American Shakespeare Center

The Blackfriars Playhouse, exterior

In Staunton, the ASC constructed the Blackfriars Playhouse, the first modern re-creation of Shakespeare's original indoor theatre, the Blackfriars Theatre.[18] As no reliable plans of that theatre are known,[19] architect Tom McLaughlin based the design on plans for other 17th-century theatres, his own trips to England to view surviving halls of the period, Shakespeare's stage directions and other research and consultation.[20] The chosen dimensions of 50 feet (15 m) by 70 feet (21 m) were derived from the research of theatre historian Irwin Smith.[21]

Construction began on the playhouse in early 2000, as part of a three-building construction plan that would also include a re-creation of the 1614 Globe Theatre and a Center for Research and Education. The theater was built with timber sourced by Dreaming Creek.[22]

The playhouse was completed at a cost of $3.7 million,[23] and opened in September 2001.[21] Built inside a brick shell, it is a wood-pegged, post-and-beam structure,[20] made of Virginia oak,[19] with a hammerbeam roof.[21] The seating capacity is 300.[20] Raked benches in a pit and two levels of galleries place the audience close to the actors,[21] and even seating on the stage is possible.[23] Unlike the original Blackfriars, the theatre has no painted decorations except at the back of the stage, and no windows in the auditorium. Electrical lighting reflected off the ceiling is used to simulate daylight,[21] and lights simulating candles are mounted on sconces,[20] and on wrought-iron chandeliers.[24]

In 2012, the Blackfriars Playhouse appeared in BBC's documentary Shakespeare Uncovered, which aired in the U.S. in early 2013.[25]

The American Shakespeare Center gives its audiences some of the same experiences that an Elizabethan playgoer would have enjoyed by following the basic principles of Renaissance theatrical production - including Universal Lighting (audience and actors share the same pool of light), Doubling (one actor playing multiple roles in a show), cross-gender casting (men playing female characters and vice versa), and minimal sets.[5]

For resident theatre companies, according to Zelda Fichandler, "repertory is destiny" - a theatre company acquires its audience by the productions it presents.[26] Most of the productions at the American Shakespeare Center's are from Shakespeare's canon; however, each year several productions are works by his contemporary playwrights or more modern plays that relate directly to the Shakespeare canon or work well using Shakespeare's staging conditions.

ASC Education offers workshops, performances, staged readings, lectures, a biennial international conference, teacher training, archival materials for scholarly research, and summer programs for teens and adults.

The ASC is in partnership with Mary Baldwin University in the one-of-a-kind MLitt/MFA Shakespeare and Performance graduate program for actors, directors, teachers, and dramaturgs. The program's graduates have gone on to doctoral work, tenure-track faculty positions, and professional theatre careers.[27]

Administration

• Ralph Alan Cohen, co-founder and director of mission, Shakespeare scholar
• Brandon Carter, Artistic Director, December 2021 - present[28]

Advisory board

• Miles Anderson, an English actor
• David Bevington, Shakespeare scholar
• Ronald E. Carrier, fourth president and current chancellor of James Madison University
• Gordon Davies, former director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia
• Judi Dench, an English actor
• Lesley Duff
• Michael Goldman
• Phoef Sutton, Emmy Award-winning American television writer and producer of feature films
• Gary Taylor, professor of English at Florida State University
• Zoë Wanamaker, an American-born, English actor and honorary president of Shakespeare's Globe in London[29]
• George Walton Williams
• Jerry Zaks, Tony Award-winning American Broadway theatre and television actor and director

In 2008, Virginia governor Tim Kaine honored American Shakespeare Center co-founders Jim Warren and Ralph Alan Cohen with the Governor's Awards for the Arts.[30]

On September 12, 2013, the Staunton, Virginia, City Council passed a resolution honoring the 25th anniversary of the American Shakespeare Center, acknowledging its growth from a touring troupe performing Richard III fourteen times in rural Virginia into an international Shakespeare center that has:

• Performed in 47 U.S. states and five other countries
• Built the world's first re-creation of Shakespeare's indoor theatre
• Become the hub of scholarship on early modern performance at the biennial Blackfriars Conference[31][32]

Shakespeare's Globe awarded American Shakespeare Center co-founder Ralph Alan Cohen with the Sam Wanamaker Award in June 2014.[33]

In 2015, The Folger Shakespeare Library awarded the American Shakespeare Center with its Shakespeare Steward Award for its contributions in Shakespeare education.[34]

In 2016, the Arts Council of the Shenandoah Valley awarded the American Shakespeare Center its Circle of Excellence Award.[35]

In 2017, the Virginia Commission for the Arts named the American Shakespeare Center one of its "50 for 50 Arts Inspirations" in the category of Bedrock Institutions.[36]

• Blackfriars Theatre
• Globe Theatre
• Regional theater in the United States
• Shakespeare in performance

• Stern, Tiffany. Rehearsal from Shakespeare to Sheridan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-198-18681-6 OCLC 43323659
• Lenhardt, Allison K. 2012. "The American Shakespeare Center's 'Actors' Renaissance Season': Appropriating Early Modern Performance Documents and Practices". Shakespeare Bulletin. 30, no. 4: 449-467. ISSN 1931-1427 OCLC 5183429508
• Don Weingust. 2014. "Authentic Performances or Performances of Authenticity? Original Practices and the Repertory Schedule". Shakespeare. 10, no. 4: 402-410. ISSN 1745-0918 OCLC 5689070844

• American Shakespeare Center

38°8′58.1″N 79°4′13.8″W