Past Productions & History
Virginia Rep was created by the merger of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV in 2012. Virginia Rep is the largest professional theatre, and one of the largest performing arts organizations, in Central Virginia.
Produced as Virginia Rep
2024 – 2024 Signature Season
2024/25 Family Season
2024/25 Barksdale Season
2023 – 2024 Signature Season
2023 – 2024 Hanover Season
- Martha Mitchell Calling
- Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
- On Air
2023 – 2024 Jessie Bogese Family Season
- The Emperor’s New Clothes
- The Santa Clues
- Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure
- Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience
- Dragons Love Tacos
2023 – 2024 Partnership Productions
- The Thanksgiving Play (Cadence Theatre)
- The Colored Museum (Black VA Theatre Alliance for Youth
- Zero Hour (Weinstein JCC)
- Pass Over (Yes, And! Theatrical Co.)
2022 – 2023 Signature Season
- Chicken & Biscuits
- Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
- After December
- Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
2022 – 2023 Hanover Season
2022 – 2023 Jessie Bogese Family Season
2022 – 2023 Partnership Performances
- War in Pieces – with the Virginia War Memorial Foundation
- Cross Stitch Bandits – with Cadence Theatre Company
- How to Bruise Gracefully – with Cadence Theatre Company
2021 – 2022 Signature Season
2021 – 2022 Hanover Season
2020 – 2021
Dark most of the season due to Covid
2019 – 2020 Signature Season
2019 – 2020 Hanover Season
2019 – 2020 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep in Partnership with Cadence Theatre
- 13
2019 – 2020 Family Season
2018 – 2019 Signature Season
2018 – 2019 Cadence Theatre Season
- Between Riverside and Crazy
- In My Chair
- Gloria
2018 – 2019 Hanover Season
2018 – 2019 Family Season
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins
- Huck and Tom and the Mighty Mississippi
- Pinocchio
- Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical
2017 – 2018 Signature Season
- Shakespeare in Love
- Mary Poppins
- A Raisin in the Sun
- River Ditty
- West Side Story
2017 – 2018 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
2017 – 2018 Hanover Season
- Miracle on South Division Street
- Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End
- Crimes of the Heart
2017 – 2018 Family Season
- Akeelah and the Bee
- Songs from the Soul
- Pinkalicious the Musical
- Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical
2016 – 2017 Signature Season
- 1776, The Musical
- A Christmas Story, The Musical
- Airline Highway
- The End of War (World Premiere)
- In the Heights
2016 – 2017 Hanover Tavern Season
- The Charitable Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular
- Dancing Lessons
- Da
2016 – 2017 Family Season
- Junie B. Jones, The Musical
- A Christmas Story, The Musical
- Buffalo Soldier
- Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
- The Little Engine that Could
2016 – 2017 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
2015 – 2016 Signature Season
2015 – 2016 Hanover Tavern Season
2015 – 2016 Family Season
- The House at Pooh Corner
- The Velveteen Rabbit
- I Have a Dream
- Croaker – The Frog Prince Musical
- The Golden Goose
2015 – 2016 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
- Equus
In Association with Amaranth Contemporary Dance and VCU Dance - The Mountaintop
- 4000 Miles
2014 – 2015 Signature Season
2014 – 2015 Hanover Tavern Season
- Becoming Dr. Ruth
- They’re Playing Our Song
- You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
- Last of the Red Hot Lovers
2014 – 2015 Family Season
2014 – 2015 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
2013 – 2014 Signature Season
2013 – 2014 Hanover Tavern Season
- Say Goodnight Gracie
- A Lug Nuts Christmas
- Olympus on My Mind
- The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church
2013 – 2014 Family Season
2013 – 2014 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
2012 – 2013 Signature Season
