California Shakespeare Theater

California Shakespeare Theater ("Cal Shakes") was a nonprofit performing arts company located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Its performance space, the Bruns Amphitheater, was located in Orinda, while the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, costume and prop shop were located in Berkeley.

Founded as the Emeryville Shakespeare Company, the company began performances with Hamlet, performing several shows at scattered churches and venues around the East Bay. It became established 1974 in John Hinkel Park in Berkeley, with productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Deborist Benjamin as Peaseblossom, following her role as Celia in the premier production of As You Like It, and The Tempest (with Rolf Saxon).

It was founded by a group of amateurs who wanted the enjoyment and experience of acting and production: no one was paid, and the plays were free.

The company produced several more plays in 1974–1975, including Pantagleize by Michel de Ghelderode during the winter, All's Well That Ends Well in the spring, and summer productions of Twelfth Night with Sigrid Wurschmidt, and a transfer of the Berkeley High School production of As You Like It.

From 1971 until 1991, the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival held productions at John Hinkel Park in North Berkeley. After 1975, the name changed and the fest started a schedule of four plays per year. Dakin Matthews was Artistic Director from 1983–1987, with Michael Addison taking over as A.D. in 1987 and holding the position till 1995.

In 1991 the festival built the 545-seat Bruns Memorial Amphitheater in the Orinda hills and changed its name to California Shakespeare Festival. In 1995 actor Joe Vincent took over the theater's artistic direction, serving till 1999. Mr. Vincent added the production of non-Shakespearean plays to the repertoire, including Euripides’ Medea in 1997, and Molière’s Scapin in 1998.

In 2000, Jonathan Moscone was appointed its Artistic Director. In his first season at Cal Shakes, Moscone directed a production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; the company continued to produce one non-Shakespeare play a year until 2005, when its productions of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts One & Two (Charles Dickens, adapted by David Edgar) began a tradition of two Shakespeare plays and two non-Shakespeare plays each season.

In 2003, the company officially changed its name, again, to California Shakespeare Theater, or Cal Shakes. In 2009, Susie Falk was named Managing Director, following the departure of Debbie Chinn. In late 2009, Moscone was chosen by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) as the inaugural recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Award. The award was created to recognize an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through his singular creativity and artistry in theater.

In 2015, Jonathan Moscone stepped down as Artistic Director after 15 years. His final production was Charles Ludham's The Mystery of Irma Vep in August/September of the same year.

Eric Ting was chosen as its new Artistic Director joining in the fall of 2015. His first production was 2016's Othello, produced with minimal sets and costumes in service of a community tour of the same production that fall. The production got some negative reviews and drew a strong response from many longtime patrons, but ten years later it is cited as a powerful production that allowed actors to speak their truth.

In 1979, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival began Summer with Shakespeare programs, six-week camps for ages 14–18, culminating with a performance in the John Hinkel Park amphitheater. Over the years the camps were offered to ages 8–18 in two- and five-week increments, with locations in Lafayette, Oakland, Orinda, and El Cerrito.

California Shakespeare Theater also presented Student Discovery Matinees, afternoon performances of Shakespeare productions for school groups that include pre-show activities geared toward youth. In 2001, they began teaching pre- and post–show workshops wherein Cal Shakes teaching artists visit classrooms in order to enrich and support the Student Discovery Matinee experience. That same year, Berkeley’s Malcolm X Arts Magnet Elementary School and Pinole Valley High School hosted playwright Karen Hartman in Cal Shakes residencies; Hartman taught creative writing and storytelling in both residencies, and each one culminated in a presentation of the students’ works directed by Jonathan Moscone. In 2007, Cal Shakes received the first of several grants from the NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities initiative to expand its residency program and Student Discovery Matinee activities. The theater offered classroom residencies, after school programs, and home school programs throughout the Bay Area.

In 2003, Cal Shakes launched New Works/New Communities (NW/NC) with the aim of engaging marginalized communities while creating new works of theater based on the classics. Hamlet: Blood in the Brain w