Editing Royal Shakespeare Company (section)

===The early years===

There have been theatrical performances in Stratford-upon-Avon since at least Shakespeare's day, though the first recorded performance of a play written by Shakespeare himself was in 1746 when Parson Joseph Greene, master of Stratford Grammar School, organised a charitable production to fund the restoration of [[Shakespeare's funerary monument]].<ref>Allardyce Nicoll, Kenneth Muir, ''Shakespeare Survey 19'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 145.</ref> [[John Ward (actor)|John Ward]]'s [[Birmingham]]-based company, the [[Warwickshire Company of Comedians]], agreed to perform it. A surviving copy of the playbill records that the company performed ''[[Othello]]''.<ref name = "wind">Stanley Wells. Shakespeare for all Time. London, Macmillan, 2002, p. 220.</ref> The first building erected to commemorate Shakespeare was [[David Garrick]]'s [[Jubilee Pavilion]] in 1769, and there have been at least 17 buildings used to perform Shakespeare's plays since.

The first permanent commemorative building to Shakespeare's works in the town was a theatre built in 1827, in the gardens of New Place, but has long since been demolished. The RSC's history began with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which was the brainchild of a local brewer, Charles Edward Flower. He donated a {{convert|2|acre|adj=on}} site by the River Avon and in 1875 launched an international campaign to build a theatre in the town of Shakespeare's birth. The theatre, a Victorian-Gothic building seating just over 700 people, opened on 23 April 1879, with a performance of ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', a title which gave ammunition to several critics.

The Memorial, a red brick Gothic cathedral, designed by ''Dodgshun and Unsworth'' of [[Westminster]], was unkindly described by [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]] as "an admirable building, adaptable to every purpose except that of a theatre." From 1919, under the direction of [[William Bridges-Adams (Theatre director)|William Bridges-Adams]] and after a slow start, its resident New Shakespeare Company became one of the most prestigious in Britain.  The theatre received a [[royal charter]] of Incorporation in 1925, which gave it status.

On the afternoon of 6 March 1926, when a new season was about to commence rehearsals, smoke was seen.  Fire broke out, and the mass of [[half-timbered|half-timbering]] chosen to ornament the interior provided dry tinder. By the following morning the theatre was a blackened shell. The company transferred its Shakespeare festivals to a converted local cinema.  Fund-raising began for the rebuilding of the theatre, with generous donations arriving from philanthropists in [[United States|America]].

In January 1928, following an open competition, 29-year-old [[Elisabeth Scott]] was unanimously appointed architect for the new theatre which became the first important work erected in the United Kingdom from the designs of a female architect.<ref>Pringle, p. 29</ref> George Bernard Shaw commented that her design was the only one that showed any theatre sense. Her modernist plans for an [[art deco]] structure came under fire from many directions but the new building was opened triumphantly on [[Shakespeare|William Shakespeare]]'s birthday, 23 April 1932. Later it came under the direction of Sir [[Barry Vincent Jackson|Barry Jackson]] in 1945,<ref name="Billington">''State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945'' by [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]], Faber (2007) {{ISBN|978-0-571-21034-3}}</ref> [[Anthony Quayle]] from 1948 to 1956 and [[Glen Byam Shaw]] 1957–1959, with an impressive roll-call of actors.  Scott's building, with some minor adjustments to the stage, remained in constant use until 2007 when it was closed for a major refit of the interior.

Timeline:

1932 – New Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens, abutting the remains of the old.

1961 – Chartered name of the corporation and the Stratford theatre becomes 'Royal Shakespeare.'

1974 – The Other Place opened, created from a prefabricated former store/rehearsal room in Stratford.

1986 – The Swan Theatre opened, created from the shell of the 1879 Memorial Theatre.

1991 – Purpose-built new Other Place, designed by Michael Reardon, opens.

September 2004 – The vision for the renewal of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre transformation is announced.

July 2006 – The Courtyard Theatre opens with a staging of Michael Boyd's Histories.

November 2010 – The Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres re-open following their transformation.

March 2016 – The Other Place was reinstated as a 200-seat studio theatre.