The History of the Publick Theatre

“Not since the Boston tea party have so many illustrious Bostonians taken to the boats for so good a cause, and though the coffee stayed on board, unlike the famous tea, it looked for a while as though something would have to be dumped over the side of the grounded SS Harvard before the Lowells and the Cabots aboard could land and officially open the moated, tented Metropolitan Arts Center, after the trip up the Charles from the Museum of Science dinner.”

That was the opening paragraph of the article that ran in the Boston Globe on Friday, July 10th 1959. Before the play began, best wishes from Queen Elizabeth II were read. There were 10 weeks of theatre planned for that summer in the newly built, 1800 seat theatre on the Banks of the Charles. Herbert Berghoff directed the great Irish actress Siobhan McKenna as Viola in the opener of Twelfth Night. Later that summer, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were part of the opening night audience as Siobhan McKenna co-starred as Lady MacBeth to Jason Robards’ MacBeth. Rounding out the summer season was the great, but not yet knighted, John Gielgud as Benedick with Margaret Leighton as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.

On a site originally chosen by Tyrone Guthrie, the theatre was conceived and designed by architect William Morris Hunt II. It was to be part of Boston’s answer to London’s South Bank; the Metropolitan Boston Arts Complex, and though never completed, the plan served as a model for both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. At that time it also included the Institute for Contemporary Art, then housed in the Christian Herter Center that now serves as Sports Museum storage space. Sadly, “MeBac” didn’t survive for more than a few seasons. Nonetheless the site continued to be a magnet to the theatre community and in 1971, the newly formed board of directors, led by the company founder, Donatto Collucci, approached the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) to establish a classical theatre at its present location. The MDC agreed, and with an old farm wagon and natural lighting, the Publick theatre opened it’s first season with Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

Together with the Christian Herter Center, The Publick Theatre site is the only remaining part of the Metropolitan Boston Arts Complex, and is Boston’s oldest resident theatre. The summer of 2001 marks it’s 31st anniversary summer season on the banks of the Charles River. Over the course of the mid to late 70’s, the MDC landscaped the area and built the current amphitheatre.

In its thirty-year history The Publick Theatre has produced a wide variety of plays including:The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labours Lost, Fiddler on the Roof, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Scappino, Twelfth Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Much Ado About Nothing, The Masterbuilder, Romeo and Juliet, The Miser, Cyrano de Bergerac, AS You Like It, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers, The Merchant of Venice, Kiss Me Kate, Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd, the New England premiere of Quilters and the Boston premiere of Voice of the Prairie. Over the last decade The Publick Theatre has gained a loyal following, a strong subscriber base, and won numerous awards for outstanding artistic achievement. including: the New England Theatre Conference’s Moss Hart Award for Quilters and the Critic’s Circle Award for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production of Sweeney Todd was included on the Best of Boston lists in the Boston Herald and the Improper Bostonian, and Anything Goes was listed in the Boston Phoenix’s Year in Review. The 1999 and 2000 seasons included productions of Measure for Measure, Nine, MacBeth and Gypsy.

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