American Shakespeare Center
WHO WE ARE
Located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Virginia’s premiere classical theatre is at once intimate in scale and epic in imagination—creating vital, sophisticated, and accessible seasons built around a company of versatile actors performing in repertory all year round. We are a center for shared discovery by audiences, scholars, and artists of Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and classics old and new. MISSION American Shakespeare Center illuminates the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, classic and new, refreshing the individual, fostering civil discourse, and creating community in the Blackfriars Playhouse and beyond. VISION The American Shakespeare Center is Shakespeare’s American Home – a beacon for all to feel more alive through the experience of Shakespeare, changing lives one encounter at a time.
WHAT WE DO
There are three legs of the American Shakespeare Center that help support our mission. Each one reaches out to different communities to bring the joy of Shakespeare through performance, education, and the tour.
ON STAGE: BLACKFRIARS PLAYHOUSE
Our home base is the world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre. Since opening in 2001, the Playhouse has welcomed 914,624 guests to 5,750 performances. Each year we produce up to 14 Productions over 5 Seasons featuring at least 3 Distinct Companies of actors. All shows are performed in repertory with troupe members playing multiple roles in each show.
ON TOUR: MAINE TO TEXAS
We have brought Shakespeare to more than 500 venues across the U.S. since 1988. Our tour reaches upwards of 20,000 patrons each year. We begin in September each year traveling from Virginia to Maine before returning to Staunton in November, where the troupe performs in our Holiday Season. In January, our touring troupe travels to Texas and back before their triumphant return to Staunton for the Spring Season.
IN STUDY: CLASSROOM AND BEYOND
Camp | In the last two decades, our immersive theatre camp has welcomed more than 1,200 teens to Staunton for our two 3-week sessions. Teacher Training | We’ve trained hundreds of teachers to cure “Shakesfear” through our quarterly teacher seminars. Corporate Training | Our corporate leadership program provides insights into leadership and collaboration by exploring how Shakespeare’s text reveals the arts of persuasion, spoken and unspoken. Student Workshops | Led by experts at home or on the road, our workshops cover everything from stage combat to unraveling Shakespeare’s text. Consortium | Our collegiate consortium strengthens the study of Shakespeare nationwide through a mutual exchange of study and performance. Archives | Students and scholars can mine our 30 years of production history— online, at Washington & Lee University, and at the Blackfriars Playhouse.
“What we get is exquisite mayhem and barely bridled brilliance, leaving us intellectually stimulated and our sides hurting more than a little.”