The Shakespeare Center - Dedication of The Shakespeare Center

Dedication of The Shakespeare Center

The Shakespeare Center was dedicated in October 1982 by first lady of the American theatre, Helen Hayes, and Joseph Papp, head of the New York Shakespeare Festival in a gala ceremony attended by Gloria Foster, Mildred Natwick, Sam Waterston and Peter Brook. Ribbon cutting was done by Helen Hayes (right), who was a founding member of Riverside's Board of Advisors, with a dedicatory statement made by Joseph Papp, who, with the New York Shakespeare Festival, had become one of the principal sponsors of the Riverside Shakespeare Company.

At the time of the dedication of The Shakespeare Center, the Riverside Shakespeare Company was headed by W. Stuart McDowell, Artistic Director, and Gloria Skurski, Executive Director, together with Daniel Smith, Director of Riverside Shakespeare's Commedia Wing, Timothy Oman, Managing Director, John Clingerman, Associate Director and Director of the Riverside School for Shakespeare, which was also based in The Shakespeare Center, Dorian Vernacchio, Company Scenic Designer, Maureen Clark, Resident Text Coach, Jane Badgers, Director of Publicity, and by Jay King and Timothy J. Archey, Executive Assistants.

Upon launching The Shakespeare Center, Roger Rees, Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and lead actor in that company's Broadway production of Nicholas Nickleby wrote:

Best wishes to the Riverside Shakespeare Company in their endeavor to establish a year-round professional Shakespeare ensemble in New York City. In England, the Royal Shakespeare Company receive a subsidy from the government which the company has to match by seeking commercial support from industry and keeping a strict endeavor always to play to full houses. Shakespeare, the most profound and liberated writer ever, can ironically only be performed under such strictures in our country. Support this company, your R.S.C., and they and Shakespeare will thrive to help the lives, hopes and imaginations of future generations. The Riverside Shakespeare Company share our goals and I hope they will receive generous support and encouragement from you, the public.

On the stage of The Shakespeare Center the Riverside Shakespeare Company mounted numerous productions of works by Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and Commedia dell'Arte comedies, as well as The Shakespeare Project, and major New York premieres of Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Edward II of England and Nahum Tate's adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, entitled The History of King Lear, directed by Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Center, W. Stuart McDowell, and sponsored by Riverside Shakespeare Company benefactor, Samuel H. Scripps (left).

For further information about The Shakespeare Center, including detailed production information as well as the Riverside School for Shakepeare and The Shakespeare Project, see the Wikipedia site for the Riverside Shakespeare Company, and The Shakespeare Project.