A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to a renown Shakespearean theater and several other structures in four towns.
Sakowicz admitted taking part in setting the blaze on Jan. 13, 2019, that destroyed the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, whose stage was graced by the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Plummer and James Earl Jones. He was a teenager at the time.
The theater, built in 1955, was modeled after London’s Globe Theatre, which famously burned in 1613. Playwright Lawrence Langner came up with the idea for the Connecticut theater in 1950 as a way to capitalize on the region’s connection to Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon in England.