The tables are set at the Feast of Will in Ashland’s Lithia park. The weather is perfect and the crowds are just arriving here in southern Oregon for opening weekend of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s outdoor summer season. The festival is doing three Shakespeare plays — The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo & Juliet — on the outdoor stage this season.

More interesting: The Tempest is being directed by Libby Appel, who is leaving at the end of this season as artistic director of the festival; Romeo & Juliet is being directed by Bill Rauch, who takes over as the top boss when Appel’s gone.

The two productions will be a perfect crystal ball for anyone who wants to peer into the future of Shakespeare here in Oregon.

Appel has been a solid, middle of the road leader for the festival, which has a budget this year of $23.5 million and runs plays for eight months of the year in some or all of its three theaters.

Rauch is younger, perhaps a little hipper. He’s bringing in more outside talent to the festival, putting more emphasis on visual design, and — is this a tabu or what? — planning to do a 20th century play on the sacred Globe Theater-like outdoor stage next season. (OK, so it’s Our Town. But you’ve got to start somewhere.)

We like Rauch. We like that he’s bringing Oregonian Jeff Whitty’s funny The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler to OSF next season.

More after dinner, and a couple of plays.