Financially strapped Cal Shakes says it will shut down for good

Struggling California Shakespeare Theater announced Thursday it had hit an “insurmountable financial impasse” and would close for good.

In a brief announcement attributed to executive director Clive Worsley, the 50-year-old Orinda-based company said it had “no alternative but to suspend operations, begin layoffs, and take steps towards what will be the ultimate closure of the company.”

The news — the latest jolt in a troubled performing arts landscape — comes not quite a month after Cal Shakes staged its sole production of 2024, the Bard’s popular comedy “As You Like It,” at the Bruns Amphitheater. But the company needed to stage an emergency $350,000 fund drive to make that production possible, and has been teetering financially since 2020, when pandemic shut down its entire season. Cal Shakes staged shortened seasons in 2021 and 2022, then was dark in 2023 as it geared for its 50th anniversary season this year. But despite the successful fund drive this year — buoyed by a $100,000 gift from Oakland native and Cal Shakes alum Zendaya and donations from some 700 people — and a well-received production of “As You Like It,” the company could not overcome its financial hardships.

Many theater troupes and other arts companies have been struggling since the pandemic, which shut down live performances across the country and exacerbated a trend toward smaller audiences, reduced subscription sales and government support, and fewer donations.

Palo Alto-based TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, which this week opened a production of the basketball-themed play “King James,” nearly closed down in late 2023 but was rescued by a $3 million fund drive.

Other companies have not been as fortunate. Cal Shakes joins such Bay Area troupes as TheatreFIRST, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Dragon Theater, foolsFURY, Ragged Wing Ensemble, Main Stage West, Perspective Theatre Company, Those Women Productions, Bay Area Musicals and PianoFight in succumbing to financial woes.

Cal Shakes began in 1974 as the Emeryville Shakespeare Company, which produced free shows in Berkeley’s John Hinkel Park. The company, then known as the California Shakespeare Festival, moved to the Bruns Amphitheater in 1991. In its peak years, as from the ’90s to the mid-2010s, Cal Shakes generally staged four productions during the summer and fall months, featuring a mix of Shakespeare works, as well as comedies and dramas from other classic and contemporary playwrights.

The company and its scenic amphitheater — nestled on 4½ acres of East Bay Municipal Utility District property in the Orinda hills, with a picnic area and restaurant/snack bar — were popular mainstays of the summer outdoor theater season.

Worsley, who took over leadership of Cal Shakes following the departures of artistic director Eric Ting and managing director Sarah Williams, said in his brief announcement, “We are grateful to you for everything you have done to make Cal Shakes the venerable institution it has been for the past 50 years. More news will come in the following weeks as the process gets underway.”

The company in recent years has been renting the amphitheater and its stage for occasional comedy and music shows. It was not immediately known if EBMUD is entertaining queries for other possible uses of the property and facilities.