Venue: Sheldonian Theatre
Town: Oxford, GB

The Sheldonian Theatre, in the centre of Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, Warden of All Souls College and later chancellor of the university. Sheldon was the project's main financial backer. The theatre is used for music concerts, lectures and university ceremonies, but was not used for drama until 2015 when the Christ Church Dramatic Society staged a production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. What came to be known as the Sheldonian Theatre was Wren's second work and was commissioned by Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury. With the triumph of the Restoration and with it the Church of England, Dean Fell, vice-chancellor of the university, sought to revive a project proposed in the 1630s by the late William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury: a separate building whose sole use would be graduation and degree ceremonies. In the past these increasingly rowdy occasions had taken place in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, in the High Street. "The notion that 'sacrifice is made equally to God and Apollo', in the same place where homage was due to God and God alone, was as repugnant to Fell and his colleagues as it had been to Laud"; with this in mind they approached the Archbishop of Canterbury Gilbert Sheldon, for his blessing, his assistance, and a donation. Sheldon was forthcoming with all three. He initially gave an impressive £1,000 (£177,431 today) and pledged to gather the needed money from like-minded sponsors. He had little luck, however, and ultimately financed nearly the entire £14,470 (£2,567,424 today) himself, in an age where a mid-level craftsman's wage was typically between £2 and £4 per year. Wren's initial designs for the Sheldonian probably included a proscenium stage that did not survive his revisions. The building that was constructed was a sharp, unmistakable break from the Gothic past. According to Wren's son, Wren d