Staunton’s population hit 26,801 people in the Census Bureau’s newest estimate, dated July 2025 and released this year.

That’s up from 25,75…

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Mayor Michele Edwards delivered a formal statement Friday on behalf of Staunton City Council stating that no data center project is planned, proposed, or under r…

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Staunton City Council sits down tonight to vote on the Staunton 2045 Comprehensive Plan, the document that will steer the city’s zoning and capital spe…

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This Week at a Glance

Two shootings broke out within a few hours of each other Wednesday, one at a Waynesboro elementary school and one in a Staunton shopping center parking lot, and the valley spent …

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This Week at a Glance

Four soap opera veterans reunite on a Staunton stage tonight for a play about the hardest conversations families have. The city’s fall heavy trash collection officially begins September 8, and residents need to hit the curb early, though city sources disagree on exactly how early. Staunton Police are warning residents about a caller posing as an officer and threatening arrest over missed jury duty, a scam that has surfaced with new sophistication nationwide this year. City Council takes up the Beverley Street intersection project tonight. Below, you’ll also find the return of Oak Grove Folk Music Festival, gas prices holding just under $3.90, and the rest of your weekly roundup.

Lead Stories

A World Premiere Rooted in Springfield, Staged in Staunton

Grant Aleksander spent parts of four decades playing Phillip Spaulding on “Guiding Light.” Tonight, he’s back on stage in Staunton, but this time the role belongs to a Staunton native, and the material comes from someplace much closer to home than daytime television.

“Devout,” written and directed by Sherry Ramsey, opens tonight at ShenanArts for a four-performance run through Sunday. Ramsey is herself a former soap opera actress and a Staunton native, and the play follows two brothers pulled back together by their father’s declining health, a subject she has described as pulling from her own family’s experience. The result, according to Ramsey, threads grief and long-buried resentment through scenes that force the brothers to confront not only each other, but the meaning of devotion, loyalty, and love.

The cast reunites three “Guiding Light” alumni: Aleksander, Michael O’Leary, and Robert Newman, alongside Los Angeles stage actor Robin Nuyen. The production runs as a benefit for ShenanArts Community Theater, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m., according to Augusta Free Press, whose editorial stance leans toward local business advocacy. Thursday’s show includes a post-performance talkback with the cast, and Friday’s talkback adds Ramsey to the conversation, per WHSV.

For a subject that could easily tip into melodrama, Ramsey insists the play finds room to laugh. One friend, she told Augusta Free Press, came up to her afterward feeling like she had walked out of a therapy session.

Tickets are available now through ShenanArts.

Fall Heavy Trash Collection Starts September 8

Staunton’s second heavy trash collection of the year begins Monday, September 8, marking the city’s first fall pickup under a twice-yearly schedule adopted this year as part of a broader trash modernization initiative, according to the city’s newsroom.

Here’s where it gets confusing. Items must be at the curb by 6:30 a.m. on September 8. Once collection crews pass through a neighborhood, they will not return, and anything set out late may sit until spring.

Unlike prior single-day sweeps, this fall’s collection runs over a full two-week window, with all pickups expected to wrap by Friday, September 19.

Large appliances, furniture, mattresses, and other bulky household items are fair game. Hazardous waste, car batteries, electronics, stumps, rocks, concrete, old vehicles, building materials, and tires are not. Residents holding onto any of those can instead use the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Household Hazardous Waste Day, set for Saturday, September 20, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Waynesboro Facilities Shop, 900 Essex Avenue.

The service is limited to residential trash customers; apartment and condo residents should check with their property managers. Questions can go to Public Works at 540.332.3892.

Staunton Police Warn of Caller Posing as Officer, Threatening Arrest Over Jury Duty

A caller identifying himself as a Staunton police officer has been telling residents to send money or face arrest over a missed jury duty date, according to a scam alert the Staunton Police Department posted this week. The department says the caller sent at least one target a fabricated arrest warrant to make the threat look more credible.

It isn’t. The department states plainly that it will not call demanding payment to avoid arrest, and it will not ask for credit card or other financial information over the phone.

That matches a broader pattern the Federal Trade Commission flagged in June 2026: scammers posing as law enforcement or court officials, sometimes with real names or addresses already in hand, followed by a fake document sent by text or email to add a veneer of legitimacy. The FTC’s guidance is unambiguous. No court demands payment over the phone, and no legitimate warrant arrives by text.

If you get a call like this, the department’s advice is simple. Don’t answer unfamiliar numbers, and if you do pick up and the conversation turns toward payment or personal information, hang up. Staunton Police can be reached at the non-emergency line, 540.332.3842, for anyone with questions or who believes they’ve been targeted.

Quick Hits

Historic Trades Day happens Saturday starting at 9 a.m. at 1290 Richmond Avenue, giving visitors a hands-on look at period craft demonstrations tied to the region’s history.

Jazz in the Park wraps its 2026 summer run September 3 at the Gypsy Hill Park Bandstand, with concerts continuing Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. through the season’s final week, free and open to the public.

The Tempest opens preview performances September 3 at Blackfriars Playhouse, the next production in the American Shakespeare Center’s rotating repertory season.

A comedy show hits the Visulite stage Friday at 9 p.m., part of the cinema’s occasional live performance bookings at 12 N. Augusta Street.

City Council takes up the Beverley Street and Johnson Street intersection project tonight, details below under Ongoing Threads.

Out & About

Friday, August 28

Comedy Show at the Visulite — 12 N. Augusta St., 9 p.m.

Saturday, August 29

Historic Trades Day — 1290 Richmond Ave., 9 a.m.

Live music at Heard & Friends — 16 S. New St., 7 p.m.

Ongoing Through Early September

Jazz in the Park Concert Series continues its free Thursday evening run at the Gypsy Hill Park Bandstand through September 3, weather permitting, rain or shine, according to WQSV.

ShenanArts Presents Devout

Full performance details are covered in this issue’s Lead Stories above. Tickets and showtimes are available at ShenanArts.org.

Blackfriars Playhouse

The American Shakespeare Center’s next production, “The Tempest,” begins preview performances Thursday, September 3, at 7:30 p.m. Full run dates and ticketing are available through the Blackfriars Playhouse box office.

River Watch

The South River at Waynesboro has been running within typical late-summer range this month, though a same-day reading requires checking the live gauge directly. For current stage data at Station 01626000, visit the USGS live dashboard. Anyone planning to wade, fish, or float should check conditions the morning of any outing, since levels can shift quickly after regional rain.

The Sneeze Index

Air quality in Staunton read Moderate this morning, with an AQI in the high 50s and PM2.5 as the main pollutant, according to IQAir’s live station data. That’s enough for sensitive groups to consider limiting prolonged outdoor exertion today, though it isn’t a concern for most healthy adults. Pollen is reading Low, with grass the only category showing any measurable presence; tree and weed pollen are both near zero for now. Conditions can shift through the day, so anyone with respiratory sensitivities should check the live dashboard before a long outdoor stretch.

The Weekly Pump

Virginia’s average price for regular gas dipped slightly to $3.90 a gallon as of Wednesday, August 26, down about two cents from the day before but still up sharply from a year ago, according to AAA data reported by WSLS. Premium is averaging about $4.80 a gallon, and diesel is running near $5.68. For comparison, Virginia drivers paid roughly 85 cents less per gallon of regular this time last year. Statewide, prices have been volatile week to week, driven largely by overseas refinery disruptions rather than anything local.

Real Estate Watch

The most recent published figures for Staunton, from earlier this year, showed a median sale price of $286,000 with homes averaging 55 days on market, up from 51 days the year before, according to Redfin’s housing data. Whether that pace and pricing still hold in late August takes a closer, more current look than aggregate data can offer. Anyone actively buying or selling should talk with a local agent who has direct MLS access, since sale-specific figures and current inventory shift week to week in ways broad reports don’t capture.

Who’s Hiring

Customer Service Technician (Part-Time) — Virginia DMV, Staunton CSC. Listed on Indeed.

