While the ceremony performed to dedicate the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC officially confirmed Shakespeare's important position within American culture, uninterrupted mass consumption of Shakespeare provided the popular endorsement. This acceptance of Shakespeare as an American idol encouraged recognition of the name (now almost a brand) by subsequent generations of young Americans.

Today Shakespeare is still willingly consumed, though very few Americans are likely to consider how or why the plays and imagery seem to fit so easily into their national consciousness. What Glen Loney and Patricia MacKay described as ‘the Shakespeare complex’ represents an almost religious fervour for Shakespeare and associated imagery. It is as though for many Americans Shakespeare is a ‘cultural talisman, [and] to admit a distaste for Shakespeare or his plays is tantamount to blasphemy’.

STAGE AND PARK

In America there are now more than 118 separate Shakespeare festivals and companies catering for the demand from audiences.3 These festivals allow Americans the opportunity to affirm their adopted cultural association – to offer their ‘pledge of allegiance’. Through Shakespeare festivals, American communities celebrate and market the playwright and his dramatic works across the US, in cities as far apart as Montgomery, San Diego, Boulder, Atlanta, Ashland, Dallas and Cedar City.

To qualify for the title ‘festival’ in Shakespeare Companies and Festivals: An International Guide (1995) ‘a substantial portion of a company's annual season had to be dedicated to producing Shakespeare's plays’.