Twenty-five years ago this September, the Blackfriars Playhouse opened in Staunton, Virginia. The goal was a permanent home where Shakespeare’s plays could be experienced in shared light, up close, as they were written.
That story belongs to more than the building. It belongs to the donors who believed in it, the volunteers who fill it, and the audiences who keep coming back. In our 2026 Donor Impact Report, we look back at what you made possible.
You Gave a Touring Company a Home
In 1988, Ralph Alan Cohen and Jim Warren founded the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, a touring company that performed across the country. By the mid-1990s, it had visited 47 U.S. states and several other countries. The company dreamed of a permanent home.
That dream took neighbors. Staunton natives Joe and Evy Harman helped find the site, recruited backers, and secured the loan to finish construction. A community campaign led by Lee Cochran raised $2.7 million. Ground was broken in April 2000. The Playhouse opened on September 21, 2001, as the world’s first re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre, and the company has performed there ever since. In 2005, the company became the American Shakespeare Center.
You Made This Stage Theirs
The Playhouse is also a classroom. Every summer, ASC Theatre Camp students arrive on their first day, tour the building, and by the end of camp know which boards creak and which seats have the best view. Education Programs Manager Lia Wallace describes the Playhouse as “camp’s Chocolate Factory.”
Our partnership with Mary Baldwin University’s Shakespeare & Performance programs reaches back to the first season. Today, S&P students act, stage manage, and work in the box office and wardrobe, and alumni now cheer on campers from the audience. This past summer, one of those campers took the stage in the same Twelfth Night role a professor had played there 24 years earlier.
You Turned a Theatre into a Community
Volunteers are part of every show. Our ushers share favorite memories of the Playhouse, from a teenager’s birthday trip to a boy who still has the letter Orlando handed him in As You Like It. Some have been ushering since 2001. Others paint, build costumes and props, or bring breakfast for the first day of rehearsals.
Audiences say the same thing about the lights staying on. When you can see the actors and everyone around you, you share the experience.
You Keep the Lights On for the Next 25 Years
Care for the Playhouse never stops. In 2026, a new handrail, added for accessibility and patron safety, was made possible by the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation. Thanks to a generous gift from Chris Little, improvements are underway at Arden, the building that houses our costume and props shops.
To mark the 25th anniversary, we’ve launched a $250,000 fundraising effort to preserve and strengthen the Playhouse itself. And in just two years, ASC will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Thank You
To every donor, sponsor, and foundation partner, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the Community Foundation Central Blue Ridge, thank you for believing in this place. Thank you to the staff, board, volunteers, and audiences who bring it to life.
See your name on the Donor Honor Roll.
Make a gift to the Blackfriars 25th Anniversary campaign and help the Playhouse welcome the next generation.
Read the Report