Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival

Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival
Great Lakes Theater · Public domain · source
Name	Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival
Location	Cleveland, Ohio
Founded	1962
Dissolved	2015
Genre	Shakespearean theatre, classical repertory
Artistic director	Various

Contents

Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival was a regional theatre company based in Cleveland, Ohio, known for staging works by William Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. Founded during the early 1960s cultural expansion in the United States, the company contributed to the Midwestern theatrical landscape alongside institutions such as the Cleveland Play House, Guthrie Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Over its history it intersected with figures and organizations including Joseph Papp, Public Theater (New York City), Kennedy Center, Jacob's Pillow, American Conservatory Theater, and National Endowment for the Arts.

History

The company was established amid a national movement represented by entities like Oberammergau Passion Play producers and regional efforts from Shakespeare in the Park (New York City), drawing inspiration from founders of the repertory movement such as Tyrone Guthrie, Peter Brook, Ellen Stewart, Edward Albee, and patrons linked to foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and Kelvin Smith Foundation. Early seasons featured performers with ties to training institutions including Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Curtis Institute of Music, and New York University Tisch School of the Arts. Touring collaborations brought in directors from companies such as Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe, Bristol Old Vic, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and Stratford Festival (Canada). Administrative developments echoed patterns at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Roundabout Theatre Company, and Goodman Theatre as the festival navigated funding cycles influenced by legislation like the National Historic Preservation Act and cultural policy shaped by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Performances were staged in venues comparable to the outdoor and indoor sites of Delacorte Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Minneapolis Guthrie Theater Complex, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Old Vic. Rehearsal and production work utilized workshops modeled after those at Sydney Theatre Company, Royal National Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, drawing technical staff trained at institutions like Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts and California Institute of the Arts. Box office operations and patron services mirrored practices at Lincoln Center Theater, American Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and La Jolla Playhouse, while backstage logistics referenced standards from Metropolitan Opera stagecraft and Bolshoi Ballet costume departments.

The repertoire placed William Shakespeare at its center with stagings of plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet alongside adaptations of works by Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Molière, Jean Racine, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster. The festival mounted contemporary translations and commissions connected to dramatists like Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill, Tony Kushner, Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, and Lorraine Hansberry. Production teams often featured designers and technicians associated historically with Nicholas Hytner, Julie Taymor, Peter Hall, Michael Boyd, Trevor Nunn, and choreographers in the lineage of Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch. Seasonal programming included festivals of one-act plays, staged readings akin to Primavera (theatre festival), and co-productions with touring companies such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Shakespeare & Company, The Old Globe, and Baltimore Center Stage.

Educational initiatives were structured similarly to programs at Shakespeare Theatre Company (Washington, D.C.), Globe Education, Royal Shakespeare Company Education Department, Public Theater Education, and university partnerships like those at Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Akron, John Carroll University, and Oberlin Conservatory. Outreach included student matinees, teacher workshops, and community residencies modeled on efforts by National Theatre (London), Young Vic, Sydney Opera House Education, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Youth ensembles and apprentice programs drew pedagogical models from National Theatre of Scotland, Complicite, Fringe Festival networks, and conservatory curricula like LAMDA and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Artistic leadership rotated among directors and administrators whose careers intersected with institutions including Royal Shakespeare Company, Guthrie Theater, Alliance Theatre, Court Theatre (Chicago), Victoria Theatre (Ohio), Chicago Lyric Opera, Bard College, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Resident actors and guest artists held associations with American Conservatory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, and touring ensembles like Shakespeare in the Parks and National Theatre of Great Britain. Production staff included stage managers and designers who had worked at Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Palace Theatre (London), and film crews linked to American Film Institute projects.

The company received regional acknowledgment comparable to awards from bodies such as the Tony Award, Obie Award, Helen Hayes Award, Joseph Jefferson Award, Dora Mavor Moore Award, Laurence Olivier Award, and grants from National Endowment for the Arts, State Arts Agency, Knight Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and local arts councils. Individual artists who worked with the festival later attained honors including Pulitzer Prize for Drama, MacArthur Fellowship, Kennedy Center Honors, Obie Awards, and recognition from academic institutions like Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School.

Category:Theatre companies in Ohio Category:Shakespeare festivals in the United States