S13 E2: Delaware Shakespeare's 2026 Community Tour

Delaware Shakespeare is known for bringing live theater to audiences under the stars at Rockwood Park—but its work reaches far beyond the traditional stage.

In this episode of Delaware State of the Arts, host Andy Truscott speaks with Mariah Ghant, Producing Artistic Director of Delaware Shakespeare, about the company’s statewide Community Tour. Each year, DelShakes brings intimate, professional performances into libraries, museums, schools, correctional facilities, disability-service organizations, and other community spaces across all three Delaware counties.

Ghant discusses how the tour removes barriers to participation, invites audiences to experience Shakespeare in new ways, and creates opportunities for connection through live performance. She also offers a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s production, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again]—a fast-paced, comedic journey through all 36 Shakespeare plays in under 100 minutes.

The conversation explores why arts access matters, how unconventional spaces can become powerful theaters, and why Shakespeare’s stories continue to resonate with audiences more than 400 years later.

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life.  Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.

Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.

Transcript

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Andy Truscott 0:16

For Delaware State of the Arts, I'm Andy Truscott. Today I'm talking with Mariah Gantt, producing artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare. Or as most folks around here know them, Dell Shakes. If you spent a summer evening on the lawn at Rockwood Park watching a play under the stars, you already know part of what they've done. But there's a whole other side to this company, and it's the reason we have them on today. Del Shakes believes Shakespeare belongs to everyone in this state, not just the people who can get to a theater. Their vision is a Delaware where people from all walks of life come together and explore what makes us human through these very plays. And they mean all walks of life. Every fall, their community tour takes a show on the road across all three counties, into libraries, museums, gymnasiums, and cafeterias, and into places you might not expect, like correctional facilities and schools, bringing live theater to people who rarely get the chance to see it. Mariah, thanks so much for joining me today. And while we kick off, for folks who've maybe caught your summer festival at Rockwood, but have never heard of this community tour, how would you describe what makes it a different animal?

Mariah Ghant 1:30

The community tour is something we like to call the heart center of the work that we do at Delaware Shakespeare. The community tour is unique because, yes, as you mentioned and as the name suggests, it tours. It travels throughout the whole state, visiting all three counties. But even more than that is that we try to create special small performance spaces for people to be able to interact and have a close-up experience with Shakespeare. We do all of these performances in the round, which is just theater talk for meaning that the audience sits all around the actors who perform in the middle. They have a 15-foot by 15-foot playing space, and that's it. We are traveling always with a small amount of props and set. Usually we're encouraging the audience to use their imagination to help build out the rest of the story just from what we bring ourselves with the performance. So if you're used to seeing it with all the lights and the big sounds, this is a little different. We perform with all the lights on, as we say. And it's it's a way for people to have a different experience with Shakespeare and with performance, period.

Andy Truscott 2:49

Del Shakes has done the community tour for well more than five years. Talk to me about what you've heard from audiences and from the individuals that maybe have never seen something like this before, but are now slowly being turned on to a live theater because of this kind of activity.

Mariah Ghant 3:07

The community tour is definitely something we hear that people can find hard to understand exactly what it is until they see it, which is why we're trying to encourage more than ever for people to come out and see the show. We're this year at even more performance spaces that are open for all audience members to be able to come and join. I think what we hear most from people along the tour is that they're just so amazed at how much these stories can really relate to them. And, you know, typically we're doing a full-length Shakespeare show cut down, just a little bit to fit within about a two-hour span. And sometimes we do Shakespeare adjacent shows like we are this year. But kind of regardless of the subject matter, what people find is that these stories still have some way for them to connect with one another and connect the story to themselves. I think even last year when we were doing The Two Gentlemen of Verona, um, which is definitely not a well-known Shakespeare play, it it was shocking how many people afterwards came up and were like, I can't believe he did that to her. And if I was her, I would do X, Y, and Z. It's something that people are really able to drop themselves into the story and say, Well, here's how I would respond in that situation. And it's amazing, even after 400 years, these stories are still able to do that.

Andy Truscott 4:37

This year, Del Shakes is presenting the complete works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, Revised, Again, which is all 36 plays in under 100 minutes. Uh, what made this the right show to put on the road this year?

