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Mark Woods: At Theatre Jacksonville, timely retelling of a story about 1959 book battle

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Mark Woods: At Theatre Jacksonville, timely retelling of a story about 1959 book battle


“This is a story about two rabbits.”

So begins “Alabama Story,” a play being performed this month at Theatre Jacksonville in San Marco.

In the opening scene, the characters tell you that this is a story about much more than two rabbits, one black and one white, in a 1958 children’s book, “The Rabbits’ Wedding.”

It’s a story about how that book ended up in the middle of 1950s culture wars; with some in Alabama saying it was indoctrinating children by pushing a pro-integration agenda; with a state senator calling for the book to be banned and burned, and the state’s head librarian to be removed from her position; and with that librarian standing up for more than this one book.

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“This is about books,” she says, “many books.”

The script has the characters tell audiences that what they’re about to hear is a children’s story, a love story, an Alabama story, a story within a story, and — somewhere between the lines — a true story.

What it doesn’t say — what it doesn’t have to say — is that it’s not just a story about the 1950s, Alabama and two rabbits.

‘We have to do this play’

Sarah Boone, executive director of Theatre Jacksonville, grew up with “The Rabbits’ Wedding” in her house.

The illustrator, Garth Williams, was best known for his artwork for “Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little” and “Little House on the Prairie.” For this book, he made one rabbit black and one white for a practical reason. He wanted kids to be able to tell the rabbits apart. So he made the male rabbit black and the female one white.

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It wasn’t a statement about integration or interracial marriage — until some in Alabama, led by one prominent politician, made it one.

Not that Boone knew any of this when she was growing up. She hadn’t even thought about the book for decades, until she was in a New York drama bookstore, checking out some of the new plays, thinking about Theatre Jacksonville’s next season. “Alabama Story” was first produced nearly a decade ago, but wasn’t published and widely available until 2022.

“I read it and I just thought it was so timely,” Boone said.

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She also thought something about the story sounded familiar. It wasn’t until she pulled up the cover of “The Rabbits’ Wedding” that she realized why. She remembered it from her childhood, simply as a sweet story about two rabbits who wanted to be together forever.

When she brought the “Alabama Story” script back to Florida, members of the Theatre Jacksonville repertory committee and board also read it.

“Everybody said, ‘We have to do this play,’” she said.

Every year, when the Theatre Jacksonville is putting together the next season, they include at least one show about an issue. The goal is to have theater do what maybe other venues, like social media, often fail to do: start a thoughtful conversation.

For Theatre Jacksonville’s 104th season, “Alabama Story” seemed remarkably fitting.

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An ode to books and librarians

Boone ended up having a long conversation over coffee with Kenneth Jones, the playwright of “Alabama Story.”

When Jones explains the origin of his play, he points to reading the obituary pages of the New York Times one day in 2000, seeing a story about a librarian.

Emily W. Reed, who in 1959 enraged Alabama segregationists by allowing a book about a fuzzy white rabbit marrying a fuzzy black rabbit onto the shelves of the state’s central library, died on May 19 at a retirement community in Cockeysville, Md. She was 89.

The confrontation came as blacks were fighting to be allowed in public libraries throughout the South and a segregationist in Florida was demanding that ”The Three Little Pigs” be removed from library shelves because the pigs were depicted in different colors. … In Ms. Reed’s case, the book in question was ”The Rabbits’ Wedding.”

Reed grew up in Culver, Indiana, graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at numerous public and academic libraries (including Florida State) before becoming Alabama’s library director. In that role, she was responsible for the selection and purchases of library materials across the state. She not only refused to remove “The Rabbits’ Wedding” from her library — she put it on a reserve shelf — she later was attacked for including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Stride Toward Freedom: A Montgomery Story” on a list of “notable books.”

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When Jones read about this — and how Alabama State Sen. E.O. Eddins led the fight against the books and the librarian — it leaped out at him as a story ripe for the stage, with heroes and villains, tension and conflict, small moments and big ideas.

For “Alabama Story,” he added a fictional story, about two childhood friends — Lily, who is white, and Joshua, who is Black — who meet again as adults at the same time as the true story of “The Rabbits’ Wedding” is playing out in Montgomery.

While this blend of fiction and non-fiction certainly carries messages about race and censorship, it also is an ode to librarians and books.

