NEXT FEST
at a GLANCE!
- 2013 FEST FAST FACTS: ALWAYS FREE for General Admission at the Mainstage in Simon Estes. VIP seating or Residency Show seats are purchased via Midwestix.com. MAINSTAGESHOW: ISE's "The Passion of OTHELLO" (FREE!) DATES: July 18 for a preview show, July 19-21 for full show TIME: Picnics at 6pm; Curtain at about 8. LOCATION: ISE's Mainstage at Simon Estes Amphitheater, Downtown Des Moines. TRAVELING SHOW: July 14, Historic Jordan House NEW 5th ANNIVERSARY SHOW SPECIAL: Starry Starry Nite: Ballet, Belin and the Bard, (FREE!) July 13 in Simon Estes, NEW "SHAKESPEARE AT THE MANSION" Shows: July 11 and 12: Torchlit picnic shows, fountainside in the Rose Gardens at historic Rollins Mansion; an amazing touch of England overlooking downtown Des Moines! Tickets only $15 via special introductory year pricing...with awesome Early Bird specials (and more information) at Midwestix.com!
- ABOUT THE 2013 FEST: In 2013, ISE is celebrating our FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of FREE Shakespeare and our TENTH ANNIVERSARY of Shakespeare produced al fresco! So we've cooked up an AMAZING line up of special repertory shows, fantastic ancillary special events, and even a superb new Residency at historic Rollins Mansion- made from beams under which Shakespeare himself has legendarily performed! We'll also soon be kicking off an extraordinary Signature Party to be a new ISE annual fundraising tradition! So you will NOT want to miss what we have in store- including our NEW Website: arriving along with Summer near Memorial Day weekend, with ALL the scoop! Check back!
- MORE SNEAK PREVIEWS: With so much growth in 2013 to mark our Anniversaries, you can just imagine what we have store for the following summer and winter seasons, as ISE continues to thrive! In future summers, we will continue to produce the Festival in true Repertory - - -and the following great Shakespeare plays are thus already lined up to burst out of our gates: Hamlet, Macbeth, Shrew, Winter's Tale, Pericles, Measure for Measure, Love's Labors Lost - - its an exciting group! We are also likely to soon bring back Complete Works, and to regularly produce the ever-popular works of Midsummer and Much Ado! And ALWAYS watch for appearances by Sir John Falstaff - we just love that guy! PLUS our acclaimed sold-out HIT Christmas Carol play at the Iowa Governor's Mansion returns for Holiday Season 2012, too! See below for more on our new year round programming - What a line up!
- SON OF SNEAK PREVIEWS: Did you know? ISE is now a year-round producing theatre agency! So watch for our non-Shakespeare "Classics" offerings to continue, too! And as the Metro's "found space" theatre experts, you can bet you'll find a particularly engaging show in store - because with an ISE show, you'll seldom find yourself simply sitting in some dark box. Instead, we are specialists in producing especially captivating interactive shows - - produced in unusual locations not often used for theatre! For example, our highly acclaimed HIT Christmas play inside the Iowa Governor's mansion is now firmly entrenched as a uniquely special Iowa Holiday tradition, selling out regularly - so get your tickets early!
- ISE NOW A YEAR-ROUND THEATRE PRODUCER: In 2012 and 2013 ISE has begun to unveil our new year-round theatre program: unique ticketed shows which support our free festival financially - -while providing some of THE most unusual and memorable theatrical entertainment in the Metro, all throughout the year! Following our Holiday show's smash success, we kick of a new ISE fall season with a gorgeous Halloween-themed show in residence at one of Iowa's Gothic mansion treasures: historic Jordan House in West Des Moines. Other exciting ISE year-round residency shows will follow - - in the line up already are: Austen, Wilde, Dickens, Moliere, Rostand, Wharton, the Brontes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stoker, musicals and other shows from the past century or this one, and many MANY other terrific classic works! Dangerous Liaisons, anyone?
Picnic with Panache: DSM Magazine4.27.2011 Premiere Society mag imprimatur for our Festival!Plus see link to DSM video: Fest Preview with Lorenzo Sanodval as Malvolio! _____________________________________________A SAMPLE of ISE MUSIC Juliet's Night from "Much Adoo-Wop About Something" (Courtesy A. Burgmaier '09)Download the MP3 -or click Triangle below-
A SAMPLE of ISE VIDEOS - Click Here
Bravo Radio Hour: Jan 2011: With MD Isley, J Busbee: R Heinemann, L Sandoval: Insightful, lively chat on ISE's relationships to Bravo, to community development outcomes, and to prior Metro Shakespeare initiatives. Click Triangle below.
