The Shakespeare Center

The Shakespeare Center was the home of the Riverside Shakespeare Company, an Equity professional theatre company in New York City, beginning in 1982, when the then six-year-old theatre company established its center of theatre production and advanced actor training at the 90-year-old West Park Presbyterian Church on Amsterdam at West 86th Street. The Shakespeare Center's facilities consisted of the main offices of the Riverside Shakespeare Company, costume and set construction and storage rooms, a main lobby (shared with the church), and a theatre in the balcony of the church equipped with lighting and sound amplification.

Within the theatre itself (right), two wooden towers were constructed to the sides of the audience area for follow spots and, on occasion, musicians. Seating surrounded the thrust stage on three sides, with no seat more than 18 feet from the stage. There was a crossover under the upstage edge, with traps under the stage. Although the theatre was an Off Off Broadway venue, limited to 99 seats by the company's contract with Actors Equity Association, the Riverside Shakespeare Company often launched major productions to Off Broadway status, as with its summer tours of Free Shakespeare and other specific productions. At this location the theatre began a subscription season of four to five plays, as a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres in New York.

The main theatre of The Shakespeare Center was reconstructed in the early 1980s from materials saved from the Helen Hayes Theatre - regarded as "the loveliest theater in New York" before its demolition to make way for the Marquis Theatre in mid-town Manhattan, as well as from the strike of Broadway productions, such as Nicholas Nickleby and The Threepenny Opera. One of the principal donors to The Shakespeare Center was Samuel H. Scripps, resident Lighting Designer of the Riverside Shakespeare Company and leading arts benefactor.

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