About Us

Oak Park Festival Theatre is a professional theater company working under contract with Actors’ Equity Association, producing the works of William Shakespeare as they were meant to be staged – as thrilling, living, popular theater, al fresco in pastoral Austin Gardens to augment the imagery and poetry of the Bard’s English language. The Theatre has expanded offerings to include classics and other challenging productions – outdoors each summer in Austin Gardens and indoors during the spring and fall at the Madison Street Theatre at 1010 W. Madison in Oak Park.

Festival Theatre was founded in 1975 by Oak Park resident Marion Karczmar. A line of distinguished subsequent artistic directors has remained true to the mission of the theater with popular productions of the greatest works in the Bard’s language. The year 2011 marks the 37th consecutive year of classic productions in Oak Park, an unmatched accomplishment in the Chicago area, and our seventh year of expanded programming.

Performance History – Over 35 Years of Shakespeare and Classics

• 1975 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• 1976 Twelfth Night
• 1977 Romeo and Juliet
• 1978 Othello
• 1979 The Taming of the Shrew
• 1980 As You Like It
• 1981 A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Faustus / The Twins
• 1982 Hamlet
• 1983 Twelfth Night
• 1984 The Tempest
• 1985 Julius Caesar
• 1986 The Comedy of Errors
• 1987 The Taming of the Shrew
• 1988 The Merchant of Venice
• 1989 As You Like It
• 1990 Falstaff (adapted by Tom Mula from Henry IV parts I & II)
• 1991 Richard III
• 1992 Dr. Faustus (adapted by Tom Mula)
• 1993 Romeo and Juliet
• 1994 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• 1995 The Tempest
• 1996 Hamlet
• 1997 Much Ado About Nothing
• 1998 The Adventures of Don Quixote (Adapted by Dale Calandra)
• 1999 MacBeth
• 2000 Twelfth Night
• 2001 Taming of the Shrew
• 2002 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• 2003 As You Like It
• 2004 Romeo and Juliet
• 2005 Comedy of Errors / All My Sons
• 2006 Tartuffe / Julius Caesar / Picnic
• 2007 Murder by the Book / Talley’s Folly / Robin Hood
• 2008 Blithe Spirit / Much Ado About Nothing / Dancing at Lughnasa
• 2009 Arms and the Man / 5th of July / Cyrano de Bergerac
• 2010 Of Mice and Men / Love’s Labour’s Lost
• 2010-2011 Betrayal / Faith Healer / The History of King Henry the Fourth / Henry V
• 2011-2012 The Glass Menagerie / Beyond the Fringe / Inherit the Wind / Richard III

2012-2013 Season
Fall: Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuiness
Spring: Seascape by Edward Albee
Summer: Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Former logo – used through 2004