[6] The first show performed by the newly organized company was Richard III, where actors who made up the locally travelling ensemble troupe came from James Madison University's current students and graduates, and the performance was two hours long (compared to a more typical three hour plus run time).

[7] In 1990, the company started performing multiple shows in rotating repertory with a season of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar.

In 1997, the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express introduced the Young Company Theatre Camp, a three-week intensive summer program for high school students.

The performances incorporated acoustic music, a piano, and a three-sided thrust stage, all of which were selected to maximize audience engagement.

A fairly new concept across the theatrical field, a managing group of department heads that represent diverse perspectives, needs, and expertise that make major decisions for the company together through consensus.

Chair of the board of trustees, Kim West said "Vanessa embodies the energy, hope and joy of our mission to illuminate the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, both classical and modern.

"[13] The ASC's 2024 season included Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

[16] Plays[17][18] As of Fall 2022, new cycles of the SNC Initiative are currently on hold as they work through titles paused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[22] Built inside a brick shell, it is a wood-pegged, post-and-beam structure,[21] made of Virginia oak,[20] with a hammerbeam roof.

[26] The American Shakespeare Center gives its audiences some of the same experiences that an Elizabethan playgoer would have enjoyed by following the basic principles of Renaissance theatrical production - including Universal Lighting (audience and actors share the same pool of light), Doubling (one actor playing multiple roles in a show), cross-gender casting (men playing female characters and vice versa), and minimal sets.

ASC Education offers workshops, performances, staged readings, lectures, a biennial international conference, teacher training, archival materials for scholarly research, and summer programs for teens and adults.

The ASC is in partnership with Mary Baldwin University in the one-of-a-kind MLitt/MFA Shakespeare and Performance graduate program for actors, directors, teachers, and dramaturgs.