In March 2001, when the Royal Shakespeare Company arrived in Ann Arbor, it had been nearly a century since the Stratford-Upon-Avon Players, an early iteration of the RSC, last performed in Michigan.
The RSC had been drawn back to the state — and to the University of Michigan, specifically — to perform an historic 27-hour Shakespeare marathon at the Power Center for Performing Arts, presented by the University Musical Society.
On the production’s first day, March 10, the RSC performed three successive plays: “Henry VI” parts 1, 2 and 3, breaking only for lunch and dinner. The next day, they presented “Richard III.” The four-play cycle was repeated twice later in the week.
The four plays were directed by the late artistic director Michael Boyd and featured 30 actors who rotated through more than 100 roles and 200 costumes. Among those actors was David Oyelowo, who made history as the first Black actor to portray King Henry VI.
The audience consisted of thousands of theater-goers from 30 states and multiple foreign countries.
A collaboration between the RSC, U-M and UMS, the 2001 production earned accolades from across the country.
“One of the hottest tickets in America so far was for a theatrical marathon staged at a college auditorium hundreds of miles from Broadway,” wrote journalist Stephen Kinzer in The New York Times.
The 2001 event also kicked off an 11-year relationship between the RSC, U-M and UMS that included three residencies, educational programming and workshops.
After the success of the 2001 performances, the crowds for the next two RSC residencies, in 2003 and 2006, grew even larger, with students camping overnight near the Power Center to purchase tickets.
In 2006, well-known British actor Patrick Stewart came to perform in “The Tempest” and “Antony and Cleopatra.” During his time in Ann Arbor, Stewart also conducted “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Michigan football game.
