History of the celebration courtesy of Dr. Ken Zahorski (written circa 1998): Shakespeare's Birthday Party grew from a challenge Dr. Ken Zahorski presented to the students in his Types of Shakespearean Drama Class in the Spring of 1976. Asking them to find a way of commemorating the Bard's birthday in truly memorable fashion, they responded with a Renaissance Fair-like event complete with jugglers, roving minstrels, and actors performing on a makeshift stage built on the lawn between Main and Boyle Halls. Since that balmy spring afternoon of April 23, 1976, the event has changed venues several times, moving from the outdoors to the Coffee House (a wonderful Tudor-style structure that once graced the riverbank where the Riverside Apartments now stand), to the nautical Wheeler Union Lounge. Dr. Zahorski planned the annual event until 1984 when he happily turned over the reins to Sigma Tau Delta. From diurnal to nocturnal, from outdoors to indoors, from spontaneous readings to planned programs, the Bard's Birthday Bash has seen many changes over its twenty-two years, but the original purpose has not varied: to celebrate the life and works of one of the world's most popular and admired writers.