There are various Shakespeare Festivals and theatre productions that are held all over the world. Many of theses are held in the USA and Canada in cities such as Alabama to Texas and Dallas to name just a few on an annual basis.

The work of Shakespeare and his plays and productions have inspired people from all over the world to come to Stratford upon Avon and see where the famous bard was born and carried out his work writing plays such as “Macbeth” and a “Midsummer’s night dream”. To his eventual death in 1616 and his burial at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon.

Stratford upon Avon is home to the world famous Royal Shakespeare Theatre where every year Shakespeare’s famous plays and productions are staged and are seen by an audience of thousands.

The Theatre has just undergone a major refurbishment and transformation programme and has is proud to stage its upcoming productions in one of the most modern and state of the art theatres in the world. The festivals and plays that are held in various cities across the world continue to grow but here are the main ones.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival was founded in 1935 and this Tony Award winning theatre is one of the largest and oldest professional non-money making theatres in the country. Each year the OSF presents a season which spans eight and a half months in total and in that season the OSF presents eleven plays in three theatres including an extensive theatre education programme.

Annually the OSF presents in excess of more than 780 performances with a audience of about 400,000 approximately.

There is also a excellent education programme at the OSF which offers free discussions on plays and performances as well as classes for teachers where they can learn about new techniques for the teaching of Shakespeare at schools.

Alternatively, attend as a group and learn more about the OSF and its plays and productions by taking a backstage tour. Finally yet importantly as a student who may be interested in theatre then you can apply to a summer seminar at the OSF.

The summer seminar consists of two intensive weeks where the student(s) will participate in all sorts of activities geared and designed to introduce the student(s) to the many and varied aspects of professional theatre.

The OSF is located in Ashland Oregon in the Rogue River Valley, which is about 350 miles north of San Francisco.

California Shakespeare Theatre.

The California Shakespeare Theatre was founded in 1974, is commonly known as “Cal Shakes”, and over the years has held classic and innovative theatre productions at its theatre based at Berkleys John Hinkel Park.

In the 15yrs at this location, the theatre held several plays by Shakespeare from “Twelfth Night” to “Taming of the Shrew” (1974-1975) and more recently “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado about Nothing”(2009-2010) plus several other famous Shakespeare plays.

The “Cal Shakes” then moved to its new theatre in 1991 the Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre this theatre can seat up to 545 people and is located in the hills between Berkley and Orinda in California respectively.

This magnificent outdoor amphitheatre is said to be one of the most unique and beautiful settings for an outdoor theatre set against a fantastic backdrop of the East Bay hills and amongst the sounds of coyotes and the smell of eucalyptus  leaves makes it a once in a lifetime theatre experience. Visitors to the outdoor theatre are advised to wear hats and sunscreen for afternoon performances but to dress quite warmly for evening performances because it can become quite chilly, but the theatre does provide blankets free.

Before the main performance, visitors to the theatre can enjoy some gourmet food and wine at the excellent cafe or maybe enjoy a picnic in one of the many beautiful landscaped groves around the theatre.

Theres even a free shuttle service that will take you to the café and the picnic area in Orinda then bring you back the theatre before the main performance commences.

The California Shakespeare Theatre also holds excellent education programmes in the summer known as the Summer Shakespeare Conservatory in locations such as San Francisco and Oakland.

At theses classes students can learn more about the California Shakespeare Theatre and its main theatre productions and plays by engaging with professional artists and an opportunity to learn more about Shakespeare and acting as a whole with classes in deep acting process, expressive language, and public performances and so on.

Students also get the opportunity to work with professional teaching artists and classes are divided into 2 sessions with the morning concentrating on voice, physical comedy, and stage combat and acting and movement.

Then in the afternoon, the class moves onto rehearsals where students are expected to create a fully realised and specially adapted public performance of a well-known Shakespeare play on the last day of the conservatory session.

Stratford Festival of Canada.

The city of Stratford is located in Perth County in Ontario Canada and is home to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The aim of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival is to bring classical theatre to North America with William Shakespeare as its foundation.

Over the years in fact for half a century, the SSF has strived to bring and create Shakespeare plays and productions and present these in a thought provoking manner to the theatregoers in Canada

Productions such as “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Twelfth Night” are showing this year at the Festival to name just a few.

The Stratford Festival Theatre has four venues where the performances take place firstly; you have the Festival Theatre near the aptly named River Avon.

This is the main venue with its 1826 seating capacity and its thrust stage, which is very similar to the stage that has been built at the RST in Stratford upon Avon.

Then you have the Avon Theatre and the Tom Patterson Theatre and finally the Studio Theatre.

Once again, the Stratford Festival Theatre has an excellent education programme for students or anyone who want to find out more about the theatre and its productions.

The programme is known as” Beyond the Stage” here you can go on festival tours and visit the costume departments or a behind the scenes theatre tour and learn more about how the plays and productions are brought to stage and so on.

Or you can take a Garden tour around the beautiful landscaped gardens that surround the Stratford Festival Theatre

In addition to that, you may want to take a tour of the complete Stratford Festival and take a tour of all the four theatres in the group.

Other Festivals and Venues of Interest.

·        Texas Shakespeare Festival

·        Idaho Shakespeare Festival

·        Georgia Shakespeare Festival

·        Utah Shakespearean Festival

·        Alabama Shakespeare Festival

·        Colorado Shakespeare Festival

·        Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival