OUR HISTORY

Capital Classics Theatre Company was founded in July 1991 with a mission to deliver quality classical theater that’s affordable, accessible, and engaging to a diverse audience. Since our formation, Capital Classics has fulfilled that mission over a varied production history. Getting our start — performing Shakespeare in Bushnell Park — we have gone on to produce The Capital Classics Radio Revue Series and The Capital Classics Vaudeville Revue; make numerous First Night appearances; and create original theatrical events for area museums (including the Noah Webster House, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the Stanley Whitman House, and the Bellamy-Ferriday Home). Our cornerstone event is The Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival — staged in our home for 20+ years — at the University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut.

Capital Classics Theatre Company is the longest running non-union professional theatre company in the Greater Hartford Region, now in our 33rd year. Capital Classics provides jobs for Connecticut performers and technicians and provides the community with high-quality theatrical programming that is affordable and family friendly. Our productions have helped to develop and strengthen the Greater Hartford theatrical community of small, energetic, quality, professional theaters through the sharing of artistic personnel and resources among the organizations. Several of our past company members collaborate with Hartbeat Ensemble and Playhouse on Park Theatre Company on theatrical performances and teach in various area professional and educational theatre organizations such as the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts; the Hartt School of Drama; University of Connecticut; Housatonic and Capital Community Colleges; and Hartford Stage’s Educational Department. Additionally, our artistic staff is currently leading the tenth year of a well-attended and enthusiastically received Shakespeare Book Club at West Hartford’s Noah Webster Library, a monthly gathering for discussion of eight of Shakespeare plays.

Past Productions

A sampling of our previous work.  Click on an image to see more production photographs. Designs by the amazing Chris Hyde at Cipher Creative Group!

You can't besmirch our merch!

Love our Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival? You can purchase shirts, drink wear, and more on our new merch website with our logo and designs from past productions! And, all net proceeds support our productions!

Love’s Labour’s Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company - The first 30 years!

We’ve released Love's Labour's Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company - The First 30 Years. This retrospective book is written in the style of a play and features copious images drawn from the Company's three-decade history.

Covering our scrappy beginnings presenting Shakespeare in Hartford's Bushnell Park to the creation of the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival at the University of Saint Joseph, Love's Labour's Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company - The First 30 Years is a 213-page retrospective, written by Kathleen Fischer and Edwin Thrower. A project two years in the making, the book includes highlights from more than 40 interviews with the co-founders, past cast members, and past and current members of the production staff. Co-founders Geoffrey and Laura Sheehan's 30-year history with the Company is explored in the book -- and it even includes interviews with their four children on what it was like growing up in a home so deeply connected to staging Shakespeare productions. The book is composed as a play, with a prologue, five acts, epilogue, and even an intermission. The book also includes production photos from our first production in 1991 to today.

The book will be sold at upcoming live performances, as well as online. The book costs $20 (plus additional shipping and handling charges for online purchases) with the net proceeds benefiting the non-profit.

To find out more or order a book online, please click here to connect to the authors.