2008 Festival News

15th Anniversary Celebration  

Make your plans now to attend the special 15th Anniversary of the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival this fall.

As a principal part of the celebration, the festival will feature Shakespeare’s popular comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This production opened the premiere Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival in 1994. Over the previous years, the festival has never repeated a Mainstage production, but what could be better to celebrate 15 years than restaging and reinterpreting the inaugural production? What also could be more fun and exciting than bringing to life once again the classic love battles of the two mixed-up and missmatched couples; the interfering fairies including that trickster Puck enshrined in our Shakespeare garden; and the ever hilarious rehearsal and performance of Pyramus and Thisbe by Nick Bottom and the mechanicals. 

Mainstage Production Announced
The 2008 Mainstage Production will be A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Karen Libman. The production will run September 26-October 5. Watch this site for further details.

15th Season Anniversary Celebration Reception
There will be a special celebration reception on the opening night of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Reception will be held in the Thornapple Room of the Kirkhof Center, located near the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus.

Bard to Go
The Shakespeare Festival touring show, Bard to Go will again travel to area schools in fall 2008. The production, titled Kissing and Courting is newly developed and explores the many sides of miraculous enchantment and dangerous illusion.  Katherine Mayberry, a GVSU and Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival alumna, is the guest director for this production.

Student Competition
The Shakespeare Festival is currently accepting submissions for the 2008 student competition. Contact professor Sufen Lai for more information.

Festival Scholar Announced
The 2008 Guest Scholar will be Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and author of the critically acclaimed Will in the World. Please click here for more information.

 The 15th Anniversary Festival will also include other celebratory and entertaining events. Watch our website for further announcements and information.