Festival Greenshow

First up, our Festival Greenshow directed by senior Theatre Major Marcus Chapman will be livestreamed on Wednesday October 21 at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. This year's production is an adaptation of  The Arraignment of Paris by George Peele. 

This short, 10-15 minute script depicts the not-so-friendly competition between three Roman Goddesses that began the legendary Trojan War. Juno, Pallas, and Venus are all walking in a forest, when they discover the most beautiful sight, a golden fruit from the tree of Proserpine. A description on the fruit says it should be a gift granted to the fairest of them, and since they cannot agree on it themselves, they decide the next man they see shall be the judge. Paris, a long lost prince of Troy, by chance of fate, happens to be that very man.  

Catch the livestream at www.gvsu.edu/mtd/livestream

Bard to Go: Lovestruck

Bard to Go is the Shakespeare festival’s touring production, a 50-minute program of scenes which gives students a lively, accessible introduction to Shakespeare in performance, available for performance at your school.  This year’s program, Bard to Go: Lovestruck, will be recorded and made available for schools to show to their students free of charge.

This fall, the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival’s Bard to Go goes virtual!  Available for streaming through the end of the 2020-2021 school year, Bard to Go: Lovestruck! follows eligible bachelorette Kate, from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, as she appears on a reality dating show.  The show’s host, Will Shakes, attempts to find a love match for Kate, but that task proves harder than he expects.  Along the way, the audience meets characters from Shakespeare’s plays Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, and Romeo and Juliet.

More information will be coming soon. 

Special 25th Retrospective Video

Festival alum Mike Harthen edited this video for our 25th anniversary with voice work provided by festival alum Erin Courtney Harthen. Thanks for the great work Mike and Erin!

Newsletter Now Available

The Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival annual Newsletter has been printed and distributed. It is available here as a PDF to download and enjoy. 

With heavy hearts, we say goodbye to one of our own, Jake Jager, who passed away on March 3, 2018. Jake has been a pillar of our theatre program since beginning at Grand Valley in fall 2013. He happily stepped onto our stage into a role in Much Ado About Nothing to fill a role in need of an actor. Once on the stage, he was rarely off. As one of our most prolific performers, it is most fitting that Jake helped christen the new Linn Maxwell Keller Black Box Theatre playing the Emcee in Cabaret. Beyond the boards, Jake was also a leader in the classroom and among the students. He was an active part of Alpha Psi Omega, the National Theatre Honor Society, serving in a variety of roles for the Grand Valley Chapter, including as president. At times in fall 2017 it took all he had to take the stage as one of the Ariel's in Tempest and to sing "Willkommen" in Cabaret, but that's what he loved and where he shined as a brilliant shooting star. 

Bio from The Tempest program. 
Jake Jager (Ariel 1) is a senior theatre major with minors in music and advertising and public relations. He is also a Shakespeare Scholarship recipient and Secretary and past President of APO. He has appeared previously at Grand Valley as Launce, Autolycus, Jaques in Bard to Go: Witty fools and Foolish Wits, Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, and Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing, all for the Shakespeare Festival, Tobias in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, David in Company, and Dad in Sex and the Supernatural. He has also appeared as Ruben in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Sancho in The Man of La Mancha for Shadblow Theatre. In addition, he served as promotions and sponsorship for Beauty and the Beast, Noises Off, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Shadblow Theatre where he also serves as an Advisory board member from 2016 season - present.

Visit Theatre at Grand Valley Site to view 2019-2020 Season

Visit the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance Website

Visit the English Department Site

Member: Shakespeare Theatre Association, Theatre Alliance of Michigan. All shows are associate entries in the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival