London Theatre Tour with CSC
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s London Theatre Tour includes:
- Tickets to five productions at some of the best theatre companies in the world such as the National Theatre of London, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- Six-night hotel stay at The Dilly in the heart of London’s West End One day-trip excursion to explore a city or town just outside of London.
- 10 Meals, including a Welcome Dinner, Afternoon Tea, and Farewell Dinner as well as daily hotel breakfast.
- Assorted group tours and behind-the-scenes experiences
Please note that guests are individually responsible for:
- Transportation costs to, from, and within London (except where otherwise specified)
- Any meals, excursions, souvenirs, or extras not provided by CSC.
Pricing is $7,500 per guest. A deposit of $2,500 per guest is kindly requested by February 1, 2024 to reserve your space, with final payment due by April 1, 2024. To secure your spot, email CSC’s Director of Development at [email protected].
A portion of your fee will be recognized as a charitable contribution to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. You may be eligible for a tax deduction.
“Thank you so much for all of your efforts in providing such an outstanding trip for us. We have come away with a deeper understanding of the theatre which as a member of the audience is much appreciated as it enriches our experience. I also so enjoyed the group that we shared this with as I made wonderful connections. All-in-all a near perfect trip.”
“Folks come on this trip not just for the shows but the chance to dig into them, so I think the opportunities to discuss the trip and the experiences, be it with the staff or tour guides, really added value. Truly well done!!”
“[I loved] spending the week with Sara, Brian, Candice and the wonderful people I met in the group. I now have 10 lifelong friends!”
“I've already talked more before, during, and after this trip than I have in years (literally). They're threatening to revoke my membership at The Introvert's Club.”
“I thought this was the trip of a lifetime.”
BRIAN ISAAC PHILLIPS (Producing Artistic Director and Ensemble, 25th Season) has been leading the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company since 2003. During his tenure, Mr. Phillips has guided the organization to artistic and financial success, including the opening of The Otto M. Budig Theater, a $17.5MM world-class facility at the corner of 12th and Elm Streets in OTR, as well as the completion of Shakespeare's 38 play canon, making Cincinnati Shakespeare Company one of the first five theatres in the United States to accomplish this milestone.
Mr. Phillips, originally from Pittsburgh, PA, is a graduate of Morehead State University and has been a resident of Cincinnati for over two decades. In that time he has collaborated with almost every arts organization in the region. He is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and the Stage Director’s and Choreographer’s Society.
In 2020, Mr. Phillips was awarded the international Shakespeare Theatre Association's prestigious Sidney Berger Award for excellence in artistic direction. He has been named one Cincinnati Magazine's 300 Most Powerful Business Leaders for the past four years. Mr. Phillips was also nominated three times for the SDCF Zelda Fichandler Award for outstanding artistic contribution to our region. Mr. Phillips was recognized by Cincinnati Mayors Aftab Pureval, John Cranley, and Mark Mallory for service at CSC and to the city of Cincinnati. He was also selected for the 2014 Class of Forty Under Forty and has been nominated for the Ohio Governors’ Arts Awards. In 2016, Mr. Phillips graduated from Cincinnati USA Chamber’s 39th Class of Leadership Cincinnati. Also in 2016, Mr. Phillips was selected as a finalist for the Business Courier’s 2016 C-Suite Awards for Chief Executive Officer.
Most recent CSC directing credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, King Lear, The Living Dead, All the Way, The Merry Wives of Windsor, August: Osage County, 1984, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest (Co-Director), The Elephant Man, Antony and Cleopatra, Death of a Salesman, Cyrano de Bergerac, One Man, Two Guvnors, Waiting for Godot, The Birds, and The Great Gatsby.
