Shakespeare by the Bow was Theatre Calgary’s free outdoor summer Shakespeare program, performed by emerging Alberta actors. Audiences brought blankets and picnics to Prince’s Island Park through July and into August.
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The program put on Shakespeare outdoors with casts of emerging Alberta actors, and admission was always by donation, which made it one of the most accessible summer traditions in the city. For most of its run it played on Prince’s Island Park, and in later years it toured the city as Shakespeare On The Go, with evening performances historically at 7 p.m.
It was founded in 1988 by Mount Royal University as a training ground for emerging actors. Theatre Calgary joined the program in 2012 and kept the summer tradition going after MRU’s theatre diploma program graduated its final class in 2013. Theatre Calgary put the program on hiatus for summer 2024, citing financial constraints, and talked about reviving it with partners in 2025, but no 2025 or 2026 edition has surfaced. The last edition we could confirm was in 2023, and nothing has been announced since.