Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror
Two screenings: 6:00 pm & 8:00 pm

A wild journey into the origins of The Rocky Horror Picture Show — the biggest cult film of all time. Whether you were there at the midnight screenings in the '70s and '80s, experienced it later, or just remember the buzz, Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is a chance to revisit -- and more deeply understand -- the cultural phenomenon that outlasted every prediction of its demise.

The documentary traces the film's unlikely rise, from a scrappy London stage show to a lasting fixture of pop culture, through interviews with Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and the man who started it all, Richard O'Brien. O'Brien wrote the original stage musical in 1973 as a young, out-of-work actor, then co-wrote the screenplay for the 1975 film and played the role of Riff Raff on screen himself. More than fifty years later, Rocky Horror's blend of B-movie horror, glam rock, and gleeful defiance of convention has made it a lasting touchstone — especially for audiences who found in it a place to belong.

The film is directed by O'Brien's own son, Linus, giving this origin story a personal vantage point on how Rocky Horror found its audience and never let go.

Tickets: $11 general admission and special $5 ticket for Shepherd University students and staff

Rated: not rated

Runtime: 90 mins

General admission. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Advanced purchase encouraged. Popcorn, candy, soft drinks available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Three film students vanish in the Maryland woods while shooting a documentary on a local legend — the Blair Witch. A year later, their footage is found.

Told entirely through the students' own camcorder, this 1999 horror landmark trades jump scares for creeping dread, pioneering the "found footage" style that's shaped horror filmmaking ever since.

Presented in partnership with the Center for Appalachian Studies & Communities at Shepherd University, the screening includes comments by Allison Gunn — a Shepherd University graduate student in Appalachian Studies focused on folklore, and author of the Appalachian horror novel Nowhere — moderated by Professor Ben Bankhurst.

Date of release: 1999

Film runtime: 87 minutes

Rated R (due to language)

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy vaudeville-era theater that seats 100 people. Advance reservations encouraged to ensure seating. General Admission.

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer & wine available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

Hearing-impaired? Download the app AudioFetch on your phone (iPhone or Android) for use with Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids.

More information available on OperaHouseLive.com.

Do you believe in magic? We do!

The Shepherdstown Opera House is THRILLED to serve as the West Virginia stop on Josh Farley's Magic Across America Tour — fifty states, fifty theatres, one year, bringing a rare chance to catch this nationally touring show in our region.

Farley has appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Masters of Illusion Live!, and Celebrities of Magic, and brings a show built on sleight of hand, illusion, and audience participation.

Performer website: https://joshfarley.com/

Want to get closer to the magic? Add a VIP Experience for just $15 more — arrive at 1:45 PM for an intimate up-close magic segment, front-section seating, a signed tour poster, and a chance to meet Josh Farley and ask him your questions before the show.

VIP Experience: Doors open 1:45 pm with access to front-section seats

Regular: Doors open 2:30 pm (general admission)

All ages

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy theater that seats 100 — advance ticket purchase encouraged. Online sales end 1 hour before showtime. Beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks for sale during the performance (ID required for beer & wine purchase, no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

Small Town Universe

Directed by Katie Dellamaggiore​



In Green Bank, West Virginia, modern technology goes quiet so a giant radio telescope can listen for signals from the universe.

What might we hear in the silence?

Small Town Universe explores life in a remote town called Green Bank, West Virginia — where restrictions on wireless technology, like cell phones and Wi-Fi, enable the work of the Green Bank Telescope, which happens to be the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.

This made-in-WV film follows four people whose lives are intertwined with the town and its namesake telescope: a young woman dreaming of a career in astrophysics, a retired engineer reflecting on his legacy, a longtime local rooted in Green Bank's history, and a newcomer embracing life off-the-grid. As federal funding hangs in the balance, their futures are inextricably tied to the survival of this scientific marvel and the Quiet Zone that makes it all possible.

