We are grateful perpetually for those who came before us as we evolve our training and decades of experience into an international Developmental Theatre: Fearless Creativity platform.
William Shakespeare
The works of William Shakespeare are gifts given to the world. We are privileged to be actors, teachers, authors, and others who perform, teach and use the plays centuries after his company performed them. None of what we are would exist without the Bard of Avon.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival
We recognize The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s decades of summer programs which provided intensive experience in performing two to three plays for around two months of rotating performances.
The Colorado Caravan
We acknowledge with gratitude the University of Colorado’s role in the Colorado Caravan program, originally created to provide winter work touring Shakespeare plays to schools and communities in Colorado.
Within four years the Colorado Caravan experience fostered the Department’s Developmental Theatre M.A. program. Many department professors (see Legacy → Founders) also directed plays for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Both founders Richard Knaub and Martin Cobin are examples.
Daniel S.P. Yang
Daniel S.P. Yang taught Asian Theatre to many of the Colorado Caravan student actors, and was a supporter of the Colorado Caravan. Asian Theatre is a direct influence. Currently he is translating Shakespeare into Chinese.
Yang’s Asian Theatre influence shaped DT:FC’s approach to staging — see the Asian Theatre section in Legacy’s Theatre Influences essay .
Chuck Wilcox
Chuck Wilcox was hired by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and helped to create the first years of the Colorado Caravan. He played Kent in King Lear his first summer; it was directed by Robert Benedetti, whose approach to the production reinforced the blank stage, no props, Poor Theatre style the Colorado Caravan used. After a stroke limited Chuck’s mobility Richard Devin and he invented the Shakespeare on the Green program, where Chuck visited theatre patrons as Will Shakespeare.
Four years after the closing of the Colorado Caravan and the end of the Developmental Theatre M.A. program, Chuck also toured as Will for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival educational programs, sponsored by Richard Devin as director of the CSF.
Melinda Scott
These tours were organized for ten years by Melinda Scott. Melinda performed in Will Power with Chuck, as did Marta Barnard who went on to tour her own theatres in the midwest USA.
Marta Barnard
Marta Barnard performed in Will Power with Chuck and Melinda, then went on to tour her own theatres in the midwest USA. Marta made many contributions to this website.
Amanda Giguere
Amanda Giguere has for many years been the CSF educational program leader. She published Shakespeare and Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators in June, 2025.
Joe Craft
We would like to honor Joe Craft who taught Drama and Speech for fifty years in Denver CO public schools. He founded the Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival, which continues today. When it was selected as a national demonstration site, Joe was appointed as the third steward of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Joe’s vision of Shakespeare transformed many young lives, and is part of the fabric of DT:FC.