2012 – 2013 Hanover Tavern Season
2012 – 2013 Family Season
2012 – 2013 Cadence Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
2012 Special Events
Produced as Barksdale Theatre
*Indicates a World Premiere
2011 – 2012 Signature Season
Lend Me a Tenor – By Ken Ludwig
My Fair Lady – Music by Frederick Loewe; Lyrics and Book by Alan Jay Lerner
God of Carnage – By Yasmina Reza
Scorched Earth* – By David L. Robbins
Spring Awakening – Book & Lyrics by Steven Sater; Music by Duncan Sheik
2011-2012 Theatre Gym Season
Co-produced by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre
Kimberly Akimbo – By David Lindsay-Abaire
August: Osage County – By Tracy Letts
In the Next Room or the vibrator play – By Sarah Ruhl
2011-2012 Season at Hanover Tavern
A Thousand Clowns – By Herb Gardner
Boeing, Boeing – By Marc Camoletti; Adapted by Beverley Cross
Becky’s New Car – By Steven Dietz
Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas* – Musical Arrangements by H. Drew Perkins
Always…Patsy Cline – Written and originally directed by Ted Swindley
Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music
2010 – 2011 Signature Season
Shipwrecked: An Entertainment – by Donald Margulies
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas – Music & Lyrics by Irving Berlin; Book by David Ives & Paul Blake
Legacy of Light – By Karen Zacarias
Circle Mirror Transformation
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek; Book by Jeffrey Lane
2010 Season at Hanover Tavern
First Baptist of Ivy Gap – by Ron Osborne
Butterflies are Free – by Leonard Gershe
On Golden Pond – by Ernest Thompson
Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming – Written by Connie Ray; Conceived by Alan Bailey; Musical Arrangements by Mike Craver
Nunsense – Book, Music and Lyrics Dan Goggin
2009 – 2010 Signature Season
Boleros for the Disenchanted – by José Rivera
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Music and lyrics by William Finn; Book by Rachel Sheinkin
The Grapes of Wrath – Co-produced with Theatre VCU / Part of the Acts of Faith Festival; By Frank Galati
Is He Dead? – by Mark Twain; Adapted by David Ives
The Sound of Music – Co-produced with Theatre IV; Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
2010 Additional Shows
Co-produced with African American Repertory Theatre
Crowns
Black Nativity
2009 Season at Hanover Tavern
Mona’s Arrangements* – Book by Bo Wilson, Music by Steve Liebman, Lyrics by Steve Liebman and Bo Wilson
I Ought to Be in Pictures -by Neil Simon
Fully Committed – by Becky Mode
Souvenir – by Stephen Temperley
Bus Stop – by William Inge
2008 – 2009 Signature Season
The Clean House – by Sarah Ruhl
This Wonderful Life – by Steve Murray, Conceived by Mark Setlock
Children of a Lesser God – by Mark Medoff
Well – by Lisa Kron
Thoroughly Modern Millie – Book by Richard Henry Morris; Music by Jeanine Tesori; New Lyrics by Dick Scanlan
2009 Additional Shows
Driving Miss Daisy at Willow Lawn
Bootleg Shakespeare – Romeo & Juliet – Henley St Theatre in association with Barksdale Theatre
2008 Season at Hanover Tavern
Greater Tuna – by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard
Shirley Valentine – by Willy Russell
Driving Miss Daisy – by Alfred Uhry
Sanders Family Christmas – Book by Connie Ray; Conceived by Alan Bailey; Musical Arrangements by John Foley and Gary Fagin
2007- 2008 Signature Season
The Member of the Wedding – by Carson McCullers
Moonlight and Magnolias – by Ron Hutchinson
Doubt – by John Patrick Shanley
The Little Dog Laughed – by Douglas Carter Beane
Guys and Dolls – by Frank Loesser
2007 Season at Hanover Tavern
Smoke on the Mountain – by Constance Ray
The Odd Couple – by Neil Simon
Deathtrap – by Ira Levin
Swingtime Canteen – by Linda Thorsen Bond, William Repicci and Charles Busch
2006 – 2007 at Willow Lawn
The Constant Wife – by Somerset Maugham
Mame – Book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Brooklyn Boy – by Donald Margulies
Intimate Apparel – by Lynn Nottage
Into the Woods – Book by James Lapine, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
