By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published May 1, 2025
ROYAL OAK — Shakespeare Royal Oak, the popular summer outdoor theater experience, has been around for 25 years and is preparing for a whirlwind season.
To celebrate the 25-year milestone, the nonprofit organization has announced an upcoming summer of outdoor youth programs and its big production of “Macbeth.”
Since 2002, the organization has offered two youth education programs, one being KidsAct! for grades 1-8, and the second being SRO Teen Ensemble for grades 9-12.
During KidsAct! Students will take part in a six-day learning experience including instruction in Shakespeare, safe sword-fighting and stage combat, and comedic improvisation from trained and experienced artists.
At the end of the six days, the group will perform an hourlong showcase in Starr Jaycee Park. KidsAct! runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 28-Aug. 1 with the showcase performance at 11 a.m. Aug. 2.
The SRO Teen Ensemble will be hosting high-school age students who will be doing a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
During the two week program, students will be exploring character development, costume design and learning all the aspects of producing a Shakespearean theater production.
SRO Teen Ensemble will be taking place 1-4 p.m. July 14-18, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 21-25 with public performances on the Shakespeare Royal Oak main stage at 7 p.m. July 27, 28 and 29.
This year’s professional theater showcase in the park will feature “Macbeth” directed by Jeffrey Michael Nahan, of Detroit.
This is not the ordinary version of “Macbeth.” The show is being directed in a steampunk style to take the audience to another world, according to Nahan.
“There is a duality about steampunk in the sense that it’s a throwback to 19th century kind of Victorian kind of look,” Nahan said. “There’s no change in the story or of Shakespeare’s words. But it’s giving a little bit of an otherworldly look and how they behave with one another.”
Nahan said he wanted to create a show that was new to the audience, something they have never seen before.
“We are taking the steampunk kind of perspective and making the audience travel with us. There’s something about it that I think will transport the audience to a different time,” he said.
For the 25th season of Shakespeare Royal Oak, Ed Nahhat, founder and chair of Water Works Theater Company, said that they chose Nahan specifically because of his unique directing style for this production of “Macbeth.”
“The artistic director and I have a loose strategy that we like to balance between comedies and tragedies. Last year we did a comedy, so we thought a well-known tragedy would be a good idea this year to celebrate our 25th,” Nahhat said. “What we do is we ask directors in the area to make proposals to us and then we review them. … We had several directors propose different ideas, and this one (Nahan’s) caught our eye the most. It just really rang for us.”
This is Nahan’s first year directing a Shakespeare Royal Oak show, but Nahhat said he has known him for quite a while now.
“Nahan has been in the Detroit theater scene for longer than our company has been alive,” Nahhat said. “We felt it was time that we got the chance to work with him. We are excited about the matchup for sure.”
Nahan said he has been a fan of Shakespeare Royal Oak for a while now and said that making it to the 25-year mark is a great achievement.
“For any theater company to make it to 25 years is just a cause for celebration,” Nahan said. “I feel very honored that I was chosen to direct this particular production. I put in a proposal that really emphasized the idea of pulling out all of the stops and doing something a little different.”
Marking 25 years of the outdoor theater, Nahhat said he is looking forward to continuing the tradition of Shakespeare in the park and connecting with the community through art.
“To be able to put on an outdoor professional theater festival for 25 years in a row using all local talent is a testament to that,” he said. “I think we need to keep going, 25 years isn’t long enough. We have a high-quality event here, and it’s just getting better every year. So, it means a lot for me to have started this event and continue to helm it.”
Tickets for “Macbeth” will go on sale in June and can be found at shakespeareroyaloak.com. Registration for the kids programs are now open and can also be found at the website.