 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2011) |
The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a theatre company based in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 2002, by Ian Gallanar and Heidi Busch-Gallanar, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has grown into one of the twenty largest Shakespeare theaters in the United States under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Ian Gallanar and Managing Director Lesley Malin. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has performance spaces in Baltimore and Elliott City, Maryland. Its main indoor space, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater opened in 2014 after a $7M renovation of the Mercantile Bank Building, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, The Studio, is located next door on the fourth floor of the Merchants Club space and is used for educational programs, rehearsals and as an alternate performance space for CSC. They continue to perform outdoor every summer at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland.
The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is listed as a Major Festival in the book Shakespeare Festivals Around the World by Marcus D. Gregio (Editor), 2004.
Notable projects over the years include participation as the only Maryland Company in 2007's international Shakespeare in Washington Festival with their productions of As You Like It and Henry V, a 2007 production of Macbeth that performed at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum security prison based in Jessup, Maryland, the 2014 Maryland debut of Shakespeare's Richard II, Wild Oats, a rare 18th Century play and their own Baltimore themed adaptation of A Christmas Carol (adapted by Founder and Artistic Director Ian Gallanar) running every December from 2014 - 2019. In 2017, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company hosted the international Shakespeare Theatre Association conference.
The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's education programs include professional artist development, community education, innovative K-12 school programming, summer camps for kids, high school Shakespeare Festivals and workshops using methodologies created by CSC in cooperation with National and International Institutional Partners.