STAGE

Leading British actors who waged an emotional campaign in London over the weekend to save the excavated site of the 16th-Century Rose Theatre, where Shakespeare may have performed, got good news Monday. The British government temporarily stopped construction of an office tower over the site, and Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley told Parliament the dumping of sand and gravel over the remains of the open-air theater would be delayed for at least a month. This will enable architects and conservationists to discuss how to preserve the theater. Developers agreed to negotiations after the actors--including Ian McKellen, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox and Sir Laurence Olivier--took center stage in efforts to rescue the historic site where Shakespeare is thought to have made his debut as an actor in 1592 and to have acted in his own play, “Henry VI.” The Rose was built in 1587. Plays were last performed there in 1603.