Heart of America Shakespeare Festival

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival has been a welcome fixture in the Kansas City arts community for decades. It offers quality staging and acting across the entire portfolio of Shakespeare's plays in an incredible outdoor setting. And all for free! I am not personally a big fan of Shakespeare but this festival consistently offers staging and presentation that have turned me into one.

Our family has attended every season of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival beginning in its second year. (We still regret missing "The Tempest", the inaugural production.) Initially, our appreciation of the Festival came from the quality of the performance, as well as its attractive price point -- FREE! Over time, as we became more familiar with the mission of HASF and the incredible contribution it makes not only to the theatre-going public but also to education of young people in both Shakespeare and theatre arts, we became committed supporters. HASF is professionally and responsibly managed, utilizing its remarkably small staff to accomplish great work and education in Kansas City year-round. We are confident that every penny we contribute will be spent effectively, always in furtherance of HASF's mission. I am grateful to be a supporter, volunteer and avid consumer of the art HASF so generously provides to the KC community. It is a source of great pride to me to be a Board member.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival not only produces excellent, professional work, but makes Shakespeare accessible to all audiences by hosting a free festival every year. KC Shakes cultivates a fun atmosphere at the beautiful Southmoreland Park, and patrons from all walks of life walk into the festival knowing they will have a great time. Because the festival is free, audiences who might not have had a chance to experience Shakespeare and theatre can attend. Their education programs reach far and wide throughout the KC Area and bring in student artists who are excited to create and continue the HASF legacy. The festival and all of its programs have enriched the artist community of Kansas City and will continue to reach and impact the heart of its audience for many years to come.

It's things like this that make Kansas City a great place to live.

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a wonderful organization, offering free theatre to the community, providing children with fun, innovative, and educational camps, and bringing Shakespeare and Shakespeare related works to the community! It is wonderful to go out there and see the actors pouring their hearts out onstage and the audience soaking it all in. The staff is always a pleasure and I can not wait to attend the festival for years to come:)

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival has been giving Kansas City audiences the gift of free sensationally produced Shakespeare plays for the last 26 years. The work they do
Is of an extraordinary professional caliber with all the heart and soul you hope to experience when watching these remarkable plays. It is a magical experience to sit outside in a beautiful setting while receiving a story of such power and depth. In Kansas City it is unique in offering audiences the opportunity to see professional theatre with ones entire family as many times as you desire. Free theatre is truly a gift and Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is remarkable in what they give to this city season after season!

HASF was one of the first places I interned with while still in college and, I’m happy to say, I am still lucky enough to get to work in the teaching staff! I have developed life-long friendships and relationships through the education programs which I am forever grateful for. These programs are also life changing and invigorating for the young people who participate - they create lifelong memories and lasting bonds with people who appreciate their unique personalities and skills. I am forever grateful for the HASF ❤️

Since my daughter moved to Kansas City, the Shakespeare Festival has fostered her career and personal growth. She has been directly involved with the Festival since college where she was an intern. The experience and positive relationships she has gained have tremendously built her confidence and skill set.

Additionally, the Shakespeare Festival is an enriching cultural tradition for all ages. It is wonderful that families can experience the arts at such a high caliber for FREE. The welcoming atmosphere and sense of community is unlike anything else in Kansas City.

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, HASF, is unlike any other festival out there. Not only do they offer a variety of Shakespeare performances throughout the year, but they also strive to educate anyone at any age about the importance of Shakespeare's writing. They put on an amazing, completely free, festival each summer that brings thousands and thousands of KC residents into the park to experience what Shakespeare has to offer. They hire young professionals to intern during the festival who get the chance to work alongside experience professionals. I absolutely adore the festival and wouldn't want to be apart of anything else.

HASF is unlike any other theater experience in Kansas City. The magical atmosphere they've created in Southmoreland Park has become a cultural tradition for the city every summer. They draw audiences mixed with frequent theater goers and people who this is the only show they see all year. The audiences are dedicated to the festival. HASF's education projects (such as Team Shakespeare and summer camps) are continuing the appreciation of Shakespeare and establishing the importance of art in the next generations. As someone lucky enough to have worked on the festival for 10 years, there is nothing like a night in Southmoreland Park, watching quality Shakespeare productions, under the stars, filled with the exciting energy the festival creates.

An organization that engages the top talent in the city in order to share the greatest playwright in the history of the western world with audiences... for FREE! There are very few words than can accurately sum up my love for Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Important. Vital. Inspiring. Community building. A Kansas City treasure.

