On Thursday, October 10th, California Shakespeare Theater Executive Director Clive Worsley broke the sad news that the beloved Bay Area theater would be closing its doors after 50 years of what the San Francisco Chronicle calls “standard-setting outdoor theater.” Worsley wrote that the theater has “no alternative but to suspend operations, begin layoffs, and take steps towards what will be the ultimate closure of the company.” In an interview with ABC7 News Bay Area on October 13th, a visibly emotional Worsley explained, “Myself, my staff, the board of directors, and our community worked very, very hard to try to keep these doors open and keep this institution humming, but we face insurmountable odds. For that, we are sorry.”
Cal Shakes, originally called Emeryville Shakespeare Company when it was founded in 1974, has evolved into one
of the most impactful theater companies in the country, providing theater education programs and critically lauded productions featuring artists the likes of Zendaya and Mahershala Ali. An Oakland native, Zendaya attempted to financially boost the theater with a $100,000 donation earlier this year. The singer and actress grew up in the Cal Shakes community where her mother, Claire Stoermer, worked as a house manager for over ten years. Unfortunately, the donation was not enough to subsidize the organization's annual budget, which typically exceeds $2 million.
Zendaya’s contribution did make it possible for Cal Shakes to produce what would ultimately be its only play of the season, and possibly its final production. Shakespeare’s As You Like It premiered at the Bruns Amphitheater in September, marking what SFGate called “a welcome return to action” from Cal Shakes after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-related financial woes. The play opened to enthusiastic reviews from Bay Area news outlets, many of whom remarked on the crowd’s excitement about returning to a theater they felt had been missing from the cultural scene. A review in Berkeleyside noted that the audience was “appreciative and engaged” and called the cameo by drag performer Chris Steele a “showstopper.” In a nod to the community-oriented nature of Cal Shakes, the review went on to say, “It is gratifying that all the actors are well-known Bay Area professionals.”
myShakespeare’s own Safiya Fredericks, who plays one of our charming interviewers in our productions of Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and The Taming of the Shrew, has been a recurring artist at Cal Shakes with credits including Much Ado About Nothing (2016), Black Odyssey (2017 & 2019), and The Winter’s Tale (2021). You can check out Cal Shakes’ Instagram post about Safiya from earlier this year here, or visit her website to stay up to date on her most recent projects.
Short of an unexpected miracle, it seems Cal Shakes has reached the end of the road. Its legacy will be felt in the hearts of so many Bay Area artists and theatergoers for years to come, and its presence will be sorely missed. Their homepage now features this appropriately tragic quote from Hamlet:
“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.”
