Forsooth! Here’s where you’ll find the outdoor Shakespeare this summer, much of it free

If you’ve seen a Shakespeare play performed live, odds are good that you saw it outside on a lawn.

Outdoor Shakespeare in the summertime has been an American theater tradition for well more than half a century, and Connecticut has always been in the forefront of that tradition.

Although not an outdoor theater, the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford set the highest possible standard for summertime Shakespeare in the state, becoming a top tourist attraction. It opened in 1955 for summer seasons of celebrity-studded Shakespeare shows. It closed in the 1980s, but even after its demise the venue’s expansive lawn became a magnet for local outdoor Shakespeare companies, including Connecticut Free Shakespeare and Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford. The long-shuttered Shakespeare Theatre building was destroyed by arson in 2019.

Thirty years of Capital Classics

What’s it like to grow a summer Shakespeare company in Connecticut and keep it running for decades? There’s a new book about exactly that, chronicling the Hartford-based Capital Classics Theatre and its Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival. The company has been performing Shakespeare plays since 1992, originally in Bushnell Park and since 2002 on the lawn outside the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford.

The self-published “Love’s Labour’s Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company, The First 30 Years” by Kathleen Fischer and Edwin Thrower is presented like a play scripts, with the company’s adventures set out in acts and scenes and quotes from company members (particularly founders Geoffrey Sheehan and Laura Sheehan) presented as dialogue. Every Capital Classics production of the last three decades is mentioned. There are several anecdotes about stage battles gone wrong. There are also more cerebral discussions of finding community-appropriate interpretations for Shakespeare tragedies that involve murders, adultery and incest.

“Love’s Labour’s Won” gives a detailed look at the entire process of putting on a Capital Classics Shakespeare production, describing auditions and rehearsals to set-building and the final performances. One insight: “With summer Shakespeare, you can’t have a lot of costume changes. It just isn’t physically possible because the actors are sweating, and it’s impractical to have frequent costume changes.”

Within a few years of its founding, Capital Classics had diversified its programming, still doing outdoor Shakespeare but becoming a year-round enterprise with classic and contemporary plays, live radio-style theater shows and a Shakespeare book club. The Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival offered Elizabethan-themed lectures and music performances before the main event.

This summer’s Shakespeare

Here, listed in the order that they’ll appear outdoors, are seven Shakespeare plays being performed around the state this summer by various companies. Note that comedies are in the minority this year. If you’ve never happened upon a production of “King John,” or want to compare two different versions of the famously problematic “Measure for Measure,” here’s your chance.

• “King John,” through July 3, presented by Shakespeare on the Sound in Pinkney Park, 177 Rowayton Ave., Norwalk. 7 p.m. $25, $10 students and seniors, free for children, $60 for “VIP reserved seats.” shakespeareonthesound.org.

• “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” July 16, done by the Starling Shakespeare Company, all the way from Michigan, at Rotary Park, Kennedy Dr., Putnam. 6 p.m. Free. starlingshakespearecompany.com.

• “Measure for Measure,” July 14 to 17 and July 21 to 24, at Curtain Call Inc.’s annual Shakespeare on the Green series, nd 21 to 24 at 7:30 p.m. at 1349 Newfield Ave., Stamford. One of the biggest community-based theater operations in the state, Curtain Call oversees several venues as well as a lawn. 7:30 p.m. $20, $10 seniors and children, $25 reserved seating. curtaincallinc.com.

• “Much Ado About Nothing,” July 14 to 31, by Capital Classics Theatre Company at the University of St. Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave., West Hartford. Active since 1992, as you can read about in the new book “Love’s Labour’s Won.” Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 5:30 p.m. $20, $14 students and seniors. capitalclassics.org.

• “Much Ado About Nothing,” July 16, a tour from the New York-based Hudson Shakespeare Company, at Stratford Public Library, 2203 Main St., Stratford. 2 p.m. Free. hudsonshakespeare.com.

• “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Aug. 3 to 7, Shakesperience Productions’ Shakespeare in the Litchfield Hills series, at River Walk Pavilion, 11 School St., Washington Depot. Shakesperience is based in Middletown and has brought its Shakespeare shows all around the state. 7:30 p.m. Free. shakesperience.org.

• “The Tempest” Aug. 18 through Sept. 4, by Elm Shakespeare Companyin New Haven’s Edgerton Park. This is the state’s largest, and one of its oldest, outdoor Shakespeare companies. 7:30 p.m. No performances on Mondays. Free; donations welcomed. elmshakespeare.org.

• “A Winter’s Tale,” July 14 to 17 at 7:30 p.m. from Valley Shakespeare Festival, at Shelton Riverwalk, 38 Canal St. East, Shelton. Also July 21 to 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Quarry Walk, 300 Oxford Road, Oxford. Free; $10 suggested donation. vsfestival.org.

• “The Tempest,” July 15, 16 and 17, done by Evergreen Family Theater’s Fool in the Forest Shakespeare troupe, at 7 p.m. at Fox Hill Tower at Henry Park, 120 South St., Vernon. Also July 22 to 24 at 7 p.m. at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, 300 Columbus Blvd., Hartford. Free. evergreenfamilytheatre.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.