I was fortunate enough to not only enjoy the incredible work of HASF surrounded by an audience rolling with laughter when I saw Much Ado this past summer, but I was also blessed in having the opportunity to perform Laertes in the 2017 production of HAMLET. The experiences back stage and in the audience might be wildly different, but they share the same outcome: community. The buzz and the celebration of life that spins around the crowd after the curtain call is the same feeling an actor has walking back to the dressing room after the show. It's the feeling of being part of something good and honest and decent in this world. Sharing that experience with others brings us together in a way that is very rare in this world today. There's nothing like HASF!

As someone who has both worked with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival onstage and watched from the audience, I can't think of a better word for HASF than INDISPENSABLE. The gifts it brings to the theatre professionals and the theatre-goers of Kansas City are innumerable, and there is nothing else like it anywhere nearby.

This is an organization that demonstrates professionalism, creativity, community engagement, artistic skill, and pure joy on every level, and it is evident in everyone who contributes to its successes, onstage and off, during the summer and year-round.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas City has had the opportunity to partner with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival for the last two years. It has been a great opportunity for our Bigs & Littles to experience Shakespeare and learn about his work. Not only have they generously offered free tickets to Bigs & Littles, but Heart of America Shakespeare staff makes the experience so much better. In the past two years, they have provided a VIP tent and dinner for all BBBS attendees. They even sectioned off an area for us to sit together, which allowed other Bigs & Littles to chat and get to know each other better. All in all, the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival staff is great to work with and they care about the community is so many ways. We hope to continue this great partnership next year as well :)

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival produces professional productions of incredible quality. They are a jewel of the Kansas City theater community and a true hidden gem in Kansas City. Their education programs produce well-trained actors and arts administrators.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival offers something that not many arts organizations can: a life-changing experience.

For young and old alike, the festival's summer performances often mark a first experience attending professional theater. They're free, under a starry sky, with cicadas chirping, sirens wailing, and glasses clinking. The audiences listen closely to the language of Shakespeare; the words, at first, seem impossible to understand, but then the rhythm of the dialogue washes over you, and it clicks.

I have been attending the festival for 10 years, and each year they set the bar higher and higher for performing arts in Kansas City. I am always amazed at the level of production value they are able to present, and all with no ticket revenue. This organization is a staple in Kansas City, and an important resource for the community. I always look forward to seeing their shows and I hope that the never go away!

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is nothing less than outstanding. Having been somewhat of a Shakespeare neophyte, I have been so impressed with the production and professionalism of this organization. Year after year is seems to somehow out perform its prior productions. A fabulous resource for the city of Kansas City! May it continue for many years to come.

Just barely after my child's ninth year, the budding stage mom in me reared her precious little head. I was looking for summer prospects for Lucy and saw a brochure for local Shakespeare summer camps. I had seen a documentary about a New York educator who pulled off full Middle English productions with young students, listened to their reflections and testimonies about the impact that experience had into adulthood, and was surprised and grateful to find a local opportunity through Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. The only problem: the classes were for 10 and up. My girl had just turned nine.
Like any average stage mom I rang the director and explained my child's extraordinary capacities. I remember her candor: she accepted my daughter's enrollment and assured me that as a young participant Lucy would not have much of a role. We agreed and my daughter commenced a seminar in performance, language, philosophy and common sense that has remained a constant throughout her education. This year she will graduate from high school and the Festival's apprentice troop, Team Shakespeare.
As a member of Team she has held all stations from Queen's Attendant to King Macbeth and logged over 100 public performances. She has learned that every role holds enormous opportunity for learning and growth, no matter her line count.
Shakespeare camps and Team have evolved into an indispensible part of our life. We attend theater together, we potluck the first Sunday of each month. Our Team writes, performs and directs a parody for the summer Festival, performed each night before the show. Often my child is out of town during Festival season but i am hooked on watching the development of all of the Team members, so the festival is a regular fixture of my summer. I love to lie in the park, beneath the twilight and moon rise and just listen to the professional show, the recitation of Shakespeare in the summer air.
Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a community organization that manages to sustain itself while giving back consistently and endlessly to the community, all year round. I describe my choice to approach the education director 8 years back as one of the best parenting decisions I've ever made. Raising smart, compassionate community members does take a village. HASF is one of the best villages around.

***fun random fact: last night my daughter attended a Halloween party for local theater with a recent Team alumni. They went as the current education directors. Everyone knew exactly who they were.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a Kansas City gem. I started my career as an intern with them and went on to work for them in several capacities. I still return every summer with my family to experience the magic of theatre under the stars. The plays are engaging and accessible. As a theatre professional I am also consistently blown away by the high quality of the acting, direction and design.

