Initiated in 2002, the Murray Shakespeare Festival seeks each year to bring high-quality, low-cost, live Shakespearean drama to the students and communities of the Jackson Purchase region.

Shakespeare makes good reading but even better theatre. The plays were written to be acted, the words, to be heard; nothing can substitute for live performance of this greatest of playwrights' work. Hence, the foundation of each festival is the performance of two or three of Shakespeare's plays by a professional troupe.

To open Shakespeare's work to a broader audience, the Festival also sponsors lectures, workshops, and adaptations. These help us to better understand the Bard within his own cultural, historical, and artistic context.

During the last week of February 2010, The American Shakespeare Center On Tour (Staunton, Virginia) will present three performances of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and one performance of Francis Beaumont and John Fetcher's comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

The festival will also feature the following events:

- Beginning in February, an array of Shakespearean objects of interest will be on display at Waterfield Library

- Beginning in February, WKMS will broadcast sixteen radio segments entitled "A Minute With Shakespeare" written by Drs. Barbara Cobb and Rusty Jones