The American Shakespeare Theatre was a theater company based in Stratford, Connecticut, United States. It was formed in the early 1950s by Lawrence Langner, Lincoln Kirstein, John Percy Burrell, and philanthropist Joseph Verner Reed. The American Shakespeare Festival Theatre was constructed and the program opened on July 12, 1955, with Julius Caesar. The theater building burned to the ground on January 13, 2019. History Plays were produced at the Festival Theatre in Stratford from 1955 until the company ceased operations in the mid-1980s. The company focused on American interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays, but occasionally produced plays by other playwrights. Other playwrights included: T.S. Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Sophocles, Giuseppe Verdi, Thornton Wilder, and William Wycherley. When founded in 1955, the first artistic director was Denis Carey, who had managed The Old Vic. Under Carey's reign, the results were neither impressive financially nor artistically. John Houseman took over as artistic director in 1956, and his associate director was Jack Landau (director). Houseman resigned his position in August 1959 and Landau was promoted one month later. The Hartford Courant has posted a poorly-organized but nearly complete history of productions at the theater. It was the home of the American Shakespeare Festival. The last full season of the festival as a producing organization was 1982. The last production on the theater stage was a one-person show of The Tempest in September 1989. Previous efforts had included plans to raise money to renovate the structure as well as alternate plans to demolish it and construct an amphitheater and black box theater in its place. Notable actors Notable actors involved with the American Shakespeare Theatre included: René Auberjonois Meredith Baxter Dirk Benedict David Birney Morris Carnovsky Alex Cord David Groh Katharine Hepburn Earle Hyman Will Geer Fred Gwynne Margaret Hamilton John Houseman James Earl Jones Joe Mantell Hal Miller Jan Miner Michael Moriarty Christopher Plummer Mary Ellen Ray Lynn Redgrave Kate Reid Pernell Roberts Robert Ryan Charles Siebert Christopher Walken Fritz Weaver Crest One of seven crests donated by the Timex corporation was stolen in March 2012. Each of the crests represented a different Shakespearean play. Timex has had a long affiliation with the theatre, starting with a donation of "the world's only properly calibrated sundial" in 1956. ShakesBeer Festival In 2013, Beer Manager Steven Bilodeau of Wines Unlimited and Pete Rodrigues of Captain's Keg organized a beer festival on the grounds of the American