Introduction

AllAboutWayside.com is an attempt to document the fifty-year history of the Wayside Theatre that produced live, professional theatre in Middletown, Virginia. It is by no means a complete document, as there are still many unanswered questions. But, it does attempt to tell the story of this organization and give an overview of what took place on its stage, along with the impact this theatre had on the cultural life of the Shenandoah Valley. As it is a work in progress, it will be updated, amended, and corrected as material comes to the author’s attention. Most of the writing completed to date covers the years from 1963 – 1998. The remaining years will be dealt with at some point in the future.

The organization for this document is chronological beginning with the founding of the Theatre and its earliest productions, with a year-by-year chronology of performances. The last fifteen years up to the time of the theatre’s closing will be added at a later date. The discussion of each year is based on Information found in the theatre’s playbills, newspaper reviews of productions, articles dealing with various theatre activities, along with information from personal contacts. The Appendix deals with topics that span more than a single year as well as topics of a non-performance nature.

Frequently cited newspaper titles are abbreviated as follows: