INCLINE VILLAGE (AP) ” The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival set an attendance record last summer, organizers said.

The six-week festival staged at the natural, sand-dune amphitheater on the lake’s east shore drew 30,978 people, breaking the old record of 29,378 set in 2005.

Last summer, the festival at Sand Harbor State Park near Incline Village rotated performances of “Othello,” “Twelfth Night” and “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shakspr (abridged).”

---

---

Festival officials said the addition of a third performance helped attract more people.

“By expanding our offerings so much in 2006, we were able to appeal to a much wider audience and get the word out that Skakespeare is far more than what you remember from the days of your high school English class,” said Catherine Atack, the festival’s executive director.

---

---

The 35th edition of the festival will broaden even more this summer with the addition of its first non-Shakespeare performance, she said.

Until 2005, the festival featured only comedies by the Bard.