Shakespeare & Company Unveils Its Full Season 2026 Line-up

Shakespeare & Company has unveiled its full line-up for Season 2026, unveiling a slate of new titles, returning acts, free and low-cost community events, and more.

The summer season kicks off at Shakespeare & Company's third-annual free Community Day on Saturday, May 23; the company will also hold a Celebration of Life honoring Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, who passed away on January 9, on Sunday, May 31.

The performance season begins on Sunday, June 19, and runs through Sunday, December 20. Artistic Director Allyn Burrows said the season's programming responds to the times, pairing resonant works with the joy and connection of shared stories.

New, familiar, and reimagined works join the previously announced Shakespeare and Shakespeare-adjacent titles Twelfth Night, Circus & the Bard: The Next Chapter, Shake It Up: The Remix, and Hamlet.

Season 2026 opens with Matthew Barber's Fireflies at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, which will also host Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally in July and August, and The Norwegians by C. Denby Swanson in September and October.

September 1-3, Shakespeare & Company offers a diverse long weekend of theater, presenting a limited run of Midsummer Dreamers, a two-person reinterpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream featuring aerial feats and other physicalities, and the fifth-annual outdoor Plays in Process series, which showcases new, developing works as they are readied for the stage.

Celebrating Jewish Plays will return for its second year October 9-11, presenting three plays over three evenings during the holiday weekend, and the season closes with its traditional, Jane Austen-inspired winter show: a staged, costumed reading of Pride & Prejudice.

The free Behind the Curtain series also returns on June 6, offering free talks about upcoming titles with directors, cast members, and others, and Merry Wanderers' Tours of Shakespeare & Company's grounds and buildings will be offered in July and August.

FREE EVENT — Community Day

Saturday, May 23
Tina Packer Playhouse & the Grounds
Shakespeare & Company announces its third-annual Community Day, a free, family-friendly celebration on Saturday, May 23, from 11 am to 4 pm at the Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox. Community Day invites guests of all ages to enjoy performances, interactive activities, film screenings, food trucks, and opportunities to learn about more than two dozen nonprofit and community organizations serving the Berkshires and beyond.

A Celebration of Life for Tina Packer

Sunday, May 31
Tina Packer Playhouse
On Sunday, May 31 at 1 p.m., Shakespeare & Company will hold a gathering to celebrate Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer's remarkable life and lasting impact. This celebration of life will be open to the community, to allow everyone to remember a powerhouse on and off stage in the Berkshires and the world. Those who would like to share a memory, story, or reflection about Tina are invited to email rememberingtina@shakespeare.org. In addition, The Tina Packer Legacy Fund has been established to support the future of Shakespeare & Company and the work she founded.

Fireflies

By Matthew Barber
Directed by Daniela Varon
June 19–July 19
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Bannister lives alone in tiny Groverdell, Texas, settled into her routines and secure in her standing as the town's most respected woman. When a hole in her roof brings Abel Brown — a charming, smooth-talking drifter — onto her doorstep, he offers to repair the house and quietly begins to upend her carefully ordered life. As an unexpected late-life romance flickers to life, gossip spreads and doubts surface. Can Abel be trusted, or is he not quite who he seems? Either way, the whole town is watching.

Gala 2026

Friday, June 26
Tina Packer Playhouse
Shakespeare & Company's Gala 2026 will be held at its Lenox campus in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and begins at 4:30 p.m. with a cocktail hour, performance, and dinner and dancing under the stars in the Rose Meadow Tent. Proceeds benefit Shakespeare & Company's Center for Actor Training, Education Program, and Performances. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit shakespeare.org, write to Sunie Gorey at sgorey@shakespeare.org, or call 413.637.1199 ext.180.

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Kate Kohler Amory
July 4–26
Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheatre
Shipwrecks, disguises, and mistaken identities spark the joyful chaos of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's most playful romantic comedy. Love runs amok, wit flies, and nothing is quite what it seems in this sun-soaked tale of music and mischief. Performed outdoors July 4–26 at one of Newsweek's Top 10 Outdoor Theater Venues in the U.S., this summer production invites audiences to relax, laugh, and revel in Shakespeare under the open sky.

Circus & The Bard: The Next Chapter

Co-created by Allyn Burrows, Robin Eldridge, and Pedro Reis
Directed by Allyn Burrows and Pedro Reis
July 16–26
Tina Packer Playhouse
Circus & the Bard: The Next Chapter bounces back July 16–26! Shakespeare & Company and Spirit of the Circus reunite for a playful mash-up of jaw-dropping circus acts paired with Shakespeare's beloved characters. When high-flying feats meet the Bard's words, sparks fly, laughs abound, and something truly magical happens.

