Southern Shakespeare Festival


The Southern Shakespeare Festival is an annual festival in Tallahassee, Florida. The festival's first incarnation existed from 1995–2000. In 2012, a group of scholars saw an opportunity to revive the free outdoor festival at the award-winning Cascades Park.

History

The Southern Shakespeare Festival was founded by American entrepreneur Michael J Trout in November 1994 as the Florida Theater Project. In the summer of 1995, Michael Trout organized a touring company, led by David Klein. Words...Words...Words: An Evening of Shakespeare toured local theaters, regional high schools, and community arts centers. Trout then approached Florida State University Dean Emeritus Richard G. Fallon for his help to establish a free Shakespeare in the park festival, which Trout modeled after Joseph Papp's New York free Shakespeare-in-the-park. The Tallahassee festival and Renaissance fair ran from 1996–2000 as an open-air, free festival and Renaissance fair located in the downtown area behind Tallahassee's City Hall in Kleman Plaza.
The inaugural Shakespeare-in-the-park production in 1996, A Midsummer's Nights Dream, directed by Russian director Irina Brown, drew over 30,000 spectators according to the local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. It is recognized as one of the most successful free-theater festivals in Tallahassee with over 80,000 spectators and over 20,000 students benefitting from its educational programming during its 1996–2000 existence.
In 2012, the Southern Shakespeare Festival was revived thanks to Dr. Kevin Carr, Dr. Brent Griffin, and a dedicated group of Tallahassee theater artisans, most notably Laura W. Johnson, Catherine Leonard, and Lanny Thomas. The Capital City Amphitheater at Cascades Park is the new home of the revitalized festival and appropriately, its first production, which ran April 17–19, 2015, was A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Lanny Thomas, and starring special guest AEA artist Jef Canter as Nick Bottom.

Productions

The Southern Shakespeare Festival is greatly supported by local and state government organizations including the City of Tallahassee, Leon County Tourist Development Council, , State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, with strong partnerships with Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College.