The festival started as a summer-stock theater project in Anniston, a small city in northeastern Alabama not typically associated with Shakespeare. The early productions were scrappy and inventive, driven more by enthusiasm than budget. One standout was a production of The Taming of the Shrew reimagined in 1950s New York City -- the kind of creative risk that signaled the company's ambitions exceeded its circumstances. Critical acclaim followed, audiences grew, and the ASF earned a reputation as something genuinely special happening in an unlikely place. But acclaim did not translate into financial stability. The festival that a lone critic had written off on opening night was proving him wrong artistically while struggling to prove itself economically.

In December 1985, everything changed. Winton and Carolyn Blount donated $21.5 million to build a performing arts complex for the festival -- one of the largest individual gifts to the arts in American history at the time. The complex rose on a 250-acre landscaped park in Montgomery, with grounds planned by famed landscape architect Russell Page in the style of an English estate, complete with a lake. The Carolyn Blount Theatre, named for Mrs. Blount, houses two performance spaces: the 792-seat Festival Stage for major productions and the intimate 225-seat Octagon Theatre for smaller works. The buildings contain more than one million bricks. The ASF moved from Anniston to Montgomery, transforming from a regional curiosity into a nationally significant cultural institution overnight.

The ASF stages six to nine productions annually, typically anchored by three Shakespeare plays. But the festival has never been Shakespeare-only. Its programming samples classical and modern playwrights across genres, with a deliberate emphasis on Southern works. The Southern Writers Project nurtures new plays reflecting Southern themes and voices, commissioning and developing scripts that might never find a stage elsewhere. This dual identity -- world-class Shakespeare alongside homegrown Southern drama -- gives the ASF a character distinct from festivals in Ashland, Stratford, or Central Park. The festival draws more than 300,000 visitors each year from across the United States and more than 60 countries, making it one of Montgomery's most significant cultural attractions.

Until 2009, the ASF operated a Professional Actor Training program in partnership with the University of Alabama, offering a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting. The program produced talent that went on to the highest levels of the profession. Norbert Leo Butz, who graduated from the program, went on to win two Tony Awards on Broadway. Michael Emerson, another alumnus, won an Emmy Award and became widely known for his roles in television dramas. The partnership with the University of Alabama ended in 2009, but the festival's legacy as a launching pad for serious actors extends well beyond any formal degree program. Generations of performers have passed through the ASF's two stages, honing their craft in Montgomery before carrying it to New York, Los Angeles, and London.

The ASF shares its 250-acre campus with the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, making the Winton M. Blount Cultural Park a concentrated pocket of arts and culture in a city better known for its civil rights history and state government. The park's English-style landscaping, lake, and walking paths create an environment that feels transported from another world entirely -- a deliberate effect. Walking from the parking lot to the Carolyn Blount Theatre, past the lake and through the manicured grounds, the transition from central Alabama to something resembling the English countryside is the first act of theatrical transformation, before any curtain rises.