Lend me your ears. Broadway hath nothing on the Bard in Alabama and neither does jolly olde England. I should know. I've enjoyed some of London's and New York's best stage shebangs and marveled at the large-scale productions where headliners float on massive hydraulic sets amid fireworks and fancy costumes. I can honestly tell you that I've never had a better theater experience than at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF).
Theater Is the Thing
Alas, I can't deny that Montgomery, the state's sleepy capital, seems an unlikely place for the world's sixth largest Shakespeare
festival. There's even a running joke among visiting actors and designers seeing the Carolyn Blount Theatre for the first
time. "They often make a loud exclamation," says ASF artistic director Kent Thompson. "They never expect the splendor and
elegance of this building, especially in Alabama." It's true. When rounding that slow curve in Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park
and taking on a full view of the sprawling 100,000-square-foot complex, it's hard not to gasp. The redbrick structure, based
on the designs of a 16th-century Italian architect, stands regal before a small lake, complete with black swans.
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