The actors and actresses in the 34th season of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan took their final bow on Sunday.
“It’s always bittersweet at the end of the summer. Everybody put a lot of heart and soul into it; a lot of people have put in a lot of long hours. We have wonderful volunteers that have put in a lot of hours, and some of those volunteers have been coming back here for 20 years or more,” said Alan Long, director of marketing and development for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan.
Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Titus A. puppet revenge were the feature plays this year.
“Hamlet was definitely a crowd favourite. It definitely was one of the strongest sellers,” said Long.
“Skye Brandon just put in a stellar performance, and it was a really special Hamlet. With Kelli Fox directing, it had a real edge to it and lots of laughs, lots of dark humour. It was a really colourful and interesting take on Hamlet.”
While this year was on track to be one of the best years ever for attendance, shows throughout the event had to be cancelled due to smoke and heat.
“Even with the cancellations, we’re tracking to be within the top 15 of all of our seasons,” said Long.
Now the attention turns to Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan’s capital campaign to raise $3.5 million for the development of a more permanent setup along the riverbank.
“We want to simplify things for our company a little bit, and then we want to share this area of the riverbank with everyone in Saskatoon. We want to do a permanent concrete base for our tent, which will be a wonderful outdoor amphitheatre when we’re not here, two permanent park-style pavilions so we can do our box office, our bar, actors’ dressing rooms with showers,” said Long.
“We want it to be a destination area. It will complete the riverbank from the weir right to River Landing. This is kind of the last piece of undeveloped riverbank in that area.”
Around $850,000 has already been raised for the project.
Organizers hope to have the remaining money raised by Christmas and shovels in the ground by this time next year, aiming for an opening date of spring 2020.
Planning for the 35th season has already begun, and next year’s shows will be announced in the coming weeks.