SARA CLARK (Director of Development, 18th Season) has made a home at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company for the past 18 years as an actor, director, teacher, and fundraiser. Currently serving as Director of Development, Sara manages all philanthropic activities for the organization, raising over $1.5MM annually in support of Shakespeare and the Classics. As a member of the CSC Resident Ensemble, she has racked up over 75 productions with CSC, tackling such roles as Rosalind, Juliet, Marc Antony, Elizabeth Bennet, Lady Macbeth, and, in the spring of 2022, Hamlet. In 2016, Sara was nominated for the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 40 Under 40 Awards. In 2018, she led the team that produced the Shakespeare Theatre Association Annual Conference, bringing theatre companies from around the globe to Cincinnati. In 2019, Sara wrote and delivered a talk at TEDxCincinnatiWomen titled “Hamlet, Thy Name is Woman.”
PATRICIA RYAN (Development Manager, 2nd Season) is the Development Manager at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company where she oversees grant proposals and other funding opportunities. Before coming to Cincinnati, her love of the Classics took her to the University of Georgia where she majored in Theatre and English with a special emphasis on British and Irish literature. The travel bug bit her long ago at 16 on her first independent adventure to the Czech Republic, Austria, and Poland, but the passion was reignited upon graduation with a renewed interest in how stories and places shape each other. The power of language and storytelling has taken her all over the world including Greece to appreciate the birthplace of Sophocles and Euripides and experience island life as depicted by Gerald Durrell, both Ireland and France in honor of Oscar Wilde, Japan to see the elaborate Kabuki-za theater in Ginza, Spain where she helped create an English immersion environment for Spaniards studying foreign languages, and even into English and Theatre classrooms in South Florida where she passed on an appreciate of the Classics through curriculum favorites like Yeats, Dickens, and, of course, Shakespeare.
The official itinerary for the 2024 trip is currently in development (we create the list of shows and activities throughout the year as London theatres announce their programming for June 2024).
The itinerary from our June 2023 trip this summer is included below as an example of the types of shows, tours, and excursions that might comprise the 2024 trip.
Monday
- Arrive in London (flights and transportation on your own)
- 3pm - Check in at The Dilly Hotel
- Daily breakfast, internet, and VAT included in six-night stay
- 5pm - Welcome Dinner at Gunpowder near Tower Bridge
Tuesday
- 10:45am - Guided Tour of Shakespeare’s Globe
- 12pm - Afternoon Tea at The Swan
- Conversation with Dr. Niamh O’Leary, Associate Professor of English, with Expertise in Shakespeare, English Renaissance Drama, and Early Modern Literature
- 2pm - Matinee Performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe
- Evening on-your-own
Wednesday
Day-Trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon
- 7:30am - Travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon via Executive Coach
- 10am - Tour of Shakespeare’s Birthplace
- 11am – Visit Shakespeare’s Grave at Trinity Church
- 12pm - Lunch at Rooftop Restaurant inside the Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1:30pm - Matinee performance of the world-premiere of Hamnet at the Royal Shakespeare Company
- 5pm - Return travel to London via Executive Coach
- Evening on-your-own
Thursday
- Morning on-your-own
- 1:30pm Shakespeare’s London Walking Tour
- Trace Shakespeare’s presence across the City and on to Bishopsgate, Blackfriars, and over the bridge into the lawless south. The walking tour includes the site of one of his homes and a church with a crucial place in the heart of the Shakespeare family. You will venture south of the Thames to Southwark and Borough – the pleasure quarter. Here, theatres and ‘stews’ dominated, and you can see the bright and shining new Globe (and hear about the struggle to get it built) and the site of the original Globe just a few minutes along the road. This area was filled with inns and taverns, where visitors stayed before heading over the bridge into The City, a legacy of which is still visible today. These inns had a massive effect on the Globe and other theatres, and we can see it by standing in the courtyard of one, and simply looking up!
- Evening on-your-own
Friday
- 11am - Tour of The National Theatre
- Afternoon on-your-own
- 7:30pm - Evening performance of Patriots starring Tom Hollander at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End
Saturday
- 11am - Farewell Brunch at The Ivy Soho Brasserie
- 2pm - Matinee performance of Oklahoma! at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End
- Dinner on-your-own
- 7:30pm – Evening performance of Cabaret at Playhouse Theatre
- Includes complimentary charcuterie and champagne