From The Artistic Director...
 Welcome to the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival! We are glad you came for a visit to our web site. To look at the different facets of our organization, either select the buttons on your left or read the following paragraphs and select whatever interests you along the way. If you are looking for something specific, go to our SEARCH page. I'm Jim Helsinger, the Artistic Director and it is my pleasure to take on a stroll through the festival's history.
Seventeen years ago the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival began its first season of two Shakespearean productions. Thanks to the stewardship of the founding Artistic Director Dr. Stuart Omans, the generous assistance of the University of Central Florida and the commitment of our sponsors, donors and patrons, that fragile seed has grown into a major regional theater providing artistic and educational events throughout the year. Guided by our mission and values statements and supported by a strong staff, Board of Directors, Associate Board, and Guild Volunteers, we are now embarking on our seventeenth season of growth and excellence! Today our season includes our Subscription Series of six productions with a cast of
professional actors from around the country, our Theater for Young Audiences Series of
three theatre for young audiences productions, a workshop/reading series
for new plays and a 10 Day festival of new plays, The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays
, one summer Shakespeare production performed by local high school students in our TYC program, summer camps for children, community and professional classes, and extensive teaching in K-12 schools. With a large full-time
administrative staff and a company of professional directors, designers, assistants, interns, and
production staff, we are growing by leaps and bounds.
The Festival has performed
41
mainstage productions of Shakespeare's works. Our free monthly reading series, Shakespeare Unplugged, read the entire canon of 36 plays for the public, and we've performed 26 productions of Shakespeare as a part of our summer TYC
program for a total of 103 productions of the Bard. The
Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays and our playwrights' series of adaptations of classics and new works has produced world premiere productions of
Robinson Crusoe, Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker, Poe, Deep into that Darkness Peering, Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, The Island of Dr. Moreau, A Christmas Carol in Five Parts, Trapezium, The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge, and the Florida Premiere of Around the World in 80 Days. The
John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center, our 50,000 sq.ft complex includes, the Ken and Trisha Margeson Theater (324 seats), the Marilyn and Sig
Goldman Theater (118 seats), Studio B (70 seats), Mandell Studio Theater (100 seats) the Dr. Phillips Patrons Room, gift shop, catering kitchen, scenic, costume and prop shops, administrative offices, and the outdoor Darden Courtyard. For more information of the Center, click here on Shakespeare Center. Thanks for visiting our site. I'll see you at the shows! -Jim Helsinger
Artistic Director |
