This thesis documents, for the first time, the prevalence and organisational operations of amateur and community-based Shakespeare performance groups in the United States. Between 2018 and 2020, there were over three-hundred sixty-five performance organisations dedicated to actively producing the works of William Shakespeare. Well over one-third of these groups were not professionally trained or compensated, but rather were local grassroots groups with a mission to communally produce the works of Shakespeare through their own particular regional or local perspective. This thesis argues that localized grassroots Shakespeare performance groups in the United States are prevalent organisational structures which develop collective responsibility between participants and which engage communities in socially inspired change.

Continuing the work of the 2014 ‘Shakespeare on the Road’ research initiative led by the University of Warwick, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Misfit Incorporated, interviews were collected for this thesis from leaders and participants from Shakespeare performance organisations across every region of the United States. This thesis aims to demonstrate the historic and contemporary breadth of this phenomenon. Quantitative data which is examined throughout the thesis, in the form of maps and other visuals, supplements the extensive qualitative data, cumulatively representing over three-fifths of the country. Historical antecedents illustrate the entangled roots of this theatrical movement while calling attention to an influential area of Shakespeare in performance that until recently has been overlooked by scholars. Hence, through targeted analyses and a critical survey of this wealth of diverse data, this thesis aims to augment the field at large and push back against a common perspective that localized amateur performance is of little consequence. Studying the foundations, structures, and human relationships that comprise these grassroots groups thus can refine and expand perceptions of the deeply engrained tradition of Shakespeare performance in the United States.