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Shakespeare Summer Festival Cancelled
Photo via Dr. Photo via Flickr
The Shakespeare Center is taking a break from their Shakespeare Summer Festival after 24 consecutive years of free public shows in downtown. They will instead focus on their nationally-recognized arts enrichment program Will Power to Youth. Director of the Shakespeare Center Ben Donenberg stated they had to take $100,000 from the summer festival budget to fund their spring show, according to Los Angeles Downtown News.
The April fundraiser with Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson was supposed to cover the depleted funds. But although Director of Community Engagement & New Media Regina Cabrera admitted the fundraiser was a success, the festival will still not be taking place. Cabrera said the company wanted to make sure they were maintaining the standards of years past and did not want to put on a show that was not of the same quality.
Cabrera alluded that they would obviously like to put on a show in the fall but until funding and talent is secured they will not be releasing any official statements.
In the meantime the Shakespeare Center is gathering listings of all the Shakespeare companies and performances going on this summer to post on their website so fans aren’t left stranded.
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