Cal Shakes, which for 50 years has presented outdoor theater and education programs in the Bay Area, will close due to financial struggles, the company announced Thursday.
“I write today with the heaviest of hearts to let you know that our beloved institution, Cal Shakes, has hit an insurmountable financial impasse and are faced with no alternative but to suspend operations, begin layoffs and take steps towards what will be the ultimate closure of the company,” Executive Director Clive Worsley said in a statement via email and social media.
Worsley offered no exact date for the closure, instead stating that “more news will come in the following weeks as the process gets underway.”
The long-running Bay Area institution, which stages plays at its Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda and counts film star Zendaya among its alumni, has struggled publicly with finances since the pandemic threw the performing arts into desperate disarray.
In July, Cal Shakes launched a crowdfunding campaign for its production of As You Like It, seeking to raise $350,000 in under a week in order to fund the show. That request, which reached its goal, came after the widely reported news that Zendaya had donated $100,000 to the company in February. In 2023, the company exclusively presented works by outside collaborators.
