Disguises, an ASF Southern Writers' Project play on the Festival Stage in Montgomery, AL, May 23-June 27, 2004, is described this way in the season announcement: "Starting life as a watchmaker, Monsieur Caron became Caron de Beaumarchais — musician, courtier, revolutionary, patriot, spy, and in his spare time, playwright. The playwright of the famous comedies The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville became the darling of the French court, but would his spectacular success as a playwright destroy his other ambitions? Even Napoleon said, 'If I had been King, a man such as he would have been locked up already…The Marriage of Figaro is already the revolution in action."
Artistic director Kent Thompson's season features nine works, including a six-show repertory season and two Southern Writers' Project productions.
The season includes:
The Secret Garden the death-and-rebirth themed coming-of-age tale set on the Yorkshire moors by Frances Hodgson Burnett, adapted for the stage by Paul Ledoux, Festival Stage, Nov. 9-Dec. 21.
Season's Greetings, Alan Ayckbourn's comedy of one family's terrible Christmas season, The Octagon, Nov. 16-Dec. 21, 2003.Cookin' at the Cookery (The Life and Times of Alberta Hunter), the music-filled tale of blues singer Hunter making a late-career appearance in Greenwich Village, by Marion J. Caffey, Festival Stage, Jan. 4-Feb. 15, 2004.Macbeth, Shakespeare's bloody tragedy of ambition and madness, by William Shakespeare, Festival Stage, Feb. 29-June 27, 2004.Proof, David Auburn's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play about the daughter of a mad math genius and the gift and curse she may have inherited, The Octagon, March 7-June 27, 2004.Steel Magnolias, Robert Harling's Louisiana tale of a group of women who cry and laugh through life's hardships and triumphs, Festival Stage, March 28-June 24 24, 2004.Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare's gory revenge tragedy, The Octagon, April 4-June 24, 2004.The Fula from America (An African Journey), Carlyle Brown's exploration of cultural identity based on his travels in West Africa, a Souther Writers' Project event, The Octagon, May 16-June 27, 2004. Subscriber packages range from $117 to $323 and are on sale now. Single tickets will go on sale approximately six to eight weeks prior to the first performance of any show. For more information call the ASF Box Office toll free at (800) 841-4273 or (334) 271-5353.
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The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is the sixth largest Shakespeare theatre in the world. Designated as The State Theatre of Alabama, ASF has been located in Montgomery since 1985 when it moved from Anniston as a result of Mr. and Mrs. Wynton M. Blount's gift of a performing arts complex set in the 250-acre Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park.
Visit www.asf.net.
