If you go shopping in an island store at the end of March, you just might run into someone from the days of the Globe Theatre and roasted mutton.

The Orcas Island Chamber is sponsoring its first annual spring Shakespeare Festival on March 30 and 31.

Chamber board president Michell Marshall says the goal is “to provide an event during the shoulder season as well as a cultural offering” to the community.

The Seattle Shakespeare Company will perform, Eastsound will be decorated in bright, whimsical colors, restaurants and shops will be offering special events, art inspired by the Bard will be on display, and performers will wander the streets juggling, singing, doing card tricks, walking on stilts, and more.

The event is still in the planning stages, and organizers invite anyone interested in being a performer to email creative director Jane Alden at stratford331@gmail.com. The chamber is also inviting all local businesses to develop a Shakespeare-inspired decor or in-house event.

“They can be involved in any way they want,” said chamber board member Susan Gudgell.

The festival is being publicized nationally and throughout the state, so Marshall expects visitors from near and far.

On March 30, Seattle Shakespeare will perform “Romeo and Juliet” for students, followed by a workshop. The company is providing a scholarship so all Orcas students can attend the performance free of charge. On March 31, the company will present “Hamlet” at Orcas Center. Tickets go on sale Feb. 1; $16 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 students.

Alden says the “the performances are the jewel in a much larger event.”

Ultimately, the chamber wants the festival to be one of its annual events, like the July 4th and Tree-Lighting celebrations.

With Alden at the creative helm, it is sure to be a wacky, fabulous event. She spent more than 40 years as a professional actress working on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional repertory theatres, in touring companies, and in television and films. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University and, after moving to Orcas 16 years ago, she created the Orcas Island Children’s Theatre and began teaching, directing, producing and writing for children’s theatre.

Shakespeare has always been a special love and she has worked extensively on this material as a performer and with children and adults, teaching classes and directing the plays. In 2003, she created the Shakespeare Walk, an outdoor performance event on Orcas, where the audience was led on a hike through woods and meadows, encountering scenes and characters, songs and fairies, witches and sword fights from Shakespeare’s plays, all performed by the students in her acting classes.

“I think we can make this as big as Ashland,” Marshall said, referring to the renowned Shakespeare Festival held in Ashland, Ore.

Alden says she has a “brilliant” team of creative Orcas Island women who are contributing to the planning process. They are Bev Leyman, Antoinette Botsford, Beth Baker, Sharon Schmidt, Mary Jane Elgin, Patty Monaco, and Paige McCormick.

“There is something profoundly important about communal celebrations,” Alden said. “It gives me shivers just saying it.”