A discussion will follow the film, to include in-person Q&A with:

• Ellie Smith - featured in the film who is now a PhD student at WVU
• Deana Smith - Ellie's mom
• Professor Maura McLaughlin, Chair, WVU Physics & Astronomy Department
• Filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore - via Zoom

Film website: smalltownuniversefilm.com

Run time: 90 minutes followed by optional discussion/Q&A

Rating: Suitable for middle schoolers and up

General admission. Tickets are Pay-what-you-can ($10 suggested). Proceeds will support Small Town Universe film distribution and the Shepherdstown Opera House.

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Advanced purchase encouraged.

Small Term Universe's distribution is supported by the Country Roads Angel Network (CRAN).

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Welcome to the Hitchcock Architecture of Suspense Film Festival at the Shepherdstown Opera House

October 30 - November 1, 2026

Three hosted screenings with live introduction and post-film discussion by author Christine Madrid French, author of the acclaimed book "The Architecture of Suspense"

Costumes Invited! Come dressed as your favorite Hitchcock character, a building from the films, the mood of suspense—or the master director himself.

Click here for more information on the Film Festival and to buy a discounted ticket for the entire Festival (all three film blocks including author talks and Q&A sessions). Can't come to all three films? No problem, you can buy single-film tickets, too!

Film Block #1

Psycho (1960)

Hitchcock's famous thriller about a psychotic motel owner who obsesses over his late, controlling mother while becoming the prime suspect in a murder case involving one of his recent guests, a pretty secretary who checked into the Bates Motel after impulsively stealing $40,000 and never checked out.

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam

Program time: Film is 108 minutes + presentation/Q&A

Age Rating: R

General admission. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Advanced purchase encouraged. Refreshments available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Accessibility: Theater is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible restroom. Hearing assistance: The Opera House uses the AudioFetch system to enable patrons to receive movie sound on their own phones and listen via their Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. For instructions, look for instructions on our website (OperaHouseLive.com) under "Planning Your Visit."

Plan Your Visit: Parking and other helpful information available on OperaHouseLive.com under "Plan Your Visit."

Welcome to the Hitchcock Architecture of Suspense Film Festival at the Shepherdstown Opera House

October 30 - November 1, 2026

Three hosted screenings with live introductions and post-film discussion by author Christine Madrid French, author of the acclaimed book "The Architecture of Suspense"

Costumes Invited! Come dressed as your favorite Hitchcock character, a building from the films, the mood of suspense—or the master director himself.

Click here for more information on the Film Festival and to buy a discounted ticket for the entire Festival (all three film blocks including author talks and Q&A sessions). Can't attend all three films? No problem, you can buy single-film tickets, too!

Film Block #2

North by Northwest (1959)

Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock's greatest thrillers. While leaving New York's Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name "George Kaplan" is paged--starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him--and by police who suspect him of murder.

Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Philip Ober

Program time: Film is 136 minutes + presentation/Q&A

Age Rating: TV-PG

General admission. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Advanced purchase encouraged. Refreshments available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Accessibility: Theater is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible restroom. Hearing assistance: The Opera House uses the AudioFetch system to enable patrons to receive movie sound on their own phones and listen via their Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. For instructions, look for instructions on our website (OperaHouseLive.com) under "Planning Your Visit."

Plan Your Visit: Parking and other helpful information available on OperaHouseLive.com under "Plan Your Visit."

Welcome to the Hitchcock Architecture of Suspense Film Festival at the Shepherdstown Opera House

October 30 - November 1, 2026

Three hosted screenings with live introduction and post-film discussion by author Christine Madrid French, author of the acclaimed book "The Architecture of Suspense"

Costumes Invited! Come dressed as your favorite Hitchcock character, a building from the films, the mood of suspense—or the master director himself.

Click here for more information on the Film Festival and to buy a discounted ticket for the entire Festival (all three film blocks including author talks and Q&A sessions). Can't come to all three films? No problem, you can buy single-film tickets, too!

Film Block #3

Vertigo (1958)

A retired cop, afflicted with acrophobia, agrees to shadow the wife of an old acquaintance, who fears that she may be suicidal.

Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

Program time: Film is 129 minutes + presentation/Q&A

Age Rating: PG

General admission. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Advanced purchase encouraged. Refreshments available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Accessibility: Theater is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible restroom. Hearing assistance: The Opera House uses the AudioFetch system to enable patrons to receive movie sound on their own phones and listen via their Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. For instructions, look for instructions on our website (OperaHouseLive.com) under "Planning Your Visit."

Plan Your Visit: Parking and other helpful information available on OperaHouseLive.com under "Plan Your Visit."

Clueless (1995)
Presented in partnership with Shepherd University

The Shepherdstown Opera House welcomes high schoolers, Shepherd University students, and the whole community for a screening of Amy Heckerling's iconic 1995 comedy Clueless.

Before the film, Professor Valerie Stevens of Shepherd University's Department of English and Modern Languages will offer a short introduction on how the film reimagines Jane Austen's Emma for 1990s Beverly Hills — and how a 200-year-old novel can still inspire great storytelling today.

Admission is Pay-What-You-Will.

Runtime: 97 min + short talk

Rated PG-13

General admission. Seating is limited. Advance purchase encouraged. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Join us for a night of Film, Friendship, and FolkSong!

Film: Fisherman's Friends (2020). Fun comedy/rom-com inspired by a true story of a group of friends that became the "UK's #1 Bouy Band." A fast living, cynical London music executive heads to a remote Cornish village on a stag weekend where he's pranked by his boss into trying to sign a group of shanty singing fishermen. He struggles to gain the respect or enthusiasm of the unlikely boy band who value friendship and community over fame and fortune. Plenty of music and great characters.

Age Rating: PG-13

Film Runtime: 112 minutes

Song: After the film, members of the Appalachian Adaptation Sea Shanty Society (AASSS) will rouse you with a few songs and a bit of background on the sea shanty. Singing along encouraged!

Thank you for paying what you can for your tickets to support special events like these at the Shepherdstown Opera House.

General admission ("pay what you can")

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy vaudeville-era theater — advance reservations encouraged. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer & wine available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

In 2014, filmmaker Thaddeus Lamar embarked on a journey to hike all 2,185 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Bringing several digital cameras, he captured an adventure that proved to be as intense and grueling as it was ultimately rewarding. Over 100 other hikers also shared their stories of adventure, hardship, and camaraderie. Out of this emerged Barbarian Utopia: Encounters on the Appalachian Trail, a 91-minute documentary about a great American resource, the history behind it, and the community that surrounds it.

After the film, our audience will enjoy a live Q&A via zoom with filmmaker Thad Lamar.

FIlm website: https://www.barbarianutopiafilm.com/

This special screening event is presented courtesy of the filmmaker and in cooperation with the Appalachian Trail Museum.

Admission is Pay-What-You-Can.

General admission. Seating is limited. Advance purchase encouraged. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

A Shepherdstown Film Society Selection

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Directed by Mel Brooks

2026 marks Mel Brooks' 100th birthday — join us for this screening of one of his milestone films.

Blazing Saddles is one of the boldest and most enduring comedies ever made — a gleefully anarchic send-up of the American Western that uses the genre to skewer racism, corruption, and small-town ignorance with devastating wit. When a corrupt political boss schemes to drive out a frontier town by appointing the first Black sheriff in the West, his plan backfires spectacularly.

Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, with Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman in inspired supporting turns, the film is as sharp and as raucously funny today as it was fifty years ago. Written with Richard Pryor.

Age Rating: R

Runtime: 93 minutes

Post-film discussion: Facilitated discussion follows the film for those who wish to stay.

Thank you for paying what you can for your tickets to support the Film Society at the Shepherdstown Opera House.

General admission ("pay what you can")

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy vaudeville-style theater — advance reservations encouraged. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer & wine available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

Beauty and the B Flats is a vocal and instrumental jazz band from right here in music-loving Shepherdstown, WV!

Bringing diverse backgrounds and experiences to their collaboration, these talented performers play jazz standards from the Great American Songbook by artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Doris Day, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, as well as Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and many others.

Come out for a night of wonderful jazz!

