Colorado Shakespeare Festival Digital Engagement (Humanities Focus)

FAIN: GA-276023-20

University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)
Heidi Schmidt (Project Director: May 2020 to October 2023)

The retention of four staff to develop digital programming.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) is the 2nd oldest Shakespeare festival in the nation and a beloved cultural institution in Boulder. We were recently forced to postpone our entire 2020 season until 2021 to protect the health and safety of our artists and audiences. This decision comes with costs – we lost 142 seasonal employees and $1.19 million in projected revenue. CSF seeks funding to retain staff and expand humanities-focused programs. By entertaining and educating our audiences digitally while live performance is restricted, we are preserving CSF’s long-term viability. Proposed programs include: a digital, Shakespeare-themed book club; a book project documenting our interdisciplinary Shakespeare & Violence Prevention project in K-12 schools; creation and delivery of engaging, publicly available digital content for all audiences to enhance appreciation of Shakespeare; and development of Shakespeare curriculum revised for digital delivery to Colorado K-12 schools.