The Shakespeare Center was the home of the Riverside Shakespeare Company, an Equity professional theatre company in New York City, established in 1980 and dedicated in 1982, when the company established its center of theatre production and advanced actor training at the 90-year-old West-Park Presbyterian Church on Amsterdam Avenue 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, and a theatre in the balcony of the church equipped with lighting and sound amplification.
Theater at West-Park Presbyterian Church in 1982
Conceptual design for The Shakespeare Center stage, 1982.
Dedication of Riverside Shakespeare Company's The Shakespeare Center with First Lady of the American Theatre, Miss Helen Hayes, 1982. The pointillist portrait of Shakespeare was created by Kevin Lee Allen.
Exterior View of The Shakespeare Center, home of the Riverside Shakespeare Company, based in West Park Presbyterian Church, 1982.
Riverside Shakespeare Company
The Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City was founded in 1977 as a professional (AEA) theatre company on the Upper West Side of New York City, by W. Stuart McDowell and Gloria Skurski. Focusing on Shakespeare plays and other classical repertoire, it operated until 1997.
Riverside Shakespeare Company logo, 1977
Poster: Riverside Shakespeare Company's inaugural parks tour of Romeo & Juliet. Peter Siiteri, Stuart Rudin, Eloise Watt. (1977)
A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Eric Hoffmann as Puck. Summer 1978
The complete Hamlet with Kaeren Peregrin as Ophelia, 1978
