By Ruth A. Hill
It was the quote we encountered on the American Shakespeare Center lobby sign that let us know we were in for an unusual theatrical experience.
"We do it with the lights on," declared the sign. The box office attendant responded to our puzzled looks with an explanation.
"Shakespeare didn't leave his audiences in the dark," she said, "nor do we. For good interaction, actors and patrons can see one another."
Our own illumination required mere minutes in seats of the world's only authentic reproduction of Shakespeare's Blackfrairs Theatre. It's no place to doze off in the dark. Actors talk to their audience; drama is often rowdy and otherwise emotionally commanding. Renaissance-style production technique reigns here. Some audience members even sit onstage in chairs. Actors often play more than one role. And men play women just as they did back in the day. Costuming is elaborate but sets are not because Shakespeare believed actors should be the center of the audience's attention. Actors sing and joke before shows, too, warming up audiences for what might lie ahead. It's how Shakespeare designed theater experiences.
The 400th anniversary of the English language's most celebrated writer's death is 2016, and that was what prompted us to pair a Staunton visit with a tour of neighboring mountain terrain in Highland and Bath counties. What we found was not only stellar Shakespeare in Staunton, but a lode of other culture in the mountain town of 25,000 that dates to America's 18th-century frontier.
Following our Shakespeare night, we settled into the adjacent Stonewall Jackson Hotel, one of the town's preservation triumphs. Built in the 1920s, the hotel became a valley social center for local families to celebrate important occasions such as weddings and cotillions. A multimillion-dollar restored version opened in 2005, and the hotel began anew with its famous Wurlitzer organ still in place on the lobby mezzanine.
From the hotel we explored the downtown historic district, where the town's long heritage mingles with modern lures that include culinary and visual arts.
Staunton was an important trade, industrial and transportation center on America's early western frontier by 1760, and its importance grew during both the Civil War and the 19th-century railroad era. A renovated rail depot stands in the downtown historic district as a reminder of those years, as does a charming collection of Victorian period facades containing contemporary coffee bars, restaurants and art galleries.
One of the Victorian-era locations we enjoyed was Trinity Episcopal — the city's oldest church — where the colors of a dozen stained-glass windows by Tiffany Studios light the sanctuary. Another — the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum at the 28th American president's birthplace site — also dates to the mid-19th century. Once the manse for Staunton's First Presbyterian Church, where Woodrow's father, Dr. Joseph Wilson, served as pastor, the birthplace appears as it did when the president was born there in 1856. Other vintage property in the neighborhood has been added for the library and research center. The president's handsome 1919 Pierce Arrow roadster was our favorite artifact on display.
Visual arts mingle with history throughout Staunton's downtown district, and we enjoyed strolling the streets that led to several galleries that are stocked with paintings, sculpture, jewelry, photography and blown-glass objects behind preserved 19th-century facades.
The town's outsized reputation as an arts mecca has roots in the 19th century, when it was a rail junction for traveler stopovers. Today's artistic menu is even bigger. There's a variety roster of shows year-round at the Mary Baldwin College Theatre, plus summer music events and study like the Heifetz International Music Institute for students from around the globe. The summer's Staunton Music Festival is a chamber music event whose sponsors offer performances in other seasons, as well. Staunton is home to the Statler Brothers and their friends who do local concerts and appearances, so country is also in the mix.
On the fringes of Staunton's downtown district we found another facet of local culture at the Frontier Culture Museum. It's an outdoor living-history site where we spent most of an afternoon learning about the lifestyles of settlers who began arriving in the highlands region in the 1740s. The museum's Old World area exhibits a collection of Irish, German, English and African farms from the 17th through the 19th centuries that were shipped from Europe and reassembled at the site. Costumed interpreters perform farm and house chores so visitors of all ages can better understand early life on the Colonial frontier. The living history captures the interest of most everyone because it presents the past so vividly. People in the present go away with some understanding of how America's earliest immigrants and their descendants carved a nation out of wilderness.
Whether it's history or the arts, Staunton's big measure of both can absorb most everyone for a couple of days' visit. It's also a great gateway to the Virginia Highlands region, where scenic beauty, the arts and history combine for even more touring pleasures.
WHEN YOU GO
Staunton trip-planning information is at www.visitstaunton.com.
Other information for arts and historic sites in town are:
Frontier Culture Museum: www.frontiermuseum.org
Blackfriars Theatre: www.americanshakespearecenter.com
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum: www.woodrowwilson.org
Ruth A. Hill is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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