The 300-seat theater, named and modeled after Shakespeare’s own Blackfriars Theater, is expected to cost $2.7 million and is scheduled for completion in May 2001.

Several theaters around the world have been based on Shakespeare’s famed outdoor Globe Theatre: The most notable stands on the banks of the river Thames in London. But Blackfriars in downtown Staunton will be the first-ever replica of Shakespeare’s lesser-known indoor playhouse.

"Our ambition is to turn Staunton, Va., into one of the leading Shakespearean theater destinations in North America," says Victoria Joyce, marketing director.

Shenandoah Shakespeare is a 12-year-old touring company previously based in Harrisonburg. The troupe presents the bard’s works as they would have been performed in his day. The sets and lighting remain simple. In contrast with present-day theater, where all but the stage is in darkness, the lights stay on in the audience at Blackfriars.

Ralph Alan Cohen, the company’s executive director, says theater with the lights up fosters a "communal" relationship between the actors and audience. He says Shenandoah Shakespeare’s members don’t let today’s technology dazzle them into high-tech sets and lighting.

Bringing Shakespeare to life is so important to the company that it has made education a mission. Cohen says that by 2005, college students will be able to earn a master’s in literature in performance at Blackfriars. A consortium of Virginia colleges and universities are co-authoring the curriculum for the future Shenandoah Shakespeare Performance and Research Center.

The graduate program’s start date coincides with the company’s second construction project: a 1,500-seat replica of the second London Globe Theatre, which was built in 1613 after the original theater burned.

The Staunton troupe expects revenues to be in the millions. Joyce compares Blackfriars’ economic potential with that of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which does $23 million in business annually.

All that remains for Shenandoah Shakespeare is one question: Is it meant to be, or not to be?

— Lisa K. Garcia