2006 – 2007 at Hanover Tavern
The Mousetrap – by Agatha Christie
Over the River and Through the Woods – by Joe DiPietro
Smoke on the Mountain – by Alan Bailey and Constance Ray
The Odd Couple – by Neil Simon
2005 – 2006 at Willow Lawn
The Drawer Boy – by Michael Healey
Scapino! – Adapted by Frank Dunlop and Jim Dale
The Lark – by Jean Anouilh; Adapted by Lillian Hellman
The Syringa Tree – by Pamela Gein
The Full Monty – book by Terrance McNally; Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek
2005 – 2006 at Hanover Tavern
Barefoot in the Park – by Neil simon
No Sex Please, We’re British – by Anthony Marriott and Alistair Foot
2004 – 2005
Cyrano de Bergerac – by Edmond Rostand
Where’s Charley? – Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser; Book by George Abbott; Based on the play Charley’s Aunt written in 1898 by Brandon Thomas
The Man Who Came to Dinner – by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman
Crowns – by Regina Taylor
Melissa Arctic – by Craig Wright
Anything Goes– Music & lyrics by Cole Porter; book by Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
2003 – 2004
To Kill a Mockingbird – Adapted by Christopher Sergel
James Joyce’s The Dead – Book by Richard Nelson, Music by Shaun Davey
Light Up the Sky – by Moss Hart
Fifth of July – by Lanford Wilson
2002 – 2003
The Crucible – by Arthur Miller
Proof – By David Auburn
The 1940’s Radio Hour – by Walton Jones
The Laramie Project – by Moises Kaufman
The Cocktail Hour – by A.R. Gurney
Songs from Bedlam – by Douglas Jones*
Picasso’s Women – by Melanie Richards and Kay Weinstein Gary*
Annie Get Your Gun – by Irving Berlin and Herbert &Dorothy Fields
2001 – 2002
Fully Committed – By Becky Mode
The Little Foxes – By Lillian Hellman
Italian American Reconciliation – By John Patrick Shanley>
War Story – By Bo Wilson *
Collected Stories – by Donald Margulies
The Exact Center of the Universe – By Joan Vail Thorne
Olympus on My Mind – Book and Lyrics by Barry Harman, Music by Grant Sturiale
2001
Misfits *
Coming of the Hurricane
The Taming of the Shrew
They’re Playing Our Song
2000
The Queen of Bingo
Side Man
Full Gallop
Sweet Charity
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
Carousel
*Indicates a World Premiere
1999
The Old Settler
Three Tall Women
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Golf With Alan Shepard (Directed by and starring Pete Kilgore)
Violet
Ella and Her Fella, Frank *
1998
From the Mississippi Delta
The Young Man From Atlanta
The Rocky Horror Show
Inherit The Wind
She Loves Me
The Sisters Rosensweig
1997
The House of Blue Leaves
The Complete Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)
Molly Sweeney
Blues in the Night
Love! Valour! Compassion!
The Woman in Black
Red, Hot and Cole
1996
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
The Trip to Bountiful
Oil City Symphony
Das Barbecu
The Taffetas
1995
Born Yesterday
The Glass Menagerie
Weird Romance
Prelude to a Kiss
Nunsense (starring Pat Carroll)
Once on this Island
1994
Our Town
Falsettos
Love Letters
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine
Zelda, the Last Flapper
Talley’s Folly
The Turn of the Screw *
The World Goes ‘Round
1993
Our 40th Year Gala
Death of a Salesman
By Strouse
Oh, Dad, Poor Dad…
Bojangles *
The Voice of the Turtle
Godspell
1992
Tender Lies
American Beauty
The Road to Mecca
Lucky Stiff
Twelfth Night
Social Security
1991
Home Games
The Loves of Cass McGuire (starring Pat Carroll)
The Lady’s Not for Burning
Oil City Symphony
The Zulu and the Zayda
Oh! Coward!
1990
Nunsense (starring Pat Carroll)
Land of Fire
The Cocktail Hour
Earnest in Love
On the Verge
Stepping Out
*Indicates a World Premiere
1989
Wenceslas Square
Nunsense (starring Pat Carroll)
One West Main *
The Mikado
You Never Can Tell
The Nerd
1988
Nunsense (starring Pat Carroll)
Artichoke
Hot Grog
Painting Churches
A Child’s Christmas in Wales
1987
Tallulah – A Memory (Starring Eugenia Rawls)
Vanities
The Amorous Flea
The Butterfingers Angel etc. etc.
