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Save Trinity Shakespeare Festival

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We are Trinity Shakespeare Festival (TSF), an Actor's Equity summer theatre company devoted to producing the highest quality Shakespearean theatre in North Texas. Since our inaugural season in 2009,  Trinity Shakespeare Festival has been located on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.  As a company, we hire and work with current TCU students to give them an opportunity to work in professional shows with professional actors, directors and designers. TSF also provides an summer camp devoted to teaching 8-18 year old students the importance of Shakespeare as they perform cuttings of his plays.

Now we have learned that the generous grant which has allowed Trinity Shakespeare Festival to thrive and grow  has been discontinued. Thus, WE NEED YOUR HELP.  Rather than let the company end, we feel that TSF has more stories to tell and still offers students and local artists a completely unique  artistic and educational experience.
In order to keep the festival alive, we need the financial support of our community and like-minded people to show TCU and the DFW area that Trinity Shakespeare Festival is still immensely valuable.

Our target goal is $250,000 to help fund Trinity Shakespeare Festival at its high quality production value. That cost includes:

-Use of the theatre space
-Paying our artists (actors, directors, designers, guest artists)
-Paying students (a rarity, internships as students are often not paid)
-Materials (for props, swords, building sets)
-Costumes 


Any and all donations are accepted and our DEADLINE is:

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018.

**DISCLAIMER: This GoFundMe is not endorsed or supported by TCU or the College of Fine Arts, and a donation to this GoFundMe is not a donation to either TCU, the College of Fine Arts, or the Department of Theatre.**

This is the deadline given to us so that we may fund TSF in the fiscal year.

The most important benefits Trinity Shakespeare Festival offers are the opportunities it provides the students:

-Working with professionals in the field of theatre
-Being able to gain work weeks to join the Actor's Equity Association (the union for professional actors in the United States)
-Practical application of students' education in a professional setting.
-Paid internship
-Resume building
-An opportunity to showcase the talents and training of TCU theatre.


The following are quotes from both TCU students and TSF company members:

"This festival is such a unique and pivotal experience for all the students that get to be involved, and I genuinely believe that it is a gateway to TCU theatre students to be successful in this industry."
- Brooke Arnold, Theatre TCU Major

"Now that I have been able to experience the Festival as a student intern, I can now see just how invaluable this Festival is to my training as an actor."
- Sakiywaa Baah, Theatre TCU Major

"The Trinity Shakespeare Festival family is what I truly believe gave me my new beginning. I am positive that having this new knowledge about Shakespeare, Theatre, working with other professionals, and having a professional show on my resume is what will now set me apart. Without Trinity, I would still be stuck, unable to branch out into the professional world of Theatre."
- Carly Wheeler, Theatre TCU Major 

“But for me personally, the festival’s greatest and most significant contribution to our community has been in providing TCU theatre students the opportunity to work alongside some of the finest professional actors, directors, designers and technicians in the country.  I am a product of The University of Houston, which produces the Houston Shakespeare Festival, now in its 43rd season.  Those summers that I spent with HSF as a young drama student working alongside professionals in all areas of production were transformative for me. That sort of experiential learning simply cannot be captured in a classroom; it is learning by living it, it is important, it is life changing, and it is vital to the development of young theatre artists.”
- Brent Alford, Actor, Educator

“The veteran talents that I learned from as a 19-year-old TCU freshman have changed my life forever. To watch, learn, absorb, and play with such intelligent actors who cared about the same thing I did will forever leave a mark on me. I find myself most beautifully imprinted by the actors I’ve had the honor of playing with onstage. We’ve always been in this festival for the right reasons: to tell beautiful, heartbreaking, messy stories through the gorgeous poetry of Shakespeare. Our audiences know it. They understand it. They feel the electricity in the room. To deprive them of that would be true tragedy.” - -Kelsey Milbourn, Theatre TCU Alumni and Actor

“The cumulative artistic dedication surrounding Shakespeare’s plays each summer at TSF released an energy I have not experienced elsewhere. Among the beneficiaries of this energy were TSF’s audiences, artists, and of course the TCU students, whose involvement each summer as actors, technicians, and artisans was central to TSF’s purpose as a training ground where student artists could work alongside professionals. The great successes of these students over the years is testament to the power of TSF’s model.”
- Stephen Brown-Fried, NYC based director

"I’ve watched young artists grow while seeing “seasoned” ones renew their enthusiasm for their craft. I’ve seen audiences moved by what they were experiencing on the stage. Some of them got a little too involved as blood flew everywhere during Julius Caesar (I believe we paid some dry cleaning bills for that one). I’ve enjoyed working with and cheering on the kids who’ve been a part of our youth program, Camp Willy.
I’ve been so impressed with this project that I actually became a member of TCU’s Britain Society, which means I have put the Trinity Shakespeare Festival in my will.”
- David Coffee, Actor