Mariah Ghant 4:51

So I'm a huge fan of this play, mainly because it is just so silly. And I think we can all agree that the world has been bogging us down a bit. And being able to gather together and share in laughter is something that I'm I'm so excited about. I myself am an improviser and a diviser, and I love making people laugh, and I love collaborating with people to make them laugh. And this piece is a great example of that. In the script note from the authors from the playwright, they say, you know, really take this play and make it your own. And I'm excited to be able to do just that. And in many ways, I think this play is a great introduction to people, regardless of your experience with Shakespeare, right? If you've had a lot of experience and you know all of the plays, then you get the ability to find those nuggets that pop up from the different shows throughout this one play. And if you've never experienced Shakespeare, you will be right there, able to learn about 36 plays in a hundred minutes really, really quickly, some of them a little bit more than others, but it's a great introduction piece for people and re-introduction for people who have experience.

Andy Truscott 6:14

For those that have maybe never seen this show, it is a fairly accessible piece of theater. Like you're not going to be necessarily sitting there if you've never heard of Shakespeare read before trying to parse out Shakespeare. Um, these are actors largely speaking in modern day English, but maybe pulling in pieces of Shakespeare's script, correct?

Mariah Ghant 6:34

Absolutely. Yes. It is a script that was written by a couple of friends with them talking about wanting to do a play of all of Shakespeare's plays. And so it is a majority in modern English, just like you said, Andy. And there's a couple of moments where they drop into some of the Shakespeare text to give you a bit of a taste of what that play is about.

Andy Truscott 6:58

Aaron Powell The tagline basically being rapid fire comedic romp. How do you keep a show that fast and that funny and that physical from falling apart in a room that some of these actors may have never rehearsed in?

Mariah Ghant 7:11

That's a great question. Actually, for all of these spaces, our actors will probably get about 30 minutes, about an hour before performances, to really walk through and get acclimated with the space. But yes, otherwise we just show up and do the show without having rehearsed there. So being able to keep the show tight and consistent is just such a testament to the actors. I'm really excited for this team that we have coming up to join us. Um, one we have one returner, Owen Corey, and then two new friends, Marissa and Nina, who will be joining the tour for the first time. And it's just a great, a great group of people. So to keep the show consistent is really a testament to also rehearsals. We practice pretty judiciously with the different angle points that we have for the aisles. We use those kind of as markers. And so each space we go into, we determine, okay, this will be corner one, corner two, corner three, corner four. And we go from there with making it work for each space. But that's also the fun, too, of doing it in a different space, is what you discover along the way, because no one show will be the same. So already the space itself lends that difference, but the story also is able to kind of shape and morph because there are those moments of audience interaction and a little bit of improv that make it different for each show.

Andy Truscott 8:43

For someone who's maybe been used to seeing a more traditional style of theater, right? Which is you go, you sit in an auditorium, there's a stage on it or a set on a stage, the actors come out, the actors go off, you leave. This is not necessarily the same case, right? And so you're playing multi-purpose rooms, cafeterias, gyms, and some of it's outdoors. So walk me through what it takes to turn a space like that into a Shakespearean play.

Mariah Ghant 9:11

That's such a great question. Which is one of the reasons why I love the tour so much, is that really all it takes is your imagination. And that can sound a little corny, but all it takes is you as an audience member coming with an open mind to experience something different. And to take it even a step further than that, it's coming and knowing that this is an action of humanity and one of community joining together. So I think oftentimes when we go to see theater, we put on our good audience member hat and we think we're gonna sit and clap at the appropriate times, and the stage is so far away, it makes the actors feel very, they're up on a platform, it makes them feel very elevated. But we we beg the audience to do just the opposite, right? We want you to laugh and clap and respond with us. And that's part of coming into these spaces too, coming to places where you already can feel the most comfortable. So coming to a library space that people frequent often, right? You're not coming in there necessarily expecting to have to put on your good audience member hat. And that's perfect. We don't want you to. We want you to come as yourself. I think that's the biggest thing for audience members to think about is you might be used to seeing theater one way, but it's totally possible to open up your mind and see it and experience and feel in a different way, which is exactly what I think the magic of the community tour does. It's to transform any space into a space where Shakespeare or anybody can have theater, can have art.