1986
Morning’s at Seven
The Circle
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Taking My Turn
1984 – 1985
Present Laughter
FoxFire
Talking With…(Co-produced with Actors Studio)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Here’s a How-De-Do
1983
George Washington Slept Here
A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking
Patience
What the Butler Saw
The Middle Ages
1982
Much Ado About Nothing
The Elephant Man
The Pirates of Penzance
Gertrude Stein III (starring Pat Carroll)
Sweeney Todd
1981
Da
Any Number Can Die
H.M.S. Pinafore
Bad Day at Black Rock *
Blithe Spirit
1980
A Life in the Theatre
Light Up the Sky
Murder at the Howard Johnson’s
The Mikado
Chapter Two
The 1940’s Radio Hour
*Indicates a World Premiere
1979
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Good Doctor
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Old Wives’ Tale *
The Importance of Being Earnest
1978
The River Niger
Equus
The Little Hut
Red, Hot and Cole *
Man of La Mancha
Diamond Studs
1977
Mark Twain
Visit to a Small Planet
Red, Hot and Cole *
The Royal Family
1976
Ladies in Retirement
UTBU
My Fat Friend
I Never Sang For My Father
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
How the Other Half Loves
You Can’t Take It With You
1975
That Championship Season
Godspell
Catch Me If You Can
Ah! Wilderness
1974
The Front Page
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
Dames at Sea
You Can’t Take It With You
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
A Flea in Her Ear
1973
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
The Odd Couple
Dracula
Three Bags Full
The Patriots
Barefoot in the Park
1972
Goodbye Charlie
Never Too Late
Butterflies are Free
George Washington Slept Here
Gypsy
1971
The Boys in the Band
Three Men on a Horse
Plaza Suite
The Sound of Music
Old Wives’ Tale *
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
1970
The Hostage
Tons of Money
Man of La Mancha
Money
I Do! I Do!
1969
The Lion in Winter
Philadelphia Annie Get Your Gun
Here I Come!
The Fantasticks
Cactus Flower
The Absence of a Cello
Annie Get Your Gun
1968
Generation
Theatre Wagon (Original Comedy, Guest Company)
100 and Some (100th production)
Rattle of a Simple Man
Oliver!
The Impossible Years
Irma La Douce
1967
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
My Three Angels
The Night of the Iguana
The Champagne Complex
Barefoot in the Park
1966
Never Too Late
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Little Mary Sunshine
The Typists and the Tiger
Boeing-Boeing
Any Wednesday
Stop the World-I Want to Get Off
Any Wednesday
1965
Sunday in New York
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad
Take Her, She’s Mine
Come Back, Little Sheba
Lullaby
O’Mistress Mine
Tunnel of Love
Marriage-Go-round
Never Too Late
Mary, Mary
1964
The Moon is Blue
Gideon
Bell, Book and Candle
The Little Hut
The Boy Friend
1963
Critic’s Choice
Twelve Angry Men
The Curious Savage
Janus
The Fantasticks
A Shot in the Dark
1962
The Solid Gold Cadillac
Leave it to Jane
J.B.
Fallen Angels
Once Upon a Mattress
1961
Drink to Me Only
The Rose Tattoo
Two for the See-Saw
John Brown’s Body
Born Yesterday
Mister Roberts
1960
The Crucible
Romanoff and Juliet
Venus Observed
A Streetcar Named Desire
Clutterbuck
Private Lives
Picnic
Abie’s Irish Rose
*Indicates a World Premiere
1959
O’Mistress Mine
Kind Lady
For Love or Money
The Crucible
Duet for Two Hands
Clutterbuck
The Little Hut
Where’s Charley?
1958
The Little Hut
Time of the Cuckoo
Bus Stop
Voice of the Turtle
O’Mistress Mine
The Matchmaker
The Fourposter
Laura
Arsenic and Old Lace
1957
The Little Hut
Portrait in Black
White Sheep in the Family
The Lady’s Not for Burning
To Rise One Day *
(co-produced with the Hanover County Jamestown Festival Committee)
Dirty Work at the Crossroads
Amphitryon 38
Dangerous Corner
The Moon is Blue
1956
Ladies in Retirement
Without Love
Antigone
The Rainmaker
Our Town
Bell, Book and Candle
Biography
Don Juan in Hell
Present Laughter
Silas the Chore Boy
1955
High Tea *
Antigone
Hay Fever
Tons of Money
No Time for Comedy
Gold in the Hills
1954
Gold in the Hills
1953
One-Acts and Readings for Private Groups
In 1953, six actors, two children, a dog and two pigs moved into a historic ruin called Hanover Tavern. The transplanted New Yorkers founded Central Virginia’s first professional theatre, and named the company in memory of a deceased college friend, Barbara Barksdale.
When they learned that their new neighbors looked forward to eating on evenings out, they combined favorite recipes and created the nation’s first dinner theatre. They lived upstairs, performed downstairs, and served hearty meals in the historic rooms that fell in between. Committed to the “decentralization of American theatre,” these six 20-somethings not only saved what has now become a national landmark, they also founded what is today the nation’s eighth longest operating professional regional theatre.
During the first six years, four of the original founders moved on, leaving Pete Kilgore, Muriel McAuley and newcomer (and newly-wed) Nancy Kilgore firmly in charge. In the seasons that followed, Pete, Muriel and Nancy produced Greater Richmond’s first professional productions of plays by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Thornton Wilder, William Inge and Edward Albee.
