What We Do
Starling Shakespeare co-founder Heron Kennedy
Starling Shakespeare Company is a 501(c)3, non-profit, migratory theatre company.
That means we’re uninhibited by physical boundaries. And with our touring model, we’re free to bring our expertise and love of classical theatre to all corners of the U.S.
We present diverse and varied performances in vibrant communities throughout the country.
Our Mission
Starling Shakespeare Company’s touring performances explore the playfulness, complexity, and humanity in the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Starling Shakespeare Company co-founder Jessie Lillis
Our Vision
At SSC, we aim to foster an exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives between audiences and communities everywhere we land.
Starling Shakespeare Company co-founder Heron Kennedy
What We Value
Artists & Audiences
We value above all else an atmosphere of mutual respect between artists and the audiences they perform for.
In the rehearsal room, we demand a collaborative environment. In that space, all voices are encouraged, valued, and heard. Onstage, we consider our audience collaborators in a shared theatrical experience. Shakespeare’s era of theatre was known for interactivity between the audience and the performers, and we embrace that tradition wholeheartedly.
Clarity
We aim for clarity in all aspects of our work.
Shakespeare’s language is for everyone — why else would we keep returning to it after 400 years? As artists, we cherish clear and thoughtful delivery in performance. As a business, we prioritize transparency in interactions with both our colleagues and our supporters.
Variety
Variety is at the heart of our organization and the Shakespearean tradition.
Texts written over four centuries ago can be approached in different ways. There are academic approaches that focus on the words and their historical contexts. But there are also approaches that explore the different performance choices the language allows for. Rather than choose one approach, we choose variety.
This isn’t just a matter of preference — sometimes it’s a matter of necessity. As a touring company, we often find ourselves in unique performance spaces that pose interesting challenges. We take inspiration from the touring troupes in Shakespeare’s time: our malleability and multidisciplinary approach means we can connect with audiences from all walks of life.
Playfulness
Theatre becomes more engaging when it’s approached with a level of playfulness.
We encourage creativity and instill our actors with confidence and agency. This means our process and our product are infused with a sense of play. We believe that this approach creates an exciting performance environment. In that space, audiences and actors alike are more willing to engage with and be challenged by new ideas.
Ingenuity
The very soul of theatre is cleverness, creativity and finding imaginative solutions to problems.
This is true of characters we play and it’s true of the artists playing them. We constantly seek inventiveness and resourcefulness throughout rehearsals. The exciting part is that naturally translates to performances where actors and audiences both can revel in the experience of making discoveries together.