Shakespeare & Company's flagship Education Program, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare brings more than 500 students together each year for a nine-week exploration of Shakespeare's plays. The Fall Festival has deep roots in the communities it serves, some with two or even three generations of students participating through 10 high schools in Massachusetts and New York. In collaboration with Shakespeare & Company directors, production designers, and costume designers, students rehearse and produce Shakespeare plays they perform in their own communities, then at Shakespeare & Company for the public and each other during four exhilarating days of the Fall Festival Weekend.

EPSG:4326

Chatham High School’s As You Like It

Shakespeare & Company

Springfield Central High School’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Lee Middle & High School’s Cymbeline

Monument Mountain Regional High School’s Romeo & Juliet

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THv6htilWtI

The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

Mount Everett Regional School’s Twelfth Night

Taconic Hills Jr/Sr High School’s As You Like It

Lenox Memorial High School’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Pittsfield High School’s The Tempest

Berkshire Waldorf High School’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will

On a summer night, in the middle of a field on their midwest farm, a long-married couple sits on folding chairs to observe the seven stages of a lunar eclipse. While watching the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, on children and dogs, and the accelerating passage of time. Lunar Eclipse is a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (Dinner With Friends, Time Stands Still, Collected Stories), making its World Premiere at Shakespeare & Company.

Lunar Eclipse

Athenians mix it up with the forest fairies in this raucous romp that features magical meddling, romantic tangles, and a play within a play for good measure. One of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been described by scholars as carnivalesque: pushing the plot forward through humor and chaos.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A moving study of emotional depth and the human condition, August Wilson’s Fences follows the story of Troy Maxson – a working-class Black man struggling to provide for his family. His past includes the low of a prison sentence and the high of a promising career with the Negro Baseball League, but it’s Troy’s unrealized dream to play for Major League Baseball that fills his days with resentment and regret.

August Wilson’s Fences, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play in 1987, is set in the 1950s and is part of the playwright’s acclaimed American Century Cycle.

August Wilson’s Fences

The World Premiere of Golda’s Balcony, featuring the Elliot Norton Award-winning Annette Miller, was produced at Shakespeare & Company in May 2002 and went on to become the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history.  The inspiring story of Golda Meir – Russian immigrant, American school teacher, and fourth Prime Minister of Israel – returns to the Berkshires this year in a searingly topical production, staged at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre for a limited run of eight performances.         

Golda’s Balcony

In the summer, an old man and old woman sit on a park bench, talk about birds, and bet on the rain. A funny-sad play about getting older in a future that’s closer than we think.

This production is part of Play in Process, returning for its second year, and offering a glimpse into the workings of what goes into the creation of plays – catching them in their early stages, when possibilities and challenges are discussed. Every performance of this one-day festival of plays-in-workshop will be accompanied by a talkback, with lively discussion encouraged.

Plays in Process: The Aves

When Golnar, a punkish Iranian-American millennial, returns home to her mother, Nasrin, for the anniversary of her father’s passing, she walks into hoards of family memorabilia that her grandmother, Mamani, has moved in with her. Golnar tries to get “the dames” to get rid of some stuff, but Nasrin resists. While getting ready for the anniversary gathering, Golnar searches for her lost box of medicinal ’shrooms. As the evening intensifies within the cramped space, Golnar comes to find out the dames are trying to set her up with a family friend, Arash. Who survives the night? What’s inside the tea that everyone’s drinking? This play is about generational differences, grief, control, and learning to let go of it. But more than anything, it is a love story to our immigrant mothers.

This production is part of Play in Process, returning for its second year, and offering a glimpse into the workings of what goes into the creation of plays – catching them in their early stages, when possibilities and challenges are discussed. Every performance of this one-day festival of plays-in-workshop will be accompanied by a talkback, with lively discussion encouraged.

Plays in Process: Three Tall Persian Women

Considered to be the inspiration for Game of Thrones, Henry VI, Part II is commonly regarded as the strongest of the Henry VI trilogy, telling the story of the contention and power struggles between the two ancient families of Lancaster and York who wrestled for the fate of England.

Now, four centuries on and in tandem with the current King Charles III’s coronation, Shakespeare & Company presents The Contention – an exploration of themes that remain timeless: strategic marriages, political treachery, religious unrest, and a measure of comic sport.

The Contention (Henry VI, Part II)

New York City, NY

London

Boston, MA

San Francisco, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Toronto, ON

Houston, TX

Chicago, IL

Philadelphia, PA

Cambridge, MA

Edinburgh

Seattle, WA

San Diego, CA

Baltimore, MD

Other

Liverpool

Detroit, MI

Pittsburgh, PA

Berkeley, CA

Dallas, TX

Portland, OR

Cleveland, OH

Rochester, NY

Washington, DC

Austin, TX

Minneapolis, MN

Hamburg

Birmingham

Brooklyn, NY

Manchester

Santa Barbara, CA

Tallahassee, FL

St. Louis, MO

Bloomington

Nottingham

Miami, FL

Vienna

Copenhagen

Berlin

Southend-on-Sea

Aarhus

Stanford, CA

Madison, WI

Tucson, AZ

Denver, CO

Aspen, CO

Glasgow

Atlanta, GA

Princeton, NJ

Costa Mesa, CA

Cardiff

Baton Rouge, LA

Nashville, TN

Bristol

Munich

San Jose, CA

Pasadena, CA

Orlando, FL

Las Vegas, NV

Urbana, IL

Ann Arbor, MI

State College

Normal, IL

Oxford

Stockholm

San Antonio, TX

Leeds

Sarasota, FL

New Orleans, LA

Calgary, AB

Cambridge

Santa Rosa, CA

Frankfurt am Main

Belfast

Leipzig

Red Bank, NJ

Boise, ID

Dresden

North Bethesda, MD

Kansas City, KS

Boulder, CO

Stuart, FL

Jacksonville, FL

Sheffield

Frederiksberg

Salzburg

Bedford

Montreal, QC

Tempe, AZ

Ithaca, NY

Columbus, OH

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Oakland, CA

Buxton

Davis, CA

Knoxville, TN

Lawrence

Kansas City, MO

Sacramento, CA

Play events in Lenox, MA

Chatham High School’s As ...

Shakespeare & Company

Springfield Central High ...

Shakespeare & Company

Lee Middle & High School’...

Shakespeare & Company

Monument Mountain Regiona...

Shakespeare & Company

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Mount Everett Regional Sc...

Shakespeare & Company

Taconic Hills Jr/Sr High ...

Shakespeare & Company

Lenox Memorial High Schoo...

Shakespeare & Company

Pittsfield High School’s ...

Shakespeare & Company

Berkshire Waldorf High Sc...

Shakespeare & Company

Lunar Eclipse

Shakespeare & Company

A Midsummer Night’s Dream...

Shakespeare & Company

August Wilson’s Fences

Shakespeare & Company

Golda’s Balcony

Shakespeare & Company

Plays in Process: The Ave...

Shakespeare & Company

Plays in Process: Three T...

Shakespeare & Company

The Contention (Henry VI,...

Shakespeare & Company