Our plays are performed using original adaptations by our Artistic Director, Jan Helling Croteau. The scripts are unique in that Jan edits the plays to run between 90 to 120 minutes while keeping the heightened language intact.

She incorporates music into the text and adds characters to the script who narrate the scenes using modern-day English. For example, in our adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Jan sets the play during the American Civil War using Mathew Brady, the famous war photographer, to narrate the action between the scenes.

The narrators for The Taming of the Shrew are girl rappers who dance and rap the narration to the story line as the production is set in modern times. Love’s Labour’s Lost is set in 1500’s Venice, Italy during carnival time and the narrators are two gondoliers and two mask makers who gossip about the King of Navarre and his court.

The scripts are geared for young people in grades 8 - 12 and include production notes, story overview, word and phrase meanings, and stage direction. Hailed by teachers, scholars, and general audience members, our script adaptations are what make the works of Shakespeare accessible to audiences of all ages.

Shakespearean scholar Herb Coursen, editor of Shakespeare in the Classroom and retired professor from Bowdoin College wrote to us after attending our performance of  The Taming of The Shrew:  “I really enjoyed your show! The music was splendid. As I told you at the performance, I thought the script adaptation was outstanding. I enjoyed the choreography, particularly of the [narrators] chorus. They were very much part of the show without too much imposition of point of view on the play itself. It really works!”