Forgive me if I sound like Andy Rooney, but do you ever wonder why so many summer theatres are called Shakespeare Festivals? The Stratford Festival of Canada, arguably one of the best festivals in North America, recently announced that they would be adding “Shakespeare” back into their name, effectively rechristening it The Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. Shakespeare had been a part of the festival’s name when it was founded in 1952, and I’m not sure whether its disappearance or reappearance is more puzzling.

For starters, many Shakespeare Festivals do not simply produce Shakespearean works. Let’s face it: Will only wrote about thirty-something plays, the exact number of which varies according to whether or not you view plays like Henry VIII or Two Noble Kinsmen as collaborations or corruptions. As a result, most festivals’ seasons are about 20-30% Shakespeare. The rest of the productions are typically a melange of classics, contemporary successes, and world premieres.

So, what gives? With a few notable exceptions (such as The Shaw Festival), there don’t seem to be as many festivals organized around other authors. I can’t help wondering if the “Shakespeare”-ing and re-”Shakespeare”-ing of North American theatre festivals is a kind of branding. Just as the name Tom Cruise can still get audiences to go see the increasingly irrelevant and ridiculous Mission: Impossible films (it’s okay, I hate myself for making this analogy, too), maybe Shakespeare’s literary and theatrical cachet continues to fill festival seats.