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Shakespeare Santa Cruz
Shakespeare Santa Cruz logo.png
Location University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Founded 1981
Founded by Audrey Stanley
Artistic director Marco Barricelli
Type of play(s) Shakespeare
Festival date mid-July through August

Shakespeare Santa Cruz was a yearly theater festival in Santa Cruz, California. It showed plays from 1981 to 2013. This festival was a professional theater group. It focused on plays by William Shakespeare and other famous writers. After it lost money help from the University of California, Santa Cruz, the group started again. It raised money from many people (called crowdfunding) and became Santa Cruz Shakespeare.

History of the Festival

How Shakespeare Santa Cruz Started

Shakespeare Santa Cruz began in 1981. It held its shows every year at the University of California, Santa Cruz campus. The festival put on plays by Shakespeare and other great playwrights. They performed inside the UCSC Theater Arts Mainstage building. They also had outdoor shows in the Sinsheimer-Stanley Festival Glen.

Professional Actors and Shows

The festival brought in professional actors, directors, and designers. These talented people came from all over the country. The main season ran from July to early September. They usually presented three or four plays at the same time. These plays ran six days a week, with no shows on Mondays.

The festival wanted to show new ways of directing, designing, and acting. They did not want to just show old, "museum" versions of Shakespeare. They aimed to be creative and bold.

Growing Audiences

Many people came to see the shows. In 1982, about 7,716 people attended. By 1992, this number grew to 31,013! Many artistic directors led the company over the years. These included Audrey Stanley, Michael Edwards, Danny Scheie, Risa Brainin, Paul Whitworth, and Marco Barricelli.

Famous Actors Who Performed

Some actors who later became famous worked at Shakespeare Santa Cruz. These include Bryan Cranston, Colman Domingo, Carrie Preston, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Winter Holiday Shows

In 1997, Paul Whitworth started a special Winter Holiday season. These shows were original musicals. They were written just for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. They mixed British pantomime (a fun, musical play) with American musicals.

These holiday shows were based on classic fairy tales. Examples include Cinderella, Gretel and Hansel, and Sleeping Beauty. They were popular with people of all ages. The winter shows ran in November and December.

Programs for Young Actors

Shakespeare Santa Cruz also had programs for student actors. These programs helped them learn about Shakespeare.

The Fringe Show

The Fringe show was a chance for acting interns to perform. They put on their own plays in the Glen two nights each summer. Past shows included Lysistrata and The Mock-Tempest.

Shakespeare to Go

Shakespeare to Go was an educational program. It received money from the National Endowment for the Arts. Students from the University of California Santa Cruz Theater Arts toured local schools. They performed one-hour versions of plays. These were often plays that would be in the summer festival. They also offered some free public shows.

Financial Challenges and Rebirth

The festival was supposed to pay for itself. However, it sometimes lost money. The University of California used to cover these debts. By 2008, California had money problems. The university could no longer afford to pay the festival's debts.

An agreement was made: if the theater could raise $300,000, it could keep going. In just 10 days, they raised over $400,000! But a few years later, the university said it still had money problems. It announced that Shakespeare Santa Cruz would end after its 2013 holiday show.

After this news, the theater company started a campaign. They wanted to raise money to become an independent group. By February 2014, they raised over $1 million (USD) through crowdfunding. This allowed them to continue without university support. In March 2014, the new company changed its name to Santa Cruz Shakespeare.

Plays Performed Each Year

This section lists some of the plays that Shakespeare Santa Cruz performed over the years. They often performed plays by Shakespeare and other famous writers.

D* Yankees (by Douglass Wallop, George Abbott, Richard Adler, and Jerry Ross)

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