Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), a British repertory theater. The company, established in 1960, was based on the earlier Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon. It is a national theater supported by government funds. The RSC, under a 2002 reorganization, is based in Stratford, where it operates several venues and an academy for the training of classical actors; it also sponsors a variable number of small acting companies, which present Shakespearean and modern plays in Stratford, London, and other locations. From 1982 to 2002 the RSC was based also at the Barbican Theatre, London, and at the Aldwych Theatre prior (1960-82) to that. In London the RSC has mounted such plays as Ondine, Becket, Marat/Sade, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Artistic directors and codirectors have included Peter Hall (1960-68), Trevor Nunn (1968-86), Terry Hands (1978-91), Adrian Noble (1991-2003), and Michael Boyd (2003-).

Bibliography: See studies ed. by J. Goodwin (1964) and M. Kustow et al. (1968).

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) State-subsidized British theatrical repertory company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon. Originally known as the Shakespeare Memorial Company, it received a royal charter in 1961. In 1960, it established a second base in London and performed Shakespearean plays alongside other classical and contemporary pieces.

Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1961 the company playing at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was reorganized and given its present name, the theatre being at the same time renamed the Royal Shakespeare. Its first director was Peter Hall, under whom the company embarked on an ambitious programme which included establishing a permanent base in London at the Aldwych Theatre to stage modern plays and non-Shakespearian classics as well as transfers of the Shakespeare productions from Stratford. It also housed the annual World Theatre Seasons. The plays of Shakespeare remained the preoccupation of the Stratford-based company, and RSC companies toured all over the world. In 1970, two years after Hall had been succeeded by Trevor Nunn as Artistic Director, a Stratford company became the first British theatrical ensemble to visit Japan, appearing there with great success in The Winter's Tale and The Merry Wives of Windsor. In 1965 the company established Theatregoround, a travelling troupe which with more flexible staging and smaller casts than usual was able to perform in schools, factories, and church halls. For a time it was mainly through this organization that the work of the RSC was seen in the provinces, but unfortunately the project had to be abandoned in 1971. From 1978, however, the company has undertaken small-scale tours to similar venues, as well as major tours to regional theatres and an annual season in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1974, after playing three seasons of experimental work at The Place in London, the RSC opened its own studio theatre in Stratford, The Other Place. This in turn found its London counterpart in 1977 in The Warehouse (see DONMAR WAREHOUSE). These small theatres housed much of the RSC's most exciting small-scale work. In 1982 the company moved its London base to the Barbican Centre, which houses both the Barbican Theatre and the successor to the Warehouse, The Pit. A third theatre, The Swan, opened in Stratford in 1986. In 1987 Terry Hands, who had been appointed Joint Artistic Director with Trevor Nunn in 1978, succeeded him as sole Artistic Director, and from 1991 the company was governed by a triumvirate including Adrian Noble as Artistic Director.