Relaxed, sensory-friendly performances will be held on Wednesday, July 22 and Thursday, July 23.

Shake It Up: The Remix

Co-created by Allyn Burrows and Jacob Ming-Trent
Directed by Allyn Burrows
July 29–August 2
Tina Packer Playhouse
The hit that had audiences on their feet returns — revved up and remixed. The Tina Packer Playhouse transforms once more into the Elephant Lounge for Shake It Up: The Remix, an exuberant mash-up of modern music and Shakespearean verse. Audiences are invited to clap, sing, stomp, and dance in the aisles as the players unleash a breathless, rocking revue.

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

By Terrence McNally
Directed by Nicole Ricciardi
July 30–August 23
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Set over the course of a single late night in a small Hell's Kitchen apartment, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is a tender, funny, and deeply human play about two people standing at the edge of connection. Frankie, a guarded waitress, and Johnny, an earnest short-order cook, work together at a Manhattan diner. After their first date, they find themselves in bed — and talking through the night. What unfolds is an intimate conversation filled with humor, vulnerability, and longing, accompanied by the soft glow of Debussy's “Clair de lune” playing on the radio.

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Ariel Bock
August 13–30
Tina Packer Playhouse
Hamlet is Shakespeare's most searching play — a gripping story of grief, conscience, and the cost of action. Haunted by his father's ghost, a young prince must navigate a world of secrets, power, and betrayal, where nothing is as it appears. By turns thrilling, darkly funny, and deeply human, this August production brings Shakespeare's language to life with clarity, physicality, and immediacy.

Midsummer Dreamers

Created by Kirsten Peacock and Nick Nudler of Cosmic Mirth
September 1–3
Tina Packer Playhouse
Two lovers fall asleep angry — and wake inside a rare vision, challenging them to confront each other and themselves. Blending the poetry of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with physical theater, aerial performance, and rambunctious comedy, Midsummer Dreamers reimagines Shakespeare's classic as a surreal, seductive journey through a couple's subconscious. Performed by just two actors, this 90-minute whirlwind explores love, resentment, reconciliation, and the mysterious forces that shape our inner worlds.

CW: This production includes strobe lights, suggestive content, and brief staged violence.

Plays in Process

September 1–3
Rose Footprint Theatre
The Plays in Process series returns for its fifth year, showcasing new, developing works and offering a behind-the-scenes look at scripts as they are readied for the stage. Held at the Rose Footprint Theatre in Lenox, the series focuses on refining narratives through staged readings and has successfully transitioned several early-stage readings into fully realized world-premiere productions, including 2025's The Victim by Lawrence Goodman and 2024's Three Tall Persian Women by Awni Abdi-Bahri.

The Norwegians

By C. Denby Swanson
Directed by James Warwick
September 4–October 4
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Set in a Minnesota bar where heartbreak is served alongside beer, The Norwegians is a sharp, surprising dark comedy about love gone wrong — and the lengths we go to set things right. Betty and Olive, two women reeling from romantic betrayal, hatch an unlikely plan: hiring a pair of Norwegian hitmen to deal with the men who wronged them. With witty dialogue and a clever premise, the play explores the culture of America’s “flyover country,” where kindness runs deep — even in the most unexpected professions.

Celebrating Jewish Plays

October 9–11
Tina Packer Playhouse
Following its successful debut in 2025, Shakespeare & Company welcomes back Celebrating Jewish Plays, an immersive theater experience featuring three plays presented over three evenings during the holiday weekend.

Pride and Prejudice

December 18–20
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Join us for our traditional, Jane Austen-inspired Winter Show: a lively, costumed reading of Pride and Prejudice. Details are coming soon.

The Behind the Curtain Series

Led by Shakespeare scholar Ann Berman, Behind the Curtain talks are free and open to the public and feature directors, cast, and design team members as guests. Held on Saturdays in the spring and summer, they explore themes from the season and offer opportunities for lively discussion prior to each performance.

June 6: Fireflies by Matthew Barber, with Director Daniela Varon
June 20: Twelfth Night, with Director Kate Kohler Amory
July 11: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, with Director Nicole Ricciardi
August 1: Hamlet, with Director Ariel Bock
August 29: The Norwegians, with Director James Warwick

Merry Wanderers Tours