New Swan Shakespeare Festival Happening on Summer Nights
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Performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor's Cove. Photo by Jesús López Vargas.
The 15-ton portable Elizabethan-style theater returns this summer for its 14th season
As UC Irvine empties during the summer, a 15-ton portable Elizabethan-style theater stands between Langson Library and the Gateway Study Center looking over Aldrich Park.
Marked by its distinct red swan logo, the New Swan Theater has hosted the New Swan Shakespeare Festival each year since its debut in summer 2012. The festival brings to life a vision first proposed by UCI’s Department of Drama when the university was founded.
The open-air theater has two levels, with seats arranged in a 270-degree circle around the stage.
The 2026 season is the festival’s 14th year and features two productions. The first production is The Merry Wives of Windsor Cove, a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor set in a 1950s Southern California surf town. The second production is Romeo & Juliet, adapted to a Dust Bowl community in Verona, Kansas, during the Great Depression. From July 7 through August 30, the two productions are performed in alternating repertory at 8 p.m.
New Swan Shakespeare Festival Happening on Summer Nights — New University
