Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival

MISSION
The mission of the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, affectionately known as FlagShakes, is to faithfully portray classics of the Renaissance, as well as produce other actor-driven works. Each Renaissance performance incorporates Elizabethan staging practices, making these plays accessible and providing a unique learning opportunity. Our performances and educational outreach enlighten our audiences and revitalize empathy. Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival is dedicated to offering exciting artistic opportunity and experience for residents of northern Arizona and visitors from around the world.

ORGINAL STAGING PRACTICES
FlagShakes is dedicated to Shakespeare’s Original Staging Practices. These practices allow us to produce Shakespeare’s plays in the most authentic and accessible way.

WHAT TO EXPECT
Every summer, FlagShakes will bring you a new repertory of Renaissance plays. We choose our plays based on the needs of the community and aim for diversity: indoors, outdoors, family-friendly, romantic, lusty, adventurous. Our actors work hard on text, so you don’t have to. You can expect to follow every story from beginning to end while still enjoying the rich rhetoric of Shakespeare’s beautiful language.

WHO WE ARE
Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival was founded by a group of actors, scholars, and educators who delight in seeing the Bard’s work as originally intended on stage: intimate, dynamic, accessible, and linguistically rich. 

We are dedicated to education. Shakespeare wrote his plays for the stage, not the page, and we trust that the Bard knew what he was doing. We believe in enriching the classroom experience of Shakespeare by offering live performances, actor-led workshops, technical workshops, and extracurricular classes on Shakespeare and Renaissance literature. 

WHERE WE’RE GOING
Nowhere, geographically speaking: Flagstaff is home. But we have big dreams about how this festival will evolve. 

FlagShakes believes in seeking growth in a way that benefits not just the company, but the whole community. We believe in developing economically viable, long-term careers for artists and administrators while enriching the quality of life in northern Arizona and becoming a regional and national destination for travelers who love live theatre as we do. 

“Theatre, and especially Shakespeare at FlagShakes, is a shared experience. It allows us to de-isolate, to come out from behind our screens and experience feelings as a community. Nothing builds empathy the way theatre does— nothing allows for exploration of the human condition in such a vulnerable space—and no playwright captures the highs and lows of life like Shakespeare.” –Dawn Tucker, Executive Director

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FlagShakes has opened my eyes to Shakespeare. We are lucky to have world class Shakespeare right in the mountains of northern Arizona. Go see their work, you will be blown away!
— Joanie Patrice, Patron

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