Shakespeare in Delaware Park returns this summer for its 51st season of free professional theatre on Shakespeare Hill, which includes Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Taming of The Shew, and the touring show Fools and Foes.
This season, the company welcomes three new directors to the Shakespeare family: Dr. Scott McKenna Campbell for Pericles, Brendan Didio for The Taming of the Shrew, and Nathanial Higgins for Fools and Foes. “These directors will certainly bring fresh perspectives and wonderful creativity to their productions,” said Executive Director Lisa Ludwig, adding, “All three of these free productions help us continue our mission of making Shakespeare accessible to audiences of all ages.”
She is especially excited that this season the company is offering
Something new and something familiar…We’re especially excited to open the season with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which marks the first time Shakespeare in Delaware Park has ever produced this play in our 51-year history,” she said. “I like to think of it as a sweeping adventure, filled with shipwrecks, romance, loss, humor, as well as hope and reunion.”
Dr. Scott McKenna Campbell has spent more time with Shakespeare’s Pericles than with nearly any other Shakespeare play, acting in productions, writing music and lyrics for a 2018 staging, and bringing the work into both university classrooms and youth theatre camps. Now directing his fourth production of the play, McKenna is especially drawn to its strange, stormy, and deeply human world – qualities that he feels are increasingly resonant today. He is also excited by the opportunity to introduce audiences to one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known works while collaborating with live, onstage musicians, a hallmark of his directing aesthetic.
By setting this production during the 1930s American Dust Bowl, Dr. McKenna Campbell believes Pericles will resonate deeply with 2026 audiences, because the piece will “ highlight the forced travel, natural disaster, human corruption, and general desperation that characters endure.” Working with Tom Makar, he has also woven original “Okie-inspired” folk songs inspired by the Shakespearean text into the production, shaping Pericles into the story of strangers finding comfort, connection, and hope while journeying through hardship together.
“I hope that Buffalo audiences experience a feeling of hope and community within the play,” he said. “Pericles is a story about characters striving to do the right thing within impossible circumstances. Beset by cruel tyrants, unrelenting storms, and a seemingly careless universe, Pericles and his daughter Marina each seek a calm landing after a stormy journey. Our production focuses on the ways that communal support and shared efforts can improve in ways that individual striving cannot achieve,” he said.
For those who have never attended a play on “the hill,” Ludwig shared the following: “Seeing a show on Shakespeare Hill is unlike any other theatre experience in Buffalo. We always say it is a community picnic where there happens to be a free professional performance happening before you. Audience members come to Delaware Park with blankets, lawn chairs, picnic baskets, friends, and family to enjoy the words of the Bard under the stars. It truly is a community event. You can even rent the special events platform if you have a group or order reserved seats on the hill, which will be waiting with your name on it when you arrive.”
For first-time attendees, Ludwig suggests bringing the following:
- A blanket or lawn chair (or rent a chair)
- Bug spray
- A light jacket or sweatshirt for cooler evenings
- Snacks or a picnic dinner
- And maybe even a small flashlight for afterward!
Most importantly, however, Ludwig feels that the work of SDP should be immediately accessible to all audience members, saying, “people should know they do not need theatre experience or to be a Shakespeare expert to enjoy the shows. Whether you are a lifelong Shakespeare fan or seeing your very first play, Shakespeare is meant to be seen and heard, and the hill (or our touring locations) is a place for everyone.”
She reiterates that “All performances are FREE – however, we do take free-will donations at intermission, cash, credit, check, or Venmo. It is our amazing audiences and supporters who have kept SDP going for 51 years.”
Dr. McKenna Campbell hopes that audiences who see Pericles will be struck by, “the ways that the people around us can bring us from the deepest tragedies to the greatest joys.”
In addition to enjoying the original music, he hopes that “audiences leave with questions and ideas about how this little-produced play from the 1600s resonates with our own world and how the 1930s Dustbowl Era connects the 1600s to today.”
Audiences can also support the company through a wide range of merchandise available on Shakespeare Hill, including T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, candles, stickers, jewelry, dog bandannas, and this season’s “Taming of the Shrew-Shrew” mascot. “It is the perfect way for audiences who want to support SDP and take home a little piece of Shakespeare Hill and show it off to everyone,” said Ludwig, noting that merchandise sales help sustain the company’s mission of providing free professional theatre for the community. Ludwig also encouraged audiences to catch this year’s touring production, Fools and Foes, a collection of scenes featuring some of Shakespeare’s most infamous comedians and villains, which will travel throughout Western New York on evenings when the mainstage is dark.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre runs June 18 – July 12, 2026, in Delaware Park. More information is available here.