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Updated on the Bard's Birthday: April 23 2013
WHAT'S NEW IN THE SHAKESPHERE?
IT'S ALMOST HERE!
IOWA'S AMAZING FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL IS ALMOST HERE!!!
(so is our new website!)
Happy Milestone Anniveraries and Birthday to ISE!
10 years of producing Shakespeare al fresco
5 years of producing al fresco Shakespeare - - for FREE!
Here's the lastest news for Summer Festival 2013:
HUZZZAH!
We're CAST!
(Wow -are we ever cast- its Star Studded!)
and
We're E X P A N D ING!
Wow- are we ever expanding! TWICE as many repertory shows as we've ever done in a single summer season before (FOUR different shows this summer!) wonderful new partners - and we'll be annuncing an extraordinary new residency at the same time!
We're even kicking Summer Season 2013 off
with futher website improvements!
Watch for new Web features - -and watch for the Season to be formally announced- - on or near Memorial Day weekend - along with our terrific cast line up - scores of wonderful new Sponsors (-Welcome aboard Iowa Public Radio!)
- -and a full breakout of
GREAT SUMMMER SHOWS AND SPECIALS!
Meanwhile: SAVE THE DATES -
and
Check out a few Sneak Previews!
As always, ISE Festival Season kicked off on the Bard's April Birthday with our Spring Break Youth Camp....
and as always, the entire Festival Season will run April - July with many activities all over the community thru late Spring and early summer....
BUT IF YOU ARE WANTING TO MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR OUR MAINSTAGE SUMMER SHOWS (it IS the Best Night of Summer after all -- and yes, we are doing the incomparable Othello - so you'll NOT want to miss this!)
THEN BLOCK OFF THE FOLLOWING TIMEFRAME FOR THE
MAINSTAGE SUMMER SEASON :
July 11 - July 23
We promise: it will be quite a line up!
CHECK BACK IN JUNE FOR FULL CONFIRMATION OF DATES - -
AND FOR ALL THE GREAT SCOOP!
SNEAK PREVIEW:
A huzzah welcome to ISE's inaugural State-wide Talent Kick-off...
as we welcome MFA students from the acclaimed University of Iowa Theatre program!
AND
A hearty welcome to ISE's inaugural Special Guest Director program:
The program kicks off summer 2013 with Co-Director James Serpento!
"We're a HIT! A very palpable HIT!" (Hamlet) A winner of fully 16 stringently competitive Awards (and a QUADRUPLE Iowa Arts Council winner) by merely our 4th Season, we've already far exceeded attendance projections (in our first year alone, by a whopping 66%!) Between our "Shakespeare on Aire" radio shows, street theatre and traveling shows, youth and educational programs and our great live theatre festival, about 25,000 people each year from 107++Zipcodes,are Shakesperienced! Thank you to the City of Des Moines, our Grant Funders including Bravo Greater Des Moines, The Principal Financial Foundation, and the Community Foundation, thank you Corporate Sponsors including especially the Davis Brown Law Firm and the Principal, and thank you to ALL our wonderful Donors, Reviewers and huge Audiences! Much more below!
- BARD 'N BUZZ: ISE Hot Topics and BREAKING NEWS!
- ABOUT ISE (all sorts of ISE backstory, from Board and mission info to policies for Actors)
- HORATIO'S CORNER ("more things heaven and earth"!) Today's Feature: Adaptation and Education!
- GOOD WILL AND A DUCAT: Credits and "thanks, thanks and ever thanks!"
- MINI-SCRAPBOOK of PHOTOS FROM OUR EARLY DAYS
INFORMATION WHICH WILL MOVE TO THE NEW DEDICATED WEBSITES:
YEAR ROUND SHOW INFORMATION, YOUTH PROGRAM INFO, "SAMPLE US" Videos and photos
and
SUMMER FESTIVAL DETAILS: Festival Fan Fare including:
- Quick Festival Info: Shows, Casts & Concerts!
- FESTIVAL SCHEDULE: A MINI Version of our highly detailed Schedule pages available in our Media Pages and our Festival Chapter on our Site Map, but a bit more detail than on our Fast Facts Page!
- ISE INSIDERS - Behind the Scenes - -Did you know? Who's who and What's what
- WILL OF THE PEOPLE: Quick "Quotes 'n Notes" from our Fans!
- R U Shakesperienced? Festival Fun Facts
- ONCE MORE ONTO THE BEACH: Rites of Free Will - "TOP TEN" hints to create the "Best Night of Summer" at our Riverside site!
- BARDAPALOOZA: Dem's Da Rules: How to have a Regal Evening!
- OUR SALAD DAYS: Picnic, wine and vendor info
- Today's Feature: Adaptation and Education!
