NATAKI GARRETT POISED TO LEAD

NATAKI GARRETT BEGAN HER POST AS THE Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s sixth artistic director in April, and she’ll officially succeed Bill Rauch in the role in August. She hardly had a chance to begin preparing for the 2020 season before she dove into rehearsals as the director of Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation (which opens there July 23). Garrett most recently served as acting artistic director of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Theatre Company during its 18-month leadership transition from Kent Thompson to Chris Coleman. As the former associate dean and the co-head of the undergraduate acting program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Theater, Garrett is known as a champion of new work as well as a savvy arts administrator.

ROB WEINERT-KENDT: Congratulations! This is huge and heartening news. What are your impressions of OSF’s assets and challenges? What kind of job awaits you, do you think?

First, I’m really thrilled to have this opportunity. As a little girl from Oakland raised by a single parent who was a teacher, growing up under Reaganomics, this is something beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve watched the company grow and climb into the national spotlight, and watched the catapulting of the name of OSF, the tangibility of its brand, to the Tony, to the plays on Broadway, including plays they’ve developed:, , the new work they’ve done.