COMPANY HISTORY

Shakespeare’s Associates, producers of the Livermore Shakespeare Festival, is the premier professional theater company in the Tri-Valley. Its artists and volunteers have produced the Livermore Shakespeare Festival since 2002 at the hospitable Retzlaff Estate Winery, the stunning Concannon Vineyard, and in its current larger home at the beautiful Wente Vineyard. It has also produced shows in various venues in the valley.

As the company grew and became more successful, it was restructured, forming a new board of active community members and advisory board. Shakespeare’s Associates (dba Livermore Shakespeare Festival) was incorporated as a nonprofit, Public Benefit Corporation in California in June 2006.

Since then, Shakespeare’s Associates, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa A. Tromovitch, has produced ‘art’ by Yasmina Reza (2007); Proof, by David Auburn (2008) and Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn (2009) at Livermore’s Bothwell Arts Center, as well as its amazingly successful The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare at Retzlaff Estate Winery (2007).

In summer 2008, the Festival moved to Concannon Vineyard and expanded programming to two summer shows: Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, and the Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (abridged) (revised). For its 2008-2009 season, Shakespeare’s Associates mounted a November production of The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, at the Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore. The summer Shakespeare Festival at Concannon included two plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, and an outdoor restaging of The Seagull.

The 2010 summer Festival at Concannon included Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Gary Armagnac and Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing directed by Lisa A Tromovitch. LSF 11 featured Lend Me a Tenor directed by Leslie Martinson, and Macbeth directed by Tromovitch. LSF 12 celebrated the 10th year of Shakespeare in the Vineyard programming and featured Hamlet directed by Tromovitch and The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by Virginia Reed. 2013 featured The Liar by David Ives directed by Lisa Tromovitch and The Taming of the Shrew directed by Gary Armagnac.

The company is actively engaged in its community. Shakespeare’s Associates is a member of the Livermore Chamber of Commerce, Livermore Cultural Arts Council, Livermore Downtown, and the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. The company has received support from the City of Livermore, the Alameda County Arts Commission, and the Rotary Club, as well as from many local businesses and residents. In conjunction with the production of ‘art’ in 2007, the Bothwell Arts Center hosted a juried art exhibition entitled, “Is that art?” The Livermore Heritage Guild created a lobby display on rancho California, including local rancho history, which was on display during the run of The Comedy of Errors, set in the time period of rancho California. In summer 2008, the Heritage Guild provided a display about the historic Victorian home that serves as a backdrop for the performing space at Wente.

Shakespeare’s Associates enjoys a co-producing relationship with The University of the Pacific’s Department of Theatre Arts, enabling students to apprentice with the company and allowing the Festival to access costume and scene shops. The University also provides some financial support. We also have a working relationship with Las Positas College. Professional theater affiliations include Theatre Bay Area, the international Shakespeare Theatre Association for which Tromovitch was President 2015 – 2016, and the Institute of Outdoor Theater. Professional business organizations that we are a part of include the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance, Visit Tri-Valley, Livermore Chamber of Commerce, and Livermore Downtown Association.

PERFORMANCE HISTORY