For two summers, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival ran on half its usual footprint. The outdoor Mary Rippon Theatre sat inside a construction fence while the Hellems Arts and Sciences Building was gutted around it, and the festival kept its lights on inside the Roe Green Theatre with a leaner slate. If you skipped the last two seasons because Shakespeare-under-scaffolding felt wrong, you were not alone.
That ends this summer. The Rippon reopened on June 7, 2026, and for the first time since 2022, CSF is producing across two stages at once. What that actually means for a Boulder resident planning a July or August night is more interesting than the return-to-normal headline suggests.
The one week where the whole season overlaps
CSF is running four productions this summer instead of the pared-down two-show format audiences got used to during the renovation. Two shows sit outdoors at the Rippon, and two sit indoors at the Roe Green, directly across the pathway. The calendar staggers openings so the season builds through July rather than front-loading, and there is a specific window when all four are running simultaneously.
| Production | Venue | Run |
|---|---|---|
| Twelfth Night | Mary Rippon Outdoor | May 30 – Aug 2 |
| Julius Caesar | Roe Green Indoor | June 14 – Aug 2 |
| Shakespeare in Love | Mary Rippon Outdoor | June 27 – Aug 1 |
| Friends/Romans/Countrymen | Roe Green Indoor | July 12 – Aug 1 |
From July 12 through August 1, every production is available on the schedule. That is a three-week window. Before July 12, the world-premiere piece is not yet running. After August 1, most shows begin closing in sequence. If you have out-of-town family visiting in mid-July, or you have been meaning to see a matinee and an evening show in a single day, this is the compressed slot.
What actually changed inside Hellems
The Rippon stage and historic seating bowl are physically the same. The building wrapped around them is not. The two-year Hellems project focused on the parts of the theatregoing experience that had aged out of usefulness, not the parts audiences came for. Concretely:
- A new atrium lobby inside Hellems, which opens 90 minutes before each performance, with the Stingers Cafe now serving beer and wine along with food ahead of and during shows
- Expanded patio seating woven into the historic exterior
- A ramp from the Hellems building directly into the west side of the Rippon seating area, with wheelchair positions bookable through the box office at 303-492-8008
- Upgraded restrooms inside the building rather than the older workaround of using the University Theatre facilities across the path
- Assistive listening devices available first-come from the house manager
The reopening also lands during CU Boulder's 150th anniversary year, which is why the university is treating the Rippon return as a marquee cultural moment rather than a quiet ribbon-cutting. Executive director Andrew Metzroth framed it as a launch, not a resumption, and the programming choices back that up.
The evening, re-planned
If your last Rippon show was in 2022, a few practical things are worth resetting before you go.
Parking on campus is now handled by pay stations on-site or the ParkMobile app, with select lots offering advance prepaid parking. Seating in the Rippon opens about 30 minutes before curtain, and Hellems itself opens 90 minutes before, which means the lobby cafe is now a legitimate pre-show plan rather than a scramble at your seat. Complimentary seatbacks are provided at all outdoor performances, so the folding pads and stadium seats regulars used to haul across the quad are no longer necessary.
A few habits have not changed and still catch people off guard. Open umbrellas are not permitted anywhere in the outdoor seating, even the back row. A poncho in your bag is the right play in July. Large bags and baskets are turned away at the door. Outside alcohol is prohibited on the CU campus, so the picnic-wine tradition some patrons kept up years ago no longer works, but Stingers now covers that gap inside the lobby. Latecomers are held until a suitable break or intermission with no exceptions, which matters more than it sounds when the Twelfth Night opening scene is short and the next natural pause is twenty minutes in.
The weather policy is unchanged. CSF performs rain or shine, and cancellation calls typically are not made until curtain. Evenings in the foothills run cool even in July, and a light layer is the difference between staying through the second act and leaving at intermission.
The world premiere worth the ticket
Three of the four productions are known quantities. Twelfth Night is the crowd-pleaser opener. Julius Caesar is the indoor political tragedy, directed by Shelly Gaza with a staging that draws a direct line from ancient Rome to contemporary power dynamics. Shakespeare in Love is the stage adaptation of the Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard screenplay, adapted by Lee Hall with music by Paddy Cunneen, directed by Terri McMahon.
The one to pay attention to is the fourth. Friends/Romans/Countrymen is a world premiere by David Davalos, commissioned by CSF and directed by Tim Orr. The conceit is a struggling poet named Virgil who bumps into Julius Caesar and accidentally sets the Roman Empire in motion. It is written as a companion piece to the Caesar production running across the pathway, which is why the two are staged in the same building on overlapping calendars. Seeing them in sequence, ideally back-to-back if you can align a Saturday, is the intended experience. That kind of paired programming is not something CSF has been able to offer during the renovation years, and it is the strongest argument for treating this season as different from the ones that came before.
Kevin Rich directs Twelfth Night. Between the four directors, the season leans heavily on returning company members rather than a rotating guest slate, which is another reason the outdoor return feels institutional rather than transitional.
How to read the calendar as a local
A visitor plans one show. A resident with a house within twenty minutes of campus can plan differently. A few patterns worth noting from the schedule:
Weekday performances at the Rippon start at 7:30 p.m. and run through the summer at a pace of roughly three to four Rippon evenings a week, with the indoor Roe Green shows filling in the remaining nights. That means most weeks between mid-June and late July have at least five viable CSF nights, not the two or three the smaller festival years offered. If you have been to one show a summer historically, the practical capacity to see two or three this year without rearranging your life is real.
Ticket pricing starts at $31 for Shakespeare in Love, with preview nights discounted 20 percent, CU employees and students at 25 percent off, and season ticket packages running 15 to 25 percent below single-ticket totals. Groups of ten or more see the widest discount range. For a household planning three or four shows, the season ticket math is the one to run.
The season closes August 1 and 2. After that, the outdoor theatre goes quiet again until 2027. If the reopened Rippon is going to become part of your summer rhythm rather than a one-time curiosity, the pattern has to start this year.
"Colorado Shakespeare Festival's return to Mary Rippon is an exciting moment for CU Presents and for our entire community. We are thrilled to welcome audiences back to this iconic venue and to launch a new season of performances that celebrate storytelling, connection and shared experience under the Colorado sky." — Andrew Metzroth, executive director of CU Presents
For homeowners who have watched the Hellems fence come down block by block over the past two years, the Rippon reopening is one of those small civic milestones that quietly changes what summer in Boulder feels like. The season is only nine weeks long. The overlap week is only three. The moment to make it part of your calendar is now.
If you are thinking about your next move in Boulder and want a team that knows the neighborhoods, the seasons, and the rhythms that make this town worth staying in, The Bernardi Group is ready when you are. Start Your Strategy Session.
