The People Who Help Make A.S.F. Great

In 2002, we began expanding our season further. In February, we presented a premiere staged reading of a new play, Ophelia, by New York based playwright Ashley Minihan. The Educational Outreach program expanded, and the WGSC toured Mohave County, performing at both schools and libraries.

In May, the WGSC premiered a new original work, A Death in the Family, at the historic Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. For the fall Shakespeare Festival, we produced The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors, featuring by special arrangement through Actors Equity, guest artist Cal Pritner. We also included Christopher McFarland, and Elizabeth Wade. That year, after much effort, we finally received approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission to use the name Arizona Shakespeare Festival. Attendance for the Festival increased over the previous year, and we moved on to produce an all new version of A Christmas Carol, written by ACT resident dramaturge, D. Rogers Luben.

We also created a new activity for our educational outreach program during the fall festival; actors from the festival toured area elementary schools, presenting scenes from The Tempest and giving out 600 free copies of Lois Burdett’s The Tempest for Kids (made possible by company fundraising and a special arrangement with Firefly Books, Ltd).