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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Royal Shakespeare Company
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(RSC)
Enterprise based in both Stratford-upon-Avon and London, which has developed from summer seasons in the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. This opened in Stratford in 1879. There had been earlier festivals to commemorate Shakespeare in the town of his birth (the first organized by *Garrick), but this first permanent theatre began a tradition which has made Stratford the undisputed centre of Shakespearean production in Britain. The original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre burnt down in 1926 and the present one opened in 1932.
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The name Royal Shakespeare Company was adopted in 1961, during a period when the level of activity was greatly increased under Peter Hall as artistic director (1960–8). The Aldwych Theatre became from 1960 the company's London home, enabling Shakespeare productions, transferred from Stratford, to play in repertoire with modern plays presented only in London. There was further expansion with Trevor Nunn as artistic director (1968–87). The opening in 1974 of the Other Place, a small studio theatre in Stratford for experimental work, was followed in 1977 by the similarly intimate Warehouse in London, making transfers possible between these two.
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In 1982, the RSC moved to the newly completed *Barbican, a single location where the main auditorium and the smaller Pit replaced the Aldwych and the Warehouse. Finally, in 1986, the Swan opened in Stratford, modelled on a Jacobean indoor playhouse.
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