The Hyperion Shakespeare Company, a student-run organization at Harvard College, is devoted to the production and discussion of Shakespearean theater in Harvard’s undergraduate community. The HSC also provides Harvard students with the opportunity to work with professionals from various theatrical fields within the Boston area. We hope to use Shakespeare as a way to teach Harvard students about all kinds of theater and seek to bring student productions up to professional standards. Most recently, the HSC has started a program called "Within the Wooden O," where we bring guest speakers from the professional stage to Harvard to share their experiences with the student body.

Last year, the HSC organized an outdoor production of "Romeo and Juliet" in the spring semester. The show was directed by Jennie Israel from the Actors' Shakespeare Project (a professional Shakespearean performance group based in Cambridge, MA). This year, the HSC would like not only to arrange another professionally directed spring production but also to use the Actors' Shakespeare Project as a resource for Harvard students throughout the year. We hope to organize workshops, lectures, and even internships throughout the fall and spring semesters, culminating in a production in April.

The HSC was founded in December of 1995. Our debut was a production of Much Ado about Nothing, which was staged in both Harvard Yard and Old Radcliffe Yard during Arts First Weekend in April of 1996. The event attracted over 1,500 spectators during its five performances, and Emmy Award-winning actor John Lithgow '67, the artistic chair of Arts First, lauded it as "the finest Shakespearean acting [he had] seen at Harvard since Tommy Lee Jones was here!" The HSC has since put on productions of Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night.

If you would like to be involved in arranging HSC events, or if you would just like to be notified when they are happening, please contact HSC Vice President Alana Ju at alanaju(at)fas(dot)harvard(dot)edu.

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