They also became dynamic civic leaders. In defiance of Jim Crow laws, Barksdale was Virginia’s first performing arts organization to open its doors to integrated audiences. Barksdale conducted Virginia’s first professional theatre classes for children. In 1973, Barksdale produced Virginia’s first professional play based on African American experience, Lorraine Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black.
In 1990, the Tavern was sold to the Hanover Tavern Foundation. In 1993, Pete, Muriel and Nancy retired after 40 years of exemplary service. John Glenn was named Artistic Director. In 1996, to accommodate a full restoration of its beloved home, Barksdale left the Tavern for new facilities at Willow Lawn. In 1997, John Glenn left to pursue other opportunities, and Randy Strawderman was hired to replace him.
Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV began sharing a single staff in 2001, but operated as two separate nonprofit theatres. Barksdale returned theatrical programming to Hanover Tavern in January 2006, renting the space from the Hanover Tavern Foundation to complement its five-play Signature Season at Willow Lawn.
In 2012 Barksdale merged with Theatre IV and became Virginia Repertory Theatre. Today, productions at the Tavern are ongoing as part of our Barksdale Season.
Produced as Theatre IV
(Partial Listing: Does not include touring productions)
2011 – 2012
The Little Red Hen
A Year with Frog and Toad
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Seussical
2010 – 2011
The Ugly Duckling
A Christmas Carol
The Song of Mulan
Buffalo Soldier
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Sound of Music co-produced with Barksdale Theatre
2009 – 2010
Ferdinand the Bull
The Velveteen Rabbit
The BFG
Honk!
2008 – 2009
The Humpbacked Horse presented by the Saratov Youth Theatre
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Annie
2007- 2008
Stuart Little
A Christmas Story
Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter
Peter Pan
Theatre Gym/Helping Hands:
The Dumb Waiter
2006- 2007
The True Story of Pocahontas
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
The Wizard of Oz
2005- 2006
God’s Trombones
Bunnicula
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
The Magic Flute
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
2004- 2005
Daughters of Zion
Broadway for Families:
The Jungle Book
A Christmas Carol
Patchwork
Seussical the Musical
(All Theatre Gym productions were canceled due to storm damage to the venue.)
2003- 2004
Tuck Everlasting
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Magic Mrs. Piggle- Wiggle
Sing Down the Moon
Glen Allen:
Hansel & Gretel
Babes in Toyland
Rapunzel
The Ugly Duckling
Theatre Gym:
Lobby Hero
The Syringa Tree
Topdog/Underdog
Our Lady of 121st St
Jesus Hopped the A-Train
2002- 2003
Charlotte’s Web
The Gifts of Christmas
Huck and Tom and the Mighty Mississippi
The Song of Mulan
Glen Allen:
Santa’s Toyland Adventure
Lyle Lyle Crocodile
Helping Hands/Theatre Gym:
Boom Town
2001- 2002
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day
A Christmas Carol
The Emperor’s Nightingale
The Secret Garden
Br’er Rabbit
Honk!
Theatre Gym:
Bash: Latterday Plays
Cherry Docs
April Morning
2000- 2001
They’re Playing Our Song
Family Playhouse:
The Sword in the Stone
King Island Christmas
Ramona Quimby
Peter Pan
Glen Allen:
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
The Little Red Hen
Theatre Gym:
The Cripple of Irishmaan
(Partial Listing: Does not include touring productions)
1999- 2000
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Velveteen Rabbit
Cole Porter’s Aladdin
Glen Allen:
The Frog Prince
Quilters
The Arthur Ashe Story
Scapino!
Theatre Gym:
Jails, Hospitals, and Hip Hop
1998- 1999
Blackbirds of Broadway
Family Playhouse:
Pinocchio
A Christmas Carol
Treasure Island
The Wizard of Oz
Helping Hands/Theatre Gym:
Christmas on Mars
subUrbia
How I Learned to Drive
Let’s Paint
1997- 1998
The Hardy Boys in The Mystery of the Haunted House
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Theatre Gym:
Fit to Be Tied
The Twilight of the Golds
Step Child
Shadowlands
The Dead Monkey
1996- 1997
Beehive
Having Our Say
Revelation
Family Playhouse:
The Magic Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Babes in Toyland
The Prince and the Pauper
Sleeping Beauty
Theare Gym:
Aspirin for the Masses
Raised in Captivity
A Devil Inside
Listen Close
Jack and Jill
Italian American Reconciliation
The Yellow Boat
1995- 1996
Beehive
Secret Service
Wedding Band
The Music Man
Family Playhouse:
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Santa’s Christmas Miracle
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Peter Pan
Helping Hands/Theatre Gym:
Oleanna
My Children! My Africa!
