When my family and I moved to Stratford in 2014, I didn’t know that Stratford had been put on the map by the American Shakespeare Theater. Located just off Elm Street, on the South End of Stratford, is the land where the American Shakespeare Theater once stood. Today, it is empty, save for the snow which currently covers the ground; there is very little that speaks to what this space once was.
But Mayor David Chess seeks to change that.
Just weeks into his tenure as mayor, he has organized a group of community members, with both a love for the arts and the town, to imagine and work towards putting Stratford “back on the map,” he said in the very first meeting. There is much to understand about the Shakespeare Theater that so many knew in its heyday, and there are great visions for its future, which begins with the renovation and building of a reimagined Stratford arts anchor, like the Shakespeare Theater that once was.
Two meetings in, the group of actors, visual artists, writers, poets, historians, and community members last week toured the John Benjamin House alongside the mayor for continued conversation. Molly Ryan, the Town Grants & Constituent Services Manager and Municipal Veterans Representative led the first convening in December 2025. Molly outlined the process the former administration took, plus her work with the state, who awarded Stratford a $3 million grant in 2022 to rebuild on the property, and she detailed for the group the current vision and design renderings.
What came out of her presentation, and what she reiterated over and over during the meeting, was that “things take time, and sometimes, can take longer than expected when working with the state”.
The group of twenty or so people agreed on two things:
- Open up the John Benjamin House as soon as possible, using some of the $3 million allocated by the town (this is in addition to the $3 million from the state). The state money is earmarked to make necessary renovations to the house (like fixing moisture issues in the walls, updating the bathroom/plumbing, etc). This work could begin now, and provide opportunities for both economic and cultural growth in Stratford.
- Welcome a community conversation and/or engagement in some capacity to both educate and engage the community at large.
The space that once held a vibrant theater, with actors like Katharine Hepburn, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, Helen Hayes, Lillian Gish, and Jack Palance, no longer stands, but some of us have memories of the theater, what once was, and ideas about how to bring it back to life. In my next piece, on the vision for and work towards reopening the Shakespeare Theater property, you will hear from community members like Kevin Williams, Tom Yemm, and others.
Let’s work together to get Stratford, CT, back on the map, starting by supporting the arts community. While our reimagined theater won’t be quite like the Delacourte Theater in Central Park’s new glow up, we hope to bring in actors like Danai Gurira, who performed in Richard III, a production of the Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park in 2023. Dreaming is free, and action takes the participation and use of all of our community. If you’d like to share your thoughts (or dreams) about what the space could or should be, feel free to email me. I will be sure to get your thoughts into the conversation.
