Nataki Garrett has held a variety of posts throughout her 20-plus-year career in theater — director, playwright, producer, administrator, educator — and has worked at organizations such as Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth, and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Now she’s moving on to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) and making history in the process. According to the Los Angeles Times, Garrett will be the first person of color to serve as the fest’s artistic director.
“She is a rigorous and thrilling artist; a thoughtful, confident leader; and a big thinker,” current OSF artistic director Rauch stated. “Nataki’s historic appointment, as an African American woman running one of the largest-budget theaters in the United States, is a direct expression of OSF’s decades-long commitment to helping create a more equitable field.”
Garrett will begin work at OSF in April as the incoming artistic director and will officially succeed Rauch August 1. She’s also set to helm Christina Anderson’s “How to Catch Creation,” set to open at the fest July 23. The play explores how the work of a black, queer, feminist writer from the ’60s affects the lives of four artists in contemporary San Francisco.
Based in Ashland, Oregon, OSF was founded in 1935. “Over its eight-decade history, the company has grown to one of the largest nonprofit theaters in the nation, operating on a budget of more than $40 million in 2018,” the Times notes. Many plays featured in OSF’s lineup receive runs at other venues around the country. The fact that OSF has a diverse voice in one of its most important positions could mean more inclusion — onstage and off — at the fest and beyond.
Before accepting the post at OSF, Garrett was acting artistic director for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to that she served as associate artistic director of the California Institute of the Arts’ Center for New Performance and as associate dean and head of undergraduate acting at CalArts School of Theater.
Katori Hall’s “Pussy Valley,” Timberlake Wertenbaker’s “Jefferson’s Garden,” and Aleshea Harris’ “Is God Is” are among Garrett’s more recent directorial credits.
