An invitation from Ralph Alan Cohen, Semester in London’s founder

Dear Semester in London Alums,

Both as the founder of Semester in London and as the Founding Executive Director of the American Shakespeare Center and the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, I want to add my personal invitation and tell you why it is so appropriate that the ASC host part of your reunion. 

If you have been to the Blackfriars Playhouse, then you know that the shows that go on there are first-rate and the building itself is a beautiful recreation of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre (lauded repeatedly by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal).  What you may not realize is the extent to which the theatre is a direct outgrowth of Semester in London.  Running that program gave me the opportunity see more productions of Shakespeare – good and bad – than any English lit professor ever has.  More importantly, it gave me the opportunity to see those shows with you – with thirty bright, engaged young people who eagerly shared their views of what was good and what was bad.  Those conversations gave me the gumption to think it I could do it and the gall to think I could do it better.  My co-founder Jim Warren was one of you, and his shared interest in producing unfussy, accessible, and immediate shows led us to begin Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, which morphed into the ASC. 

As to the Blackfriars Playhouse itself, that too came directly from Semester in London and our wonderful ties to the people who built the Globe and, especially, to Patrick Spottiswoode, who taught me that the virtue of recreating an early modern theatre was not its importance to antiquarians but its value to audiences today.  I believe you will see that in our production of Henry the Fourth, Part I, the play that the RSC chose to open their new theatre at the Barbican in fall 1979, when James Madison University first opened its doors on Gower Street.  I think this show – particularly the pub scenes with Falstaff – will make you feel you’re back in London.

I hope that you can come to our reunion in November, and, if you do, I hope that when you walk into the Blackfriars Playhouse you will feel, as you should, that it is yours.

Sincerely,

Ralph Alan Cohen

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