History
The Syracuse Shakespeare Festival is an educational, charitable, not-for-profit, 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 2002. We have produced nine seasons of free, Shakespeare-in-the-Park (SITP) programs in the Thornden Park Amphitheatre for nearly 25,000 people from August 2003 through August 2011. We have created and produced fourteen Kids Doing Shakespeare (KIDS) vacation, theatre camps for students in grades 3-7 and 5-12. We have created a repertory company, Avon Repertory Theatre, (ART) to bring into the schools abridged versions of Shakespearean classics. We are producing our fifth, indoor season of Shakespeare-Under-A-Roof, (SUAR) Othello @ the New Times Theatre and Love vs. Time, an original, multi-media, multi-modal show based on 28 of Shakespeare's sonnets at SU's Warehouse Theatre. Overall, we have served 40,000 people since our inception. In 2012, we are adding a fifth, entitled Shakespeare-on-the-Grass, (SOTG) a pay-what-can show in the 3/4 round at Thornden's Amph.
Specialties
The mission of the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival is to bring the beauty, poetry, and drama of Shakespeare's works to everyone in Central New York and the surrounding regions, especially to school aged children. We will put the works of Shakespeare in context through related programs and presentations. We are dedicated to producing Shakespeare-in-the-Park as free public performances. We fulfill our mission, primarily, by producing the free Shakespeare-In-The-Park (SITP) program and the pay-what-you-can Shakespeare-On-The-Grass (SOTG) program @ the Thornden Park Amphitheatre. Second, we produce a one-week Shakespearean vacation theatre program for children entitled Kids Doing Shakespeare. (KIDS) Third, we offer a repertory company, the Avon Repertory Theatre, (ART) designed to bring abridged versions of Shakespeare to schools, community centers and businesses. Finally, we have developed an indoor season from January through April each year. In January, we present an HNYF show.