Shakespeare Sustainably

Shakespeare at Winedale is honored to be the recipient of a major grant from the University of Texas' Green Fund to support our new Shakespeare Sustainably initiative.  

Performances at Shakespeare at Winedale are responsive to their outdoor environment.  Audience members recall performances in which it seemed that Prospero did in fact summon a tempest in the form of a summer thunderstorm.  Performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are complemented by the sound of crickets and the pink glow of July sunsets.  The environment is woven into the pedagogy of Shakespeare at Winedale as well: there is a longstanding tradition of “parapatetic” rehearsals, before audiences are invited, in which the play is performed across the entire Winedale campus: over meadows and through woods, spontaneously inspired by the actors’ impulses, weaving the environment into the fabric of their performance.  

However, the bucolic outdoor setting that has made the past fifty-five years of Shakespeare at Winedale so impactful to generations of UT students now poses a threat to the program’s existence.  As days surpassing 100 degrees are now the norm during the Summer Season, we are striving to adapt to the changing climate, for the safety of students and audience members.

With the support of the Green Fund, we're taking some environmentally sustainable steps during this 55th Anniversary Summer, to make Shakespeare at Winedale and its home in the Theater Barn sustainable for the next 55 years!

Check out our Shakespeare Sustainably Initiatives!