You don’t have to travel all the way to Stratford, Ontario, to see world-class professional Shakespeare this summer. The Michigan Shakespeare Festival is right here in Metro Detroit, featuring professional actors performing some of classical theater’s greatest plays during a six-week period in July and early August.
“The best thing about the festival is the acting. The professional actors are so good,” said Aarti Pradham, a local high school student who has been both a patron and a part of the cast for Macbeth. “If a character is sad, they act really sad. And even in the sadness, they convey more complex emotions, like grief, or frustration, and that comes across thoroughly to the audience.”
Her mom, Priti Kulami, agrees, “We have seen them performing a very serious role, and in the next show, they did such a comedy act. I couldn’t believe this person performing a very serious role could be an extremely 180-degree opposite in a comedic role the next week.”
The festival, which was named The Official Shakespeare Festival of the State of Michigan by Governor Granholm in 2003, started in 1995 as an outdoor festival in Jackson. They performed in a replica of the Globe theater until they moved indoors in 2004. By 2015, they added a three-week run at the Village Theater in Canton. Now, their season is a six-week season performed at the Hillberry Gateway Theater in Detroit.
They also have a touring company, called the MiSFITs, who perform at high schools in southern Michigan, northern Ohio and northeast Indiana. The MiSFITs company is made up of 10 young professional actors who have completed university-level training. Their focus is on text-based plays combining a “period” style and modern sensibilities, similar to how they imagine Shakespeare’s company would do today.
Members of the festival company aren’t just good actors; they are good people. Aarti was a young actor paired with professional adults in their production of Macbeth and found it to be a great experience.
“They were so amazing,” she said. “I was awed by each and every performer. Not just their acting, but they were also good human beings. We had three shows a day on weekends, plus Wednesday and Thursday. They never let the pressure get to them. No frustration or anything. Everybody was so courteous.”
Priti, who has had two of her daughters act with the company, concurs. “Director Janice Bixit and her husband, David, are the backbone, and they both are amazing. They were professional, but not strict. When the girls started, they used to make mistakes, but the director would say one thing and then ‘Okay, let’s do it again.’ Everybody understood. They would repeat scenes, practice until they got it right.”
“Before, I only knew how to sing, dance and be on stage,” recalls Aarti, “but after going through this, I realized how to improv, I realized how to stage fight and then I realized how to show your emotions on your face so vividly to the audience that it’s as if they’re on stage with you and you’re saying something directly to them.”
Behind the scenes and on the stage, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival is both professional and extremely human. It’s an organization we are glad to have as part of our community.
This year’s season runs from July 1 through August 8, 2026, and features three plays: Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing and George Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem: A Comedy of Bad Manners.
Priti says, “I think you should try to get all the tickets for one season because they’re amazing and it gives you a very wholesome experience.”
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