Past Seasons
Richard the Second
Henry the Fourth, Part 1
Henry the Fourth, Part 2
Henry the Fifth
BST Online Reading Series, Summer 2020
Featuring works by early modern playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Heywood, George Peele, and John Ford and spanning historical events from 1199 to 1499, BST’s Online Reading Series presents works that live in conversation with Shakespeare’s history plays, revealing the breadth and popularity of the history genre during Shakespeare’s era and providing source material and alternate versions of events and characters.
Learn More & Watch the Readings Online
Henry the Sixth, Part 1
Henry the Sixth, Part 2
Henry the Sixth, Part 3
Richard the Third
[The King’s Shadow] tetralogy was deeply compelling, providing moments of high drama, humor, and visual excitement. Brave Spirits’ work was especially innovative as well, embodying [director Charlene V.] Smith’s feminist emphasis and analysis of the influences of gender and race in American society.
— Sophia Howes, DC Metro Theater Arts tribute to Shakespeare’s Histories
The Duchess of Malfi
The Changeling
As You Like It
First-rate work: a conceptually cohesive, intimate, spunky, charming staging of a pastoral Shakespeare comedy … Brave Spirits’ As You Like It is a heartwarming treat.
— John Geoffrion, DC Theatre Scene on 2019’s As You Like It
Coriolanus
The Trojan Women Project
Doctor Faustus
This is an extraordinary Coriolanus: insightful, gripping, and painfully timely. It pulses with energy and powerful, immensely skilled performances. It’s very much a Coriolanus for right now, and must be experienced.
— Joshua Engel, Theatre Bloom on 2018’s Coriolanus
A King and No King
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
Antony and Cleopatra
Cleopatra’s throne at the end comprising her fellow actors with Carlson as the seatback and the asp was the most powerful single image I saw on stage this year.
— Eric Minton, Shakespeareances.com on 2016’s Antony and Cleopatra
The Maid’s Tragedy
Henri IV: the Re-Gendered Henry IV Repertory
The Bloody Banquet
For nearly four centuries, the theater world has been overlooking a crowd-pleaser, to judge by Brave Spirits Theatre’s diverting take on the revenge tragedy The Bloody Banquet.
— Celia Wren, The Washington Post on 2015’s The Bloody Banquet
Arden of Faversham
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Two Noble Kinsmen
When the amateur theater troupe performs its hysterical play-within-a-play in the last act, and the watching protagonists make Mystery Science Theater-esque barbs from the audience, Brave Spirits and the Bard are hand-in-hand, laughing off any pretentions. This is frivolous forest fun; just go with it.
— Andrew Lapin, Washington City Paper on 2014’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Romeo and Juliet
For this production, it is the director, Victoria Reinsel, who brings a bravura youthfulness to the proceedings, revealing Romeo and Juliet to be a mosh pit of colliding passions.
— Eric Minton, Shakespeareances.com on 2013’s Romeo and Juliet
Richard III
Blumer gives an energetic performance as the titular Richard, full of irony and gloating.
— Eric Minton, Shakespeareances.com on 2012’s Richard III
What, Lamb! What, Ladybird!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Smith, a formidable Shakespearean actress in her own right, seamlessly juggles multiple personas as she swings, with abundant wit and charm, from Elizabethan thespian to contemporary pedagogue and dreamer and back again.
— Tzvi Kahn, MD Theatre Guide on 2011’s What, Lamb! What, Ladybird!