacy of Angus Bowmer and other past leaders of OSF, the Board will support staff in ensuring the Festival celebrates its 90-year anniversary and beyond.”
Garrett joined the organization in August 2019, causing her to oversee OSF as it adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic and Almeda Fire.
“As the first Black female artistic director in OSF’s 88-year history, Garrett’s appointment was historic. Her work encompassed current and emerging technologies and media, reaching not only the stage, but digital and film,” the release said. “During the shutdown, she raised $19M after fundraising and successfully galvanizing a cohort of Oregon arts leaders to secure funding for the state’s performing arts organizations from the federal relief fund package. She started a nationwide advocacy coalition for non-profit theaters, the Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition (PNTC), in 2020 that provided access to $15B in SVOG (Shuttered Venues Operator Grants) relief funding.”
The news release did not explicitly mention Garrett’s reasons for resigning. NewsWatch 12 called two different phone numbers and did not get a response. The article will be updated with more information.
Garrett’s full statement is below.
I am leaving with gratitude and great respect for the many talented people I have come to know and work with here at OSF, who work tirelessly to make sure the show must go on” says Garrett, I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this organization for the past 4 years as we collectively navigated one of the most challenging times in the Festival’s history.
I have always centered the work on our stages both live and digital, as cultural justice and I remain committed to ensuring the work of the theater expands our capacity for empathy and our world view. This season is a reflection of what I set out to do when I came to OSF: center the artists as thought leaders who transform culture. This version of OSF centers Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) work. We are a company of artists who know we are valued, are engaged with the work with ownership, and who value the company because they know the company values them. They deserve, and OSF deserves, the community’s ongoing support.
I remain hopeful that, despite the challenges still ahead for OSF and our industry as a whole, that the Festival will become a container for the future so that generations who come can continue OSF’s legacy of groundbreaking art making.
