Fun Facts You May Not Know about the 2021 Season

The Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre

By Liz Armstrong

The 2021 season has certainly been eventful, from the COVID-19 pandemic to our sixtieth anniversary to our tribute to Founder Fred C. Adams. But there is even more. Listed below are seventeen fun facts you may not know about the season:

• This was the first year without our founder, Fred C. Adams, who passed away in February of 2020. We dedicated this season in loving memory of him.

• The Pirates of Penzance sold the most tickets this season, a total of 23,420 thus far.

•  This is the first year the Festival has produced a play by a black playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, with the production of Intimate Apparel.

•  With two sensory-friendly performances held this year, 404 audience members were able to attend a professional theatre production that may not have been able to attend otherwise.

• The famous Evelyn Nesbitt, featured in Ragtime, is the cousin of Derek Livingston’s cousin, our director of new play development/artistic associate. 

• Over 600 children were cared for at our child care facility during performances throughout the season. 

• The fully-functional car in Ragtime was built from an old golf cart. 

• Over 2,874 ushering shifts were completed this year. 

•  The two-person cast of The Comedy of Terrors is husband-and-wife duo Michael Doherty and Alex Keiper.

• Acting in The Comedy of Errors and Cymbeline, Howard Leder is also a film and television editor for the NBC-TV show This Is Us.

•  Actor Perry Ojeda has been featured in the television shows Desperate Housewives and Days of Our Lives

•  This season, over 300 volunteers helped distribute brochures, usher for performances, copy scripts, run programming, help promote the season, assist in fundraising, pick up company arrivals, prepare mailings, and much more. 

• Playing the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance and Houdini in Ragtime, actor Rhett Guter is also a professional magician and was the magic designer for Ragtime.

•  An entire family was cast in Ragtime, with parents Aaron and Shannon Galligan-Stierle acting with their two children Devin and Zoe.

•  Playing Mrs. Dickson in Intimate Apparel, Jasmine Bracey has appeared on the television shows New Amsterdam and Chicaco P.D.

•  Properties Director Ben Hohman recruited his mom to help create the crazy quilt in Intimate Apparel. She sewed the basics for the entire quilt top from her home in Ohio.

• This year is the 45th annual Shakespeare Competition, and over 3,000 students from 119 schools across the country have registered to participate.