Great River Shakespeare Festival

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

This nationally recognized festival, which draws audiences from across the Midwest and acclaimed actors from across the country, fills each Winona summer with a full slate of world-class entertainment. With plays, music, speakers and celebration events, the Great River Shakespeare Festival is the cornerstone of Winona’s reputation as an unmatched destination for cultural events.

GRSF opens the 2026 season in our new home The ARC with productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The festival runs from June 24 through July 26, 2026. You can purchase a 2-play pass and save 10% off single ticket prices.

a midsummer night’s dream

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

Welcome to The ARC (arcwinona.org)—and to the midsummer magic that has always lived here. To celebrate our glorious new home, GRSF fills this 1909 jewel of a theater with ragtime rhythms, art deco flair, and the splendor of its breathtaking historic drops, conjuring a world where love, laughter, and a little chaos reign supreme. A ragtag band of working stiffs rehearses a play for their neighbors. Four besotted lovers tumble headlong into an enchanted forest. And somewhere in the fairy realm, things have gone wonderfully, gloriously wrong. Bold, physical, and irresistibly fun for all ages, this Midsummer is a homecoming and a celebration—proof that theater has always been, and always will be, the place where community comes alive.

Directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson, (Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Minnesota Opera’s Cosi fan Tutte, Metropolitan Opera), Midsummer features festival favorites Michael Fitzpatrick (Every Brilliant Thing, King Lear, Denver Center, Geva Theater) as Puck, and Will Sturdivant (Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Guthrie Theater’s Henriad [History Cycle] and Lehman Trilogy, Milwaukee Rep) and Tarah Flanagan (Hamlet, An Iliad, Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Much Ado About Nothing) alternating as Bottom and Peter Quince. Come twice to see both versions.

Directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson

Scenic Design by Karl Gfall
Costume Design by John Merritt
Lighting Design by Avery Reagan
Sound Design by Matthew Tibbs
Properties Design by Karl Gfall

Performance Dates & Times

NOTE: Theatrical haze (water-soluble) may be used during this performance. Fidget-friendly performances will NOT use haze.

pericles: Prince of tyre

“do not assist the storm”

GRSF brings Shakespeare’s great lost adventure to the professional company for the first time. Pericles is a prince tested by every force the world can muster— treacherous kings, shipwrecks, pirates, grief, and years of wandering exile. And yet he endures. Guided by faithful friends and the stubborn pull of love, he crosses stormy seas in search of a family he fears is gone forever. Epic, tender, and deeply human, Pericles is Shakespeare’s testament to resilience—the reminder that no storm lasts forever, and that what we have lost may yet find its way home. Don’t miss this rare and sweeping voyage.

Directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs. Great River Shakespeare Festival welcomes director Shaun Patrick Tubbs to the company for our first production of Pericles. Shaun has directed Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Powerhouse Theater in Arlington, New York, and Troilus & Cressida at The Juilliard School in New York, New York.

Directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs

Scenic Design by Karl Gfall
Costume Design by John Merritt
Lighting Design by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz
Sound Design by Matthew Tibbs
Properties Design by Karl Gfall

Performance Dates & Times

NOTE: Theatrical haze (water-soluble) may be used during this performance. Fidget-friendly performances will NOT use haze.