St Louis Shakespeare Festival

Shakespeare in the streets - st. Louisans share their stories through an immersive, year-long community engagement theater residency. Those stories are incorporated into a new play based on the community, inspired by shakespeare, and performed for free in the city streets. In fy24 the festival prepared for its next installment, in partnership with east st. Louis, set for september 2025.

Education - in collaboration with 4theville and st. Louis public schools, the festival leads an innovative in-school arts residency at sumner high school. Sumner was recommended for closure in fall 2020 a move that would further disinvestment in one of the nation's most historically significant black communities. The festival and its partners developed a multi-disciplinary recovery plan to increase student enrollment at sumner high. The board of education voted unanimously to adopt the program and keep the school open in 2021; year 4 began august 2024. Seventeen arts and culture institutions deliver daily arts and advocacy courses at north st. Louis' historic high school.

Tourco - tourco presents free shakespeare in 20+ public parks across missouri and illinois. This tour is the only one of its kind in our region: no other organization provides free live theater for children and families right in their own backyard. In august 2024, a 90-minute performance of the tempest was delivered to public parks and plazas throughout the region.

New works - each year, the festival invests in emerging midwest theatermakers to build on shakespeare's legacy of storytelling. Selected playwrights develop and workshop new plays over seven months under the guidance of a program director, culminating in a three-day festival of staged readings of the new work.