Performing Shakespeare in the Old/New South

or What Happens When Shakespeare Is Your Middle Name

Authors

Susan Willis Auburn University at Montgomery

Abstract

This historical commentary on the development of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival compares the experience of the Festival as summer theatre in Anniston, Alabama, to its year-round embodiment in Montgomery, Alabama, its styles of production, and the factors influencing the current development of the theatre.

Author Biography

Susan Willis, Auburn University at Montgomery

Susan Willis, educated at Emory University and the University of Virginia, is Professor of English at Auburn University, Montgomery, author of The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon, and dramaturg and a resident director at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where she has recently directed main-stage productions of Steel Magnolias and The Taming of the Shrew, the world premiere of Fair and Tender Ladies, as well as many MFA studio workshops of Greek and Shakespeare plays.