Approximately 90 minutes from San Francisco, cross the winding Santa Cruz Mountains and pass through the otter-filled Elkhorn Slough, where you’ll find a unique cultural heritage.
The armored knight guards the entrance to a double-decker colonial-style home that serves as the headquarters of the Shakespeare Society of America. Inside, an unstable stack of shelves contains Shakespeare’s finger puppets, Shakespeare’s bobbleheads, and Shakespeare’s costumes. There is also a book on management lessons in Shakespeare’s canon (“Shakespeare Management”). This is the largest collection of Shakespeare’s Ephemera I have ever seen in a single building, and has spent many years longer than admitting to study English literature.
Load error
This literary souvenir cash is one of the few attractions in Moss Landing, a small coastal town of only 54 people north of Monterey, overlooking the steam tower of the power plant. The 0.6 square mile is home to several art galleries and shops, a Mexican and seafood restaurant, and a large marine biology research center.
Every day of the year, there is a man out of thousands of bard-related things and ephemera. Terry Taylor may think of him as a Renaissance man in the literal sense. He has devoted the last decade of his life to everything in Shakespeare. He hasn’t taken a day off for two years. He has not been paid. And, even stranger, Taylor says he doesn’t really love the bard.
Why doesn’t the man who devoted his life to Shakespeare love him? For Taylor, it’s more than that.
“I’m an educator and I’m responsible for making these things available for the long term,” he said. He believes that today’s culture lacks valuable achievements. Shakespeare, on the other hand, is a respectable person and he considers it an obligation to protect his heritage.
There are over 15,000 unique objects in his collection. 1,000 graphics (some are over 500 years old), 3,000 books, 1,000 miscellaneous souvenirs, and at least 10,000 theatrical photographs. Taylor is a steward of all of them, and he has a story that tells about each of them.
It’s a responsibility Taylor doesn’t underestimate, and the responsibility that led him to a $ 300,000 debt. He said that “corporate offices” make society stand out. Taylor was a mom when asked for details. He hopes that major donors will succeed in protecting society over the years to come. Meanwhile, he relies on donations and sales from a small gift shop in front of the building. He has a big plan to digitize the items in his collection and sell them online, and he also buys Shakespeare-related domain names such as Shakespeareamerica.com and Shakesepearebrand.com.
Protecting society is very personal to Taylor. His uncle, R. Sad Taylor, founded it around 1965 in a dream and old mansion near the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. It later became a non-profit organization and moved to a new facility in West Hollywood. So Taylor built what Shakespeare claimed to be the first full-scale half-scale composite replica of the original The Globe Theater, which staged the famous play.
Even replicas have a story behind them. According to Taylor, the Globe replica was created from a set donated when the space drama that science fiction writer Ray Bradbury tried to produce was a major obstacle.
The theater performed all 38 Shakespeare plays in succession from 1976 to 1979. It was performed again from 1981 to 1984. Ed Harris performed on stage as well as thousands of famous theatrical actors.
Tragically, the theater was closed in 1972 after running out of money. Taylor remembers the day well. He and his uncle had only 45 days to clear from the theater the thousands of Shakespeare objects collected through donations and gifts over the years.
The Taylors packed two trucks and stored the items in a warehouse in Santa Cruz County, where Taylor grew up. In 2008, Taylor moved the Shakespeare Society archives to Moss Landing. He says more than 20,000 visitors from more than 140 countries have passed through the door.
He didn’t hesitate when I asked Taylor why he would stick with Shakespeare alone, every day without vacation or money.
“I work from 9am to 5pm and may have a $ 300,000 mortgage, but instead I have this,” he continues, holding his breath while gesturing to surrounding objects. did not. “This is worth more than the four-bedroom house in my book. Whatever the sacrifice, it’s worth it.”
