Thoreau College

05/28/2026

The magic of the stage is carried by the people who bring it to life.
Meet two wonderful members of our cast:

Ian Baird is a theatrical jack-of-all trades and master of puns who is excited to be involved in another Viroqua Shakespeare Festival. On stage Ian has appeared as Duke Senior in As you Like it, Alonso in The Tempest, Otto Liedenbrock in Journey to the Center of the Earth, Frog in Frog and Toad Stories, and various other roles. Ian is the founder and artistic director of Wisconsin Family Theater where he enjoys creating theater for audiences of all ages with his wife Elisabeth.

Matt Shortridge lives in Viroqua and plays fiddle and guitar for square dances and jam sessions. Matt was a high school Tech Director in Washington DC for a decade before moving to Viroqua in 2007 with his wife Kathy O’Rourke. He’s played guitar in the pit for a number of area high school and Viroqua Community Theatre productions including Seussical, Shrek, and Mamma Mia, and played fantastic flute, fiddle, and guitar for last year's VSF production of The Tempest, and for the Thoreau College production of Given by Wendell Berry in 2024.

Join us June 25–28 at PrairieWind Park for the Viroqua Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare .

Learn more:
https://thoreaucollege.org/viroqua-shakespeare-festival/

05/26/2026

This week marks the last days of our Spring Metamorphosis Gap Semester here at Thoreau College. 🌱

To our students: thank you for the way you’ve cooked, studied, gardened, walked, sang, and showed up for one another and for this place over these months. You’ve brought so much life and care to our little corner of the Driftless, and we’re grateful to have shared this season with you.

We’re looking forward to gathering for graduation this week and celebrating all that has grown in and through you this spring.💚

05/21/2026

Last chance to apply!
At Thoreau College, our summer program, the Driftless Field School, is rooted in a simple question: what happens when learning grows directly from the land and the community around us, instead of from a screen or a distant textbook? The Driftless Field School is our most concentrated summer answer to that question. Over five weeks in July and early August, students step into a true bioregional immersion in the Driftless hills of southwestern Wisconsin: paddling wild rivers, hiking to effigy mounds and natural areas, and visiting farms, homesteads, and intentional communities that are experimenting with new ways of living on the land.
Learn More and Apply Here: https://thoreaucollege.org/programs/field-school/

05/13/2026

Viroqua Shakespeare is pleased to welcome back two key members of our team to this year's production of Romeo and Juliet!

Rose Bruce is a self-professed Shakespeare Nerd and is delighted to serve as Text Coach for the second year in a row. A graduate of Laurel High School here in Viroqua, her love of Shakespeare began much earlier at age 6 and has only grown since, taking her to Shakespeare festivals, conferences, Bard-a-thons, and performances across the country and beyond. She has loved digging into the language and stories of the canon as an actor, director, and now as a text coach. She is also an organizer of the Viroqua Bard-a-thon, an annual 24/7 reading of the entire works of Shakespeare for readers of every experience level.

Tullan Baird is a local yokel raised just across the border into lovely Crawford County. Now primarily a woodworker and the gleeful proprietor of the Liberty Pole Store, this is Tullan's second year working on the set and stage design for Viroqua Shakespeare. As an actor, he has also been privileged to join several shows here in Viroqua including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Robin Hood, and the Viroqua Shakespeare Festival productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V.

05/13/2026

Hi Friends,

Hope you can join us this Friday at Sittin Pretty Farm 💚

Season Opener! Next Friday May 15, 5-8pm we’ll be slinging pizza again on the ridge top! We’re raising funds for Thoreau College with Matt Shortridge and his Coalition of the Willing providing the music. Hope you can join us. Order online link in comments.

05/09/2026

05/08/2026

Look at these woolly little neighbors our students recently met! 🐑✨ Aren’t they adorable?

05/07/2026

Viroqua Shakespeare is excited to welcome back Greta Zandstra and Stanton Davis for Romeo and Juliet this June in Viroqua.

Greta is a Chicago-based theater artist returning to Viroqua for her third Shakespeare production in as many years. She has had the honor of traveling across the country for projects like playing Volumnia in Coriolanus in Vermont, directing Sweeney Todd and Hamlet in North Carolina, and directing Henry V and The Tempest right here in Viroqua.

Stanton is the Head of Voice and Speech at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate acting students. He previously served in similar roles at Temple University and SUNY New Paltz, and has worked professionally as an actor, fight choreographer, stagehand, director, stunt man, voice coach, dialect coach and education director at theatres throughout the country, including the Arizona, Tucson, South West, Baltimore, Wisconsin, Park City, Utah, and now Viroqua Shakespeare Festivals.

Welcome back Greta and Stanton!