Richmond Shakespeare Festival

The Richmond Shakespeare Festival was created by a group of enthusiastic volunteers following the 2013 production of The Tempest at Richmond Civic Theatre, produced as fundraiser to benefit Studio 10, RCT’s studio theatre program.

The inaugural year of the festival, 2014, included the presentation of Much Ado about Nothing, and  Romeo and Juliet at the Starr-Gennett piano factory building in the Whitewater Gorge Park in Richmond, Indiana. The 2014 festival coincided with a year-long, international celebration of the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (baptized 4/26/1564).

The 2015 festival included productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Titus Andronicus at the McDaniel Studio theatre in the new Center for Visual and Performing Arts at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Our youth program included green show presentations of the 15-Minute Hamlet, by Tom Stoppard.

In 2016, the festival presented The Comedy of Errors and The Tragedy of King Lear. Following renovations to the park and facility, the RSF returned to the Starr-Gennett piano factory building in the Whitewater Gorge Park in Richmond, Indiana. The 2016 festival coincides with a year-long, international celebration of the 400th anniversary of the legacy of William Shakespeare (deceased 4/23/1616).

The 2017 festival will feature productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Cymbeline at the Starr-Gennett piano factory building in the Whitewater Gorge Park in Richmond, Indiana.

The festival is presented annually and as a community-wide collaboration and celebration, welcoming participants and guests, regionally and nationally. The mission of the Richmond Shakespeare Festival organization is to produce and promote an annual Shakespeare festival of the highest quality, including theatrical performances and educational opportunities, based in Richmond, Indiana. The Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Inc. was created as a non-profit corporation under Indiana law on December 6, 2013 and is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity.