One chilly, December night in 1985, I stood in the wings of the brand-new Alabama Shakespeare Festival, nearly overcome with jubilation. Celebrities and dignitaries filled the audience. Electricity crackled in the air. Happy tears welled in my eyes. It was opening night - for me and for the theatre. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Wynton and Carolyn Blount, I was about to take the Festival Stage as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. And ASF was about to take the national stage as a creator of some of the country's best theatre.
That night marked the beginning of my 23-year love affair with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. In the decades since that magical opening, I've worked for dozens of fine theatres across the country, but my heart belongs to ASF.
It was here that I got to step into the lives of some of literature's most fascinating women - Cleopatra and Blanche DuBois, Lady Macbeth and Hedda Gabler, Eliza Doolittle and Linda Loman. It was here, through the one-of-a-kind Southern Writers' Project new play festival, that I had the opportunity to play complicated, strong Southern women.
Being a gal from the South, having such world-class theatre in my home state makes me so darn proud I could pop. But this theatre - your theatre - needs your support to continue producing important, powerful work.
The money ASF receives from ticket sales makes up less than half of its $9.6 million annual budget. (Producing plays is incredibly expensive because each is entirely handmade by artisans here in the scene, prop and costume shops.) The majority of the budget depends on tax-deductible gifts from generous donors who believe that this theatre enriches the lives of people in the Southeast.
Performing in front of a live audience is an experience difficult to describe. We as actors can feel you out there in the audience; you are essential to us. Together, we live for just a little while in an imagined but very real story, and together we leave the theatre a bit more aware of ourselves and others. Without you in the audience, we're just rehearsing in an empty silence. And without your support, we can't do even that. You make a difference.
This year, I've taken on an additional role at ASF, that of Director of Education. Did you know that during this school year, 56,000 children across the South will attend special matinee performances of our productions? They will see classics such as A Christmas Carol and Shakespeare's Othello and The Comedy of Errors, and new plays about Alabama legend Bear Bryant and Hurricane Katrina's devastation. They will take backstage tours and meet some of our actors - all for a greatly reduced ticket price made possible by your donations.
If you have already given to ASF in 2008, I thank you. If you can make a year-end gift to support the artists and artisans who create each play, I encourage you to do so. We at the Festival have set a goal: $300K by the end of the Holidays!
More than 12,000 of you visit our website each month. If each of you gave $25, we could raise $300,000 before the New Year. Talk about strength in numbers! You can take us a long way toward our $3.6 million fund-raising goal for ASF's 2008-2009 Season. Give $25, $250, $2,500... $300K by the end of the Holidays!
Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution so that the Alabama Shakespeare Festival can continue to educate and enrich the lives of our children and produce entertaining and enlightening theatre that makes the South a better place to live.
Many thanks,
Greta Lambert
Submit your contribution or mail donations to ASF below:
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Attention Development Office 1 Festival Drive Montgomery, AL 36117 |
