Merced ShakespeareFest

In this new year of 2021, the local Shakespeare Festival will be celebrating its 20th season! Artistic Director and Founder Heike Hambley directed the first Shakespeare comedy for the young theater company, “Much Ado About Nothing,” in August of 2002! The staging happened outdoors in Applegate Park, at the MOAT (Merced Open Air Theater),…

The Merced Open Air Theater, also known as the MOAT, inside Applegate Park was recently renovated, thanks to a generous donation of $25,000 by…

In its 19th season Merced Shakespeare Fest announces auditions for their first bilingual production — the political tragedy “Ricardo / Richard II” on…

Merced ShakespeareFest has brought a truly unique production to its annual series at the Merced Open Air Theater in Applegate Park. This year a modern version of the bard’s Comedy of Errors is set in outer space — as in, like, beyond Earth. On stage, the space station Ephesus finds itself locked in a war with the nearby rogue…

If you love science fiction — perhaps the original Star Ttrek series with characters larger than life boldly going where no one had gone before — or the…

Merced Shakespearefest continues its 18th season this summer at Applegate Park with a unique version of “The Comedy of Errors." The raucous, farcical…

In its 18th Season, Merced Shakespearefest invites actors to audition for the popular slapstick comedy “The Comedy of Errors” on Saturday, June 29, at 11 a.m. at the MAC, the Merced Arts Center, on 645 W. Main Street, in downtown Merced. Performance dates will be Sept. 14, 15, 21, 22 at Applegate Park in Merced, and possibly one more weekend…

True love, passion, loyalty and devotion and their opposites — hatred, jealousy, deception, and betrayal — were forcefully portrayed on the stage of…