In the Spring of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had completely shut down the American Theatre, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare was no exception. SCS announced the cancellation of its season on April 10th, eliminating anticipated work for over 70 artists and staff typically employed by SCS. The Board of SCS was also eyeing furloughs for artistic and education staff given the inability for audiences and students to gather. While staff furloughs were avoided, the season cancellation, combined with unparalleled support from members and donors successfully offset the significant loss of budgeted ticket income for 2020.

In light of this, Mike Ryan created a unique program to engage our donors and patrons with a Shakespearean banquet unlike any they had seen at SCS or anywhere.  Through a critical partnership with The Humanities Institute and The Shakespeare Workshop at UCSC, Undiscovered Shakespeare came to life July 1st, 2020.  For 10 weeks, audiences were treated to a new type of artistic and scholarly presentation of The Wars of the Roses.

Undiscovered Shakespeare: The Wars of the Roses was the first of a public arts and humanities series co-produced by Santa Cruz Shakespeare, UCSC Shakespeare Workshop, and The Humanities Institute. Presented through Zoom webinar, it brought professional actors and scholars together with the public for a staged reading and discussion of the works that made Shakespeare famous in the London theater. As a young writer at the start of his career, Shakespeare explored ambitions, rivalries, and passions that swept away the dynasty that had reigned in England for more than four centuries. Over the course of ten sessions, we immersed ourselves in these rarely performed plays— Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 and Richard III—and reflected on them both as points of departure for Shakespeare’s career and as a mirror for the times in which we live.

Our offering in 2021 was Troilus & Cressida.  This three-part virtual reading of one of Shakespeare’s most unusual tragedies allowed loyal patrons to join us as we read through this play episodically on Zoom and dug into the text with lectures from scholars and conversations with the cast. Swinging wildly between bawdy comedy, epic history, and tragic romance, Troilus & Cressida plays out against the backdrop of the Trojan War. With its examinations of honor, fidelity, pretension, romance, and war, this is a play that Joyce Carol Oates described as an “implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential.” Troilus & Cressida was presented free to the public in three episodes on June 9th, 16th, and 23rd.

The success of the series shows us that the community has a hunger for this type of exploration of Shakespeare’s work and so SCS plans to continue Undiscovered Shakespeare as an annual presentation. We are thrilled you have joined us for The Life and Death of King John in February of 2022.  We are sure you will be entertained and educated.