The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the Shakespeare canon, but its seasons include works by other classic playwrights such as Euripides, Ibsen, Wilde, Shaw, Schiller, Coward and Tennessee Williams.

[1] After years of discussion, Amherst College, administering body of the Folger Shakespeare Library, in 1986 withdrew financial support for the company.

[2][3] To save the company, concerned citizens led by R. Robert Linowes reincorporated it as the non-profit Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, later hiring Michael Kahn as artistic director.

It has been described as "an intimate space for dramatic theatre, ensemble music, and dance"[10] In the past, the company has performed shows at the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center.

[11] In addition to its performance spaces, the company maintains administrative offices, rehearsal studios, and a costume shop in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

[24] The youngest plays include works by Tennessee Williams (Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth) and Harold Pinter (Old Times).

[25] In addition to its troupe of regular and frequently appearing actors, the Shakespeare Theatre Company invites guest performers and directors each season.

With Avery Brooks as Othello, Andre Braugher as Iago and Franchelle Stewart Dorn as Emilia, the resulting production was critically acclaimed.

Actor Patrick Stewart approached artistic director Michael Kahn with the concept: "I've been imagining myself playing Othello and, in a sense, preparing for it, since I was about 14.

[84] On 1 October 2007, Sidney Harman Hall opened with a gala performance emceed by Sam Waterston and featuring ballet dancers Nina Ananiashvili and Julio Bocca, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, actress Patti LuPone, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, The Washington Ballet, Washington Performing Arts Society’s (WPAS) Men and Women of the Gospel Mass Choir and actors from the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

[85] At the request of US Department of Defense officials and with support funding from private sources, the Shakespeare Theatre Company donated Harman Hall.

[90] Recipients:[89] The Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence is presented annually at the first opening night of the new season to recognize two actors whose work in a mainstage production demonstrates outstanding classical technique.

[99][100] Award recipients include:[101][102] In 1991, the Shakespeare Theatre Company began its annual Free For All productions at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre in D.C.'s Rock Creek Park.

Guest artists join members of the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Washington theatrical community to investigate these great but lesser known plays of world literature.

Guest scholars, translators and adaptors involved with the evening's reading also frequently participate in the rehearsal, performance and occasional post-performance discussion when time permits.

[112] The Shakespeare Theatre Company and George Washington University offer a one-year intensive graduate program leading to a Master of Fine Arts degree.