About The Company

For nearly 20 years, Shakespeare’s Associates, Inc, dba Shakespeare & Performing Arts Regional Company (SPARC) has built community in the region through the production of high quality theatrical experiences in vineyards, public establishments, performing arts venues, schools, colleges and universities. In 2020, SPARC was named Best in the East Bay’s “Best Live Theater” for a third consecutive year by the readers of the East Bay Times.

Beginning in 2002, our artists and volunteers produced Shakespeare in the Vineyard and other events locally. Under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director, Lisa A. Tromovitch, SPARC’s growth and success led to a restructuring in 2006, to incorporate as a nonprofit organization, forming a new board of active community leaders, an advisory board, an artistic council of Bay Area professional artists, and a solid foundation of donors.

SPARC’s flagship program, Shakespeare in the Vineyard, (formerly known as Livermore Shakespeare Festival) brings over 5,500 attendees to Livermore Wine Country each summer for live productions. Since 2015, our teaching artists have led an in-school literacy program using Shakespeare’s plays, called So Wise So Young, in every 2nd grade classroom in the Livermore school district.  SPARC produces a two-week summer camp for students in grades 3-8, provides programs at local high schools and colleges, and adult education classes at libraries. 

Three years ago, longtime leaders Lisa Tromovitch and Katie Marcel (former Managing Director), successfully initiated a city-wide movement to create a new theater in the heart of downtown Livermore, and were granted a Development Agreement with the City of Livermore. This new venue will fulfill our goal to produce year-round programming, extend our respected education programs, and establish a permanent indoor home. Partnering with a dozen other groups, we have established a Cultural Core of organizations to program events in the new building. 

The company has four year-round staff positions. Our programs attract top professional talent, as well American Conservatory Theatre’s Masters of Fine Arts candidates as fellows, college apprentices from seven Western states, and local high school interns for job-based learning programs.

Our Mission

Inspired by William Shakespeare, who through the rhetoric and poetry of the English language gave voice to the deepest experience of being human, we are committed to creating community through the production of high-quality professional theater experiences. We produce and support theatrical events that celebrate the human experience. We are creating a company that is accessible and fully integrated with the Tri-Valley community and invite the participation of our Central Valley and Greater Bay Area neighbors.

Performance History

SPARC, under the leadership of artistic director Lisa A. Tromovitch, has produced a variety of plays by a range of playwrights with focus (of course) on Shakespeare. The first production was at Concannon Vineyard, in what was then a parking lot adjacent to the tasting room. The next four years were sponsored by Retzlaff Estate Winery. In summer 2008, the Festival moved to a new and larger venue at Concannon Vineyard and expanded programming to two outdoor shows with a majestic Victorian as the backdrop. The summer of 2015 brought SPARC to the spa-like setting of Wente Vineyards Estate Winery & Tasting Room for a five-year experiment producing both mainstage productions in the round. The next incarnation of the Shakespeare in the Vineyard program will be on the beautiful grounds of Darcie Kent Vineyards.

In 2013, SPARC started producing holiday readings at Swirl on the Square, with professional actors reading Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales and in 2014 Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory. The Swirl Holiday Readings are now an annual event. In 2019, a new Valentine’s Day tradition was begun at Swirl, with a three-actor, semi-staged reading of a shortened version of Romeo and Juliet. Another annual event is the long-standing presentation of a Livermore Reads Together program with the Livermore Public Library, prepared by SPARC volunteers for over fifteen years. On April 22, 2018, in a new twist on the readings and educational opportunities, SPARC co-produced a Play on! event with Oregon Shakespeare Festival at Murrieta’s Well. We look forward to more co-productions like these.

New compilations and unusual works are part of our programming. In February of 2015, SPARC produced Sonnet Café, an original collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, songs, and other poetry at the Dublin Barn, as part of a Tri-Valley wide Valentine’s month of programming. In the spring of 2016, SPARC created Drunken Shakespeare, a celebration of the Bard’s famous tipsy characters, in honor of the 400-year legacy celebration of William Shakespeare. The 2014 – 2016 festivals were a triptych of Jane Austen adaptations specially paired with Shakespeare plays. In the summer of 2017, LSF produced the world premiere of a new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, prepared by Tromovitch opposite Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent pairings at Wente Vineyards include Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest in 2018, and The Tragedie of Othello paired with The Compleat Works of Wm. Shakespeare (abridged) in 2019. Most recently, Education Director Lindsey Schmeltzer and Producing Artistic Director Lisa Tromovitch, created Life is a Cabernet, an interactive, cabaret-style show with scenes, songs and bingo which was produced outdoors at Darcie Kent Vineyards in August 2021.

The Performances