Andy Truscott 11:01

You know, one of the things that you might not think about is you think about all these different locations is, you know, all fine and dandy if there's no set, but what about lights? How do things like that work out in these locations? How much of each performance is customized to that location and or maybe even improvised by the actors? You know, you had mentioned that they maybe only get about an hour with each space before the show. And so would it be fair to say that the show might look a little different each night, depending on where you are around the state?

Mariah Ghant 11:34

Yes, there definitely is an element of fun. I would say even the most rehearsed shows, right? We we end up having that kind of space of live fear, what's gonna happen. And the Torah only amplifies that because we are new, new in each space. Each show will have its own little feel and different little vibe because of the different spaces. I think it also is a great reflection of the audience and community gathering together to see that show. I always tell cast members, you're gonna have different audience reactions to each show because that group of people is different. That's why we're visiting all these different spaces and trying to meet people across our shared humanity. Everybody's going to have a different reaction. The little bits of improv that happen are some of them are baked into the text where, again, the playwrights, they offer you the space to be able to expand a moment or focus on something a little different. So, yes, you might see some different things from show to show. And then also the space itself, you brought up, you know, like lighting and how we perform without major light design. And we originally got this tour model from a theater company in Minneapolis called 10,000 Things. 10,000 Things originated the Tour model. And their founder, Michelle Hensley, wrote a book called All the Lights On, in which she talks about this tour model. And I remember first reading that book when I started in this position and being so blown away at this idea of performing with all the lights on, that it is able to show everybody being together in unity. So, right, you can see the person across the way from you. That's the other beautiful thing of performing in the round. You can see the audience member across from you, you can see their reaction and see that it is okay to laugh, okay to clap. And uh while it is not maybe the same major blue tones and flashing lights that you get from a large theater company, right? That magic is actually it's a different kind of usage of light design. You know, some days we perform and there's a beautiful sun ray of sun from outside coming in, and that just makes things so different that you didn't have the day before. And all that to say, it there's there's beauty in those differences at each different performance space.

Andy Truscott 14:19

You've got everything from the Biggs Museum to Mount Cuba to a public library in Lewis. Talk to me about how Dell Shakes thinks about programming a tour that fits a range of these spaces and maybe why you particularly look at some of them as host locations.

Mariah Ghant 14:37

We have really grown in our many years of doing the tour now that we have so many partnership locations that look out for the tour and want us to come. So it actually becomes a bit of a balancing act to say maybe we've been to this place recently, maybe we can go somewhere else. We also still want to find new locations and make new relationships. And that kind of all goes into the quote unquote formula that I use when starting to do the outreach. And also a lot of it is geographical too, right? We we want to ensure that we have a certain number of performances downstate, a certain number of performances in Kent County, and then also being able to reach a lot of folks in in Newcastle County and Wilmington, because we know that that's where we see a lot of folks from the Summer Festival being able to see our shows. But then also for some of the more uh private performances that we have, where we go to Baylor, the Women's Correctional Facility, when we go to Ferris, the Ferris School. These are places, again, we've we've had relationships with for years. So we try to find the balance of when was the last time we brought a show here. But also sometimes we know that a show might speak really well to a specific audience. And this show is is a luck out piece because I really do believe it can be for everyone. And the themes are about laughter and fun and community. So I think it works well in kind of every space, but there's there's so many little nuggets that go into kind of making that that choice on where we will be. But also I always say I love to meet people from other organizations and hear, hear from them if they would love to see the tour come, because that's the beautiful thing about Delaware. While we are so small, there's also so many robust community spaces that we we just may not know about. So if anybody's out there and they hear about the tour and they're interested, please let us know.

Andy Truscott 16:48

You had brought up uh some of these other locations which are closed to the public and are the tour is really meant as a way to make the arts accessible to those that are residing in those locations. This year, that includes spaces like Baylor Women's Correctional, Easter Seals, and Ferris School. Why are those locations so central to the heart of what makes the community tour special?

