New Swan Theater Information

The New Swan Theater is an outdoor, portable theater that is assembled and disassembled each summer as part of New Swan Shakespeare Festival, the annual Shakespeare festival at the University of California, Irvine. It is a reduced-size replica of Shakespeares Globe Theatre.

The New Swan Theater was designed by Luke Cantarella, Drama Professor at UCI, and engineered and assembled by Keith Bangs of UC Irvines Claire Trevor School of the Arts. It was built out of recycled materials.This circular theater has 15 modular units, each weighing one ton. The wood and steel structure is stored in winter to protect it from the weather, and then moved to the universitys Gateway Commons in early June for the festival season.

The New Swan Theater is styled as a mini-Elizabethan theater. It is roof-less, with 132 seats on three levels set in the round. There are five sets of seats: The Kings row - on the stage itself, the Groundlings - also on the stage, The Queens - first row mezzanine, the Lords - second row mezzanine, and The Heavens - up on the balcony. Unlike most theaters, the balcony is directly atop the mezzanine. Every seat is close to the stage.

The theater was given a test run in February 2012 on the stage of the Claire Trevor Theatre at UCI for performances of Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, directed by Eli Simon and featuring Richard Brestoff as Shylock. The New Swans first outdoor season was held in August 2012 with performances of The Comedy of Errors, directed by Beth Lopes, and The Merchant of Venice, directed by Eli Simon.In 2013 the festival featured King Lear and A Midsummer Nights Dream, with The Fantasticks playing in September.In 2013 the New Swan Shakespeare Festival was presented with an Orange County Arts Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Built Environment.

The 2014 season featured Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet.In 2015 it showed Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing.The 2016 season featured Hamlet and As You Like It,and the 2017 season featured The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew.The seventh season in 2018 included performances of A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Winters Tale.

Coordinates: 33°38′41″N 117°50′34″W / 33.6447°N 117.8428°W / 33.6447; -117.8428

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