I have had the privilege of participating with this nonprofit both as a professional artist and audience member. For starters, the vast amount of work created by the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival rivals the output of many organizations three- and four-times its size. Not only does the festival produce the highest quality theatrical production in Kansas City every summer, its year-round outreach to schools, churches, and community organizations throughout the KC metro area inspires thousands of would-be artists and patrons to find new ways to infuse their lives with Shakespeare. HASF's dedication to a professional, powerful instantiations of Shakespeare's work is the gold standard to which all other productions are measured in the community, and its passion to enrich the lives of everyone lucky enough to come into contact with its workshops, classes, partnerships and presentations is second to none.

I have a degree in Theatre Education from William Jewell College, and I have attended HASF performances as an audience member for several years. Productions are always exceptionally professional, high quality storytelling, and make Shakespeare understandable for average families in Kansas City. And for free!

I also worked with them this summer to help finish the set of Hamlet and I had a lot of fun seeing things work from the "inside." Great team, well organized, and I would definitely help out if needed again.

Most recently, I have been a student with them for their Adult Shakespeare Class. As an actor I've grown a lot in a short amount of time and appreciate the insight both Sidonie and Matt bring to each workshop. Take a class!

I will always recommend this organization and hope others can continue to participate in any way; as a lover of stories, a theatre artist, or as a student keeping William Shakespeare alive and accessible to all in Kansas City.

--BRIAN GEHRLEIN

The festival has been a high point of my summer for more than two decades. In that time I've laughed at Bottom, thrilled to Henry, raged with Lear, and sighed for Romeo. Oh, and I've swung to a little Kansas City jazz. (Director Sidonie Garrett has a knack for consistently changing things up.) Best of all has been the joy rising from Southmoreland Park as people of all makes and models come together, blankets and picnic baskets in hand, to revel in a bit of magic under the stars. Somewhere, Shakespeare is smiling.

I firmly believe in--and have witnessed the power of--the Shakepeare's Festival mission. No other theatre in Kansas City offers a free professional production in a venue that feels as familiar and comfortable as Southmoreland Park. I've seen five year olds marvel at the performances and follow along with the story, I've seen teenagers cart their scripts to the park and follow along, I've seen young adults and friends celebrate anniversaries and milestones out on the lawn. The Festival is a diverse, welcoming, vital part of Kansas City's artistic community, and its longevity demonstrates the continued relevance and universality of Shakespeare's works. The Festivals' year-round educational programming and well-respected community partnerships speak to the organization's ability to connect with audiences in new ways, and to keep them engaged with their mission beyond a single evening in the park. It's an institution with an indelible connection to summertime in Kansas City, and our community is better because of it.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival provides Kansas City and, indeed Missouri and Kansas an amazing source of culture and literary outreach along with theatrical excellence. As a theatre educator and college director, I would have to say HOASF is of the highest caliber. Awesome performances, tremendous outreach to youth, and a value packed endeavor.

Attending the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is one of my family's favorite summer traditions. Seeing a Shakespeare play under the stars in Southmoreland Park is always a treat. The high-quality productions feature Equity actors, original music, and professional lighting, sound, costume and scenic design. Come early to take advantage of the preshow entertainment and enjoy a picnic or a glass of wine before the show. You can bring chairs or blankets and take advantage of the free admission, but don't forget to donate what you can. The most convenient option is to reserve great seats directly in front of the stage for just $25 each. Either way, the Shakespeare Festival is the best theatre bargain in town. Don't miss "Hamlet" June 13-July 2, 2017!

The Festival also offers excellent year-round performances and education programs in partnership with arts organizations and cultural institutions throughout the city. Check www.kcshakes.org for details. Children and teens won't want to miss the Festival's highly-regarded summer camps and year-round education programs. My kids had so much fun learning acting, improv, Shakespeare, and stage combat that they didn't realize how much their academic and public speaking skills had improved

During my entire professional life I have had a positive relationship with the Heart Of America Shakespeare Festival. Whether thru employment, family experiences or bringing my college classes to productions, the experiences are always positive, educational and rewarding. The impact this festival has on the Kansas City regional area cannot be measured in total. Beyond the dollars and entertainment it provides, the cultural enrichment to 25 years of audiences is without bounds and cannot be underestimated.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a real asset to the Kansas City metro. Not only does HASF bring free, high-quality professional theater to all, it also educates adults and children of all ages about Shakespeare and the arts all year long. As a teacher of Shakespeare, I especially appreciate the numerous opportunities to supplement my instruction with real Shakespeare-related experiences, such as local performances, exhibits, and lectures. In an age that has witnessed diminishing government support for the arts, HASF continues to provide such programming. HASF is indeed a great non-profit and deserving of recognition.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.”
—Jaques in As You Like It

HASF is perhaps one of Kansas City's greatest treasures. This is especially true when it comes to the KC theater community.