Mariah Ghant 17:12

I find those spaces to be so connected to, like you said, the heart-moving work that we do. Because many people in those spaces think that theater is not for them. And they're placed in a section of our society in which, for whatever reason, people have deemed maybe these people don't need to have access to theater and honestly access to a lot of different human things. And it feels so important to me to remind folks that we all can come together in our humanity and and see one another. And art is a human right. It really is. We all need to be able to have access to this archaic art form that allows us to experience catharsis, experience connection. And not everybody knows that though. So that's the work of the community tour is to be able to show that to people that this work is important for people to be able to find their humanity, for people to be able to find, like I said, their connection with one another. And there are so many studies, and especially right now, there's so much work being done to talk about the connection between art and health and how art is so beneficial to our mental health, our physical well-being, that even more now than ever, it's so important to get into these spaces and provide this gift. Also, so many spaces, you know, like Easter seals that we go to, it's just not possible for folks to be able to travel to spaces that are unaccessible and that are not made for them. And it's great to be able to have something like the community tour where we take it right to them and make that break down that barrier that makes access more difficult.

Andy Truscott 19:10

For someone listening who's maybe never been in one of those locations, what actually happens when you bring a show into a facility like that? What do you see in the rooms? What do you see in the faces of those that are coming to join you in the rooms?

Mariah Ghant 19:24

I'm a little partial. We've gone to Easter Seals and Baylor each year that I've been working on the tour. And both of those spaces, I mean, bring a smile to me instantly upon walking in. And I I again it's this idea of theater being feeling so separate from the audience at times that people don't think that actors are people just like them, that people who wrote those plays are people just like them. And so when we go into Easter seals and when we go into Baylor, the audiences talk to us right away, right? They want us to connect with them. They want to get up close and touch some of the props that we have, feel what the costume looks like, uh, feel with how the costume feels. They want to ask us questions about why we have this, why we do this. It's it's instantly people wanting to talk and connect and be around one another. Um, and it's so special. It feels really, it feels really wonderful to go into those spaces. And again, I think like many other people, I assumed going into a place like Baylor, I had an idea in my head of what it would feel like. But every time we go, it's a different performance. We actually perform in the chapel typically at Baylor, and they have, again, a really beautiful window that shines through, and it makes the moments of performance really stand out in my mind about I know exactly what that space looks like, and I can remember the faces. We always have audience interaction, and the audience interaction parts at Easter Seals at Baylor are always fun to get people up on their feet, get people speaking some of the lines, empowering them to be part of Shakespeare's stories. So that always feels great. The the women at Baylor, they love to tell us what they think absolutely about the show. Um, I even had one person tell me, I love coming to these performances, and I almost didn't come because this was at the same time as an Eagles game. And I said, from now on, don't worry. I will plan our schedule around Eagles games.

Andy Truscott 21:44

So as you're going through all of these locations, right, you're playing for different audiences, for different groupings of society who maybe have never seen live theater, but let alone Shakespeare. How do you know it's landing? How do you know for some of these Individuals that this is enjoyable to them, or is it really a case-by-case situation?

Mariah Ghant 22:07

I usually brief our casts to let them know that all performance responses will be different and that a performance response is never indicative of how that performance went. And that's another great thing of being able to perform with all the lights on, is that you can see an audience member's reaction right away. When we perform in the dark and there's that separation, you don't get to see how the audience is reacting. You only get to go off of if they're clapping or not, if they're laughing or not. And there's so much more nuance that you can take in with the community tour of being able to see the audience responses. Responses are so different. Sometimes we have a really quiet performance, but every single person in the audience is leaning in and you can see that and feel the energy off of them. Sometimes we have performances that are so talkative, where people are throughout performances telling us what they think, saying, don't do that to an actor, to a character. And it's those are also just as live and exciting. And yeah, the performance responses can really, really differ. But we encourage people to do just that, to respond, to interact with us in whatever way makes you feel most comfortable. So audience members should also know they don't have to show up and be expected to be called on and be expected to be pointed at. But you can participate however you feel most comfortable. And we're just going to do our job to put on the show and leave it there for you to interact with however you see fit.

Andy Truscott 23:48

The tour hits all three counties in Delaware. Why does statewide reach matter enough to build a whole tour around accessibility in all three counties?

