Nataki Garrett resigns as artistic director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Nataki Garrett, artistic director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, has resigned.

Garrett, who took over the festival in 2019, was the festival’s first Black female artistic director and only the sixth artistic director in its 88-year history. She faced wildfires, a pandemic, criticism over choice of plays and casting, and racist harassment during her time in the most visible job at the Ashland theater company.

The announcement that Garrett will leave comes as Oregon Shakespeare Festival is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to save the season. Her last official day will be May 31.

Staff was informed of Garrett’s resignation during a Zoom meeting hours before a production of the play she is directing for the festival, “Romeo and Juliet,” was set to begin. According to a person who attended the meeting who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak for the festival, staff were shocked, angry and overwhelmed.

In a news release Friday, the festival announced that board member Octavio Solis would step in to support and oversee the artistic leadership team during the transition. Solis, a director and playwright who lives in Medford, will also lead efforts to find an interim artistic director.

“OSF has greatly benefitted from the incredible talent and passion that Nataki brought to her roles as Artistic Director and later, as Interim Executive Artistic Director,” Board Chair Diane Yu said in the news release. “She joined OSF in 2019, just seven months before the pandemic closures and the Almeda fire. Under her leadership, OSF survived the pandemic as she successfully brought people in the industry together to obtain public funding to carry us through. The board appreciates Nataki for her willingness and ability to apply her unique skills during these past four years, and for bringing her vision for American theatre.”

Details shared at an internal staff meeting last month suggest the festival was also dealing with accounting issues that date back several years.

According to an Oregon Shakespeare Festival employee who attended, and who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak for the festival, leaders said at the time that they needed to correct more than 15,000 incorrect entries in its financial ledger, the result of antiquated systems that were not properly maintained. The leaders also told employees they’re still trying to precisely determine cash flow numbers, bills owed and overall expenses of the organization.

According to the employee, leaders also said the festival was leaving some bills unpaid to cover expenses.

The theater recently announced it had achieved the first goal of raising $1.5 million. As recently as Thursday, Garrett appeared in an Instagram post for the festival thanking a donor to the campaign.

American Theatre, a trade publication, first reported her departure Friday.

The change in artistic leadership comes amid a tumultuous period for the festival, which has contended with natural disasters, a global pandemic, and a shifting theater audience.

The festival had just begun an 11-show season when the pandemic struck in March 2020. It had already spent half its $44 million budget preparing the stage production when it was forced to shut down. More than 800 performances were canceled, and it temporarily laid off 500 people. Seven months later, wildfire roared into the Rogue Valley, burning 2,500 homes and hundreds of businesses.

Facing a dire financial outlook, the company decided to shrink its 2023 season.

Garrett’s tenure as artistic director has been controversial at times. Critics disagreed with her choice of productions, which continued the festival’s move toward more contemporary plays exploring social justice issues, and a greater focus on diverse casting. Garrett told The Oregonian/OregonLive last year that her goal was to create a successful, self-sustaining company, in part by building a more diverse audience.

“When I was first appointed I was very clear that I came for the opportunity to do the real work and to impact the change necessary to evolve the theater and help it build towards a more inclusive future,” Garrett said in a statement Friday. “My focus has always been and will always be THE WORK.”

“In that spirit, I am leaving with an eye on the future of the field,” she said. “We all know that while our doors have reopened, the world is not the same. We are at an inflection point in our industry, where outdated business models must evolve in order for our theaters to survive. But these challenges also pose great opportunities—to rebuild in a way that reflects where we are today and where we want to be in the future—with actors, staff, audiences, and artistic leaders who reflect the richness of our country’s diversity. This is what excites me. This is the work I came to do.”

“This has been my mandate and will continue to be my mandate as I work in the industry,” she concluded. “I look forward to following your continued success and working in partnership with you to forge a better future for American Theatre.”

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— Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052; [email protected]; @lizzzyacker

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