About Us

Richmond Shakespeare plays indoors from October to April in the very Elizabethan chapel at 2nd Presbyterian Church, with free parking in an attached garage.   Imagine!! ---free parking downtown! Walk right into the theatre from the garage.  Each summer, the company produces the Richmond Shakespeare Festival at 500 year-old Agecroft Hall, a tudor estate home that stood in England during Shakespeare's lifetime.  It was moved across the Atlantic to Richmond, Virginia in the 1920's.

Where better to host the Shakespeare Festival?

A fully 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, Richmond Shakespeare is celebrating twenty-three years in the heart of Virginia.   

Use this site to buy tickets  for the downtown season or the summertime festival at 500 year-old Agecroft Hall. You can also register for classes , read more about our year-round operations and expand your horizon (or that of your students) on the Education pages!

Our Training, Educational Outreach and Touring programs bring performances and teach workshops or residencies throughout Virginia and all across the country. For students and public audiences of all ages, most workshops can be brought right to your door. Go to our Booking page to find out more about Richmond Shakespeare on the road, or give us a call at 804-232-4000 for information and booking.

We keep Shakespeare affordable, exciting, accessible...but most of all, we keep it fun for all ages.

Grant Mudge,
Artistic Director

The first of August marks the start of Mudge's twelfth year as Artistic Director of Richmond Shakespeare.  He co-founded Richmond Shakespeare ON TOUR in 1997, the Richmond Shakespeare Festival in 1998 and the Richmond Shakespeare Theatre in 2005. Roles for Richmond Shakespeare include: the title roles in Henry V and Macbeth, as well as Orsino in Twelfth Night, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Speed in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Orlando in As You Like It, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew,  Will Shakespeare in Two By Will, Ebenezer Scrooge in Richmond Shakespeare's two-actor A Christmas Carol, Shakespeare At War (solo show), Berowne/Costard in Love's Labour's Lost, Oberon/Theseus/Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, and Trinculo/Ferdinand/Gonzalo in The Tempest, various roles in Shakespeare's Clownes and Fooles, and Poins/Glendower/Douglas in Henry IV, Part One (The History Cycle).  DIRECTING: Death and The Maiden, Mr. Dickens' Carol, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing (three times), Romeo & Juliet (twice), Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Tempest (twice), Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream (twice.)  His latter production of that play was broadcast throughout the region on WCVE-TV PBS in 2005.

Other Richmond acting credits include the Carpenter Science Theatre at the Science Museum of Virginia, the Firehouse Theatre Project, the Dogwood Dell Festival of the Arts, Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre, and a guest artist appearance with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, performing excerpts of Hamlet for their "Double Exposure" concert series. NEW YORK: Henry V with the Judith Shakespeare Company. ELSEWHERE: Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Lakeland Center for the Arts, NC.  FILM/TV: "Shakespeare In Performance" a documentary on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, and his solo show, "Shakespeare At War" both for PBS.   PLAYWRIGHT: The Death of Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet-2, a two-actor adaptation for the University of Pittsburgh's "Shakespeare In The Schools" program, and a recent premiere, commissioned for the Carpenter Science Theatre Company at the Science Museum of Virginia :  Shakespeare & Galileo, in which he played the role of Will opposite Larry Gard, Artistic Director, as Galileo.  Mr. Mudge also serves as director of the Drama program on the faculty of the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School where he has directed As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, Fame!--the Musical, Our Town and a staged reading of The House of Bernarda Alba.

Cynde Liffick,
Director of Education

Liffick performed and trained with Randy Strawderman's Actor's Studio of Richmond (later Studio Theatre of Richmond) and within the year was cast in his record breaking production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Barksdale Theatre. The show ran more than a year and a half at Barksdale and in traveled on three national tours.  Other favorite roles include: Yvonne/Naomi in Sunday in the Park with George and Glenda in A Child's Christmas in Wales.

Liffick develops, implements and oversees Richmond Shakespeare Educational Outreach, which includes Will Power to Youth Richmond as well as workshops, classroom visits and residencies in schools around Virginia and across the country.  RSEO programs feature Shakespeare summer camps, homeschooler residencies, and the Festival Young Company.  The Young Company performs "The Greenshow," part of the pre-performance entertainment nightly at The Richmond Shakespeare Festival.

Andrew Hamm,
Associate Artistic Director

Andrew joined the Richmond Shakespeare staff in 2006 as a company veteran with deep roots in Richmond’s theatre community. He has served as Master of Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (twice, with year 2 including a broadcast on WCVE-TV PBS), The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Henry IV, Part One (The History Cycle). As an actor for Richmond Shakespeare, he has played Angelo, in Measure for Measure, Mowbray/Percy in Richard II, Mercutio/Prince/Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet,  Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, Cassius in Julius Caesar, and Feste in Twelfth Night. He has directed Othello, Doctor Faustus, and As You Like It.

Andrew’s resume runs the gamut from the sublime to the absurd. Off-Off-Broadway: People Like Us (actor and original score) and Razor Wire and Twinkle Lights (musician) at the Lamb's Theatre. In and around Washington, D.C.: The Nerd with Foundry Players, Brighton Beach Memoirs with the Reston Players, and Jesus Christ Superstar (Simon) and Chess (keyboards) with the Elden Street Players. In and around Richmond, he has been seen in Barksdale’s benefit reading of An American Daughter, composed the score for Theatre of Operations’ Operation Hamlet, and toured for Theatre IV in The Pied Piper, Stuart Little, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and Hugs and Kisses. In 2004, Andrew developed, directed and produced the world premiere of Joe Jackson’s Night and Day at the Science Museum’s RF&P Forum. He would really like to do it again, if any interested producers are reading this... He has recorded several albums, including Strange Education, Terrible Light, and Ill Met by Moonlight.

Andrew holds two degrees from Theatre VCU (BFA 1996, Acting; MFA 2005, Theatre Pedagogy) where he acted in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Red Noses, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Teibele and Her Demon, directed The Water Principle, “New York Actor,” and scenes from The Good Doctor, and developed several new plays, including The Blizzard of ‘93, One 2 One, “Lip-Lock Nirvana,” Awake in Pennsylvania, a new prologue to Red Noses, and the “Project: Evil” ensemble works Held and Fixed.

Andrew taught acting and public speaking at VCU, as well as workshops in playwriting and character voices. He has led workshops for the Virginia Theatre Association, the Center for the Arts at Henrico High School, Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, and the State University of New York at Albany. He currently also serves as Director of Contemporary Worship at Redeemer Lutheran Church and Vice-President of the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres.