Shakespeare Santa Cruz Basics:
- Address: 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz,on the UCSC campus
- Shakespeare Santa Cruz summer season runs from mid-July through early September.
- Shakespeare Santa Cruz website
- Admission is charged and reservations are recommended. See below for more details
The Venue:
Shakespeare Santa Cruz performs in two venues: Indoors on the Mainstage at the UCSC Theatre Arts Center (stadium seating , 527 seats, thrust stage). Their outdoor venue, the Sinsheimer-Stanley Glen Theater is in a natural amphitheater surrounded by soaring redwood trees.
Crowd Factor:
Except for minor problems with parking, which the festival handles with a minimum of fuss, crowds never seem to be a problem.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz Tips:
- If you're attending a performance in the Festival Glen, arrive early and bring a picnic, stake out your spot on the ground or settle into your chairs and enjoy the ambience. Few outdoor performances in California offer a nicer pre-performance experience than this, with a happy crowd of theater-goers enjoying themselves under the trees.
- It can get cool in Santa Cruz in the evening, even after a very hot day. If you're sitting outside, bring a warm jacket and maybe something to throw over your legs.
Likes and Dislikes:
We rate the Shakespeare Santa Cruz 4.5 out of 5 for its excellent productions, acting and the extraordinary ambiance of the Festival Glen. With ticket prices half (or less) the price of stage productions in San Francisco, it's an exceptional value for your money, too.
How to Get to Shakespeare Santa Cruz:
Take CA 1 or CA 17 to Santa Cruz. No matter which one you're following, it will turn into Mission Street. Continue to Bay Street, turn north on Bay. Turn left on High Street (name changes to Empire Grade), but do not go into UCSC's Main Entrance. Continue and turn right on Heller At the fourth stop sign, turn right on Meyer. There is a small fee for parking.
Allow plenty of time in case of traffic jams and try to get to Santa Cruz at least 45 minutes before your show begins to allow plenty of time to find parking. The Glen opens one hour before the play begins.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz Seating:
- Festival Glen: In this outdoor venue, you can reserve "green" chairs (modified Adirondack chairs) for a small extra charge per ticket. Many longtime Glen-goers prefer to bring their own blankets, cushions, and low-backed chairs (which can also be rented). Bring your own picnic or buy something to eat from the cafe.
- Mainstage Theater: Sightlines are good from every seat in the house, and even the top rows aren't too far from the stage.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz Tickets and Reservations:
Tickets cost $30 to $40 on average, with discounts for anyone over age 62, UCSC Staff, Students, and Youth under 18, weekdays only.
Buy early online, by phone at (831) 459-2159, or at the box office (1156 High Street) for the best seats, but it can also be easy to find tickets at the last minute.
The Event:
In a crowded field of over 130 similar festivals in the U. S. and Canada, USA Today included Shakespeare Santa Cruz as one of the country's ten best. We concur.In the tradition of its namesake, Shakespeare Santa Cruz is a repertory theater. The same troupe of actors appear in various roles in its plays during the season. That doesn't mean that this is an amateur company, and just because the festival is held at the university doesn't mean it's a student production either. Shakespeare Santa Cruz recruits fine actors from all over the country, as good as we've seen anywhere.
Every year, the troupe perform a couple of Shakespeare pieces, along with other classic plays such as Playboy of the Western World or Samuel Beckett's Endgame. If you attend more than one show, you can see the actors display the breadth of their talents.
As is common in the travel industry, I received complimentary tickets for the purpose of this review. It has not influenced the outcome, and in fact, after having such an enjoyable experience, I plan to buy my own season tickets to Shakespeare Santa Cruz for next summer and take my friends. However, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest. For more information, see the ethics policy.
