The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival

The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival presents its fourth season this summer, offering three family classics: William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” opening July 6th; William Inge's "Bus Stop" opening July 13th; and Marc Blitzstein’s “The Cradle Will Rock” opening July 20th.   Performances will run in rotating repertory, Tuesdays thru Sundays, thru August 4th in Hall Auditorium.

All performances will be absolutely FREE to the public, and geared for the entire family, including school-aged children - ages 8 to 88! To accommodate families with younger members, evening performances will begin at 7 PM. To make attendance easier, especially for our older audience members, and to allow out-of-town patrons the opportunity to see two shows in the same day, there will be 2 PM matinees on some Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. To reserve tickets, please call (440) 775 8169 or visit this page for more information.

 

Artistic Mission

The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival’s mission is to serve Lorain County and the larger northeastern Ohio community by presenting free productions of meaningful theater classics. We believe that the experience of attending live professional theater should be available to  everyone in our community,  regardless of age or socio-economic background. In particular, all parents should have the opportunity to share our wonderful and diverse theatrical heritage by taking their children to see great plays, works by William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, Kaufman and Hart, August Wilson, Thornton Wilder and others.

To that end, admission to OSTF productions will be FREE, eliminating the obstacle of the box office to make attendance accessible to the widest possible audience. We will also make our shows “family friendly” so that they will be suitable for the entire family, including school-aged children.  The acting company and play selections will be racially and culturally inclusive to reflect the diversity of our area.

In addition to Mainstage shows, other components to our programming will include a late-night cabaret and a week-long, acting shakespeare intensive for area high school students.