We had a wonderful final rehearsal for Alabama Story today.  I can safely say that this was one of the most exciting weeks that I have experienced here at ASF.  With so many wonderful artist collaborating and helping to get these plays and stories told for the first time I was reminded of why fell in love with theater.  A play starts its life as a spark of inspiration in a playwright’s mind, but it take dozens of talented individuals to bring it life, and that is exactly what I have witnessed this week at ASF.  We hope you will come check out Alabama Story this Sunday at 10:00 AM at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Today was a day that focused on cementing the work we did on the music on May 3rd and also giving honest feedback to the playwright. Work shopping a creative work always has the potential to become something negative if you have the wrong group of people collaborating with each other, but the cast has been exceptionally constructive with their feedback and Mr. Vigilant is gladly and enthusiastically hearing others’ opinions. A creative work is extremely personal and almost always tremendously important to the one who created it. It can be very difficult to hear a group of people talk about it critically, but Mr. Vigilant clearly knows the value of the workshop process and is making the most of our brief time together. Who knows what could change int he coming days?

5/5/2013

Michael took the time over the weekend and came in today with a bunch of changes that have drastically improved the show. Characters are becoming more developed, their relationships mean more, and the cast is showing an ever-growing command of the material. There is still plenty to do, but already the show has grown and it is amazing to think about how different it was just a few days ago. It is fascinating to work on something one day and then have it be profoundly different the next. There is a lot of creativity happening in Studio A at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and we can’t wait to give this show to our patrons!

  “Our second day of Provenance rehearsals began with a rewrite of Act 1.  The playwright, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, shared an intimate look with us at her first draft notes and a window into her process of revision.  Wilder hand writes all notes then transfers them onto each page for visual reference as she revisits her digital copy page by page.  Day 3 promises updates and revisions for Act 2 culminating in a completely new draft before Friday’s 4pm performance!”

Don’t miss Elyzabeth at 3:15 p.m. on Friday, May 10 in the Black Swan where she’ll talk about her creative process prior to the performance of Provenance. (Even better–reserve a spot at the SWP dinner reception afterwards by calling Stan Thomas at 334.271-5330–and spend some time with the actors, directors and playwrights that make SWP possible!)

The interns at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival read the three plays that won the Youth Southern Writers’ Project.

The plays that were read in the garden next to the Festival on a beautiful sunny afternoon were: Light in My Darkness by Shejuti Paul, Jenny by Ivy Kilpatrick and Solitude by Gabrielle Lindley.

There is still time to buy tickets to CYCLOPS: A Rock Opera which is this evening at 11 p.m. And don’t forget tomorrow’s final production in the Festival of Plays for the Southern Writers’ Workshop, Concessions by Brian Richard Mori.

Sparks fly when the lives of three married couples become entangled in this hilarious,sexy comedy of outrageous infidelity and revenge. As the 2000 Presidential election results unfold, so do the laughs. Did the Russians really fix the 1984 Olympics? IsGuam even a state? And who the heck has won Florida? Come see this side-splitting comedy which asks the question: can love survive its toughest opponent – marriage?

The play begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Octagon Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can still be purchased at the door.

Ginneh Thomas as Sally Hemings and Jack Koenig as Thomas Jefferson rehearse 'The Hemings Diary.'

The winners of the Young Southern Writers’ Project will have their plays presented this afternoon at 1 p.m. in the Garden.

The skill in writing and creating complex characters will amaze you and wish you’d paid more attention in high school English class.

But if you can’t make that, head on out to the reading of The Hemings Diary by Lucile Lichtblau at 3:30 p.m. in the Octagon Theatre.

In the play, Monica, a down on her luck antiques collector, uncovers the diary of Thomas Jefferson’s slave and mistress, Sally Hemings. But is the diary real?

It’s the DaVinci Code meets 1776 American history. It’s got all the good stuff – forbidden love, revelations, personal struggle – everything that makes for good drama.

You can still come out. Tickets are $10.

Connell Brown enjoys tomato pie, corn bread, salad and asparagus cooked by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder during 'The Chat & Chew Supper Club," Friday, May 18, 2012.

Actor Connell Brown was fortunate to partake in the delicious food cooked by Elyzabeth Gergory Wilder during the show The Chat & Chew Supper Club on Friday. Wilder closed the show by having audience member share their favorite food memory or favorite family tradition.

Brown will be one of the actors starring in No Mercy: Deconstruction Part One tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10 a.m. You can still buy tickets for No Mercy or any of the other shows (The Hemmings Diary, Concessions and CYCLOPS: A Rock Opera). For tickets, visit www.asf.net or call (334) 271-5353 or 1-(800) 841-4273.