WHAT WE SAY FAREWELL TO - - OR ARE CHANGING:
You'll no longer find our trusty old "Blue Weather Box" - instead, you'll find a direct link to the latest weather updates!
You'll find our Site Menu still nicely visible but condensed, with all festival specific information moving to the Festival specific website areas!
BARD 'N BUZZ: ISE Hot Topics/Breaking News!
ISE HOT TOPICS: GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER STACY KEACH SAYS: "What Iowa Shakespeare is doing is great"! [PHOTO: Mayor Cownie, ISE's Lorenzo Sandoval and Stacy Keach chat Shakespeare! 2011] Now in our fourth season of FREE summer Shakespeare plays "under the stars" (and AMAZING year-round indoor experiential theatre such as our Christmas-time Holiday Play inside the splendor of Iowa's incomparable Governor's Mansion), ISE continues its outstanding tradition of fostering world-class theatre for Iowa's Capital! As THE leading Shakespearean Actor in America today, our 2011 Special Guest Mr. Stacy Keach proclaimed in the Des Moines Business Record when in town for his hit presentation created specially to support us: "What the Iowa Shakespeare Experience is doing is great!" (See more on our Stacy Keach event in ISE's News and Announcements chapter of our Site Menu.) Mr. Keach was a luminary in ISE's tradition of annual involvement with outstanding national Shakespeare groups such as our 2010 local production of National Players (America's oldest national traveling Shakespeare troupe) and our 2010 Scholarly Introduction to the Iowa appearance of the internationally-recognized Shakespeare group Aquilla. So, how do we continue in this vein in 2012? With the fantastic Spring collaboration with our colleagues at the Des Moines Civic Center to create our special 2012 "Evening with the Cultural Cognoscenti" party where ISE welcomed Chicago's extraordinary Improvised Shakespeare group! The evening drew cultural leaders and ISE actors alike to a special presentation of this outstanding troupe name as Best Improv group on both the New York and Chicago theatre scenes. And the gorgeous party afterwards raised funds to help keep the Festival free - while starting conversations with Improv Shakespeare about a possible return visit to ISE that will really knock your socks off! Stay tuned!
BREAKING NEWS: WE'RE 4 for 4! While 2012 Bravo Grants continue to support ISE (thank you Bravo!) in 2012, ISE wins our FOURTH "Top Ten" recognition across the state of Iowa with our fourth Award from the Department of Cultural Affairs! This new one marks already TWICE in our 4 seasons that we've won the state's very largest arts Award, too!
R U Shakesperienced? Festival Fun Facts!
Shakesperience by the Numbers: In only our first 4 years...
-58,135 and counting ...: Number of times our Actors have said the word "ZOUNDS!" (Ok, you're right: we are TOTALLY making that up!)
DEPARTMENT OF HUZZAH: Awards! Funding! Huzzah! Hooray!
LOOK UP! OUR MANY FUNDERS ARE OUR TRUE STARS! Keep in mind that our grant support, terrific tho it is, provides for only about 60% of our festival's needs. So individual donations are extremely important- we value your contribution and can provide full tax deduction receipts.
But our grant funding shows that so many professional experts rank the Festival high! Our records with grants assures the public that their donations to us are professionally validated. So we are proud that the ISE is already a proud winner of 7 Bravo Awards -and in only the first two years of our existence, we thrice placed among the top ten arts projects across the entire state of Iowa - - funded by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs AND the Iowa Arts Council! And our inaugural Prairie Meadows grant came in year 3!
Be sure to thank these funders plus our special sponsor, the City of Des Moines, and also: the Scottish Rite Consistory, The Mickle Center AND the following extraordinary supporters who are all the TRUE stars of our shows.
GRANT FUNDS: The ISE is thrilled to announce that during the past year, in stringent competition, we were the recipient of one of Iowa'svery largest arts grants, the prestigious Iowa Community Cultural Grant Award. Additional thanks to special support from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines. And as ever, we simply could NOT do this work without the deeply meaningful support of Bravo Greater Des Moines and The City of Des Moines. This level of Bravo and City leadership is absolutely foundational to our efforts.
CORPORATE SUPPORT! In terms of corporate support for Shakesperience Fest, 2011 was our "Kick off" year when the wider community began wrapping its arms around the Shakesperience Fest tradition in an increasingly broad way! And for our exciting fifth anniversary in 2013, we are already planning a a major new corporate sponsorship campaign! So in the meantime, HUGE THANKS to The Principal for their now multi-year support, as well as to the following stellar area corporations, great community citizens all: Bankers Trust plus (in alpha sequence) Allied Nationwide, American Equity, Atlantic Coca Cola Bottling, AVIVA, Business Publications, Cityview/Big Green Media, Pioneer Hybred, Flynn Wright, The Graham Group, Iowa Health, Knapp Properties, Lint Van Lines, McGladrey Inc, Mercy Medical Center, Meredith, NCMIC Group, One Source Events, US Bank, and Willis Auto Campus!!!!
