In 1991 the Shakespeare Theatre Company, under Artistic Director Michael Kahn, initiated its annual Free For All performances in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Park.
Each year the Company performed a show free to the public, usually from a previous season.
In 2009 the Free For All was moved indoors to Sidney Harman Hall, one of two theatres operated by STC in downtown D.C.
The first Free For All production in 1991 was The Merry Wives of Windsor, starring Paul Winfield as Falstaff.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Free For All production for 2005, traveled to the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival in Colorado that same summer.