Great River Shakespeare Festival 2026

We love a road trip to the Great River Shakespeare Festival in lovely Winona, Minnesota. A few weeks ago, we were fortunate to attend the opening weekend of the festival with our fellow bloggers from Cherry and Spoon and The Stages of Minnesota. 

This year, the Festival has a new, permanent home after years of performing on the Winona State University campus. The Arc is a city-owned building that is home to several arts organizations and managed by the Festival. Artistic Director Doug Scholz-Carlson gave us a tour of the former Masonic Temple, which is a warren of rooms, stairs, and doors that now house the Festival's costume, set, and prop shops. The Masons were apparently not big on dressing rooms, so there's some work to be done. But there's a lovely main floor gift shop, meeting room, and bar - yes, they can serve alcohol now! On the second floor, just off the theater lobby, is the Ghost Light Lounge, a charming little spot to grab a drink or a snack. Throughout the building are remnants of the Masons' tenancy, from ritual objects and costumes to ancient-looking lighting and sound devices. 

Benjamin Boucvalt and William Sturdivant in Pericles at
Great River Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Dan Norman.

But the main attraction, of course, is the theater. Once used by the Masons for their mysterious rituals, it's a lovely, intimate space with flexible seating holding about 250 people. The stage is short on backstage space, but possesses amazing sets of hand painted backdrops commissioned by the Masons for the theater shortly after the building's opening in 1909.  (More about those later.) 

Our first show this trip was Pericles, one of Shakespeare's less frequently performed plays, directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs. This play can be a challenge to stage because the story takes place in various locales around the Mediterranean, with Pericles sailing from one location to another. Set (and props) designer Karl Gfall has created a nautical setting that works both for the ship travel and the events on shore. Lighting by Lonnie Alcaraz and sound by Matt Tibbs create effective atmosphere, especially for the stormy seas. 

Melissa Maxwell in Pericles at GRSF.  Photo by Dan Norman. 

Pericles is portrayed by William Sturdivant, who fully commits to his character's adventures, trials, and tribulations. Along the way, our hero meets many other characters, performed by just seven other actors. The performances and John Merritt's costumes ably set the characters apart, but be sure to pick up a copy of the map provided at the pre-show performances, which helpfully include images of the cast and where each set of characters belongs on the map. Melissa Maxwell's captivating Helicanus also provides some necessary reminders of Pericles's journey. All of the performers are wonderful, as always, with the guidance of actor Benjamin Boucvalt as Fight Choreographer and Annie Enneking as Intimacy Coordinator, a role we first learned of right here at GRSF. 

Diana Coates, Annie Barbour, and
Benjamin Boucvalt in A Midsummer
Night's Dream at GRSF.
Photo by Dan Norman.

On Sunday, we saw the matinee of A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of Shakespeare's most performed plays. The intertwining plots of interfering fairies, mismatched lovers, and a very amateur play are all perennial favorites, and our blogger friends have seen the show a number of times already this year. One fun quirk in this production, directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson, is that in alternating performances, actors William Sturdivant and Tarah Flanagan alternate in the roles of Bottom and Peter Quince. We saw Sturdivant as Bottom, and he was delightful. We only wish we could go back to see Flanagan trade roles with him. 

The forest setting of Midsummer made it ideal for GRSF to make use of some of the painted backdrops I mentioned earlier. The forest and royal court drops perfectly suited the production, designed to use the drops and refer to the time period when the ARC building was first opened. The same team that designed the moody Pericles creates a fanciful setting for this classic comedy. 

Benjamin Boucvalt and Michael
 Fitzpatrick in A Midsummer Night's
Dream at GRSF. Photo by Dan Norman.

The same eight actors perform in both plays, with Merritt's costumes clearly defining each role, and the small cast size made some of the Midsummer scene changes rather interesting, as characters sometimes recited lines from off stage while changing from one character to another. It's all good fun in the spirit of the play, and just a dream, as Puck (a delightful Michael Fitzgerald) says at the end. 

One of the joys of returning to a festival like GRSF is seeing Festival veterans performing year after year in new and different roles, like Tarah Flanagan, in her 17th season, Benjamin Boucvault in his 13th, Melissa Maxwell in her ninth, and William Sturdivant in his seventh. Michael Fitzpatrick, who we will always remember for his 2021 performance in Every Brilliant Thing at the Festival, has been with the festival for at least nine and maybe more seasons. We look forward to seeing who the next returning company members will be.

You've got one more week to take the short trip to Winona for the shows (closing July 26). It's well worth the journey, especially if you take your time on the way down. Red Wing has some great shopping and good restaurants, and there are plenty of places to eat in Winona, though the shopping can we a bit sparse on Sundays, when the town seems to close down. Shout out to Melange Resale and Boutique and ClaraLouise for being open on Sundays!