Wear Shakespeare. Build the Shop.
A new shop calls for a few new things. This fall, ASC’s Props and Costumes teams have moved into a new building, giving our artisans more room to build, sew, paint, carve, repair, organize, experiment, and solve the hundreds of tiny problems that stand between a script and a performance.
Now we need to make the new space work for the people working in it. Enter the first-ever Artisans for Shakespeare T-Shirt Fundraiser.
Designed by ASC Assistant Props Manager and Props Artisan Grace Easterday, this limited-edition shirt features an original linocut packed with iconic props and costume pieces from Shakespeare’s Plays.
Your Challenge: see how many you can identify. (Hint: the answers are on the back)
Proceeds from every shirt directly support ASC’s Props and Costumes teams as they outfit, organize, and improve their new shop.
Some improvements are already taking shape. Costume Designer Elizabeth Wislar donated six large clothing racks and six shelves, helping the Costume team begin building a new and improved organization system for the garments moving through the shop, into fittings, onto the Blackfriars Playhouse stage, and back to the shop.
The Props Team now has a separate space for power-tool work, allowing sawing, sanding, and other messy work to happen away from the shared shop areas. Giving both teams a more collaborative environment to work in.
You can support the new Props and Costumes Shop by purchasing the 2026 Artisans for Shakespeare T-Shirt or by donating directly to the Artisans for Shakespeare 2026 Campaign.
The Artist Behind the Shirt
Grace brought together recognizable props and costume pieces from across Shakespeare’s plays, puzzled them into one design, carved the image into linoleum, tested it in ink, refined it, and printed it again. This really encapsulates the work being done by hand by these two teams.
Here’s Grace on the pieces that inspired the design:
I am fascinated by how the little items of everyday life tell stories about people and the worlds they inhabit. From a family heirloom to a well-worn pair of shoes, without even realizing it, we shape things around us. We breathe life and history into objects. It is those feelings that I pour into my props work. It could be the weathering of a sea-worthy flag or a specific shade of yellow for an 1800s-era rubber chicken. If it goes on stage, serious or absurd, it has a story.
Speaking of stories, we are always working hard to bring you the magic that Shakespeare and other brilliant playwrights have put to the page. In Shakespeare’s time, due to financial and practical limitations, physical items were written quite selectively. In that selectivity, there is a type of beauty and meaning behind each item. It appears out of pure, precious necessity to the story. Can you imagine Hamlet without Yorick? Shakespeare certainly couldn’t leave him out! As a celebration of these stories, we’ve created a linocut t-shirt design showcasing Shakespeare’s iconic props and costumes. It began as many sketches, objects puzzled together, which I then carved into linoleum, tested in ink, and refined over many prints.
The proceeds of this shirt go directly toward our Props and Costumes Shop, helping us build our next seasons. Now, test your Shakespeare knowledge and see if you know them all! While you’re at it, find the important props in your life and hold them dear. “All the world’s a stage”, after all. As players in it, find the important props sprinkled throughout your everyday life that tell your story.
— Grace Easterday, Assistant Props Manager and Props Artisan at the American Shakespeare Center
Buy A Shirt. Help Build the Shop.
The Artisans for Shakespeare T-Shirt Fundraiser 2026 is a chance to support ASC Artisans directly as they make their new shop a better place.
Your purchase helps our Props & Costumes teams get the materials, equipment, storage, and shop upgrades they need as they settle into their new home and start building what comes next.
Plus you get to wear it around town, quizzing your friends.
Pre-orders close September 20 at 11:55 PM.
This shirt is available online only and is estimated to be ready for shipping and in-store pickup by Oct 8, 2026.
Already have enough shirts? You can support the new Props and Costumes Shop and skip the shirt by donating directly to the Artisans for Shakespeare 2026 Campaign.