Atlanta's Elizabethan original-practice theater
499 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Show tickets vary by production. Pub-style food and drinks served before and during shows.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Theater seating with table service
Equipment
No Photos
Atlanta Shakespeare Company home · Original-practice Shakespeare programming · First U.S. company to perform at the Globe
The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse is an Elizabethan-style theater located on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. It is the home of the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, which began performances at Manuel's Tavern in Atlanta in 1984 and moved to 499 Peachtree Street in 1990. A $1.6 million renovation in 1999 added a Globe-inspired balcony and an expanded performance space. A second renovation in spring 2006, totaling roughly $500,000, added a Globe-inspired facade and further enhanced the Elizabethan atmosphere of the building.
The Atlanta Shakespeare Company specializes in original-practice performance, presenting Shakespeare's plays using period staging conventions. The company was the first Shakespearean company in the United States to perform at Shakespeare's Globe in London. The Tavern serves Elizabethan-inspired food and drinks alongside its productions and is included on Atlanta ghost-tour itineraries.
Sources
Tavern staff and audiences have reported two recurring presences across decades. During a 1993 production of Henry IV Part I, the actor playing Falstaff came from the men's dressing room shaken, reporting a young boy in a velvet suit, dressed in nineteenth-century style, beside his dressing table. The boy has been seen elsewhere in the building and is described by audience members as an unobtrusive presence in peripheral vision.
An older male figure has been seen on the upper-level couches and in the catwalks. A female presence has been associated with the women's dressing room, where items are reported to be moved or knocked over, and is the source of a frequently retold incident in which a shout of 'Fire!' from behind the curtain briefly cleared a theater audience. Sensitive members of staff have described the upper-level storage room as uncomfortable to enter.
The accounts are catalogued in Atlanta Ghost Tour writing and in Tavern oral tradition. The Shadowlands entry is consistent with the company's own publicly told stories.
Attend an Atlanta Shakespeare Company production at the Tavern Playhouse on Peachtree Street. The company uses Elizabethan original-practice techniques and was the first United States Shakespearean company to perform at Shakespeare's Globe in London.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Dahlonega, GA
The Holly Theater opened on July 12, 1948 as a movie theater built by Randall Holly Brannon in the Art Moderne style designed by G.R. Vinson. After 50 years of dormancy it was restored and now operates as a nonprofit theatrical venue.
Tombstone, AZ
The Bird Cage Theatre opened on December 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona, operating simultaneously as a variety theater, saloon, gambling hall, and brothel. Over its eight-year run, 26 documented deaths occurred on the premises, and 140 bullet holes remain preserved in its walls and ceiling.
Washington, DC
Originally built in 1833 as the First Baptist Church of Washington, the building was converted to a theater by John T. Ford in 1861, destroyed by fire in 1862, and rebuilt as Ford's Theatre in 1863. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in the State Box. The federal government seized the building shortly afterward and used it for War Department offices and storage. On June 9, 1893 a portion of the interior floors collapsed, killing 22 federal clerks. The building was restored as a working theater in 1968 and is operated jointly today by the National Park Service and the Ford's Theatre Society.