Founder Tina Packer Phone +1 413-637-1199 | Founded 1978 | |
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Capacity Tina Packer Playhouse: benched seating
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre: 186
Rose Footprint Theatre: 250 Opened 1978 (company)
2001 (venue) Address 70 Kemble St, Lenox, MA 01240, USA Similar Berkshire Theatre Group, Barrington Stage Company, Bershire Theater Festival Inc, Beacon Cinema, The Mount Profiles | ||
Shakespeare & Company is an American theatre company located in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire region of western Massachusetts. It was founded in 1978 by artistic director Tina Packer, who stepped down in 2009. Tony Simotes is the current artistic director. A co-founder was Kristin Linklater, who developed the Linklater vocal technique and left the company in the mid-1990s. The company performs Shakespeare and new plays of "social and political significance", reaching over 75,000 patrons annually, and it conducts training programs for professional classical actors as well as education programs for elementary through high school students, the latter reaching over 50,000 students annually.
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From 1978 to 2001, Shakespeare & Company was based at The Mount, Edith Wharton's historic property in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Shakespeare & Company is listed as a major festival in the book Shakespeare Festivals Around the World by Marcus D. Gregio (Editor), 2004.
The Fall Festival of Shakespeare
Each fall, the education department of Shakespeare & Company hosts a program called "The Fall Festival of Shakespeare". 10 high schools in Berkshire County, New York, central and eastern Massachusetts participate in this program. Teaching Artists and Technicians from the company come into the schools and work with the students to create 90 minute cuts of plays by Shakespeare. Each school has performances at their own venue, then all the plays are performed the weekend before Thanksgiving at Shakespeare & Co. The Fall Festival of Shakespeare is a non-competitive celebration of the students work. The festival just finished its twenty-eighth year.