Dear Friends,

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival 2025 season.

It has been a perfect storm of events – grants disappearing, donors pulling back due to the current economic uncertainty, and lower-than-expected ticket sales as our patrons look to their wallets and know they need to save. We completely understand.

While the MSF carries no debt, we also do not have the reserves to put up a season without ticket sales and donations. The majority of our funds go directly to our season payroll. Without the ability to pay our artists, and with the first rehearsal being slated for Tuesday, we made the only decision available to us.

We were very excited by the burgeoning relationship with Wayne State. Had it occurred two or three years earlier, it might have already blossomed into the true partnership we were hoping to build. Wayne State has been incredibly helpful, but it was never their role to fund the Festival. Their contributions were in facilities and technology, and we are grateful to them.

At the moment, we are considering if there is a future for the Festival. Over the last thirty years, it has grown from the typical festival in a park to a professional union house with Broadway talent. With that growth has come increased costs that have proven unsustainable.

Our greatest regrets are for our artists, who were expecting both employment and creative outlet this summer, and for our audiences, who were expecting another stellar season of great Shakespeare. It is impossible not to feel we’ve let them – you – down.

Yet we will try to remember that it is impermanence that makes theatre unique. While other art forms are captured, live performance simply is, then is not. It vanishes into the air, and exists only in memory. It is the ephemeral nature of the art that makes it beautiful.

So we are sad. Yet we know we did all we could, and there are others this summer who will be doing the great work, conspiring with audiences to bring these plays to life.

To our audiences, we’ll do our best to make certain in the upcoming weeks your tickets are refunded. To our donors, your contributions were in no way in vain – mainly making sure the artists involved in pre-production were compensated for the work they’ve already done.

To all of the supporters out there who have been rooting for us – please keep us in your hearts as we determine next steps.

Thank you for caring about classical theatre, for caring about us.

The MSF Board of Directors

Ticket and Passes Refunds & Donations