Administrative Assistant — Peason Financial Group, Staunton. Listed on Indeed.

Visitor Center Assistant — Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, Staunton. Listed on Indeed.

Caregivers, PCAs, and CNAs — Right at Home Central Virginia, in-home senior care. Listed on ZipRecruiter.

Salary figures above are listed only when explicitly stated by the employer. Full listings and current openings can be found on Indeed and ZipRecruiter.

Ongoing Threads We’re Watching

The Northrop Grumman DEQ air permit still has no scheduled date for its second public hearing. We’re holding this story for an issue where we can give it the framing it deserves.

I-81 widening work remains on pace for northbound lanes to open late this fall, with full completion targeted for summer 2027.

Downtown tunnel repairs continue, with Byers Street reopened this month and New Street work underway. West Johnson Street isn’t expected to reopen until 2027.

The Beverley Street demonstration project’s permanent 2027 upgrade is on tonight’s docket. Staunton City Council is set to receive an update and hold a discussion on the Highway Safety Improvement Program study covering the Beverley and Johnson Street intersections at tonight’s regular meeting, August 27. As of the most recent published project update, the city was reviewing 30 percent design plans with VDOT, with a formal public hearing expected within one to two months and construction targeted for fall 2027. Tonight’s discussion may move that timeline. We’ll have specifics next issue.

Three Staunton bartenders are still headed to the Virginia Cocktail Games finals, live in Richmond on September 12.

Local Palate’s Best Culinary Town in the South winner won’t be announced until the December 15 print issue. Staunton remains a finalist.

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From The Stauntonian This Week

Two feature pieces posted this week:

The Deer, a Zoo, a Grave, and the Springs: How Gypsy Hill Park Became What It Is

One hundred thirty-seven years of Gypsy Hill Park history, starting with a German immigrant’s stone farmhouse built by Hessian prisoners of war and running through a private zoo, a monument to a founder who was never actually reburied beneath it, and a segregation history the city’s own official park history leaves out entirely. The piece traces how Staunton’s water supply, its oldest community band, and a family’s forgotten role in shaping two very different city parks all connect back to the same 85 acres.

A Warehouse, A Cattle Stockyard, and A Business Manager Who Couldn’t Make Payroll

How a graduate seminar on Shakespearean stagecraft, a borrowed cattle auction ring in Harrisonburg, and a newspaper photo that caught the right person’s eye led to the only re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater anywhere in the world, built on Beverley Street for just under $4 million. The Blackfriars Playhouse turns 25 this year, and the piece digs into the payroll crisis that nearly sank the company that built it, a detail most anniversary retrospectives leave out.

Note from the Editor

Tonight’s ShenanArts opening feels like a small reminder of what this town does well: it pulls people back. Sherry Ramsey left Staunton for a soap opera career and came home to write her first play about it. That kind of gravity doesn’t show up in a headline, but it shows up in a packed house.

Also tonight, City Council takes up the Beverley Street intersection project, so it’s a two-headline evening if you’re the type to split attention between civic duty and community theater. We’ll catch you up on both next week.

Got a tip, a correction, or an event we should know about? Use the news tip form, submit your event, or pitch your business, all under the Community menu at stauntonian.com.

*Correction: the email version of this week’s newsletter incorrectly numbered this issue as 34, when it is in fact issue 35. The web version has been corrected.

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In the fall of 1987, James Madison University professor Ralph Alan Cohen taught a seminar on Shakespearean stagecraft built around Henry V. The following spring he staged it, using a warehouse space dressed up to look like an Elizabethan yard, with student Jim Warren playing the lead and fifteen actors covering every role Shakespeare had written for the scene. Nobody involved has claimed it was a great production. The cast had a good enough time that Warren suggested they take the idea on the road. Cohen said yes. He’s since explained the decision as a matter of principle: “If I said no, I would be denying that this stuff would work.”

That yes produced the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, and the Express eventually produced the Blackfriars Playhouse, the only re-creation anywhere of Shakespeare’s indoor theater, which opened in downtown Staunton in September 2001 and turns 25 this year.

