By: Danny Jacobs

“If this were play’d upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
- Twelfth Night

Alas, Fabian, it’s true: the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival is folding after 17 seasons. When I heard the news, I thought of Tom Schetelich, the BSF’s business manager I profiled last year.  Schetelich saw his first BSF show in 2004 and joked that he became such a regular presence at the nonprofit that it either had to give him a job or a restraining order.

Schetelich told me Thursday afternoon he’s helping the organization wind down. He declined to go into detail about the financial problems that reportedly led to the BSF’s folding but said theater companies like the Shakespeare Festival “need everything to go right to survive.”

“I enjoyed the process of making this work so much,” he said. “It was just a good thing for the city.”

Among Schetelich’s favorite things was getting to know the actors, directors and technical staff behind the productions and attending the popular outdoor stagings every summer in the Meadow at the Evergreen Museum & Library.

He also believes a new organization could step in to fill the cultural void left by the BSF and has even had some preliminary discussions about doing just that.

Until then, Schetelich has a new goal. Thanks in part to the BSF, he estimates he’s seen live performances of about half of the Bard’s plays. But he wants to see all of them, which could prove challenging.

“You can always go see a production of ‘Hamlet’ somewhere,” Schetelich said. “But if you want to see The Two Noble Kinsmen, you’ve got to look for it.”