Tag: ASF

Literally “Behind the Scenes” — Buzz at ASF
Something amazing is about to happen at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. More precisely, it is going to happen in the scene shop. Maybe you, like us, have never really given the scene shop much thought. We’ve only been to the “front of the house” at ASF. The “front of the house” is where you traditionally get […]

King Lear at ASF
Sometimes it can be a pain to get exactly what you’ve been asking for. But in the case of King Lear at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, we felt vindicated by our constant requests that ASF perform more of the Bard’s high-powered originals. It’s not that we’re against the family-friendly fare (like Mary Poppins or The […]

Time to Wonder: A Review of ASF’s Alice in Wonderland
The story of Alice in Wonderland is a childhood classic that manages to transcend adolescence, being simultaneously a nonsense story for children and a witty commentary on the business of growing up. The anthropomorphic inhabitants of Wonderland are an exaggerated representation of how a child sees the familiar but foreign adult world. Changing perspective is […]

Timon of Athens
Saturday, April 26, marked the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s baptism as well as the “Modern English World Premiere” of Timon of Athens at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, completing ASF’s production of Shakespeare’s canon. Timon, co-written with Thomas Middleton, is according to the esteemed scholar known as the wikipedia, “generally regarded as one of [Shakespeare’s] […]

How to Make a Decison About Shakespeare
We got a press release saying that the Shakespeare Festival was doing a performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on Tuesday. But should we go? In hopes that it will be helpful to you in making future decisions about your social calendar, here’s how I thought about it: 1) Do I know anything about Twelfth Night? […]

Spelling Bee at the Shakespeare Festival
The first strange thing we noticed was the numbered placard hanging around William Shakespeare’s neck. He’d been designated number 23 and as we entered, a woman standing underneath his statue was signing up audience members to participate in the titular bee. Although we both have competitive bee experience, we were wary, and took our seats. […]

ASF: NANTA Cooking Show
Offered in part to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Hyundai’s billion dollar groundbreaking in Montgomery, NANTA Cooking Show breaks new ground of its own at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The hit South Korean show (you can see a preview here) focuses on a set of cooks (and their boss, a comic foil) preparing a wedding banquet. […]

Cyclops: A Rock Opera
It’s not often that a press release crosses our desk using the phrase “face melting.” But it did. And readers, we are pretty psyched to see “CYCLOPS: A Rock Opera” over at the Alabama Shakespeare Theater this Saturday night. We are also proud to have exclusive video footage of the rehearsal featuring local performers. But […]

Halloween Idea Factory
We have already been clear that Halloween is our favorite holiday. We are willing to debate all takers about the superiority of Halloween in the pantheon of American festivals. Still, some of you out there may be scrambling for ideas during this exciting time. We’re here to help. This Halloween you could: Ride the Harriott […]

Halloween Stories
In an era of instant digital gratification and flashy and expensive CGI effects, the ancient art of storytelling seems sometimes to be teetering on extinction’s edge. The rituals of Halloween, so much about telling stories (“and he was hiding in her back seat ALL ALONG”) sometimes seem to be disappearing in favor of the pre-packaged […]
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