A new report shows that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival made significant financial gains last year, during their 90th anniversary season.
The Ashland-based theater organization saw a 42% increase in ticket sales from 2024. Almost half of theatergoers were new, and many shows exceeded their revenue goals, according to a preliminary report sent to donors.
The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest performs during one of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2025 shows.
Courtesy of Jenny Graham / Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The organization also saw significant growth among audiences visiting from outside of Oregon. The largest share came from California, and many theater-goers saw three or more shows.
“That tells you that people want that repertory experience where they’re not just seeing one show, they’re seeing multiple shows,” said Jennifer Ryen, OSF’s chief philanthropy officer.
It was the company’s first season since 2019 using its “rotating repertory” practice, where actors performed in multiple shows.
The festival has struggled in recent years because of the pandemic, a dependence on ticket sales and leadership turnover. The organization had to hold an emergency fundraiser in 2023 to raise almost $10 million or face shutdown.
Last season, only around a third of the company’s revenue came from ticket sales, down from up to 80% in past years. Donations made up half of the year’s revenue, just over $22 million dollars. Ryen said the organization has had to rely on large, seven-figure gifts in recent years.
“We’ve had donors that understand that the organization needs time to build back our ticket sales and to build back membership households,” she said. “And to just recover from a really rough five years.”
The organization received $6.5 million in so-called principle gifts, which made up over a quarter of the $22 million in philanthropy revenue. The organization still has less than half the number of members that it did back in 2019.
Ryen said the goal is to rely less on those large gifts in the future as they build back a strong donor base and look to the future.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is gearing up for its 2026 season, which starts in mid-March. Rehearsals have begun for the season’s ten shows.
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Roman Battaglia is a reporter with the Jefferson Public Radio newsroom. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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