CSF Reviews
“A deep bow to the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival and artistic director Lawrence Nehring for providing no-cost access to such delightful fare.”
Christine Howey, Cleveland Scene
“Play on, Cleveland Shakespeare, play on.”
Tony Brown, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“We have attended your performances
for many years now and look forward to attending many more in the future.
You make Shakespeare plays come alive!”
CSF Patron
CSF in the Media - Articles
2003 Season
by Kelly Ferjutz − ArtsCleveland.com
Theatre requires the suspension of your disbelief. If it doesn’t or won’t suspend, you might as well be watching TV or a movie. Never is this suspension more necessary than in the works of Shakespeare, the most revered playwright in the English language... read more
by James Damico − Cleveland Free Times
All gloomy speculations have been banished from the equally mythical Illyria of Cleveland Shakespeare Festival's sunny Twelfth Night... read more
by Christine Howey − Cleveland Scene
Do you know a teenager who’d rather watch a Matlock marathon than a Shakespearean play? An adult who’d prefer an appointment with Dr. Jellyfinger, the clumsy proctologist? Well, you'd best hijack those folks and sit them down in front of Twelfth Night, now being presented by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival... read more
A playful way to spend a summer evening − 7/15/2003
by Tony Brown − Plain Dealer Theater Critic
The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, that band of brave and merry souls who traverse Cuyahoga County from east to west to downtown with the Bard in tow, has lured Seth Gordon of the Cleveland Play House into the great outdoors... read more
Festival Pulls Off “Caesar” With A Twist − 6/26/2003
by Chiffon Staebler − Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
No togas, no tunics and no tights. Imagine having enough faith in Shakespeare’s words to do Julius Caesar with minimal scenery, in modern clothes and with women playing key roles. Now imagine offering it to the public for free... read more
by Christine Howey − Cleveland Scene
It's almost summer, it’s warm outside, and we’re all broke. This is clearly the time to yank a lawn chair off the front porch some evening and go see free outdoor theater featuring conniving malcontents, political intrigue, and multiple murders... read more
2002 Season
Actors and one of the Bard’s best make you glad the world’s a stage − 7/15/2002
by Carolyn Jack − Plain Dealer Arts Reporter
Clear, hot, indolent days. Soft, blue, romantic nights full of stars and lightning bugs. In the middle of February, Clevelanders fantasize about such sensual summers, often only to be crushed by cool, damp Julys... read more
by Marie Andrusewicz − Cleveland Free Times
‘As You Like It’, currently being performed by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, is one of the jollier of Shakespeare’s love fests −− ebullient and accessible, yet also loaded with some of the Bard’s most wary wit... read more
A Ground-Floor Offering − 7/5/2002
by Tony Brown − Plain Dealer Theater Critic
Groundlings rule at Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, which launches its fifth season today with a leaned-down version of “Henry IV” at the Shaker Heights Colonnade... read more
by Marie Andrusewicz − Cleveland Free Times
Hold onto something, here’s some news: apparently, people don’t put on free outdoor Shakespeare to make money... read more
2001 Season
Danny Morris Equity Contract Awarded to CSF − 9/12/2001
by Margaret Lynch and Fred Gloor − Cleveland Theatre Collective
The Cleveland Theater Collective announced today that its first annual Danny Morris Equity Contract Award has been granted to the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival... read more
Sunny Delights: A Summery Shakespeare − 7/11/2001
by Marie Andrusewicz − Cleveland Free Times
Here is a formula for a successful outdoor Shakespeare festival production, presented in a handy columnar shape, suitable for laminating and useful for bookmarking your favorite sonnet. Provided to you at no extra charge... read more
Accessible ‘Much Ado’ is full of belly laughs − 7/9/2001
by Carolyn Jack − Cleveland Plain Dealer
Could it be that Shakespeare was the Kaufman and Hart of his day? Well, let scholars bite their bibliographies in outrage: Lisa Ortenzi has proved the hypothesis... read more
Fest Cast Conquers Adversities − 7/3/2001
by Carolyn Jack − Cleveland Plain Dealer
Had they been real infantry, they would all have gone home with medals for extraordinary valor. As it was, the cast members of Cleveland Shakespeare Festival’s Coriolanus left their outdoor stage Friday evening knowing they had soldiered on despite adversity and shown their audience a good time... read more
Bringing The Bard to The People − 6/28/2001
by Carolyn Jack − Cleveland Plain Dealer
Cleveland’s Shakespearean actors have staked out a piece of ground and are building to last. But you won’t see any half-timbered Tudor walls going up in the spaces where they work. The summertime Cleveland Shakespeare Festival plans to give itself permanence, not with plaster and beams, but with words and dreams... read more
2000 Season
The Bard’s version of ‘Friends’ − 7/1/2001
by Linda Eisenstein − Cleveland Plain Dealer
Audiences at outdoor Shakespeare in Cleveland nearly always have to suffer a summer shower or two, but with the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival,
you shouldn’t fret over threatening skies...
read more
Modern Jokes Elbow in on Shakespeare − 6/25/2000
by Kerry Clawson − The Akron Beacon Journal
I'm a purist who believes the Bard needs no modern embellishments −− Shakespeare’s genius has stood on its own for more than four centuries, and will continue to endure. Those who disagree with such purists include the folks at Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, who are offering some Gen X−style extreme Shakespeare with its outdoor production of The Comedy of Errors... read more
1999 Season
‘Edward III’ cast keeps its cool − 6/26/1999
by William Bierman − The Akron Beacon Journal
A “new” play by William Shakespeare doesn’t come along every
day, and that may be reason enough to catch a rather different staging −− free, informal,
outdoors, with actors in street clothing −− of Edward III: The King and The Countess
on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Scholars and publishers (or at least some of them)
have lately concluded that this play (or at least most of it) is an early Shakespeare work −− and
it's hard to believe otherwise once you've heard the language. If it isn't the Bard, somebody pulled off a
masterful forgery of his singular style...
read more
CWRU setting is perfect setting for energetic ‘Henry V’ − 6/16/1999
by Marianne Evett − The Cleveland Plain Dealer
The courtyard façade of Mather Memorial on the Case Western Reserve University campus gas a central gray Gothic tower with two doors opening onto a wide terrace and brick wings with castlelike crenellations defining an open space. It is the perfect natural stage on which to perform Shakespeare’s Henry V... read more
Midsummer romp filled with fun − 6/9/1999
by Linda Eisenstein − The Cleveland Plain Dealer
If you’ve never seen live Shakespeare in the raw – actors in full daylight, with no lights, sound, set or special effects – you’ll have a pleasant midsummer’s revelation during the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival’s free outdoor production on the Case Western Reserve campus. Even under a blazing sun, with actors projecting across a broad courtyard over the bass-engine thrum of air conditioners, fine acting can rivet you and bring you in closer than a Hollywood tight shot... read more
1998 Inaugural Season
New company's Shakespeare enjoyable − 6/19/1998
by Marianne Evett − The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Recipe for a pleasant summer evening −− Sit on your blanket in the grass behind Mather Memorial Building on the Case Western Reserve campus. Nibble at your picnic supper. Watch Shakespeare performed with great zest by a bunch of enthusiastic young actors... read more