Bringing professional theatre into area parks and schools since 1997, the festival has quickly become one of St. Louis’s most popular attractions. Each summer an audience of nearly 50,000 drama lovers come together to picnic, drink wine, and enjoy the free month-long outdoor performances of the festival. Working with the “best of the Bard,” SFSL’s roster includes sterling revivals of classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and As You Like It, presented under the stars in the lush greens of Shakespeare Glen, the festival’s permanent amphitheatre home in Forest Park.

Deeply committed to providing arts education, SFSL’s extensive school based programs include touring productions spinning a modern twist on classic stories and characters; hands-on workshops putting students directly into the text; and summer training camps, giving young people aged 12-19 the full “Shakespeariance” of creating and performing an entire production.