About SCP

Shakespeare in Clark Park is a theatre company committed to presenting free, outdoor productions of Shakespeare’s plays, creating a cultural event accessible to the Clark Park neighborhood and the greater Philadelphia area. While engaging the community and expanding Philadelphia’s summertime cultural scene, Shakespeare in Clark Park re-imagines the world of the park through the works of Shakespeare.

Celebrating our 5th anniversary season in 2010, Shakespeare in Clark Park was formed in the fall of 2005 by Marla Burkholder, Maria Möller, Tom Reing and Whitney Estrin. In our inaugural season, Shakespeare in Clark Park presented four performances of Twelfth Night, drawing an audience of over 2,000 people. Toby Zinman of The Philadelphia Inquirer said of the production:

Clark Park is not just a venue, but a real place, where a perfectly shaped, immense tree provides a set of real theatricality. The actors come down the hill into their next scene, and darkness falls just as the plot turns grim. The company has cobbled together, with borrowed footlights and generosity of talent, a real treat for a summer evening.

We've grown since that first summer. A Saturday night performance in "the Bowl" can find some 1,000 people coming out with their picnics. Free Shakespeare in the vibrant green space of Clark Park has become a much-anticipated annual event in Philadelphia. And J. Cooper Robb of The Philadelphia Weekly observed in 2009:

It’s an impressive achievement for any theater company to last four years. It’s even more impressive when you consider the unique troupe Shakespeare in Clark Park has never charged so much as a penny for their performances.

We look forward to our 5th year re-imagining the Bard in green and gritty West Philly --- and look forward to continuing to bring free and surprising performance to Clark Park in the years to come.