Our FESTIVAL
Founded in 2005, Vermont Shakespeare Festival is a professional theatre company that brings Shakespeare’s plays to life in powerful open-air productions. We reimagine Shakespeare through a contemporary lens while immersing the audience in the splendor of outdoor Vermont. Ambitious artistry, dialogue with our community, and a dedication to educating the next generation of theatre artists define who we are as a cultural organization.
Our Festival contributes to the rich cultural landscape of the region, performing at some of the area's most beautiful outdoor venue's.
We have produced 12 summer seasons of Shakespeare in the Park in northern Vermont; gathering a large and devoted following along the way. During the off-season, we offer smaller events that celebrate and investigate the work of Shakespeare. Educational outreach efforts have offered free theatre training to hundreds of young people from Vermont and New York. Our Summer Training Institute and Internships have supported students from all over the United States in month long immersive programs.
NOTE FROM THE vsf BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Vermont Shakespeare Festival will be on an official hiatus starting in the summer of 2022 to offer an opportunity for the organization to rethink its mission and format before moving forward with programming, and to facilitate a pause for the Founders/Artistic Directors Jena Necrason and John Nagle, who have been running the company since 2005. We want to express continued gratitude to our audience, supporters, collaborators, and partners! You help us produce theatre that is provocative, entertaining, and deeply meaningful to our community. Together we have developed an audience for outdoor Shakespeare in our beautiful state. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as things develop.
Mission
Inspired by the work and spirit of Shakespeare, we produce theater of excellent artistic quality that enhances the cultural life of Vermont and the region. We achieve our mission through an integrated year-long season of training, education, and performance.
Vision
To create a nationally recognized destination Shakespeare festival in the state of Vermont.
Note from the Artistic Directors - September 2020:
The recent events of violence, injustice, and the resulting global movement to acknowledge and educate ourselves on the truth of the deep-rooted racism that has been sanctioned by our country throughout our history is a call to action for all of us. Vermont Shakespeare Festival is examining our core values and how we will act in support of Black Lives Matter. Like all organizations, we must respond and make changes to the way we work. We are listening. We are learning. We are thoughtfully working on understanding how our arts organization can be a part of transformation and change with actionable work.
Inspired by the work and spirit of Shakespeare, we produce theater of excellent artistic quality that enhances the cultural life of Vermont and the region. We achieve our mission through an integrated year-long season of training, education, and performance.
Vision
To create a nationally recognized destination Shakespeare festival in the state of Vermont.
Note from the Artistic Directors - September 2020:
The recent events of violence, injustice, and the resulting global movement to acknowledge and educate ourselves on the truth of the deep-rooted racism that has been sanctioned by our country throughout our history is a call to action for all of us. Vermont Shakespeare Festival is examining our core values and how we will act in support of Black Lives Matter. Like all organizations, we must respond and make changes to the way we work. We are listening. We are learning. We are thoughtfully working on understanding how our arts organization can be a part of transformation and change with actionable work.
Production History
