Browning Amphitheatre - Shakespeare in the Ravine

Browning Amphitheatre - Shakespeare in the Ravine

Photo: Lennon, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on Ohio State University Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Tucked into the slope above Mirror Lake, this small stone theater is easy to miss and one of the loveliest spots on campus. Before it was built, this grassy hill served as natural seating for spring May Fete celebrations.

The amphitheatre was dedicated in 1926 for drama, dance and music. It was the project of the Browning Dramatic Society, a group founded in 1908 by women students to perform Shakespeare's plays. For decades the society staged a play here each spring, with the audience sitting on the curved terraces and the trees forming a backdrop.

The society eventually faded away, but the amphitheatre became a general gathering place for concerts, ceremonies, study breaks and quiet lunches. In the 1980s a student service group, Ohio Staters, Inc., raised money to restore it, and the whole Mirror Lake area was renewed between 2015 and 2018. Take a seat on the stone steps and enjoy the view down toward the water.

Getting here: Walk west from Orton Hall toward Mirror Lake and follow the path down the slope to the stone seats, about 3 minutes.

Did you know?: The Browning Dramatic Society traces its roots to a Young Ladies' Literary Society organized at the university in 1882.

Photo op: Stand on the stage area and shoot back up at the curved stone terraces, or sit at the top and frame the seats leading down to the lake.

More on Wikipedia: Mirror Lake · William Shakespeare

Stops on this tour

  1. The Oval - Where Desire Paths Became Sidewalks
  2. University Hall - The First Building, Rebuilt
  3. Wexner Center for the Arts - A Building That Looks Unfinished
  4. Ohio Union - Campus Living Room
  5. Hale Hall - The First Union at a State University
  6. Orton Hall - A Building Made of Ohio
  7. Browning Amphitheatre - Shakespeare in the Ravine
  8. Mirror Lake - A Spring, a Legend and a Retired Tradition
  9. Ohio Stadium - Welcome to the Horseshoe
  10. Buckeye Grove - A Tree for Every All-American
  11. Thompson Library - Back to the Oval