Alabama Shakespeare Festival

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The Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) is one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the world. It attracts more than 300,000 annual visitors from all 50 states and over 60 countries, to its home in Montgomery, Alabama.

ASF operates year-round, producing 12-14 world-class productions annually, typically including three works of William Shakespeare. The remaining plays sample various genres and playwrights, sometimes with an emphasis on Southern playwrights. ASF's Southern Writers Project nurtures the creation of new plays that reflect Southern themes.

ASF had humble beginnings in 1972 as a summer stock theater project in Anniston, housed at the Anniston High School auditorium. Eventually, the Shakespeare Festival grew to garner critical acclaim, but lacked the financial support to keep it afloat. In December of 1985, ASF moved to Montgomery, as the result of Mr. And Mrs. Winton Blount's $21.5-million gift of a performing arts complex set in a 250 acre (1 km²) park, the Winton M. Blount Cultural Park. The Carolyn Blount Theatre houses two separate stages, the 750-seat Festival Stage and the 225 seat Octagon Theatre.

ASF operates a Professional Actor Training program leading to the M.F.A. degree in cooperation with the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance. Tony-winning actor Norbert Leo Butz, and Emmy Award winning actor Michael Emerson are two of this program's most successful alumni.

Since 1998, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts moved into the park and across from the Shakespeare Theatre.

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