Weeping Mary
Rules of the Lake
Theatre Gym:
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me
1994 – 1995
Of Mice and Men
On Golden Pond
Romeo & Juliet
Theatre Gym
The Meeting
Burn This
Helping Hands Program:
Keely & Du
Who’s Happy Now
Abundance
Family Playhouse
The Jungle Book
Twas the Night Before Christmas
Thumbelina
Charlotte’s Web
1993 – 1994
Young Tom Jefferson
On Golden Pond
The All Night Strut
Theatre Gym
Stand Up Tragedy
Da
Marvin’s Room
Family Playhouse
Johnny Appleseed
Snowflake
The Frog Prince
The Wizard of Oz
1992 – 1993
Closer Than Ever
Theatre Gym
Hamlet
Shirley Valentine
Crimes of the Heart
Family Playhouse
Winnie the Pooh
Snowflake
The Reluctant Dragon
Cinderella
1991 – 1992
In the Limelight
Laurel and Hardy
God’s Trombones
Four Part Harmony
Wait Until Dark
Frankie & Johnny in the Claire de Lune
A Shayna Maidel
The Rainmaker
Theatre Gym
Life Under Water
A Conversation with Georgia O’Keefe
Family Playhouse
Three Little Pigs
Babes in Toyland
Jack and the Beanstalk
Wind in the Willows
1990 – 1991
Quilters: the Revival
Family Playhouse
James Madison & the Bill of Rights
The Snow Queen
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Booker T
The Wizard of Oz
(Partial Listing: Does not include touring productions)
1989 – 1990
Is There Life After High School
Sherlock’s Last Case
The Boys Next Door
1987 – 1988
Red Hot & Cole
Benefactors
Biloxi Blues
Cinderella
Extremities
Olympus On My Mind
Ain’t Misbehavin’
Helping Hands Program:
Coyote Ugly
Top Girls
1986 – 1987
Elisabeth Welch: Time to Start Living
A Joyous Musical
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Isn’t It Romantic
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
The Normal Heart
Where’s Charley?
Cotton Patch Gospel
1985 – 1986
Scapino!
Gemini
And A Nightingale Sang
Quilters
1984 – 1985
Equus
Babes in Toyland
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
A Little Night Music
New Play Festival: Bosoms and Neglect, Diviners, The Family
1983 – 1984
Do Lord Remember Me
Children of a Lesser God
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road
The Shadow Box
PVCC Fine Arts Series: The Diary of Adam and Eve
1982 – 1983
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
Love in Two Acts
Vanities
Fifth of July
1981 – 1982
Cabaret
Children of a Lesser God Huckleberry Finn
I Ought to Be in Pictures
Mr. Roberts
1980 – 1981
West Side Story
Born Yesterday
Ten Little Indians
1979 – 1980
A Raisin in the Sun
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Philadelphia Story
1977 – 1979
The various touring children’s shows
1976 – 1977
As You Like It
1975 – 1976
The Glass Menagerie
Where’s Charley?
Theatre IV was founded in 1975 by Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway as Virginia’s first professional theatre for young audiences. It focused on four areas: the arts, education, children’s health and safety, and community leadership.
Dedicated to children, families, and schools, for over 30 years, Theatre IV performed in every school district in Virginia and toured regularly to major performing arts centers throughout 32 states on the eastern half of the nation. The touring arm continues today as Virginia Rep on Tour.
One of the earliest productions of Theatre IV, a dramatization of African-American folk tales, was selected to represent the United States at the International Children’s Festival at Wolf Trap Farm Park, and recorded for international broadcast over Voice of America.
Over the years Theatre IV produced many educational plays to address social issues. In 1983, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Social Services and Families Forward, Theatre IV created and began touring Hugs and Kisses, Virginia’s principal child sexual abuse prevention program. Since that time, Hugs and Kisses has been presented to over 1.5 million children in every school district statewide. Over 15,000 Virginia children have come forward for more information or help after seeing a performance of Hugs and Kisses.
In 1985 Theatre IV produced Do Lord Remember Me based on the oral histories of former slaves interviewed during the Federal Writer’s Project, and received the Award of Excellence from Branches of the Arts for “The most outstanding play relating to African-American experience.”