Fourteen High Schools and a Room Full of Scholars

The company started cheap and stayed cheap on purpose. Its first tour hit fourteen rural high schools with a trimmed-down Richard III, no sets to speak of, actors doubling up roles, pacing kept brisk because nobody had the budget for anything else. Two years in, the company played Julius Caesar for a conference room of Shakespeare scholars in Philadelphia. Cohen went in braced for humiliation. Instead the scholars loved it, and a prominent critic later wrote in Shakespeare Quarterly that he hadn’t thought about the plays the same way since seeing them perform. By 1992 the company was paying its actors and touring three shows a year, with stops at the Folger Shakespeare Library and dates overseas.

The idea for an actual building came from a cattle auction ring. A visiting scholar in 1996 asked Cohen if he knew Harrisonburg had an Elizabethan theater, then walked him to a stockyard: one door for animals coming in, one for animals going out, an auctioneer’s platform in the middle, functionally a theater in the round. Cohen borrowed the space for a scene and called the local paper, who sent a photographer. A former Staunton hotelier named Joe Harmon saw that photo and phoned Cohen with a question nobody had asked him before, would you be interested in building a real theater in Staunton.

That conversation sat mostly still for two years, a few meetings of a local boosters group and not much else. Then in 1998 a separate Richmond effort, aiming to build a Globe Theatre replica, approached Shenandoah Shakespeare about partnering. The Staunton talks picked up fast after that, and the ambition grew alongside them. Building a re-creation from scratch either way, the reasoning went, so why not re-create the specific building Shakespeare’s own company had performed in, the original indoor Blackfriars, gone from London since 1655 and never rebuilt anywhere in the 350 years since.

No blueprints of the original survived. Architect Tom McLaughlin worked from surviving Tudor buildings, court records, probate documents, and construction plans for later theaters influenced by the Blackfriars, with input from former Shakespeare’s Globe research director Andrew Gurr. The finished building, all timber, built of Virginia oak and fitted into a modern storefront on Beverley Street, cost just under $4 million and opened on schedule in September 2001, funded by a partnership between the city, Augusta County, the Commonwealth, and private donors.

The Week Payroll Almost Didn’t Clear

The theater nearly sank the organization that built it. By the mid-2000s, incoming business manager Tony Smith discovered in his first week on the job that the company didn’t have cash on hand to make payroll, even in weeks when it was otherwise flush. Smith called the finances what they were, the casual dysfunction typical of a creative nonprofit, and started treating the business side with the same discipline the actors brought to rehearsal. The education programs, the group ticket sales, the scholarly conferences that had grown up around the touring years turned out to be load-bearing, not extra, the thing actually keeping the lights on rather than a nice add-on to the mission. Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Virginia Commission on the Arts stopped being optional and became structural. The organization posted its first profitable year not long after, and started building an endowment around the same time.

That near miss doesn’t make it into most of the anniversary materials, but it’s the part of the story that actually explains the outcome. Small-town arts projects open with grant money and a ribbon-cutting all the time and quietly fold once the excitement wears off. This one nearly did. What kept it from happening was unglamorous, better bookkeeping, an honest accounting of which programs actually paid the bills, and a willingness to lean on public arts funding instead of treating it as beneath a serious company.

Twenty-Five Years Later

The company formally became the American Shakespeare Center in 2005. It built the country’s first MFA program in Shakespeare and Performance with Mary Baldwin, started a recurring international scholarly conference, and picked up the Commonwealth’s Governor’s Arts Award in 2009 for turning Staunton into something people travel for. This year marks 25 seasons since that first performance in the Playhouse.

None of it was inevitable at any of the points along the way, a rented warehouse in Harrisonburg, a borrowed cattle ring, a newspaper photo that caught the wrong, or right, person’s eye, a payroll crisis that could have ended things quietly. The building that exists instead is timber joinery and candlelit staging modeled on a theater that vanished from London in 1655, tucked into a storefront on a street that also sells cigars and gelato a few doors down.

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