The Shakespeare in South Park troop has been entertaining crowds for free for 15 seasons

Over the past 15 years, South Park in Dayton has hosted a myriad of actors and actresses performing many of Shakespeare’s best works, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo & Juliet, the latter of which is the only tragedy the group has put on.

Though you may not expect to encounter a performance on your nightly summer walk, if you visit South Park this August, you may stumble upon a theatrical experience you won’t soon forget.

Galen Wilson, director of this year’s performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost and one of the founding members of Shakespeare in South Park, has a hard time pinpointing a favorite Shakespearean work or production. “Every year, I like the one that we’re doing best,” he says.

In 2008, Shakespeare in South Park was born from unexpected circumstances. “We had a person in the neighborhood who was involved in theater who got a little bent out of shape that she hadn’t been cast in the role she wanted at Dayton Playhouse South,” Wilson recalls. “She thought, ‘Well, South Park has a lot of talented people. We could do a better show than them anyway.’”

Wilson agreed to be the business manager and ended up playing two roles in that first production in 2008. He admits that he “never envisioned” himself as an actor until that summer.

Before the production was put on, the woman who had organized it quit. “The rest of us who had invested a good bit of time and effort…we were determined to make this thing fly no matter what,” he says.

The next summer, Phyllis Tonne, who has worked with Wilson as co-producer each year, said to Wilson, “Something magical happened in South Park last summer, and I would like to see it happen again.”

“We had never believed that it was going to go anywhere, but we very proudly put season two on all of our publicity to show that we were back,” Wilson adds. “And it just stuck.”

Wilson says he has learned over the years how an amateur group can accomplish significant artistic expression with “agility.” He shares that Shakespeare in South Park is a “low budget outfit,” but they have some expectational talent in the neighborhood for costuming, set design and set painting.

“What we’ve learned over the years is that there is an immense amount of talent in [South Park],” Wilson says. “At least half of the cast and almost all of the production staff comes from within the neighborhood. We’ve developed a core group who love doing it.”

Shakespeare in South Park is a free event, but the group “passes the hat” at the end of the show, so donations are always appreciated. This year’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost will be held Aug. 16, 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. each night in the South Park Green (601 Hickory St., Dayton). Attendees are encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket.

If it rains, the show will go on at Hope Lutheran Church (500 Hickory St., Dayton).