“For the past seven years, I have been the Director of Camp Willy, the educational component of the Trinity Shakespeare Festival initiated by Claire Parker. The impact of this festival and this camp on our young thespians cannot be understated. We perform cuttings of the Trinity season, allowing our 8-18 year old students a chance to shadow the phenomenal performances of the Trinity actors who visit camp each year.
We are finally old enough to graduate some students-two of whom are joining the Theatre TCU department this fall-and after seven years of watching the greats and waiting to be old enough to join them, the opportunity to audition, to perhaps see their names alongside their mentors and idols, will die with the festival.”
- Blake Lentz, Camp Willy Director



Quotes from DFW theatre critics:

“In the past nine seasons Trinity Shakespeare Festival has won numerous awards for acting, directing and design from the Dallas Morning News, TheaterJones.com, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas-Fort Worth Theatre Critics Circle, criticalrant.com and The Column Awards making it among the leading producers of Shakespeare in the Southwest.” -Mark Lowry, Theatre Jones 

The Dallas Morning News
“The two plays offer complementary rides through life’s journey, with Midsummer aimed at the eternally young and The Winter’s Tale for those looking toward hard-won wisdom from the later season of life.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Theaterjones.com

“William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is popular for many reasons—it’s a smorgasbord of magic, music, love, comedy, and spectacle with broad appeal.”

The Winter’s Tale

Theaterjones.com

“Perhaps it is true that “a sad tale’s best for winter,” but this Tale shines bright in any season.”

Theaterjones.com

“It’s all about clarity at Trinity Shakespeare Festival, where repertory productions of King Lear and Love’s Labour’s Lost play beautifully together.”

Love’s Labour’s Lost 

The Dallas Morning News

“Love’s Labour’s Lost’ a buddy play ahead of its time”

King Lear

The Dallas Morning News

“Trinity Shakespeare Festival production of ‘Lear’ a cautionary tale”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“…Trinity Shakespeare Festival’s first-rate production of King Lear, which opened the 2015 edition of the annual event at TCU…”

The Tempest

Criticalrant.com

“I trust T.J. Walsh and his worthy creative team. They possess a palpable, definable aesthetic that permeates both productions… ”

Theaterjones.com

“At Trinity Shakespeare Festival, T. J. Walsh has assembled a perfect storm of collaborators for a fine production of The Tempest… ”

The Comedy of Errors

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“This production starts to win you over the minute you lay eyes on it… ”

The Dallas Morning News
“Having one person play identical twins on stage is crazy. Having two people play identical twins is crazier… ”

Julius Caesar 

Theaterjones.com

“There were delightful highs from sources we have come to rely upon (Trinity Shakespeare Festival)… ”

Taming of the Shrew

Theaterjones.com

“Trinity Shakespeare Festival has been tops for the Bard in this area… ”

Criticalrant.com

“Best productions, ranked by preference. Any one of the top five productions could have ended up in the #1 slot.”

Fort Worth Star Telegram
“In its fifth year, Trinity Shakes once again proved its standing as the gold standard for North Texas Shakespeare…”

The Merry Wives of Windsor

DMagazine

“What a beautiful treat it is to rediscover a popular play when it is done in such a straight-forward way. That’s what Trinity Shakespeare Festival achieves with its complete and colorful new production…”

The Merchant of Venice

DMagazine

“Trinity Shakespeare Hits Second Home Run With The Merchant of Venice.”


Much Ado About Nothing

TheaterJones.com

“There aren’t enough words to sing the praises of Trinity Shakespeare Festival’s Much Ado About Nothing.”

Hamlet

Fort Worth Star Telegram
Fort Worth’s Trinity Shakesepeare Festival offers up a minimal but mesmerizing Hamlet.

TheaterJones.com

To Laugh or Not to Laugh? Trinity Shakespeare Festival’s Hamlet goes for more humor than usual.

TheaterJones.com

And How! Trinity Shakespeare Festival arrives on the scene with flash and substance. more…

Examiner.com

“It’s time to leap for joy, fans of classical theatre.”

Twelfth Night

The Dallas Morning News
“Looks like the Trinity Shakespeare Festival is no tempest in a teapot. No, you may well find the Twelfth Night that opened this new venture on Thursday to be just as you like it. Frankly, it’s a relief to sit in an intimate, air-conditioned theater and hear pretty much every word of Shakespeare’s text. Especially when it’s being spoken as well as it is in director T.J. Walsh’s production.” — Lawson Taitte



THANK YOU FOR ANY AND ALL DONATIONS!



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Donations 

  • Kelsey Ervi
    • $50 
    • 6 yrs
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Fundraising team: The Team (3)

Mitchell Stephens
Organizer
Raised $425 from 11 donations
Fort Worth, TX
Kelsey Milbourn
Team member
Raised $1,530 from 12 donations
Katy Lemieux
Team member
This team raised $3,245 from 43 other donations.

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