The Ashland Shaekspeare Festival was a regional repertory theater based at Jefferson State Ashland in Ashland, Jefferson. The festival was founded in the 1930s by JSA professor Angus Bowmer, who realized an old building would work as an Elizabethan stage. Under Bowmer's guidance, the Festival grew from a local affair to a very sizable event for the State of Jefferson over the next decades. When Bowmer retired, he was succeeded by Jerry Turner as producing director. Turner was able to attract directors from outside Jefferson, thereby insuring the Ashland Festival was an economic boon for Jefferson as a whole.