CFMT Initiatives

For More Than 30 Years, A Midsummer’s Night Dream Becomes Reality for The Nashville Shakespeare Festival

One hot summer’s evening in 1988, a group of Nashville actors dressed in street clothes would commandeer a section of Centennial Park to perform a work by William Shakespeare.

Lacking a proper stage set, aside from lawn chairs and blankets and illuminated by a truck’s headlights, Denice Hicks watched on in wonder from the audience as the first Shakespeare in the Park played out in front of her.

“I could so clearly see at the time that it was a really great thing for the Nashville community, and for the actors, to perform Shakespeare’s work,” Denice recalls.

Now serving as Executive Artistic Director for the nonprofit organization The Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Denice got involved in 1990 as an Assistant Director. Her love for performing, however, stretches to her childhood.

“My whole family was involved with a traveling show that entertained veterans at different hospitals,” she says. “I just learned at a very young age that entertaining people is community service.

“If you can make their lives better for even just one hour,” Denice adds proudly, “you’ve done a good day’s work.”

For the past 30 years, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival has steadily grown, but not without obstacles. The bandshell under which they performed in Centennial Park deteriorated and was without working restrooms. At the end of the troupe’s 2018 season, it had become clear they would have to host the festival elsewhere.

“We really wanted to stay in partnership with Metro Parks, but there just wasn’t a suitable place with enough power for sound and lights,” Denice explains. In 2019, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival would move to oneC1TY Nashville’s green space a few blocks north.

“Now,” she says, laughing, “we brag about the bathrooms.”

That same year, The Nashville Shakespeare Festival would go on to have its most successful winter tour yet. Shortly thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic would bring a wave of uncertainty and force the company to cancel its summer performances for the first time in the festival’s three-decade history.

“Theatre is very hard in Nashville,” Denice says. “It’s hard to produce, it’s hard to afford, and it’s hard to coordinate. But we were motivated by the sense of serving the community with what we can do.”

Thanks to generous donors, and governmental grants, she was able to keep her salaried employees and to focus on fundraising for their future shows, August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” and Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline.”

The cast currently remains on high alert, with COVID numbers spiking once again. Actors are masked during rehearsals and tested three times a week. But the commitment to bring Shakespeare to the Nashville community remains stronger than ever.

“I just passionately believe that Shakespeare wrote for everyone,” Denice says. “We want to do everything we can, because it’s important these shows happen again.”

Looking toward the future, she hopes to bring The Nashville Shakespeare Festival to more schools in the area, both public and private.

“We want to perform live, enthusiastic theater with an appreciation for classic literature that’s accessible to everyone,” Denice says.

“Watching a 6-year-old recite a Shakespearean sonnet — with the power of their imagination and totally unafraid — that’s what theater can do for people.”

The Community Foundation administers the Anne & Charles Roos Fund for The Nashville Shakespeare Festival, established in 2018 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the festival and in honor of the support and dedication of Denice Hicks since its inception.

Community Initiatives

The Community Foundation is dedicated to the welfare and development of Middle Tennessee. As a catalyst and convener, we create and support innovative solutions to address community needs. Learn more at cfmt.org/ community-leadership/community-initatives.

AN INITIATIVE OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE