Southern States

Go, Do, See Old Alabama Town

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Wto take a trip back in time to late 19th and early 20th century Alabama? You don’t need a time machine. Just take a trip to Old Alabama Town in Montgomery. It’s more than a museum. It’s traveling back in time among through 50 authentically restored structures with “residents and workers” doing the everyday tasks of that time along six blocks of downtown Montgomery. The “Town” is divided into three sections; a Living Section, a Working Section, and Along the Street.

Three blocks of the town is a working block that shows how potteries, blacksmiths, even musicians plied their trade There is the Oliver Cotton Gin dating back to 1900. On most days, re-enactors are there showing off their town.

A blacksmith was the backbone of every community then. They were even more important than modern mechanics, as they not only kept the wagons rolling but also made things needed for everyday life, like axes, tools, household utensils, and nails. Daniel Webster Boatwright originally opened this shop in Fleahop in Elmore County in 1893 and it remained in operation by his family until the 1940s.

There’s a gristmill, old pharmacy, print shop, and many more buildings. Travel back to when these were an everyday part of peoples’ lives.

Visit the living block where people of the time go about their everyday lives. Visit classrooms where students leaned the latest reading, writing, and arithmetic. This was not too different from today in appearance but decades away in technologically. Here are desks with inkwells and slates, not computers and tablets.

You can visit Lucas Tavern. Taverns then were not the bars we think of today. They provided food and shelter, as well as drinks. Lucas Tavern is the oldest of the buildings, built before 1818. It was originally a two-room dogtrot when the Lucases bought it. They added two additional rooms and enclosed the dogtrot. The added rooms gave them a dining room with access to the outside kitchen. The tavern was moved here from the Old Federal Road about 15 miles east of Montgomery. Then the Federal Road was the major connection between Washington D.C.

By Kathleen Walls Pub. of AmericanRoads.net

Old Alabama Town - Step Into The Past

and New Orleans. Taverns like this were located about every 15 miles, which was an average day’s walk. Its claim to historical fame came when the Marquis de La Fayette stayed here on April 25, 1825 en route to Montgomery.

The corner grocery store was part of everyday life before the coming of chains. This one dates to 1892 when it began life as Daniel O’Leary’s Grocery and Saloon son morphing into just a grocery store.

Churches were more than a place of worship then. They were a meeting and socializing place. They built this one around 1885. It was the First Colored Presbyterian Church of Montgomery.

Every town needed a doctor. Dr. Thomas David Duncan built this doctor’s office in 1938 in his parents’ backyard and operated out of it all his life. Doctors served as dentist and sometimes veterinarians then. They got paid in eggs, poultry or however their patients could pay them. In those unenlightened days, if you were sick you got treated whether you had money or insurance. Doctors weren’t part of huge corporations then charging over $400 a visit. Ever wish you could go back to a more peaceful time?

Along the Street Section is where old building are recycled and are in use today. Many of the homes are now bed and breakfasts. But some are put to other uses. You can visit Shaffer Garden filled with native plantings that show what a 19th century central Alabama garden might have looked like.

One building is almost a circling back to the original premise of Old Alabama Town. Rescued Relics is located in the 1920s Wilbanks Warehouse that once serviced those newfangled horseless carriages. Today, it’s a notfor-profit salvage business that raises money to restore and maintain the historic structures at Old Alabama Town. It sells historic architectural elements and materials from pre-1960s building that are being razed and sells them to people wishing to incorporate antique elements into their projects around Montgomery and the central Alabama region. As the old song goes, let the circle be unbroken.

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Places to Go The Momentary

BENTONVILLE - The Momentary is a new contemporary art space satellite to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art! Situated along the Razorback Regional Greenway near 8th Street Market, we’re transforming a decommissioned 63,000 square-foot cheese factory into a multi-disciplinary space for visual and performing arts, culinary experiences, festivals, and artists-in-residence. Explore the unfolding story of contemporary art in a global context by actively commissioning and exhibiting works that explore new ideas and inspire action and conversation. Our vibrant new space designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects will serve as a living room for our guests, offering adaptable spaces for discovery, as well as areas to relax, work, or play. We invite you to get closer to the action with intimate performance spaces, access to artists, and free general admission for all, sponsored by Walmart. The Momentary acknowledges and pays respect to the Osage, Caddo, and Quapaw people and elders past, present and future, offering deep gratitude to the ancestral land and water that supports it.

