<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n 1599<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just before the dawn of the 17th century, the Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men\u2014the acting company that performed Shakespeare\u2019s original works\u2014built the Globe Theatre on what is now Park Street in Southwark, London. Going to an ISF performance at its outdoor theatre in the scenic Barber Valley hews remarkably close to what the great playwright intended, Hofflund notes. \u201cShakespeare himself wrote the plays to be done in daylight,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile modern practitioners would prefer to have control of the elements by being inside, there\u2019s something about going back to the classical work and performing it outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n $4,500<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1977, when a group of Boise State University theatre performers founded what would become ISF, they were rich in talent but poor in resources. Most budding local actors had to travel out of state to find work\u2014a situation that founder Doug Copsey wanted to change. With $1,000 of his own money and a $3,500 loan from local entrepreneur Doug Oppenheimer, he and his fellow players put on \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d in downtown Boise. More than 3,500 people saw the play during its run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the year the Wall Street Journal referred to the ISF experience as \u201cShakespeare in Flip-Flops.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When Charlie Fee, ISF\u2019s artistic director, joined the festival 30 years ago, his daughter Alexa wasn\u2019t quite in the picture yet. When she entered the scene as a small child, she wanted to join her dad at work. Fee and the rest of the festival\u2019s organizers had an idea: Why not welcome kids, too? Now, the night after each performance\u2019s opening is Family Night, when the festival admits children under the age of six for free and sells discounted youth tickets (and no one will look if you have to chase a rambunctious toddler down the aisle).<\/p>\n\n\n\n $1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first few years, ISF plays were performed on the lawn outside One Capital Center, Boise\u2019s first contemporary towering building (it stands at 14 stories). When ISF outgrew that space, it moved to another spot for three years, and then Ore-Idaho Foods leased a massive parking lot and riverside pad on Parkcenter Boulevard to the festival for $1 per year. \u201cIt was the best $14 investment we ever made,\u201d Hofflund says, chuckling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is independent, but its ties to two other theater companies have boosted all three organizations. Fee is the artistic director for ISF, Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland, and the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. A unique strategic alliance allows all three to share not only Fee\u2019s talent, but also the cost of their productions, which travel from location to location. \u201cMost theater artists go from job to job and place to place,\u201d Hofflund says. \u201cEven though none of these locations offers year-round theater, there\u2019s still an opportunity for actors and the production team to work consistently with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1,485<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the minimum number of volunteers needed to work a full season of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival; but the numbers can swell past 1,600, says Box Office Manager Samantha McAllister. In fact, there are so many people clamoring to work that ISF has had to limit each group to one night per season. \u201cAll of our volunteer groups work together through the heat, the cold, the rain, the bugs, sometimes wildfire smoke, and definitely the trash collection, with smiles on their faces,\u201d McAllister says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 in 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When out-of-town actors join a production, Hofflund gives them a friendly warning: Don\u2019t be surprised if someone recognizes you in the grocery checkout line. That\u2019s because ISF enjoys some of the heaviest community support of any theater in the country. Most performing arts organizations have an audience penetration of 1% of the local population. But ISF has a 20% reach, which means that about 1 in 5 Boiseans will attend at least one play per season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an audience that is incredibly diverse in terms of its educational and social profile,\u201d Hofflund says. \u201cWe can\u2019t play to just one group. There\u2019s no slice of the audience that could sustain us on their own; it has to be everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Idaho Shakespeare Festival\u2019s season stretches from May to September and typically features five plays, ranging from the Bard\u2019s works and musicals, comedies and mysteries to the classics of the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You won\u2019t see a sign requesting you to toss your outside food and drink before entering the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Part of what makes it so accessible for every budget is the ability to cart in your own picnic, which festival lovers did exclusively for decades before local catering whiz and restaurateur Lisa Peterson opened Caf\u00e9 Shakespeare more than 10 years ago. You\u2019ll still see plenty of home-packed meals at ISF, but plenty of other folks tuck into plates of Peterson\u2019s citrusy grilled salmon, house-pickled vegetables, crusty bread and cr\u00e8me brulee cheesecake. But the house favorite is the Curried Chicken Salad, which can be had two ways: on a baguette or on a bed of mixed greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hundreds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Animals make regular cameo appearances at ISF\u2014everything from prancing peacocks and shy skunks (\u201cThey\u2019re essentially blind and really harmless,\u201d Hofflund says) to kettles of vultures have contributed their presences to performances. That\u2019s because the theater is part of the Barber Pool Reserve, a major stop on important migratory paths and flyways. When an animal appears, make like a local and give it plenty of space. After all, it\u2019s their home, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/visitidaho.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ShakespeareFest-XH9X9717-1024x674.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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