Texas Shakespeare Festival
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The Texas Shakespeare Festival is a professional summer theatre housed in the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center on the campus of
Kilgore College Kilgore College (KC) is a public community college in Kilgore, Texas. It has an annual enrollment in excess of 5,000 students and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the associate deg ...
,
Kilgore, Texas Kilgore is a city in Gregg and Rusk counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas. Over three-fourths of the city limits is located in Gregg County, the remainder in Rusk County. The population was 12,975 at the 2010 census and 13,376 ...
. TSF presents four weeks of performances during late June and July of five productions in
repertory A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawin ...
: two plays by
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, a classic, a musical, and a children's show.


History

Established in 1986, the Texas Shakespeare Festival began as Kilgore College's contribution to the Texas
Sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saint ...
celebration. The brainchild of Raymond Caldwell, a faculty member within the theatre program at Kilgore College and subsequent Artistic Director of the Festival, the first season of TSF consisted of two plays by Shakespeare and ''The Daisy Bradford 3'', a regional work commissioned for the celebration telling the story of the East Texas oil boom by Gifford Wingate, all performed by a small company of professional actors. The overwhelming popularity and quality of the summer theatre experience for the people of East Texas catapulted what was to have been a one-time event into an organization that is celebrating its second decade of performances. More than 1000 theatre artists have worked at TSF including such well-known personalities as
Michael C. Hall Michael Carlyle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor and singer best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, the titular character in the Showtime series ''Dexter,'' and David Fisher in the HBO drama series '' Six Feet Under.'' Thes ...
('' Six Feet Under''; '' Dexter'');
Danny Pino Daniel Gonzalo Pino (born April 15, 1974) is an American actor who starred as Detective Scotty Valens on the CBS series ''Cold Case'' from 2003 to 2010, and as NYPD Detective Nick Amaro in the long-running NBC legal drama '' Law & Order: Specia ...
(''
Cold Case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...
'');
Glenn Fleshler Glenn Fleshler (born September 5, 1968) is an American actor. On television he is noted as a recurring cast member on ''Boardwalk Empire'' who portrayed real-life bootlegger George Remus, for appearing on '' Billions'', and as Errol Childress in ...
('' Spring Awakening''; ''
Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also bo ...
''); Rick Holmes (''
Spamalot ''Spamalot'' (also known as ''Monty Python's Spamalot'') is a musical comedy with music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle, and lyrics and book by Idle. It is adapted from the 1975 film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''. Like the motion pictu ...
''); Andrew Samonsky ('' South Pacific''; '' Tick, Tick... Boom!''); Glenn Kessler (Creator, Producer, Director and Actor for ''
Damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
''); and Keythe Farley (co-author, '' Bat Boy: The Musical''). The Texas Shakespeare Festival is listed as a Major Festival in the book ''Shakespeare Festivals Around the World'' by Marcus D. Gregio ( Editor), 2004.


Productions

In more than thirty-six years, the Texas Shakespeare Festival has produced twenty-nine plays of Shakespeare's canon, as well as multiple American and European classics, original works, numerous musicals, and very successful shows for young audiences. Their work with young audience led to them being awarded a grant in 2005 to further support youth activities. The Festival continues to audition and employ professional directors, actors, designers, and technicians, as well as giving many university students from all across America their first summer theatre experience. The Festival has attracted a range of attention throughout its more than two-decades of performances. In 1999 a production of ''
Angels in America ''Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'' is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award f ...
'' produced by the Kilgore College Theatre Department and directed by Caldwell, led to death threats, anti-gay protests and a withdrawal of more than $50,000 in funding by the Gregg County Commissioners. Subsequently, however, the Festival received grants from both Paul Newman's Own PEN Center, the Dramatists Guild of America, and other sympathetic sources nationwide.


Support

Kilgore College provides the majority of the funding for the Festival, and provides a range of other support for the festival including: rehearsal facilities, office spaces, the
Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (; July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who, at the age of 23, achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold W ...
Auditorium, dormitory housing and meals for the entire company, scholarships for the apprentices, printing, publicity and public relations. Additional grants and foundations enable the Texas Shakespeare Festival to continue as a strong and vital cultural asset and tourist attraction for all of
East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...
. The Festival is also credited as bringing a degree of sophistication in the arts world to East Texas. In return, the Festival supports the college with grant funding to help refurbish the auditorium in which it performs.


References


External links

* {{coord, 32.377932, -94.86894, display=title Shakespeare festivals in the United States Festivals established in 1986 1986 establishments in Texas