For 46 years, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival has brought the works of the Bard to Bloomington-Normal residents — and beyond.
Since 1978, the professional repertory has performed the works of Shakespeare on the grounds of Ewing Manor, growing from an audience of 250 people to drawing thousands to the area each year. The program itself has grown, too, to now include opportunities for young people to act and perform on the same stage as the professionals, live music, food trucks and more.
For this episode in our Sounds of Summer series, festival-goers told WGLT there’s a whole litany of things that draw them to Sunset Road in Bloomington every year.
Matt Nilles and his wife Phyllis Bannon have been driving west from Urbana to attend ISF for more than 20 years.
“I think there’s something magical about being out here, picnicking on the lawn — something magical about seeing Shakespeare outdoors,” Bannon said.
Nilles said that night’s showing of The Comedy of Errors would likely be the couple’s last for a long time, since they planned a move to Massachusetts.
“Totally bittersweet. That sums it up,” he said. “I’ve kept all the ticket stubs; I was actually just looking them over before we came.”
Bannon said the two “haven’t come to terms emotionally” with this year’s show being their last for, if not forever, for a long time.
“We’ll have to see if we ever make it back,” she said.
Retired Illinois State University professor Ree Hartman said she and her husband also are frequent festival-goers, creating their own tradition at Ewing Manor each year.
“I used to bring a group of elderly people here; my husband and I would bring, like, 20 elderly people, and we'd sit them on chairs and the lawn and eat and then we'd see the latest Shakespeare. They thought it was the best ever,” Hartman recalled.
This year, Hartman attended with her niece and two daughters, Angie and Cami.
“We just love to be together; we always love to come out here on the grass,” Hartman said. “We drink our wine, have our cheese. And we see people we know which is fun. It’s just a great place to come.”
Al Oltmanns, festival worker, assistant director of The Book of Will show, youth theater programs and assistant company manager, said learning how far people travel to be at ISF was a positive surprise.
“It’s shown me how great of a community we have, not only in this town, but the surrounding areas and states because so many people travel to come to see this,” Oltmanns said. “It’s really been phenomenal how every night here has been packed — it doesn’t matter if it’s a Tuesday night or if it’s cloudy, people show up.”
This year’s season ended on Aug. 5.
You can hear the full episode of this edition of WGLT’s Sounds of Summer series below:
