About Us
Richmond Shakespeare will celebrate its 25th Anniversary this fall by moving our indoor season to Richmond CenterStage. Each summer, the company produces the Richmond Shakespeare Festival at 500 year-old Agecroft Hall, a Tudor estate home that stood in England during Shakespeare's lifetime. It was moved across the Atlantic to Richmond, Virginia in the 1920's.
Where better to host the Shakespeare Festival?
A fully 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, Richmond Shakespeare also performs and teaches across Virginia and around the country--visiting 23 states and more than 100,000 people over the last dozen years.
Use this site to buy tickets 
for the downtown season or the summertime festival at 500 year-old Agecroft Hall. You can also register for classes 
, read more about our year-round operations and expand your horizon (or that of your students) on the Education pages!
Our Training, Educational Outreach and Touring programs bring performances and teach workshops or residencies throughout Virginia and all across the country. For students and public audiences of all ages, most workshops can be brought right to your door. Go to our Booking page to find out more about Richmond Shakespeare on the road, or give us a call at 804-232-4000 for information and booking.
We keep Shakespeare affordable, exciting, accessible...but most of all, we keep it fun for all ages.
Grant Mudge,
Artistic Director
The 2008-2009 season marks the thirteenth year for Mr. Mudge as Artistic Director of Richmond Shakespeare. He co-founded Richmond Shakespeare ON TOUR in 1997, the Richmond Shakespeare Festival in 1998 and the Richmond Shakespeare Theatre in 2005. Roles for Richmond Shakespeare include: the title roles in Henry V and Macbeth, as well as Orsino in Twelfth Night, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Speed in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Orlando in As You Like It, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, eleven years as Ebenezer Scrooge in Richmond Shakespeare's two-actor A Christmas Carol, Berowne/Costard in Love's Labour's Lost, Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, and Trinculo/Ferdinand/Gonzalo in The Tempest, Poins/Glendower/Douglas in Henry IV, Part One (The History Cycle), as well as Poins and Warwick in Part Two. DIRECTING: Death and The Maiden, Mr. Dickens' Carol, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing (three times), Romeo & Juliet (twice), Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Tempest (twice), Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream (twice) and Hamlet. His production of "Midsummer" was broadcast throughout the region on WCVE-TV PBS in 2005.
Other Richmond acting credits include the Carpenter Science Theatre at the Science Museum of Virginia, the Firehouse Theatre Project, the Dogwood Dell Festival of the Arts, Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre, and a guest artist appearance with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, performing excerpts of Hamlet for their "Double Exposure" concert series. NEW YORK: Henry V with the Judith Shakespeare Company. ELSEWHERE: Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Lakeland Center for the Arts, NC. FILM/TV: "Shakespeare In Performance" a documentary on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, and his solo show, "Shakespeare At War" both for PBS. PLAYWRIGHT: The Death of Wm. Shakespeare, a two-actor adaptation Hamlet for the University of Pittsburgh's "Shakespeare In The Schools" program, and Shakespeare & Galileo, commissioned for the Carpenter Science Theatre Company at the Science Museum of Virginia, in which he played the role of Will opposite Larry Gard, Artistic Director, as Galileo. Mr. Mudge also serves as director of the Drama program on the faculty of the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School where he has directed As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, Fame!--the Musical, Our Town, a staged reading of The House of Bernarda Alba, Hamlet, Les Miserables, Much Ado About Nothing, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile.
Cynde Liffick,
Director of Education
Liffick co-founded the Richmond Shakespeare Festival ON TOUR in 1997, and the Richmond Shakespeare Festival in 1998. As an actor for Richmond Shakespeare: Mistress Quickly in Henry V, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Rosalind in As You Like It, Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost, Titania/Hermia/Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Prospero in The Tempest and Antonio/Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, Nurse/Friar in Romeo & Juliet, Emilia/Roderigo in Othello, Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV, Part Two (The History Cycle), and Emperor Joseph in Amadeus.
Liffick performed and trained with Randy Strawderman's Actor's Studio of Richmond (later Studio Theatre of Richmond) and within the year was cast in his record breaking production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Barksdale Theatre. The show ran more than a year and a half at Barksdale and in traveled on three national tours. Other favorite roles include: Yvonne/Naomi in Sunday in the Park with George and Glenda in A Child's Christmas in Wales.
Liffick develops, implements and oversees Richmond Shakespeare Educational Outreach, which includes Will Power to Youth Richmond as well as workshops, classroom visits and residencies in schools around Virginia and across the country. RSEO programs feature Shakespeare summer camps, homeschooler residencies, and the Festival Young Company. The Young Company performs "The Greenshow," part of the pre-performance entertainment nightly at The Richmond Shakespeare Festival.
