raising funds
for cupertino's
free shakespeare
in the park

As you may know, the City of Cupertino’s budget is contracting and the city has asked San Francisco Shakespeare Festival to fundraise for its annual Free Shakespeare in the Park performances in Memorial Park.

We’ve been performing Free Shakespeare in the Park in the beautiful Memorial Park amphitheater each summer since 1995. Free Shakespeare in the Park is only possible through careful collaboration and coordination. Financially, the largest costs of putting on a play are associated with mounting the production, of designing and building and rehearsing the play. By sharing the annual summer production with multiple cities – with Cupertino being the marque city in the south bay- each city contributes only a small but important portion of the costs of the program. The scale of the program also allows us to attract philanthropic funding from regional funders such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and national funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

We go to great lengths to offer a high-quality engaging production that is of value to the community. We cast diversely so members of the community see themselves represented on stage. We frequently partner with the Cupertino Library, and during the pandemic we used our online platform to promote local businesses and community needs.

The City remains hugely supportive of this beloved program, and we’re hoping that our decades-long relationship and the popularity of the program with local families will allow us to find a path forward to again put the program on a sustainable footing. Lets collaborate together to make this happen!