The original Blackfriars closed its doors in the 1640s, ending over
half-a-century of performances by men and boys. In 2001, in the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it opened once again. The reconstructed
Blackfriars, home to the American Shakespeare Center, represents an old
playhouse for the new millennium and therefore symbolically registers
the permanent revolution in the performance of Shakespeare. Time and
again, the industry refreshes its practices by rediscovering its own
history. This book assesses how one American company has capitalised on
history and in so doing has forged one of its own to become a major
influence in contemporary Shakespearean theatre.