Thursday, July 24, 2025
Although the American Shakespeare Center’s Shenandoah Valley home is pronounced “STAN-tin,” putting the “u” in Staunton is mandatory. As for putting the “you” in Staunton, a two- or three-day getaway to the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson and three of the original four Statler Brothers (none of whom was a Statler) is heartily encouraged.
About 160 miles from Washington, D.C., the small Virginia city rolls out the welcome mat with gusto. On Fridays at 4 p.m., a public works crew bollards off four blocks of Beverley Street for the weekend. Restaurants and cafés expand with street seating. Couples and families stroll in and out of shops: the Beverley Cigar Store, Once Upon A Time Clock Shop, Staunton Books and Tea, to name a few. A cellist or fiddler performs.
The Historic Inn at Oakdene. Photo by Richard Selden.
The major Staunton draw is ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse, a post-and-beam structure built in 2001 along the lines of the indoor theater of the King’s Men, William Shakespeare’s company (the more famous Globe, across the Thames, was open to the sky).
Though Aug. 2, ASC is presenting two shows in repertory: literary scholar Emma Whipday’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel “Sense and Sensibility”; and Shakespeare’s late comedy — quite serious at times — “The Winter’s Tale.”
Billiard room at the Historic Inn at Oakdene. Photo by Richard Selden.
Do D.C.-area residents need more Bard of Avon, what with Shakespeare Theatre Company and Folger Shakespeare Library productions close by? Ay, my lord. Besides its Virginia oak playhouse, resembling the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre, ASC’s production style is its own.
The lights — nine chandeliers — stay on throughout. The costumes, designed by Elizabeth Wislar, are elaborate; the sets near nonexistent. Most unexpected: led by Music Director Jordan Friend and Music Captain Geoffrey Warren Barnes II, cast members perform songs such as “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (“Sing along if you know it … oh, you know it!”).
View from the Sears Hill Bridge. Photo by Richard Selden.
We are treated to “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in the current production of “The Winter’s Tale,” directed by Raphael Massie, which takes cues from the Harlem Renaissance. Baby Perdita is left under an upright piano and the character Time, played by Barnes in a canary yellow suit, belts out “Blue Skies.” Also winning are L James as “Bohemian” King Polixenes and Sara J. Griffin as “Sicilian” gentlewoman Paulina, who is anything but gentle in rebuking the raging, and later repentant, King Leontes, played by Friend.
ASC’s “Sense and Sensibility,” directed by Jemma Alix Levy with choreography by Cory Douylliez-Willis, mostly sticks to the late 18th-century time period, although the formal ball is set to “Walking on Broken Glass.” Shakespeare is neatly referenced when suitor Willoughby, played by Komi M. Gbelewou, and Marianne Dashwood, by Corrie Green, recite a little dialogue from “Macbeth.” Griffin plays older sister Elinor, the “sense” to Marianne’s “sensibility.” As the ever-meddling Mrs. Jennings, Angela Iannone is in top comic form.
Beverley Street in Staunton. Photo by Richard Selden.
At the performances I saw, Acting Fellow Julia Sommer was an impressive replacement for Raven Lorraine (also dance captain) in four roles, notably the demanding part of Queen Hermione in “Winter’s” and the narcissistic Lucy Steele in “Sense.”
Coming up at ASC this fall: “Romeo and Juliet,” opening Aug. 28; “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” opening Sept. 11; and “The Pirate Ballad of Bonny and Read,” opening Oct. 16.
Still more live theater is presented by Oak Grove Theater, ShenanArts and Silver Line Theatre Exchange (you only have until Saturday to catch “Gruesome Playground Injuries”).
The Frederick House Hotel. Photo by Richard Selden.
Among Staunton’s other sites of interest are the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, the Frontier Culture Museum, the Camera Heritage Museum and the Virginia Scenic Railway. The city’s imposing 1906 train station, served by Amtrak’s Cardinal, is a reminder how important the railroad, a Chesapeake & Ohio predecessor, was to Staunton’s post-Civil War expansion. Two restaurants occupy part of the complex, some of which dates to the mid-19th-century.
Leading up and over the tracks is an iron truss bridge with stunning views of the city. Walkers can proceed to a steep park and historic neighborhood known as Sears Hill. Baptist minister and Brown University president Barnas Sears came to Staunton as agent of the Peabody Educational Fund. After the dilapidated bridge was dismantled and donated to the city, a nonprofit “friends” group raised sufficient funds to restore, reassemble and reopen it in 2013.
The station below, and well over 100 other structures in Staunton — including the Augusta County Courthouse, ornate commercial buildings and numerous residences — was the work of architect Thomas Jasper Collins.
In 1893, on more than an acre in the Gospel Hill neighborhood, east of downtown, Collins also designed an elegant home for Edward Echols, who served the state as lieutenant governor. Managed by Be Still Getaways, the mansion is now the Historic Inn at Oakdene. a self-check-in property that can accommodate up to 18 in rooms and suites on several floors.
The Commonwealth Suite, for example, has a separate living room and a covered outdoor porch; attached to the Echols Suite is an enclosed glass sunporch. All guests have access to several beautifully restored common rooms, outdoor sitting areas and the grounds.
An ideally located choice with a homey feel is the family-owned Frederick House Hotel on North New Street, adjacent to the tree-lined, neoclassical campus of Mary Baldwin University, founded in 1842 as Augusta Female Seminary. Though called a hotel, Frederick House is best described as a bed-and-breakfast compound.
A guest room in one of Frederick House’s five buildings. Photo by Richard Selden.
In five buildings built between 1810 and 1910, the property comprises 23 rooms and suites, some with spacious patios, comfortably furnished with antiques. A hot breakfast of your choice (try the apple-raisin quiche) is served in a pleasant dining room past the check-in desk, which functions as an informal Staunton visitor center.
Right next to ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse on South Market Street is the 124-room Hotel 24 South. The upscale property opened in 2005 after $22 million was spent to renovate the former Stonewall Jackson Hotel, built in 1924, adding a new entrance, a conference center and an indoor pool.
Staunton’s compact downtown slopes downhill to the station precinct, where, in a parking lot off Byers Street, a farmers market sets up on Saturday mornings through September. Nearby, on South Lewis Street, are a couple breweries and — confirming that the Shenandoah Valley is apple country — Ciders From Mars (a Bowie pun, get it?).
Event timing relevant to your potential Staunton getaway plans: the Heifetz Festival of Concerts ends Aug. 2, this year’s Staunton Music Festival runs Aug. 15 to 24, the Oak Grove Folk Music Festival strums Aug. 22 to 24 and Queen City Mischief & Magic manifests Sept. 27 and 28.