And now, for something completely different. Although this year marks the 12th annual 48-hour Play Festival put on by Foothill College Theatre Arts and Silicon Valley Shakespeare, the resulting “ShakesDATE” performance on Sunday (March 29) will be a surprise.
Each year’s festival has a theme, which can be guessed at by their titles; previous incarnations have included “Shakespeare Magic,” “ShakesFear” and last year’s “ShakesFluencer.” The premise of this year’s “ShakesDATE” is famous Shakespearean characters thrust into the 2026 dating scene.
But it’s not the usual theater routine of choosing a cast to perform an already-written play. According to the Silicon Valley Shakespeare website, “In just two days, bold theatre artists race the clock to create brand-new short plays inspired by Shakespeare’s timeless obsessions like love, lust, jealousy, missed connections, all filtered through the chaos of dating apps, ghosting, situationships and first-date fantasies.”
Twenty-four actors were chosen by lottery earlier in March, with half of the acting slots reserved for Foothill College students. Writers and directors will work with the teams of actors.
The festival (for cast and crew only) begins Friday at 6 p.m., with team assignments and random drawings of Shakespeare plays and a dating element on which to base the script. All teams receive a required line of dialogue, a prop and a surprise requirement to incorporate into their pieces. Scripts are due from the writers at noon Saturday. The teams then search for costumes and props and rehearse (quickly). Sunday brings more rehearsals before the big show that evening.
“Brevity is the soul of wit,” as Polonius said in “Hamlet”; this brief festival and Sunday’s culmination aim to bring plenty of laughs and, more than 400 years after his death, do the bard proud.
The performance runs 7-9:30 p.m. at Lohman Theatre at Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $15.
For tickets and details, visit svshakespeare.org/festival.
