Hay’s impact on local and non-local theater spans far and wide — even influencing dinner theater dessert menu choices
By Lee Juillerat for Ashland.news
He’s designed hundreds of sets for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, dozens more for theaters nationally, supported the Ashland High School theater department for more than a quarter-century and since 2019 designed or co-designed every set for the Rogue Theater Company.
But ask Richard “Dick” Hay what most people think when his name is mentioned and without hesitation his reply is, “Dick Hay pie.”
That could change, especially for people attending productions at the Rogue Theater Company, which recently announced the dedication of The Richard L. Hay Center at Rogue Theater Company at Grizzly Peak Winery in Ashland.
“This theater stands as a testament to Richard’s enduring legacy and profound influence on the performing art,” RTC Artistic Director Jessica Sage said in making the announcement. “His passion, commitment to artistic excellence, and unwavering dedication to nurturing emerging talents have left an indelible mark on everyone fortunate enough to know him. Richard Hay is more than a designer; he is a treasure, a legend, and an institution in the world of theater. The naming of The Richard L. Hay Center at Rogue Theater Company is in recognition of his invaluable and immeasurable contribution to the arts.”
“I’m very complimented and quite honored,” Hay, 95, said of having the theater named for him.
Hay’s involvement at RTC includes designing or co-designing every Rogue Theater Company set since “’night, Mother” in 2019. He’s also a distinguished member of RTC’s advisory board emeritus.
His impact on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival goes back decades – he served as the scenic and theater designer emeritus at OSF over 63 seasons. During those years, Hay designed 246 productions and created the design, or was the principal influence, for the plays at the three OSF theaters.
Hay’s reputation is widespread. He has also designed more than 85 sets for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (formerly known as Denver Center Theatre Company), Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theater, PCPA Theaterfest, The Old Globe Theater, Kansas City Repertory Theatre (formerly known as Missouri Repertory Company), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theater, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
He has also made an impact locally by supporting the Ashland High School theater department for more than 25 years.
Hay’s interest in theater goes back to his growing up years in Wichita, Kansas. As he remembers, “Way back when I was a youth my mother took me to see a show. I was awestruck by it. I was fascinated by how it (the set) influenced the play. I went home, got a cardboard box, made a little stage, and made some color backdrops.”
As a teenager he designed the set for his high school production of “Pride and Prejudice.” His college years were at Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and architecture in 1952 and, later, a master’s degree in theater arts. While teaching there, he met Angus Bowmer “and we got acquainted. He invited me up to Ashland to design for the theater.”
He visited, but didn’t stay. For nearly three years, he worked for theaters in New York City “until I got sick and tired of life in the big city.”
“I got a call to come back here,” Hay says of an offer by Bowmer to return to and work in Ashland. He moved to Ashland in 1950, working as a lighting assistant, technical director, resident scenic designer and principal theater and scenic designer. In 2019, the 50th anniversary of the outdoor Elizabethan Stage that Hay designed, OSF dedicated its season to Hay.
“This is the greatest area in the world,” Hay says of Ashland and the Rogue Valley. Asked to name a favorite play, he pauses before offering “Coriolanus,” one of Shakespeaer’s lesser known and lesser produced plays. “I’ve designed it several times over the years.”
He’s created a wide variety of sets but admits, “It’s kind of scary to start on a new play.” In creating a set Hay notes, “It depends on the director. They generally have a point … on the characters in the play, on how they envision the play.”
What Hay never envisioned was the impact of a dessert that he didn’t create, but devoured the first time he ate it. It’s the Dick Hay Pie, a favorite dessert at the Oregon Cabaret Theater — and always my choice – that makes his name to most people. Ironically, it’s not a dessert he created. Hay said that during his early years in Ashland, he and friends would gather for weekly cook-offs and vote for the dessert they liked best. Craig Hudson, who has a long history of involvement with theater in Ashland, remembering Hay’s preference for hot fudge, peanut butter, and vanilla ice cream, presented his creation one memorable evening. Hay ate two helpings.
Later, when the Cabaret opened, the pie was added to the menu. “It was a big hit,” remembers Hay. But when it was removed, playgoers made their displeasure to Cabaret known, so it was quickly returned to the dessert menu. For years it’s been regarded as a staple.
As Sylvia Medeiros, who worked at the Cabaret for several year, says in “Dick Hay Pie: An Oral History,” recounting the 2024 playbill, “I had patrons call me once and ask if we were still selling that ice cream pie, and I said we were. They bought tickets and I asked, ‘Don’t you want to know what’s playing?’ They said it didn’t matter as long as we’re still serving that pie.”
“People know me by pie and not the other things I’ve done,” Hay says with a chuckle. “That pie is my claim to fame.”
Email freelance writer Lee Juillerat at 337lee337@charter.net.
