What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in July

Shakespeare on the Common, from Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.

Every month, we check in with our theater partners to find out what’s onstage. Here’s what’s happening at Shakespeare theaters in July. What are you seeing this month?

(Want to find out what’s happening at a Shakespeare theater near you? Find your region of the US: we start in the south and work counter-clockwise around the country.)

South

At the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens July 19.

East

At the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, The Winter’s Tale is onstage in the formal gardens of Annapolis’s Charles Carroll House through July 28.

At the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory, Romeo and Juliet runs through July 21. It’s followed by The Merry Wives of Windsor, which opens July 26.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company‘s Love’s Labor’s Lost runs through July 28. Bring a picnic and enjoy the laughs under the stars in the ruins of Ellicott City, Maryland’s Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park.

In Boston, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Cymbeline opens July 17. “’It’s a wonderful fairy tale,'” director Fred Sullivan, Jr. tells the Boston Globe “’It reminds me of so many outsized Disney characters, including the evil stepmother in ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Peter Pan’s’ Lost Boys, and even Gaston from ‘Beauty and the Beast.’”

At the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Much Ado About Nothing (through August 31) and Cymbeline (through July 27) are onstage now.

Catch the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged) at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey through August 4.

Midwest

At the American Players Theatre, catch Twelfth Night through October 6 and Macbeth through October 4.

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of The Comedy of Errors visits nineteen parks in and around Chicago beginning July 18.

At the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, As You Like It, Pride and Prejudice, and Caesar are onstage now. As You Like It features original music by Jordan Coughtry. Kee-Yoon Nahm, the festival’s dramaturg, writes, “The lyrics (while they may not be Shakespeare’s) can be set to different melodies and rhythms, giving each production of As You Like It its own unique flavor… In collaboration with director Robert Quinlan, Jordan chose to write songs in the style of late-1910s music hall entertainment, giving our As You Like It a cheerful and bouncy tone.”

⇒ Related: “5 things to look for when you watch As You Like It“

There are lots of chances to see Shakespeare onstage at Shakespeare at Notre Dame. Shakespeare After Hours (July 19, ages 18+) visits Shakespeare’s scandalous side. ShakesScenes (July 20), now in its 16th year, presents bite-sized Shakespeare for the whole family. Shakespeare in Fremont Park (kicking off July 25) is a brand new devised production featuring stories from South Bend residents interwoven with Shakespeare’s plays.

West

At the African-American Shakespeare Company, see Macbeth through July 28. It’s the west coast premiere of Migdalia Cruz’s Play on! “translation” of the play. Director L. Peter Callender sets the play in a homeless encampment: “I am interested in what would happen if a group of people, led by an ambitious American decorated, veteran male, tired of the status quo: being homeless, hungry, ignored, mistreated, dreams of having the power to change his situation and thereby lifting his comrades from this despair.”

⇒Related: “Play on! Q&A: Migdalia Cruz on translating Macbeth“

There’s lots to see at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where As You Like It (through August 10), Twelfth Night (through August 11), Romeo and Juliet (through August 10) are onstage now. King Charles III, a story in the style of one of Shakespeare’s histories set in a near future where Prince Charles has succeeded his mother as the English monarch, opens July 19.

At California’s Livermore Shakespeare Festival, there are two more chances to see Othello (closing July 21). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] begins July 18.

As You Like It continues through July 21 at San Diego’s The Old Globe.

⇒Related: “What’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters in June”

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival continues through October in Ashland, Oregon. New this month: La Comedia of Errors, a bilingual adaptation of The Comedy of Errors. All of the actors in La Commedia are also in the cast of Mother Road, a world premiere by Octavio Solis.

The Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O Season begins this month with a Romeo and Juliet performed entirely by female and non-binary artists and an all-male Twelfth Night.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival kicked off at the end of June, with Hamlet; Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3; Macbeth; Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will; Twelfth Night; and much more.

The African American Shakespeare Company, American Players Theatre, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Baltimore Shakespeare Factory, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare at Notre Dame, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Utah Shakespeare Festival are theater partners of the Folger Shakespeare Library.