Looking for a low-key, entertaining Friday night out? Relax and celebrate summer with free live music on the Momentary Green. Watch the shadows lengthen as you stretch out and enjoy the signature sounds of indie artists and stars alike all summer long. Paired with a stop at the RØDE Bar and the Momentary Food Truck, this family-friendly, outdoor concert series is guaranteed to start your weekend off right. Concerts are from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Come chill with us at the Arvest Bank Courtyard every Sunday afternoon this summer and discover your new favorite jams in this free outdoor music series. From funk and soul breaks to immaculate LatinX harmonies, the best up-and-coming femme DJs to road-tested troubadours, every week will have you diving deeper (and maybe ordering a round for) the rising stars all around us. Plus, with the RØDE Bar and the Momentary Food Truck just steps away, you’ll have access to some of the best brews and bites in town.

For more information and a schedule of concerts, visit https://themomentary.org/.

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Places to Go: Dinner Show at Broadway Palm

FORT MYERS - Grease is the word! Travel back to Rydell High and the hot-rodding Burger Palace Boys and their gum-snapping, hip-shaking Pink Ladies. Head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive their summer romance as the rest of the gang sings and dances their way through Greased Lightnin’:, Summer Nights, Born to Hand Jive; We Go Together; Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee; You’re The One That I Want, Beauty School Dropout and more!

See this popular musical through August 14 at the Broadway Palm, Southwest Florida’s premier dinner theatre. Broadway Palm is now celebrating its 28th Season. The theatre entertains over 170,000 guests annually. The facility includes a 450seat dinner theatre, a 100-seat “black-box” theatre called The Off Broadway Palm Theatre, a 120 seat dining room called the Royal Palm and a 30-seat space just off the main lobby called, the Sabal Palm.

A Summer Special allows those ages 18 and under dinner and the show for only $20! The buffet menu consists of a choice of chef carved beef tenderloin, mojo pulled pork, chicken a la king, baked white fish, and chicken strips with french fries. Sides are the penne pasta with cheese or marinara sauce, scalloped potatoes, and spanish rice. All menus include a complete salad bar, rolls and butter. There are various assorted desserts. Specific weekend entree selections cooked to order are also available on Friday and Saturday evenings.

For more information and tickets, visit https://broadwaypalm.com/

Future Shows Scheduled

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Go, See, Do A Great Film Festival

Surrounded by a rich musical and Southern culture, the Macon Film Festival celebrates independent and immersive films while promoting filmmaking for entertainment, inspiration, education and economic development in Georgia’s central city.

The Macon Film Festival is celebrating its 16th annual event in 2021 with a hybrid festival featuring both in-person and virtual screenings and events. The in-person festival will take place in multiple venues throughout Macon, August 19–22, with the virtual festival scheduled for August 26–29 on the Macon Film Festival channel hosted by Film Festival Flix.

In-person tickets are on sale now at MaconFilmFestival.com. Tickets to the virtual festival will be available in August. Fast Facts

Macon Film Festival celebrates its 16th year with in-person screenings August 19-22, 2021. Virtual festival dates are August 26th – 29th.

Macon Film Festival continues to feature Fulldome films, setting this film festival apart from others around the country.

The Macon Film Festival will screen in-person independent films from around the world at the Museum of Arts and Sciences’ state-of-the-art Mark Smith Planetarium, downtown Macon’s historic Douglass Theatre, and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

The festival also will have a virtual channel on Film Festival Flix. A Media Room, VIP/Filmmaker Lounge and Festival Headquarters are open daily during the festival.

Films compete in the following categories: Music; Documentary; LGBTQ; Narrative Feature; Narrative Shorts; Georgia Made; Macon Made, Fulldome, and Student Shorts. Free filmmaking workshops are held daily for all festival attendees.

For more information about tickets and the schedule, please visit MaconFilmFestival.com.

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The Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University is sponsoring the 2021 NSU Folklife Concert Series, a series of free Saturday concerts in July and August. Concerts include a 45 - minute music set accompanied by interviews and audience Q&A. Performances take place at 2 p.m. at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in downtown Natchitoches. The concert series is free and open to the general public.

August 7: San Antonio, Texas rock artist Nina Diaz. August 14: Blato Zlato will perform Balkan music from New Orleans and Bulgaria.

