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Keith Scales

Guest Artist

Headshot of Keith Scales

Contact Information

Salem Campus

Address
900 State Street
Salem  Oregon  97301
U.S.A.

Biography

Born and raised in London, England, Keith Scales has been a merchant seaman, laboratory assistant, bartender, labourer in factories and a quarry and a few other things he would rather not elaborate upon.

Keith Scales has been living and working in the Pacific Northwest since 1970 as an actor, director, teacher, organizer and writer.

A familiar face to Northwest audiences, Keith Scales has acted in more than 200 plays and received many awards. He has also directed over 50 plays in various theatres in Portland, Oregon. His repertoire includes classics, modern drama and original works.

Keith Scales has received several research fellowships. He has traveled to the W.B.Yeats Festival in Sligo, Ireland and to Kyoto to study traditional avant-garde Japanese theatre under Oregon Arts Commission grants. A Regional Arts and Culture Council Masters Fellowship took him to Cornwall, England and the South of France, where he visited sites associated with the Grail legend. He has also traveled extensively in Greece.

Keith Scales created all the lecture/performances described on this website. For Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon he has developed new English versions of a dozen plays from the ancient canon. His original trilogy Damned Fools is currently in development.

Keith Scales has taught acting classes for Portland State University, Northwest Academy, Marylhurst College, New Rose Theatre, and the Storefront Theatre. He led teachers' seminars in Medieval, Renaissance and Oriental Drama at Lewis & Clark College under the auspices of the Oregon Council on the Humanities. His Chautauqua programs on poets and playwrights have taken him all over the Pacific Northwest.

He has worked for three years as performing and literary arts coordinator for Artquake, Portland's citywide arts festival. He has extensive grant-writing experience. Past Artistic Director of Portland Actor's Ensemble Shakespeare-in-the-Parks program, from 1993 to 2009 he was artistic director of the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon. A believer in theatre as a social catalyst, Keith frequently develops symposia to accompany his productions.

His play, What Mad Pursuit, was a finalist for the Oregon Literary Arts Award for Drama.

He has now moved to Arkansas to direct a new company, Shakespeare in the Ozarks, and write.

Willamette University

Theatre

Address
M. Lee Pelton Theatre
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6222