Shakespeare Festival

The Shakespeare Festival is a weekend-long event featuring full-length Shakespeare plays in the beautiful Theater in the Woods outdoor amphitheater. Come for a summer evening of comedy, tragedy and romance as locally established theater companies pay homage to William Shakespeare's work in a truly fitting setting.

Admission to these performances is free. Suggested donation: $4 per person. Your donation is greatly appreciated and helps to make the Shakespeare Festival possible.

In addition to our main parking lot, performance parking is available at the Lexington-Diffley Athletic fields. Banners and signs will be posted. Walking distance to amphitheater is comparable from either entrance.


2009 Shakespeare Festival – June 26 & 27

“Taming of the Shrew”
Friday, 6:30pm
presented by Chameleon Theatre Circle

Synopsis: When poor Hortensio finds out he cannot marry Bianca, his one true love, until her violently standoffish sister Katherina takes a husband, his best friend Petruchio, in a show of true friendship (and desire for an enormous dowry) tries to woo the impossible Shrew. One of Shakespeare's oldest and most celebrated comedies, The Taming of the Shrew, pits wit against wit in a knock-down, drag-out battle of the sexes, set against the lovely backdrop of Padua, Italy.

“The Tempest”
Saturday, 6:30pm
presented by Cromulent Shakespeare Company

Synopsis: While sailing home to Italy after attending a wedding in Africa, King Alonso of Naples and his entourage encounter a violent storm: a Tempest. They all jump overboard and wash ashore on a strange island inhabited by Ariel, a sprite who carries out the bidding of Prospero, and the ugly, resentful, half-human Caliban. Several plots to overthrow the magician Prospero fail thanks to his powers, and as the plotters finally repent, the Tempest is finally calmed.

These activities are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through a grant from the McKnight Foundation and an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature.

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