In 2022, Artistic Director, Jay Stratton, had a vision to create a free festival that features Shakespeare in the park. He thought, “What better place to do this than Madeliene Park? With its magical charm and perfect location, in the heart of the Kern Place Neighborhood!” That summer, by kismet and happenstance, Jay’s daughter took a tumble in a coffee shop lobby, bumping into, now Executive Director, Sydney Monroe Gaglio. Jay shared his vision with Syd, and they got to work to turn the festival into a reality. By that Fall, the first ever Madeline Park Shakespeare Festival came to fruition. Over the years, the team has expanded to also include our Artistic Associate - Isabella Camfiled, Translator - Gaby Reyes, Web Designer - Johnathan Andrew Cereceres, and Choreographer - Mari Núñez.

Our ongoing mission is to make free, family friendly, and fun Shakespeare that is accessible to all El Pasoans! It is equally important to us, to honor the work and skill of our creatives, performers, and technicians by paying each of them a stipend. Each year we produce a Shakespeare play that is adapted to be bilingual, and runs about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We couple that with a vendor market, pre-show entertainment, and the excitement of an outdoor park for an all around festival experience.

If you’ve participated in the first four years of the festival you know that we don’t charge for seats, we sell no tickets, and our market has no vendor fee! This means that fundraising is the Festival’s main source of income. MPSF would not exist without supporters like you!

Along with our annual festival, we have completed one extremely successful High School Tour of our adaptation of our 2024 festival production - The Taming of the Shrew. With the support of our community, we are eager to take our 2025 adaption of Romeo & Juliet to local High Schools in the Spring of 2026!