Artist Links:

Website: Beautyandthebflats.com

Instagram: beautyandthebflats

Tickets: $12 advance/$15 door. Sales tax and ticket processing fee additional. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Seating in the historic Shepherdstown Opera House is limited, advance purchase encouraged. Online sales end 1 hour before showtime. Beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks for sale during the performance (ID required for beer & wine purchase, no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses  
By Christopher Hampton

Based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Directed by Marianne Elliott

BAFTA Award-winner Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) joins Aidan Turner (Rivals) in a striking new staging of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of the classic novel, where among the glittering salons of the super-rich, one misstep can mean ruin.

Marquise de Merteuil is a master in the art of survival. Alongside the magnetic Vicomte de Valmont, they turn seduction into strategy and weaponize desire. But when their alliance collapses into rivalry, the battle between them threatens to destroy everyone in their path.

Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre, Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) directs this thrilling game of love, lies, and social warfare.

Age Rating: Equivalent to R due to dark themes and sexual content

Running Time: approx. 150 minutes (including intermission)

General admission. The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy vaudeville-era theater that seats 100 — advance reservations encouraged. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Online reservations end 1 hour before showtime. Popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer & wine available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please).

Accessibility: Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible. We use the AudioFetch system to support patrons who use hearing aids (download the AudioFetch app from Apple or Google app stores for free and use with bluetooth-enabled hearing aids).

Cookie Queens(2026)

Four Girl Scouts, ages 5 to 12, chase their cookie-selling goals during a single high-stakes season in this candid, funny, and surprisingly moving documentary — a coming-of-age story hiding inside America's biggest bake sale.

Director Alysa Nahmias (an Emmy winner for Art & Krimes by Krimes) turns the $800 million Girl Scout Cookie business into a lens on ambition, resilience, and growing up.

The film premiered at Sundance and won the Audience Award at SXSW before landing a theatrical release — with an unlikely pair of executive producers: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, herself a former Girl Scout.

Doors open 30 minutes before show begins.

Pay-What-You-Can ($10 suggested). Ticket revenue proceeds will support the Shepherdstown Opera House, Girl Scout Troop 15099, and SHARE, a local fund for camp scholarships and uniforms.

Rated G

Runtime: 91 minutes

Presented with support from Shepherdstown-based Girl Scout Troop 15099.

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy vaudeville-era theater that seats 100 people. Advance reservations encouraged to ensure seating. General Admission. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer & wine available for purchase (no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

Hearing-impaired? Download the app AudioFetch on your phone (iPhone or Android) for use with Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids.

More information available on OperaHouseLive.com.

20th Anniversary Reunion Concert with the ORIGINAL Speakeasy Boys

Just after the turn of the millennium, some boys began pickin’ down by the river. That Sunday pickin’ circle would eventually blossom into the iconic Shepherdstown music juggernaut known as the Speakeasy Boys. In 2006, the Speakeasy Boys held an epic concert at the Opera House to celebrate the release of their first and arguably most professionally recorded album, Speakeasy Boys.

Over the years, the cast of characters has evolved, but now, 20 years later, as a celebration of that milestone event, the band’s original lineup will be playing a reunion concert at the Shepherdstown Opera House: Jesse Shultzaberger, Ryan Guerrero, Scott Schmied, Matt Robinson, Robbie Carruthers, Nathan Webb, and Gail Parker.

Is this a once-in-a-lifetime reunion or the beginning of a new epoch in band history? Come find out on Saturday, November 21, 2026 and join us in living our lives “the Speakeasy way.” 

General Admission

Doors open 7:30 pm

The historic Shepherdstown Opera House is a cozy theater that seats 100 — advance ticket purchase encouraged. Online sales end 1 hour before showtime. Beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks for sale during the performance (ID required for beer & wine purchase, no outside food or drinks please). Lobby, theater & restroom are wheelchair accessible.

The beloved 1964 family film - on everyone’s list of Christmas favorites. Come introduce your next generation to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Afterwards, walk around beautiful Shepherdstown to see Santa arrive and the annual lighting of the Holiday Tree.

Run time: 1 hour

Popcorn, candy, soft drinks available for purchase. No outside food or drinks, please.

General admission, advanced reservations encouraged. Please arrive early. Reservations released 10 min prior to showtime.