Fall 2025
September 5, 2025
Shakespeare Reading Club 2025-2026
First Friday Program – Celebrate 1 year of Shakespeare Reading Club! This is Shakespeare that requires no homework. Just show up, sit down, read or listen, as we read through Shakespeare’s 36 plays, one word at a time!
September 5 is the launch of the 2025-2026 Season with Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
6:30 p.m. Tea Time
7:15 p.m. Start Reading
Email Pilar McKay, Managing Director (pmckay@shakeonthelake.org) to get on the Shakespeare Reading Club Mailing List.
October 3 & 4, 2025
Theater for All of Us: Two Day Workshop
A hands-on workshop for producers, educators, theater makers, artists, actors, and caregivers with tools for developing sensory theater for autistic and neurodivergent audiences with Leigh Walter, Marty Allen, and Andrew Duff the creators of Trusty Sidekick’s ‘A Perfect Party for Trees’
October 3 | 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
October 4 | 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(Two Day Workshop)
Theatre@37, 37 South Main Street, Perry, NY 14530
October 4 | 3:30pm public performance of ‘A Perfect Party for Trees‘
Tickets are for both days of the workshop: Reserve a spot here!
In our 2-day workshop, we share a flexible toolkit for creating inclusive theater through multiple lenses, including:
Producing/Directing: from imagination to implementation: how we get a show for our audiences going, and what we consider along the way
Writing/Composing: incorporating and celebrating neurodivergent needs and voices in worldbuilding, storytelling, language, and song
Performing: preparing to flexibly connect to audience and the moment using structure, improvisation, and sensory theater techniques
Design: building a sensory-friendly world that supports audience needs and creates space for exploration
This workshop is made possible due to the generous support of the Palma Foundation.
October 3, 2025
October Puppet Slam
First Friday Program – Join us for an exciting evening of short puppet performances. Tickets and information TBD!
October 4, 2025
A Perfect Party for Trees
A Perfect Party for Trees
October 4 at 3:30 p.m.
Theatre@37
37 South Main Street
Perry, NY
Reserve a spot here! Limited Seating – free but ticket reservation required
In A Perfect Party for Trees, we welcome our party guests to try multi-sensory activities, participatory puppetry, and collective live music in a celebration of nature, and the many ways that we see ourselves as a part of it. Guided by our friends The Beekeeper, The Bear, and Ms. Branch, we create a gentle and playful space for our audience to dig like a badger, sing like a bird, and sit quietly like a tree to become a part of the forest itself. With no wrong way to celebrate, it will be the perfect party every time.
Running time: approximately 45-60 minutes.
Link to NY Times Review.
Link to Social Story, Character Guide, and Storybook.
This performance is made possible due to the generous support of the Palma Foundation.
November 7, 2025
First Friday Program – Time for first-person story telling and language arts with The Nameless Club. Details TBD!
Learn more about our events
Shake on the Lake started as a summer outdoor production and has grown into a regional touring company with programming all year long.
Summer Tour
Shake on the Lake performances start in the summer with our Shakespeare Summer Tour. Each year we focus on one of Shakespeare’s classic plays to devise our own Shake on the Lake production. In 90 minutes or less, we present the Bard in accessible, but not watered-down form. These shows can travel and have traveled many miles – communities simply pay our rental fee, and we show up with the set, sound, crew, and actors to perform in your community. The show is designed for outdoor venues.
Learn more about past performances or our most current summer tour.
Please contact Linda Franke, Executive Director (lfranke@shakeonthelake.org) if you would like to bring the Summer Tour in your community.
New York State Puppet Festival
In 2018, Shake started to bring New York State Puppet Festival to live and every even year we present contemporary puppetry arts in a ten day festival. Programmed by Producing Artistic Director and Puppet Artist Josh Rice, be prepared for something awesome when you attend a NYSPF event. Learn more about New York State Puppet Festival at the festival website.
Theatre@37
Shake’s home is a storefront theatre at 37 South Main Street in Perry, NY. During the year, the company hosts educational programming and performances including First Friday Programming. Through programs like Shakespeare Reading Club, The Nameless Club, Act III Short performances, and artist residencies – you can enjoy performing, literary, and visual, arts all year round. Learn more about our current events.
If you are interested in renting Theatre@37 for performing arts rehearsals or devising, please email Linda Franke, Executive Director (lfranke@shakeonthelake.org).
In-School Educational Programming – Groundlings Program
Shake has educational programming opportunities for K-12 schools throughout Western New York. Through our Groundlings Program – our experienced teaching artists teach puppetry, improvisation, playwriting, and theatre arts. Often educational programming includes a final performances by students. Workshops can be hourly or a short residency. Please contact Linda Franke, Executive Director (lfranke@shakeonthelake.org) if you would like Educational Programming in your community.
Customized Educational Programming – All Ages, Seniors, and Special Audiences
Shake is happy to host programs in your community about puppetry, improvisation, Shakespeare, playwriting, and theatre arts. Workshops can be hourly or a short residency. and can be after working hours. Shake has partnered with libraries, day treatment facilities, and senior living communities. Please contact Linda Franke, Executive Director
(lfranke@shakeonthelake.org) if you would like Educational Programming
in your community.
Voices UnCaged
We have also hosted Voices UnCaged, a program developed by Chad Bradford to bring theatre arts to correctional facilities. With a curriculum focused on students developing their own creative voice, students go from script to show in less than a week and perform for an audience of their peers.
Shake + Agriculture
Shake is developing an exciting Theatre on Farms, an art and agritourism project, to follow our summer tour. Follow along as we develop our first immersive theatre pieces from classic Shakespeare plays like Macbeth and King Lear.
In partnership with playwright Vinny Mraz, Shake is producing The Dairy Farmer Project. This original piece focuses on the Dairy Farmers in the greater Perry area.
Winter Season
We end our season with a holiday classic at our home theatre, Theatre@37. Some years our holiday production is also tours, depending on the show.
Customized Programming
Shake on the Lake is also happy discuss customized programming for your community. If you are thinking of commissioning your own Shakespeare tour, please reach out to us and we’d be happy to talk about our devising and creative process to see if it works with your community. Email Linda Franke, Executive Director (lfranke@shakeonthelake.org) for more information