Local Actor
General Information 2025

Overview

Local actors must have a car. If you have a car, read on…

The Camden Shakespeare Festival is a professional, non-profit theatre committed to producing Shakespeare’s plays chiefly in the Camden Amphitheatre. At the core of our mission is a passion to make Shakespeare’s plays accessible to contemporary audiences. We are a non-Equity Theatre. Although we have hired guest-Equity artists in the past, we have no current plans to do so.

We pay local actors $1000 for the entire project.

Our 2024 summer show is Shakespeare’s comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona. We chiefly perform outdoors in the Camden Amphitheatre, a 200-seat venue that is a national historic landmark in Camden Maine.

Rehearsal and Performance Schedule

Our 2024 rehearsal period is from June 27 through July 15 in Bowdoinham. We rehearsal local actors based on their schedule. This tends to be weekday evenings and weekend days, but again, it depends of the actor’s individual schedule. The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens on July 16 and plays through August 10. There are no two-show days. The entire commitment with rehearsals and performances is from June 27 through August 10.

2024 performances
Curtain is generally at 6pm

July 12, Saturday (Bowdoinham Preview) 

July 16, Wednesday (Camden Opening)
July 17, Thursday (Camden)
July 18, Friday (Camden)
July 19, Saturday (TBA)
July 20 Sunday (TBA)

July 22, Tuesday (Camden)
July 23, Wednesday (Camden)
July 24, Thursday (Camden)
July 25, Friday (Camden)
July 26 Saturday (Monson performance)
July 27 Sunday (Monson rain date)

July 29, Tuesday (Camden)
July 30, Wednesday (Camden)
July 31, Thursday (Camden)
August 1, Friday (Camden)
August 2 Saturday (TBA)
August 3 Sunday (TBA)

August 6, Wednesday (Camden)
August 7, Thursday (Camden)
August 8, Friday (Camden)
August 9, Saturday (Camden)
August 10, Sunday (Camden closing)

Touring

We chiefly perform in Camden, but we tour to Bath (two performances) and Monson (one performance). Those are the TBA dates. One of the TBA weekends will be off, but we can’t say which one at this point. Company members may be asked to transport costumes and props in their vehicles as we travel to and from those locations.

Housing

If you cannot commute back and forth to Camden on performance days, we might be able to arrange housing in the Camden area. Actors are generally housed in a single room in the house of a local host, who is a supporter of the theatre. Actors have access to a kitchen and a laundry, but are responsible for their own food. We have an obligation to house the out-of-town actors first, but so far we have always been able to house Maine actors in Camden if they needed it.