Designing the Season Artwork

Dear friends,

This summer, a Colorado tradition comes home. A love letter to both Shakespeare and to CSF’s triumphant return to the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre, the 2026 season returns to the festival’s roots and begins a new chapter with classic Shakespeare and daring new works. 

Ligature is thrilled to be part of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and CU Presents team to create the season's key art series that gives you, our audience, a glimpse into the world of the four plays that will entertain, invigorate, and thrill you this summer.

The overall design aesthetic celebrates the Summer Festival energy with a unified look across the four plays, featuring an earthy color palette inspired by a summer evening in the Rippon.

The two outdoor shows feature central characters in each play, Viola and the Bard himself. Twelfth Night takes you to an Edwardian manor in a hilarious and delightful upstairs-downstairs comedy as our heroine disguises herself as the butler, Cesario. Shakespeare in Love will sweep you off your feet in the fast-paced romcom, set in Elizabethan England, back when Will was just some unknown, handsome, lusty, young poet.

Inside the Roe Green Theatre, an empire of marble and scale rules. Julius Caesar gets a modernist take with a severed Capitol column, stars, and bloody stripes, and the world premiere of David Davalos’ Friends/Romans/Countrymen goes big with Zeus’ giant foot lording over the little guy.

Whether indoor or out, generations of theatregoers like you will discover (or re-discover!) the magic of summer nights in Boulder, with joy, romance, and drama unfolding in the shadow of the Flatirons. 

See you this summer for one of my favorite Colorado traditions!

Matt Meier

Creative Director, Ligature Creative