In partnership with the National Network of Runaway and Youth Services and the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, Theatre IV created and began touring Runners, a landmark delinquency prevention program, based on interviews with 42 runaways living in Virginia’s halfway houses and emergency shelters.
In 1986, Theatre IV purchased and renovated the historic November Theatre (formerly the Empire), one of Richmond’s two Broadway style houses. It was further restored in 2011 when Sara Belle and Neil November made a $2 million gift to Theatre IV and Barksdale. The November now serves as Virginia Rep’s headquarters and home and anchors the Arts District.
Bruce Miller and Phil Whiteway assumed the leadership of Barksdale Theatre in 2001 and operated both theatres, sharing administrative resources but operating as two separate nonprofit theatres.
In 2002 the Pentagon selected Theatre IV’s production of Buffalo Soldier, written and directed by Bruce Miller, as a morale booster after September 11th. Theatre IV became the first professional theatre in the nation to perform within the Pentagon walls. The performance received a standing ovation from the packed auditorium, and was broadcast live throughout the Pentagon.
Having opened its doors on Christmas Day, 1911, the November Theatre is the state’s oldest major stage house and a linchpin in Virginia history. It operates today as the vibrant home of Virginia Repertory Theatre, and as a living museum commemorating and exploring the roles this landmark building has played in the rich cultural life of Central Virginia.
Built by Moses Hofheimer with an interior design by famed Italian artist Ferruccio Legnaioli, the November was named the Empire Theatre for the first three years of its existence. The Empire opened in 1911 on the final day of the century of mourning that followed the horrific Richmond Theatre fire of Dec 26, 1811. Seventy-two Richmonders had died in that blaze, including Virginia’s sitting Governor, George W. Smith, and former U. S. Senator Abraham B. Venable. That tragic event had been considered the worst urban disaster in America in its time.
With a keen focus on fire safety, Hofheimer modeled his Richmond Empire on the world-renowned Empire Theatre in New York, which had opened in 1893, and is credited today with starting what we now know as Broadway. Located at 1430 Broadway between 40th and 41st Streets, NYC’s Empire was the first theatre in that city to have been built with all electric lighting. Also, due to advances in digging equipment, the Empire was the only NY theatre in its time to feature a stage situated below street level, allowing audiences to enter and exit the rear of the house at street level, without having to negotiate stairs. Due to these singular features, New York’s Empire was famous for being “thoroughly fireproof.” Richmond’s Empire was the first theatre in Central Virginia to replicate all these advances.
The Empire was also Richmond’s first “air conditioned” theatre, allowing it to be open during the summers. Small tunnels can still be found inches beneath each aisle. Large blocks of ice were placed under the stage at the mouths of these passageways, and powerful electric fans blew across this ice sending chilled breezes up through floor vents situated near the ends of each row.
From 1911 through 1914, our historic November Theatre was named the Empire. It was Richmond’s first integrated theatre post Reconstruction. Virginia’s earliest Jim Crow Laws banned black theatregoers from all entertainments patronized by whites. Moses Hofheimer, developer of the Empire, proposed converting his theatre’s gallery (the top balcony) from a seating area reserved for the “gallery gods” (young white ruffians who filled a similar balcony at Richmond’s Academy of Music) to a segregated seating area for black audiences. At Hofheimer’s urging, Virginia’s Jim Crow Laws were re-written to state, “Every person… operating… any public hall, theater, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race.”
It seems regressive now, but Hofheimer’s efforts to seat black and white audiences under the same roof were progressive for their time. Forty-three years later, the founders of Barksdale Theatre would put the next nail in the coffin of Virginia’s Jim Crow theatre law. In 1954, Pete Kilgore and Muriel McAuley invited a group of professors and students from Virginia Union University to join their white audience at Hanover Tavern, sitting side by side. In open defiance of the law and risking arrest, they presented the first fully integrated performance in Virginia post Reconstruction.
When the Empire opened in 1911, it operated as a legitimate theatre, presenting live performances of great plays instead of vaudeville or silent movies. The renowned actress Lucille La Verne, a veteran of seven Broadway hits, assembled her own stock company at the Empire in 1913. She presented 80 performances in four months, selling 147,000 tickets! Edith Lindeman, Times-Dispatch theatre critic, wrote that the Empire “was a popular theater with audiences, especially on Wednesday matinees when each woman in attendance received a quarter-pound box of Huyler’s chocolates and a dainty linen handkerchief to wipe her eyes during the sad scenes.”
