$3M campaign aims to renew Shakespeare festival site

The past and future came together Tuesday at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan with the announcement of a major site development.

Three former leaders of the festival — Gordon Mccall, Henry Woolf and Mark von Eschen — sat in the front row as current head Will Brooks summarized the new script.

Following a $3-million fundraising effort called Staging the Future, the riverbank location will be far more flexible starting in 2020.

Plans are to build a concrete amphitheatre and two Tudor-style buildings for multiple uses, including box office and dressing rooms.

The festival will be able to stretch the season — keeping the tent up into the fall after its own plays end, for instance — and serve as a location for a wide variety of other events by other groups, such as concerts and ceremonies.

It could also be used in winter, sans tent, and will be more accessible, with plans to reroute the MVA trail through the site.

With the Children’s Discovery Museum being built next door and annual children’s festival across the street along with Nutrien Playland at Kinsmen Park, there are many opportunities for sharing the space.

“It’s going to be a surprise to Saskatoon a few years from now when people realize how amazing this larger area has become,” Brooks said.

For the festival, one big advantage will be to not have to build everything in the spring only to take it all down in the fall.

Brooks noted that for more than 30 years “our crews have swooped into this space and spent six or more long, hard weeks turning this temporary space into a park, building a theatre venue and a tent and producing our shows.”

With the new site, setup will be as quick as four days.

One benefit: the festival can do daytime shows for students before the school year ends.

Brooks said he is confident the $3-million fundraising goal is attainable.

Campaign co-chair Eileen Seiferling, serving with Jerry Grandey, said almost one-third of the total has already been raised with more announcements coming soon.

“It is a summer cultural fixture in our community,” Grandey said.