Bristol Shakespeare Festival

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The Bristol Shakespeare Festival is a professional open air theatre festival founded in 2004 and held annually in the parks and green spaces of the city of Bristol. While the principal focus of the festival is on plays by Shakespeare, plays by other dramatists are also presented.

The festival claims to be the largest professional open air Shakespeare festival in the UK.

Productions take place in a range of open air spaces, including: Queen Square, a historic Georgian square in the heart of the city; the grounds of Ashton Court, a Grade 1 listed Elizabethan manor house set in beautiful parkland just over the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge; Bristol Zoo Gardens, the world’s oldest provincial zoo; and Brandon Hill, generally considered to be Bristol’s oldest park, crowned by the stunning Cabot Tower.

Normally opening in late May and running through to August, between seven and ten full professional productions are staged open air around the city by a variety of companies. Running alongside the main programme are subsidiary events which are designed to "inspire, educate, entertain and inform" Bristol’s visitors and residents.

The Festival is run on a voluntary basis and receives no funding. The purpose of the festival is to encourage new audiences to see classical theatre in non-traditional settings, and the festival also encourages ‘green theatre’ – ecologically friendly theatre which uses little electricity and generates little or no waste.

[edit] Festival Directors

  • 2004 - 2008: Miles Gregory
  • 2008 - : Louise Hill

[edit] Season history

2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

[edit] External links