When guests take their seats in the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre and turn to the stage, there’s a good chance they’ll forget all about the multi-year renovations. For seasoned Colorado Shakespeare Festival fans, that view will look relatively the same, but everything above, behind, and even underneath the seatbacks has been carefully improved to create a better experience for performers and viewers alike.
The theatre closed at the end of the 2023 season, and the team got to work restoring both the amphitheater and the building. Within the performance space, every single stone bench was removed and then placed back on a proper foundation, and there’s a new sound system and light towers, which both contribute to a beautifully atmospheric production of Twelfth Night.
The Hellems Arts and Sciences Building, which houses the theatre, also got a glow-up, including a cafe that’s open before performances and at intermission. Across the way, the Roe Green, renovated in 2023, will play home to Julius Caesar this summer.
To round out this season, they’re also doing Shakespeare in Love and Friends/ Romans/ Countrymen. These are what Tim Orr, Producing Artistic Director of Colorado Shakespeare Festival, refers to as “Shakespeare adjacent” titles.
When deciding what plays to put on, Orr is looking for a mix of plots and performances that will complement each other and bring in different audiences. They’re the second-oldest Shakespeare festival in the country and one of the only companies to put on the entire canon. They’ve been through all 38 plays twice, and Orr’s goal is to extend the time between the most popular titles and bring less-known ones to new audiences in fresh ways.
“There are nine to 10 titles that sell very well and are very popular, because they are known from high school or famous films,” says Orr. “Then there are ones that audiences are somewhat familiar with or have never heard of at all. Part of our mission is to continuously stir these titles around.”
He doesn’t pick four tragedies or four comedies but instead looks for plays that will talk to each other and even encourage fans to see the whole season. This year, Shakespeare in Love acts as a fan fiction prequel to Twelfth Night, and, as such, both inhabit a similar world. They’re also very fitting to celebrate reopening the theatre.
“These two plays seem like a beautiful, lyrical, fun love letter to theatre companies and to Shakespeare and to Shakespearean theatres and companies,” says Orr.
Friends/ Romans/ Countrymen is a world-premiere, comical-historical take on Julius Caesar, written by David Davalos and directed by Orr. Some of the casts will overlap, and Sundays are two-show days if fans are inclined to “binge watch” both back-to-back, with a break for dinner. The last three weekends of the season will have all four plays running, so fans can enjoy them all together.
In addition to selecting, planning for, and overseeing these productions, Orr and his team also spend significant time on making the full experience more enjoyable, from ticket purchase through filling out the survey after the play. Outside the theatre, a volunteer group plants a garden every season that reflects everything mentioned in the four plays, like roses, apples, and herbs. They also encourage fans to come early to picnic or take part in the prologues that professional scholars at CU Boulder write to enrich the playgoing experience and help fans get more out of the play.
This month, all four plays are officially open. Head to CUPresents.org/Shakespeare-Festival to get tickets and see what all the fuss is about!