During its earliest days as a legitimate theatre (1911-1914), our historic November was known by its original name, the Empire. It was home to several national stars who worked in the Empire’s own stock company for several months out of every year, dividing their careers between Richmond, New York and the emerging film capital of Hollywood.
Prominent resident actors at the Empire included:
- Lucille La Verne – leading lady and manager of the stock company, best remembered for subsequently voicing the Wicked Queen and the crone with the poisoned apple in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ,
- Frank Morgan – the Empire’s juvenile lead who later achieved film immortality playing the title role in The Wizard of Oz,
- Edward Arnold – the Empire’s dashing leading man who went on to co-star as a character actor in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It with You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in the late 30s, and then served as President of the Screen Actors Guild,
- Mary Miles Minter – the stock company’s ingénue who later rivaled Mary Pickford as the silent movie era’s leading starlet, earning one of the first stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and
- John Bunny – the 300-pound comic who was the most popular movie star in the world from 1910 until his death in 1915. He starred in over a hundred silent films, made “more money that the President,” and his cherubic face was insured for the unheard of sum of $100,000.
In December 1914 the Empire was refitted for the emerging art form of film, and renamed the Strand, copying the name of the lavish NYC movie palace built the year before at the corner of Broadway and 47th. The Strand served until 1927 as one of Richmond’s most prominent and popular homes for film and vaudeville.
In 1927, a fire damaged the space, and it lay dark until it was re-opened in 1933 as the Booker T Theatre, which featured films and vaudeville performances until 1974.
In 1977 Theatre IV (now known as Virginia Rep) rented the Empire Theatre, launching its first main stage (non-touring) season of major productions designed to serve elementary age children and their families.
1986 event shortly after Theatre IV’s purchase of the theatre. Photo by P. Kevin Morely for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Theatre IV purchased the theatre and its neighboring Walker Theatre (which later became the Little Theatre and finally, Theatre Gym) in 1986. Restorations were completed in 1990, and Theatre IV presented performances for children and families in the renovated space, which they renamed the Empire Theatre.
Twenty-one years later, with the Empire in need of new renovations, Sara Belle and Neil November made a $2 million gift for restoration, and in 2012 the Empire Theatre was renamed the Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre.
Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV merged in 2012 to become Virginia Rep, and we continue to present performances at this downtown, historic theatre.
In 2013, the stage at the November Theatre was renamed to the Marjorie Arenstein Stage to honor the legacy of prominent Richmond actress, Marjorie Arenstein.
In 2018 the grand tier balcony was completely refurbished.
Hanover Tavern is one of the oldest taverns in the United States. The first tavern was licensed at the site beginning in 1733. When the Tavern was purchased by the editor of the Virginia Gazette in 1743, it was part of the plantation grounds at the courthouse, and it went on to serve as lodgings to those with appointments before the court.
Patrick Henry’s father-in-law purchased the tavern in 1750, and Patrick Henry lived at the Tavern for several years. Other memorable visitors include George Washington, Lord Cornwallis, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Edgar Allen Poe. Several enslaved people from the Tavern took part in Gabriel’s Great Slave Rebellion of 1800.
In 1953, six actors from New York moved into what had become a historic ruin, and founded Central Virginia’s first professional theatre, Barksdale Theatre. During the first six years, four of the original founders moved on, leaving Pete Kilgore, Muriel McAuley and newcomer (and newly-wed) Nancy Kilgore in charge. They produced Greater Richmond’s first professional productions of plays by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Thornton Wilder, William Inge and Edward Albee.
They also became dynamic civic leaders. In defiance of Jim Crow laws, Barksdale was Virginia’s first performing arts organization to open its doors to integrated audiences. Barksdale launched Greater Richmond’s first “studio season,” converting an old country store into an experimental theatre. Barksdale conducted Virginia’s first professional theatre classes for children.
In 1973, Barksdale produced Virginia’s first professional play based on African American experience, Lorraine Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted and Black.
In support of their theatrical mission, Pete, Muriel and Nancy continued the endless task of restoring the Tavern. Then in 1990, the Tavern was sold to the Hanover Tavern Foundation, who have restored the Tavern to its present state. Although Barksdale Theatre moved to Willow Lawn from 1996 to 2005, we returned theatrical programming to the Tavern in January 2006.
In 2012, Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV merged to become Virginia Repertory Theatre. We continue to perform at the Hanover Tavern.