'The Chat & Chew Supper Club' will kickoff the start of the Southern Writers' Project Festival of Plays.

The Southern Writers’ Project 2012 Festival of Plays will begin in just a little more than an hour at 4 p.m. with The Chat and Chew Supper Club by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder.

Audience members will get to sample some of Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder's 'Chat & Chew Supper Club.'

The autobiographical play features Ms. Wilder performing while making a home-cooked Southern meal. Some lucky audience members will sit at tables on stage and be fortunate to sample her delicious creations. (Tomato pie, cornbread, asparagus….oh, so very, very good.)

The other plays that will be featured during the festival on Saturday are No Mercy: Deconstruction Part One by James Bowen at 10 a.m. and The Hemmings Diary by Lucile Lichtblau at 3:30 p.m. All plays will be in the Octagon Theater in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

If you’re anywhere near Montgomery this weekend, come on out and watch the readings of these plays. It’s a great opportunity to see how a play is developed as it’s read by professional actors – and on Saturday, the audience will be able to give feedback.

Tickets are $10 for each performance at the box office, (334) 271-5353 or 1-(800) 841-4273.

Oh, and if you want to see something completely different and fun, try CYCLOPS: A Rock Opera. It’s a musical based the Athenian satyr play by Euripides. Musical – no rock opera! Think Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s glam rock at its best. Tickets are $25 and will be available until just before the performance at 11 p.m.

And if you’re around the Festival and you’re on Twitter, use the #SWPfest to let us know how you like it. You can find us at @SouthernWriters – and of course find us on Facebook.

For a full schedule of events, click here.

The Lobby Project gives visitors insight into the process of the evolution of a script – from the germ of the idea through SWP to being fully produced, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the SWP. A play can go through many rewrites (even more than 70) and readings, with dozen of actors, directors, dramaturgs, and behind-the-scenes artists bringing the production to life for the audience to enjoy a night at the theater. The exhibit includes information about the scenery, costumes, historical timelines and videos throughout the lobby of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Valerie Walch, mother of playwright John Walch.

Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Valerie Walch thought her son, John, would become a business man. At age 10, the writer of “DoubleTime” saw opportunity in the large yards in his neighborhood as a money-making opportunity.

“At age 10, he employed 8 or 9 of the neighborhood boys, all whom were older than he, got the lawns lined up and did the assignments and handed them out Friday,” Valerie says. “To be absolutely truthful, the last thing in this world I would have ever thought John Walch would be is a writer. John was out being an entrepreneur.”

Turns out, John’s older brother, Charlie, seemed to be more of the reader and the writer in the family – even his older sister Gretchen staged plays in the back yard. John never showed any interest in reading or writing.

“It just goes to prove that you should never assume what will happen with your children because you never have a clue.”

“DoubleTime,” written by John Walch, was performed Saturday on the Octagon Stage for the Southern Writers’ Project. Walch has penned many plays that have appeared in Manhattan, Louisville, London, and is currently the playwright-in-residence at the New Dramatists in New York.

“When John was in the eighth grade, it was the first time I noticed him sitting down and reading a book,” Valerie says. I saw him reading, then he started asking questions about it.”

The Walch children were encouraged to read, says Valerie, who is a former English teacher. She and her husband, Stan, made sure their children were exposed to theater “from the get-go.”

Valerie says that John was fortunate to attend a public school that “had and still has one of the best secondary theater departments” that she has seen.

“There was a tremendous man who was in charge of that department, and about the same time, he started working back stage, and kind of took all these kinds under his wing who worked back stage, and they mounted some amazing productions.”

Valerie didn’t realize that John was writing anything until she saw one of his plays when he was at Colorado College. She assumed he was doing the lights or props.

And now John is working on a musical with Nile Rodgers.

“This musical is kind of amusing,” says Valerie. “He can’t carry a tune.”

John’s tumultuous relationship with music as a child includes being asked to mouth the words in a church choir, as well as a frustrating a piano teacher to the point where she banged his hands in the lid for the keys. John’s response? He bit her in the ankle.

“I think that’s a fitting response,” says Valerie, who promptly dismissed the piano teacher.

Many of John’s family members have experience with writing and theater. Valerie not only taught English, but drama and speech; Valerie says her father also wrote a lot; and John’s uncle, Ted, has written several plays and ran a theater in Ohio.

Valerie, who has seen everything her son has written in various productions all over the country, says her son is tenaciously motivated. During high school, John was not pleased with his SAT scores, and wanted to improve them. She says that John took out the SAT study guide at every opportunity — while on a canoe trip on the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

“When he gets a notion, he never gives up,” Valerie says. “When he sets his mind to do something, he sees it through. I think that shows in the career he’s choosing.”