Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is one of the world's leading theatre companies, originally formed in 1879 as the company of Stratford-upon-Avon's newly opened Shakespeare Memorial Theatre; it was incorporated by royal charter in 1925. The name of the theatre was changed in 1961 to the 'Royal Shakespeare Theatre' and the company then adopted its present title. Peter Hall was the new company's first director. Although the RSC now stages a wide variety of plays in its five auditoria, the company remains faithful to its prime role - performing the works of Shakespeare. The original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1926 and replaced by the present building, which opened in 1932. The company established its first London base in 1960, at the Aldwych Theatre, followed by The Warehouse, a studio theatre opened in 1977. In 1982 both operations were transferred to the new Barbican Centre in the City of London. Meanwhile, Stratford had seen the opening of its own studio theatre, the Other Place, in 1974. In 1986 the Elizabethan-style Swan Theatre, built inside the shell of the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre's auditorium, came into use. In 2001 artistic director Adrian Noble announced a precipitate withdrawal from the company's London base at the Barbican and unveiled a radical blueprint for the future; this involved shorter contracts for actors, a complete organizational shake-up, and the demolition and rebuilding of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. The hostile reaction to these ideas, which many saw as undermining the ensemble basis of the company, led to Noble's resignation a year later. His successor, Michael Boyd, announced a more modest plan to cut running costs and to develop and refurbish the Stratford theatre. In 2006-07 the company oversaw a project involving the production of all Shakespeare's plays in the course of a single year. Recent years have also seen several triumphant returns to the West End.
