Volunteers filled the dining hall recently at DeSales University to celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday and to get a training session under their belt ahead of this year’s summer festival.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival hosts the annual dinner to welcome and rally volunteers before the start of the summer theater season.

“One of our core values is hospitality and you all embody that,” said Father Kevin Nadolski before delivering the opening prayer.

This sentiment was reiterated throughout the evening.

“You are our best ambassadors,” said managing director Casey Gallagher.

“You’re the first people [our theater goers] are seeing, long before they see the actors on the stage,” he said.

Board member Lloyd Carbaugh offered welcoming remarks and served as master of ceremonies of the event as the volunteers chatted over dinner.

As in the past, a short film presented by Sheri Miltenberger and Jason Grear, highlighted protocols that insure the best possible theater experience.

Thirty volunteers were recognized for their 10-year commitment to PSF.

Seven volunteers were acknowledged with a special pin for their 30 years of service at the festival.

“The work we do is inspired by Shakespeare,” said Jason King Jones, artistic director. “Shakespeare inspired hundreds of writers and hundreds of thousands of people.”

“Shakespeare did not write about perfect people,” he continued. “He was writing about humans. We’re messy and we make mistakes, but we can learn.”

This year’s theme is legends and legacy, in celebration of America’s semiquincentennial and PSF’s 35th anniversary.

Performances will be held in the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University.

Starting in late May, PSF will present nine productions.

The season lineup includes August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, the musical Million Dollar Quartet, Romeo and Juliet, Moriarty, a new Sherlock Holmes comedy, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, and an “Extreme Shakespeare” production of Coriolanus.

“Coriolanus is a play we’ve never done,” Jones said, “but it could not be more timely. It raises the question, ‘What does it really mean to love your country.’”

For children, PSF will present Shelia the Magical, and Romeao and Juliet, S4K which combines songs, puppets and scenes from Shakespeare’s famous play.

Mini tours will also be featured at local libraries in Allentown, Lower Macungie, Hellertown and Bucks County in addition to Quakertown Recreation Park.

Director of education Kim Carson highlighted PSF’s educational ventures including Summer Studio, a first time summer camp.

WillPower continues to bring live performances of Shakespeare’s plays to area high schools when schools are in session.

This year, Julius Caesar will be presented.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival has been designated as the official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

“We have artists that want to come work here,” Jones said.

PSF will also host an international theater conference in January 2027.

PSF continues to recruit new volunteers, including students aged 14 to 17 years old. The season ends on Aug. 2.