Festival Presented by Denver Public Schools Arts & Physical Education Department

Date: Friday, April 26th, 2024
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Denver Arts Complex with Opening Ceremonies at Skyline Park

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DPS Shakespeare Festival is the oldest and largest student Shakespeare festival in the country, and includes thousands of students and teachers from schools all across the region. Historically, the Shakespeare Festival provides a forum for students to perform sonnets and scenes from the works of Shakespeare, as well as demonstrate dance and vocal and instrumental music of Shakespeare’s time. This has been reflected in having one of Shakespeare’s plays be the central theme for each Festival.

“The mission of the DPS Shakespeare Festival is to provide a whole child experience in the arts that is accessible to 100% of DPS students. The Festival presents a joyful, rigorous, and fun exploration of Denver’s rich culture of collaboration and community.”

The Shakespeare Festival t–shirt store is now open!  Follow this link to order.

PRE-ORDER SALES WILL CLOSE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5TH AT MIDNIGHT. 

A limited number of shirts will be available at the festival, to ensure that you get one in your size please pre-order. T–shirts will be available for pick up Tuesday-Thursday, April 23-25 from 9am-4pm at the Arts & PE Department (Acoma Building 1617 S. Acoma St. Denver, CO 80223). 

This year’s theme is a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V), “We know what we are, but know not what we may be”. As artists sometimes we forget our potential, and this year we’re focusing on celebrating the potential in all of us. We encourage festival participants to perform all forms of William Shakespeare’s work, from adaptations, abridgements, modern interpretations, poems, music, and dances from Shakespeare’s canon and time. The sky’s the limit! When selecting your performance pieces this year, work with your students and think about how the theme is reflected in the piece you’ve selected. We look forward to celebrating Shakespeare and the art of storytelling with all of you this spring!