HASF's student/educational programs, apprentice companies and professional productions are all top notch.
If you have a student interested in theater HASF is the place to start.
If you have never been to the summer productions in Southmoreland Park you must go!


Our family has been involved with HASF for the past 5 and a half years. All five of our children have participated in the educational programs, the apprentice company.Three of them have even enjoyed being a part of the professional company productions over the past number of summers. In fact, because of HASF and it's wonderful staff, two of our children are pursuing theater as a profession.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a theatrical and artistic mainstay in Kansas City. Their mission is to make Shakespeare’s works accessible to a diverse audience through professional theatre and educational programs. Many Kansas Citians are familiar with their summer performance in Southmoreland Park, but they may not realize that HASF is active year round, with an extensive educational program (including classes for children and adults, as well as special performances), fundraising events, and various artistic works the festival undertakes in cooperation with other arts groups in the greater Kansas City area.

I have volunteered with HASF for several years now, in a variety of capacities. I’ve dressed in costume and asked for donations at their summer show (which is free to the public so that everyone can enjoy a professional Shakespearean production). I have participated at various fundraising events, like their Valentine’s Day gala, in which they aim to raise scholarship money so that any interested child can attend the festival’s educational camps, regardless of their financial situation. At this event you hear remarkable testimonials from the children and young adults who have attended these camps, telling first-hand how their lives have been changed and improved through the experience and confidence they have gained. I’ve also performed in some of HASF’s educational productions, visiting libraries and grade schools, and in some cases introducing children to the works of William Shakespeare for the very first time. I have helped out at arts fairs and other events around the area, trying to raise awareness of the good work that this organization is doing.

Beyond the contributions HASF is making to the community, their staff is comprised of a wonderful group of individuals. It’s truly a pleasure to work with them (and lots of fun). The organization is professionally run, well organized, considerate of their volunteers’ time and talents, and always looking for new opportunities to bring Shakespeare and the arts to the community. I can’t recommend them highly enough!

Our kids have been and continue to be truly blessed by the Heart of America Shakespeare organization. We have 5 daughters who have participated in various areas of the organization from camps, volunteering, festival show and team shakespeare and have grown tremendously. The instructors and leaders of that organization have truly embraced who our kids are and helped to develop character and confidence . We love how our kids " rub shoulders " with professionals who " take them under their wing" and invest in them for a season it has been and truly is a very unique experience for them and has grown them greatly!!

I have grown up in leavenworth ks, and was nevery taken to shakespeare in the park in kc. I went through college and got accepted to a shakespearean grad school in Virginia, funds would not allow me to attend but through the classes that hasf provide and the opportunities to stay involved within the shakespeare community next to my home has been wonders. I can learn with what I can afford, and I have been a larger supporter of kc because of it. As I child I had not travelled to kc much but I am now there at least twice a week, working, acting, and supporting local businesses and the community. Through the classes I have taken I have also made life long friends.

Hasf is my home away from home in kc.

Now celebrating their 25th Anniversary, the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is one of my favorite arts organizations! The staff and board are consummate professionals, the festival makes our city look good, they have great support from the community - both in attendance and contributions - and the quality of their productions ... Amazing!
It's not summer in Kansas City without seeing the festival's production. Thanks HASF!!

During my tenure as Producing Director of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis (2000-07), I enjoyed travelling across the state to our colleague Shakespeare company, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, to experience their stellar productions in Southmoreland Park. The plays were always well-produced, the stories clear, and the ambiance in the park was always welcoming and festive. I always left those productions enlightened and encouraged about the role of nonprofit arts in our communities.

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is a gift to the city and well worthy of the community's support in every way. The benefits of HoA's cultural experiences are reflected in the lives, minds, and hearts of those who participate in them, and Kansas City and the region are enriched as a result.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival has enriched my summers for the past 25 years. I attend the play at least twice every season; once is never enough. The Bard’s words, the quality of the acting and directing, the production values, the magic of Southmoreland Park as the sun sets —all contribute to making seeing the play an unparalleled experience for the audience. And ANYONE can experience it, regardless of their ability to pay. HASF is a giant in the arts scene in our community, a wonderful gift to Kansas City, and a blessing for me personally.

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, in its 25 years, has become a necessary part of the Kansas City cultural arts scene. What began as a modest way to enjoy the works of Shakespeare in an outdoor theater environment has expanded over the years into an experience that educates new theater-goers, introduces diverse audiences to great works, instigates discussions about the play topics, and provides opportunities for children to expect this type of intelligent and exciting experience every summer (and even year-round). I cannot imagine this city without the Shakespeare Festival and all that it gives back to its citizens.