What theater is considered William Shakespeare theater?

Answer 1

There may be theatres in the world called The William Shakespeare Theatre, but if so none of them are famous. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, built in 1932 but renovated in 2010, and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, built in 1997 in Southwark near the site of the original Globe, are both famous modern theatres named after Shakespeare.

The Theatre most associate with Shakespeare is the Globe Theatre, which was built in 1599 after Shakespeare had been a playwright for about ten years and had already written some of his most famous and best-loved works including Romeo and Juliet, the eight Wars of the Roses plays, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. His acting company had previously used the Theatre and later the Curtain for their home base, but they moved to the Globe after it was built. The First Globe saw the premieres of the great tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Lear, the Roman plays, the darker comedies and the Romances like the Tempest. Shakespeare was an actor through all of this time, retiring from the stage at about the same time as the First Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613.

Although Shakespeare owned a share in the Globe, he was not a major shareholder nor was he the most important person in his acting company. None of his contemporaries would have regarded the Globe as William Shakespeare's theatre; it was clearly Richard Burbage's.