ANNOUNCING INAUGURAL ARTISTIC FELLOWSHIP SPONSOR! In addition to the great funders above, in a "Saving the Most Fun for Last" storyline, extra-special thanks go to our new Festival Sponsors at Davis Brown Law Firm!! In a delightful surprise announcement by Suku Radia (to a huge burst of Bravo-laden applause at ISE's 2011 April Stacy Keach event) community leaders learned that Davis Brown not only strongly supported ISE for Fest year 2011, but stepped up to the plate in a wonderful new way: to inaugurate the Festival's first Artistic Fellowship Chair -which kicks of THIS year here in 2012! And what's more, Davis Brown graciously honors ISE Founding Board Member Al Greffinius in doing so. The A.J. Greffinius Memorial Chair in Music will support the Festival's hallmark musical components, and ISE is so proud to announce our first guest artist under this program: Coloratura Operatic Soprano Renee J. Schwarz, as seen on stage with the Cedar Rapids Opera, will be the featured guest musical artist for 2012's Romeo and Juliet! We can't wait to hear Renee work her magic on this season's classic Renaissance-themed musical selections! Huzzah, Davis Brown! To Thee No Star Be Dark!
Be sure to thank ALL of these special supporters, as they are the "Light Through Which Yonder Window Breaks" in developing a free community festival tradition. Think about it: the community has a wonderful plethora of free outdoor concerts and arts fairs – but truly few places where we can access free professional theatre. Shakesperience Fest is one precious exception. Rumor hath it we may be the ONLY regularly-produced professional free local theatre in the Metro surviving the Recession! And it is these leading corporate citizens, who, along with a wonderful group of private donors (with a special thanks to Dr. Bruce Hughes and Mr. Jim Collier), have been setting the banquet table that is Shakesperience Fest- a FREE cultural community banquet of theatre, music and dance- free for EVERYONE to enjoy!
GOOD WILL AND A DUCAT: Credits and "thanks, thanks and ever thanks!"
A free theatre Festival in any community is ALWAYS a community-wide effort. We can never thank our supporters enough.
So a special closing shout-out to our major grant funders who have so strongly supported us here in our early years: The City of Des Moines, Bravo Greater Des Moines, the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the Iowa Arts Council, and Prairie Meadows.
A special closing bow to our leading Corporate Supporters who have also supported us in our early years: Davis Brown Law Firm, The Principal Financial Group Foundation, Banker's Trust, and Mercy Hospital. Extra special thanks to the Des Moines Scottish Rite Consistory and McLellan Marketing Group.
And a special closing round of applause to some of our key private donors who have supported us in so many ways as we have gotten this terrific initiative off the ground: Mr. Jim Collier, Dr. Bruce Hughes, Mr. Suku Radia, Mr. John Taylor, Ms. Bobbie Mathes, Ms. Irma Hughes, Mr. David Hurd, Ms. Joan Burke, Ms. Liz Nelson, Mr. Chuck Fuller, Ms. Karrie Weinhardt, Ms. Kendra Daly, Mr. Stuant Alexander and Mr. Scott McDonald.
And potentially- thanks to YOU! Keep in mind that your donation would be very important to the ISE and to keeping both the festival AND our top-notch youth programming free! That's because grant support, which vitally important and a key indicator of quality, only covers about 60% of the costs of FREE Festival Theater or FREE Theatre Youth programs! Your donation COUNTS! Check out our new Donation button at the top of the homepage- or just toss a few "coins of the realm" into the Bard Basket when it makes the rounds at the festival- it matters!
MINI PHOTO SCRAPBOOK
As our Volunteer-led organization works to update and upgrade our website more and more each year, watch for a full complement of Scrapbook pages - and yes, more You Tube video is coming soon as well!
Meanwhile, enjoy these delightful photos from Season's past, check out our nifty new Video pages (hit the "Sample us" buttons above)- and as always, THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Heinemann-Sandoval Productions
Mini Scrapbook 2004-2008
PHOTO: Inaugural Full Company, A Midsummer Night's Dream, July 2006
END NOTES
Lorenzo Sandoval and Robin Heinemann, Producers
PHOTO CREDITS THROUGHOUT THIS WEBSITE INCLUDE
Bill Gentsche and NorthStar Photography
Matt Wiggins Entertainment; Photography by Ava
Eric Bench
Paula Maxwell
Michael Rolands
Chris Maharry
with special thanks to Bill Nellans