The John Cranford Adams Playhouse was designed by Aymar Embury and was completed in 1958. It was officially named after Hofstra’s second President, John Cranford Adams, in 1974.
Dr. Adams served as president from 1944 to 1964 and was a renowned Shakespeare scholar who began the Drama Department’s annual Shakespeare Festival in 1958. Having published his doctoral dissertation on “The Structure of the Globe Playhouse Stage” in 1942, and having built a large-scale model of his conception of the Globe Theater, a 4/5th scale model of the Globe Stage, designed from Dr. Adams’ model and dissertation by Dr. Donald Swinney, was installed in Calkins Gymnasium to house this first festival.
The Playhouse stage was itself designed specifically to accommodate this set piece, which has been used in many of the subsequent Shakespeare Festivals.
The Playhouse has hosted such notables as Francis Ford Coppola (who, as a student at Hofstra, directed his first major production, The Delicate Touch, on the Playhouse Stage), Phil Rosenthal, Susan Sullivan, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachav, Billy Joel, The Roots, Colin Jost and Trevor Noah, among many others.
The Adams Playhouse serves as one of the showplaces of the University, hosting symposia, dramatic productions, dance recitals, academic conferences, and official University ceremonies.
Seating Chart
Basic Technical Specifications
Proscenium arch is 45 feet wide by 23 feet, 3 inches high to the bottom of the frieze. Valance usually lowers this to approximately 15 feet, 6 inches for sightlines.
Upstage edge of pit is approximately 2 feet, 5 inches downstage of plaster line.
Pit is approximately 9 feet by 10.5 inches deep at center and approximately 45 feet wide.
Upstage edge of pit is parallel to plaster line 12 feet to both sides of center where it begins to curve towards house.
Depth of pit at 12 feet from center is approximately 8 feet, 9 inches. Depth of pit at approximately 22 feet from center is approximately 3 feet, 3 inches.
Staff
Playhouse Box Office
Phone 516-463-6644
(Re-Opening Fall 2025)