About

Shakespeare 400 Chicago is a yearlong international arts festival in 2016 celebrating the vibrancy, relevance and reach of Shakespeare. As the world commemorates the four hundred years since Shakespeare’s death in 1616, Shakespeare 400 Chicago will engage more than 500,000 Chicagoans and visitors to our City through 850 events. Spearheaded by Chicago Shakespeare Theater with leading support from the Julius Frankel Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, this quadricentennial celebration is anticipated to be the world’s largest and most comprehensive celebration of Shakespeare’s enduring legacy.
 
 

MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO

Chicago will take center stage in 2016 with Shakespeare 400 Chicago, as more than 1,000 local and international artists create a global celebration of Shakespeare like no other in the world. During this landmark year, Shakespeare will be alive on our stages, in our schools and across our neighborhoods. This international festival will help reaffirm Chicago’s role as a global destination for cultural tourism. In 2016, the enterprising spirit of Shakespeare meets the entrepreneurial spirit of Chicago. I want to thank everyone who is working hard to ensure that it will be a great success.
 


Rahm Emanuel, Mayor
CITY OF CHICAGO

 

MESSAGE FROM CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER

Chicago Shakespeare is proud to present Shakespeare 400 Chicago, a global celebration made possible by an unprecedented collaboration of Chicago institutions. This yearlong festival both showcases the collective impact of our city’s world-class cultural community and invites hundreds of artists from across the globe to make Chicago their stage in 2016. Embracing the audacious spirit of our eponymous playwright, the year ahead will feature an astonishing array of artists and thinkers. Shakespeare will come to life across disciplines, through inspirational acts of theater, dance, music, spectacle—even cuisine. It’s a celebration 400 years in the making. A bold undertaking, true to the spirit of our global city and the greatest playwright of all time. This is Shakespeare 400 Chicago. Come play your part.
 

Barbara Gaines
Artistic
Director

Criss Henderson
Executive
Director

Doreen Sayegh
Festival
Producer