In addition to the music performances, 2-3 folk artists will demonstrate and sell traditional crafts on each day of the series.

Support is provided by the Cane River National Heritage Area and the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission. For more information, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 3574332 or email folklife@nsula.edu.

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Places to Go: Civic Center Music Hall

My Fair Lady

Sept. 28 - Oct. 3, 2021

Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely” and “On the Street Where You Live,” MY FAIR LADY tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?

Mean Girls

Dec. 28 - Jan. 02, 2022

Direct from Broadway, MEAN GIRLS is the hilarious hit musical from an award-winning creative team. Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

Dear Evan Hansen

Jan. 11 - Jan. 16, 2022

Winner of six 2017 Tony Awards including “Best Musical. It also won the 2018 Grammy for best musical theater album. A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it.

Oklahoma!

Jan 25 - Jan. 30, 2022

Directed by Daniel Fish, the production has been hailed as the Best of the Year and a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times and the #1 Theatrical Event of the Year by TIME Magazine. Seventy-five years after Rodgers & Hammerstein reinvented the American musical, this is Oklahoma! as you’ve never seen or heard it before, re-orchestrated and reimagined for the 21st century. Featuring music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II,

Lion King

May 10 - May 29, 2022

The entire Serengeti comes to life as never before. And as the music soars, Pride Rock slowly emerges from the mist. This is Disney’s THE LION KING, making its triumphant return to the Theatre! Winner of six Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Pretty Woman

Aug. 16-21, 2022

A Big New Musical. The entire Serengeti comes to life as never before. And as the music soars, Pride Rock slowly emerges from the mist. This is Disney’s THE LION KING, making its triumphant return to the (Theatre)!

For tickets and more information, visit www.okcciviccenter. com/

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Things to Do: Solve the Mystery

Attending this Murder Mystery Dinner Theater is a night you won’t forget complete with a delicious dinner and dessert, a well-stocked cash bar, and a side-splitting show.

“Dead, Dead on the Range is performed every Friday and Saturday night through Nov. 13 at the Texas Star Dinner Theater in Grapevine. Here’s the storyline: The town is bustling with elections, cattle drives, promises of a railroad, and murder! Horace Grimsby, the wealthiest Cattle Baron in Texas, has been found dead and it’s up to Marshal Jim Courtright to bring the killer to justice.

Did the Mayoral nominee Roger “Rooster” Montebank get involved in an election scandal? Could the lead reporter for the International Inquisitor, Barbara Wawas, have made her own headlines? Perhaps Buster Beggs, the gentle sheep herder, was bullied by the bull king one too many times. Or was his wife, Emma Grimsby, tired of marriage and looking to get rich quick?

Immerse yourself in an award-winning 90-minute murder mystery dinner theater performance set in the 1880s of the wild west of Texas. Test your investigation skills and solve the murder mystery. Take photos with the cast after the show to round out a great night of fun! Conveniently located in Grapevine, Texas, close to Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth.

The meal options for this dinner theater are as follows:

BEEF - Country Fried Steak topped with homestyle gravy, Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Squash and Zucchini garnished with red bell peppers and parsley in a white wine lemon sauce

CHICKEN - Baked Chicken Breast lightly marinated in Italian dressing, topped with a creamy basil pesto sauce, and garnished with aspargus (Pesto sauce contains ground pine nuts),Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Squash and Zucchini garnished with red bell peppers and parsley in a white wine lemon sauce

FISH - (Gluten Sensitive*) Oven baked Tilapia topped with a white wine butter sauce Long Grain Wild Rice Squash and Zucchini garnished with red bell peppers and parsley in a white wine lemon sauce VEGETARIAN (Call box office for Vegan option) Eggplant Piccata topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. Drizzled with a balsamic glaze Marinara Penne Pasta Sliced Zucchini and Squash topped with a balsamic glaze

SUMMER DESSERTS ~through Aug. 28. Key Lime Pie (may contain nuts)

Marbled Chocolate Mousse Cake - Layers of white and chocolate cake along with white and dark chocolate mousse topped with a layer of chocolate ganache (This cake may contain peanut or tree nut allergens, but they are not active ingredients.)

Blueberry Cheesecake, Fruit Cup - Fresh For tickets or more information: https://www.texasstardinnertheater.com/

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