Mariah Ghant 23:59

Because everybody matters. Everybody deserves this access. We all know that both Kent County and Sussex County have a plethora of individuals who perhaps are otherwise separated from NCC and the amount of things that we're able to do in Newcastle. So the amount of access that we have to the arts is really concentrated in Newcastle County. And it feels so important to be able to provide a wide breadth of theater across the entire state. And we're really lucky to have partners like Lewis Library who have an eye and a focus on being able to provide these kinds of performances, these kinds of opportunities for their communities. Because if there's not somebody who is going out to make that work happen, then it's it's very easy for it to fall by the wayside and for it to just not happen. So it feels so important to be able to, again, with showing people that they they all matter, everybody deserves to be able to have access to this kind of work.

Andy Truscott 25:11

Some people hear Shakespeare and immediately think, that's not for me. What do you say to that person who's convinced they just won't get it?

Mariah Ghant 25:20

We often tell people when we're performing a straight-up Shakespeare play, you know, that's in verse and and has all the IAMs and whatever. What we tell people often is think about this like a piece of music, right? When you listen to music, we're not trying to pull out every single word. You're not always trying to pull out every single instrument that you hear. You're letting it wash over you and you're letting yourself get kind of lost in what you're hearing, and you get an ultimate feeling from it. It's the same way when we look at a piece of when we look at a painting. You might not have to understand the artist's immediate intent and what this means, but you get some kind of feeling from it. Theater is the exact same way, and Shakespeare is the exact same way, right? You can hear all of the words and let the actors on stage give you that insight on how you should feel, give you that insight on where the story is going, on what all of this means and how it comes together. There's no need to think that you have to come in having done your homework previously, right? We will handle that for you. And especially with this show with complete works of Shakespeare abridged, revised again, it is specifically for people to come in with a wide variety of experience. And Shakespeare really can be for anybody. I know you probably hear people say it all the time, but it's so important, I think, to be able to see yourself in the stories that are told on stage. And that's why his stories have existed for 400 years, is because we keep finding new ways to make them speak to these current moments of life or to be able to insert ourselves into these stories, insert something that somebody's going through and be able to connect. So I would say more often than not, Shakespeare has something, some way in for you. You know, Shakespeare loves to talk about romance, Shakespeare loves to talk about familial dynamics, he loves to talk about power, he loves to talk about um trying to find yourself. And I think everybody has experienced just one of those four large strokes. Somebody's experienced something from one of those four categories themselves. So you can experience Shakespeare and find some connection to it.

Andy Truscott 27:52

Is there a moment from a paste tour or a specific night or audience that has stuck with you and reminds you about why Dell Shakes continues to do programs like this?

Mariah Ghant 28:03

Yes. Last year we went to Easter Seals, Dover. We were so excited to be able to bring the show to them. But I I couldn't even begin to imagine beforehand the kind of response we would have from the students. The children were so connected and loved the work so much. They wanted to get up and dance when we got to the dancing sections. They wanted to talk to us about the costumes and they wanted to, some of them wanted to like, like I said earlier, wanted to rub their hands on the costumes and get the feel. And that performance just stood out to me because so many students afterwards came up and talked to the actors and didn't even talk to them, like understood they were talking to somebody who was putting on a play, did wasn't even talking to them as that character, but just wanted to know, like, what did you have for breakfast today? What did you, what did you do coming down here? They wanted to connect with them as people. And I just I was so I was so moved and and it felt so special to be able to show show these young people that they deserve art.

Andy Truscott 29:22

For someone listening who wants to catch the show or get involved with Dell Shakespeare, where should they go? What should they do?

Mariah Ghant 29:29

So you can find out more about the community tour at Dellshakes.org. That's D-E-L-S-H-A-K-E-S.org. We have a listing of all of our community tour performances and where in Delaware you can find us at any given moment in September for the complete works of Shakespeare Abridged. You can also find us on socials at Dell Shakes on Instagram and backslash Dell Shakes on Facebook. We have Facebook events for each of the community tour performances as well. So you can find out more about us there.

Andy Truscott 30:02

We've come to the end of our time, so I just want to thank Mariah for joining me today. As she mentioned, you can learn more about Delaware Shakespeare and their community tour at Dellshakes.org.