Our History
The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, originally operating as Shakespeare Festival/LA, presented its first Summer Festival production of Twelfth Night in Pershing Square. The audience included friends, a few earnest theatergoers, and homeless residents of the Square.
The homeless residents took great pride in the production, and each afternoon, they became more and more involved in its promotion and management, showing the audience where to sit, handing out programs, answering questions, and thanking everyone for coming.
One night, our gracious hosts presented our founder, Ben Donenberg, with four large trash bags filled with aluminum cans. Wanting to contribute, they explained that the actors could take the cans to a recycling center and get a nickel a piece.
Deeply touched, Artistic Director Ben Donenberg declined their offer but instead created the Food for Thought admission policy in response, requesting that audience members donate non-perishable food to gain admission instead of buying a ticket.
1986
1990
SCLA presents its first Simply Shakespeare, an annual fundraiser hosted by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson that continued for 25 years.
1993
SCLA expanded to offer outreach programs such as Will Power to Youth an employment and enrichment program that combines hands-on artistic experience with paid job training for youth ages 14-24 who live at the poverty threshold.
2000
SCLA purchased and moved into its permanent downtown headquarters, strategically located within a two-block radius of three Title 1 high schools serving approximately 20% of the City of Los Angeles’s youth living at or below the poverty threshold.
2010
SCLA hosted Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Trial of Hamlet.
2011
SCLA received The Rosetta LeNoire Award by Actors' Equity Association in recognition of artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in the American Theatre.
2012
SCLA launched Veterans In Art an employment and training program in theater crafts that was conceived by SCLA Founder Ben Donenberg after participating in the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s Joint Civilian Orientation Conference and training exercises with all five branches of the U.S. armed services.
2018
SCLA celebrated the 25th anniversary of its White House Awarded Will Power to Youth arts-based employment program for disadvantaged youth.
2024
SCLA broke ground on a construction project to transform our existing facility into a state-of-the-art theater, sound stage, and arts education and workforce training center. The project, supported by a $10 million The Shakespeare Center Campaign, includes a long-term commitment to support and redouble our service to and impact on the community.