History and Mission of Colorado Shakespeare Gardens
Colorado Shakespeare Gardens (CSG), was founded in 1991, is a volunteer organization providing educational support to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, University of Colorado students and faculty, and the public through cultivation of gardens in the Education Courtyard next to the Mary Rippon Theater. Many of Shakespeare’s plays are rich with quotations about plants and trees. Plants featured in the gardens are referenced in Shakespeare’s plays or are plants known in the Elizabethan era.
During the Colorado Shakespeare Festival season, CSG members conduct tours of the gardens each Saturday that a performance is scheduled in the Mary Rippon Theater. Tour guides are in the gardens beginning about 90 minutes before the play starts – and occasionally they are joined by William Shakespeare himself!
At winter meetings members present synopses of plays for the upcoming season and plant research for some of the plants referenced in the plays. The public is invited to these meetings.
In 2014 CSG became a member of the American Association of Public Gardens.
A number of gardens for individual plays have been planted along the Education Building. In the last few years, a new knot garden and new Midsummer Night’s Dream Garden have been added to the Courtyard. During the summer, a garden guide with a diagram of the gardens is in a box in the Courtyard.
CSG welcomes new members and other volunteers to work in the gardens and also sponsors to provide donations for plants and for new signs.
For more information about CSG, members or sponsorships and donations, visit our website listed in the links section.
