The company was officially established at The Mount in Lenox on April 1, 1987,[2] by original members Kevin Coleman (later the Education Director), Tina Packer (the Founding Artistic Director), Dennis Krausnik, and Kristin Linklater.[3] It has received the Commonwealth Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for its contributions to quality of life in the commonwealth.[3]
Lenox, Massachusetts property site
The property originally included 22 buildings, including a structure named St. Martin Hall designed by Stanford White. It was previously owned, at over 62 acres, by Bible Speaks in the late 1970s and 1980s, and was later owned by the National Music Foundation but never used. Shakespeare & Company bought the property in 2000 for $3.5 million and sold off about 30 acres in 2005.[2]
In 2024, the company began collaborating with David Carver from CT Management Group on a plan for refurbishment of the remaining 32 acres that would involve keeping the stages intact and developing company-owned condominiums on the remainder of the property.[4] The plan was approved in February 2025.[5]
Educational Programs
The following educational programs are run by Shakespeare and Company:
Riotous Youth - short summer sessions in Shakespeare and theatre for ages 7-14
Shakespeare & Young Company - an intensive for ages 16-20
Shakespeare and the Courts - a program for juvenile offenders in Berkshire County, Massachusetts to take theatre classes and present a full production of a Shakespearean play
Fall Festival of Shakespeare - a festival for students in New York and Massachusetts to present Shakespearean plays in their schools and later at the Tina Packer Playhouse in Lenox
Directors-in-Residency Program - a program for teachers of elementary- through college-aged students to learn about directing Shakespeare’s plays[3]
Additionally, the company has produced a traveling tour of a comedy and tragedy of Shakespeare’s, performed by six actors, every year since 1982 (excluding 2020 when the company’s 2020 summer season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).[6] The actors in the plays perform most of the technical and administrative work related to the tour and often lead workshops after performances.[7]
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