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<i> Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press</i>

A London developer has received the go-ahead to build an office block on stilts above the site of the 16th-Century Rose Theater where William Shakespeare is believed to have performed. The move on Wednesday ended weeks of opposition by theater personalities who felt that construction would desecrate a historic site they wanted preserved and revived. The London Borough of Southwark granted the approval on the condition that the developers grant archeologists and the public permanent access to the site of the theater, which is 70 feet in diameter and has room for an audience of 2,000. Revised development plans have made provision to construct the new office block on stilts above the remains of the theater. Its history has been partly recorded by Philip Henslowe, who once managed it, in diaries containing records of shows at the Rose between 1592 and 1603.

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