At one point in “Alabama Story,” Emily Reed says: “A librarian must be a repository of all sides of the question. …. I believe that the free flow of information is the best means to solve the problems of the South, the nation, and the world.”

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This isn’t just a line that Jones wrote for a character. In a 2022 interview, he explained that this was something Reed said. And it’s at the heart of what he wanted the play to say.

“The free exchange of books, ideas, information is a primary tenet of librarianship,” Jones told Alabama journalist Alec Harvey.  “That exchange happens over and over in the play, between Lily and Josh and between Emily and the senator and others. The exchange of books and intellectual material changes people’s lives.”

The battle over “The Rabbits’ Wedding” made national, even international news. It led some in the Alabama capitol who had fought integration to tell the state senator to let it go, that what he was doing was backfiring, embarrassing the state.

While the days of a “whites only” park bench (part of the play’s set) may be gone, issues involving race and books are not. Florida has made plenty of national and international headlines in recent years, sometimes about books that have been pulled off bookshelves. One modern-day controversy involved a true tale of two animals in a zoo, penguins, both black and white, but also both male.

It’s telling that in 2024, “Alabama Story” is being produced all over the country — because obviously it’s about much more than the 1950s, Alabama and a book with two rabbits.

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It’s not only about past, and all that led up to 1959, it’s about the future. And in the end, Theatre Jacksonville’s Sarah Boone says, it ties all the stories together and tells one more.

“Ultimately,” she said, “it’s very much a story of hope.”

mwoods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212

“ALABAMA STORY”

What: “Alabama Story,” by Kenneth Jones, a drama based on true events, directed by Amy Love

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Where: Theatre Jacksonville in San Marco

When: March 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 (Sunday performances are 2 p.m. matinees, all other performances are at 7:30 p.m.)

The cast: Gloria Ware, Jacob Dinkel, Samantha Lewis, Jonathan Lispcome, Josh Rutgers, Neal Thorburn.

For more information: www.theatrejax.com or (904) 396-4425



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Alabama

Top-30 overall recruit Jaxon Richardson commits to Alabama

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Top-30 overall recruit Jaxon Richardson commits to Alabama


Jaxon Richardson, the No. 27 overall recruit in the 2026 class per the Rivals Industry Ranking, has committed to Alabama.

The 6-foot-6 four-star small forward out of Southeastern Prep (FL) ultimately chose the Crimson Tide over USC, Creighton, and Ole Miss. He also received offers from Miami, Cincinnati, Michigan, Florida, Villanova, and others.

Richardson, a McDonald’s All-American, becomes the Crimson Tide’s third commitment of the 2026 cycle. He joins four-star shooting guard Qayden Samuels (No. 28 NATL) and four-star small forward Tarris Bouie (No. 54 NATL).

He’s the son of NBA veteran and two-time NBA Dunk Contest champion Jason Richardson. His older brother, Jase, played for Michigan State last season before being selected 25th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic.

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More on Richardson

Rivals’ National Recruiting Analyst Jamie Shaw says Richardson is one of the most explosive players in the 2026 class:

Jaxon Richardson is able to combine fluid athleticism with explosive burst in a way no other player in this class can. He uses his athleticism to his advantage on the floor. He fills the outside channels with a purpose in transition, he is aggressive in the passing lanes, and he plays as a vertical floor spacer in the dunker spots and lob plays. Last summer, playing with the Florida Rebels on Nike’s EYBL Circuit, the 6-foot-6 wing averaged 12.8 points on 54.0 percent shooting and 10.5 attempts per game. Last high school season, he averaged 12.9 points on 61.0 percent shooting on 8.9 attempts per game. He is a highly efficient player, as 84.4 percent of his makes last high school season were at the rim.



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Alabama Baseball Ties Stolen Base Record In Win Over Hornets

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Alabama Baseball Ties Stolen Base Record In Win Over Hornets


Alabama baseball cruised to a win over Alabama State on Wednesday night, beating the Hornets 13-4 to complete the season sweep. The Crimson Tide tied a program record with nine stolen bases in one of the stranger contests that will be played this season.

The tone was set for a tumultuous night on the basepaths in the opening minutes of the game. Leadoff batter Bryce Fowler, who exited Tuesday’s game after getting beaned in the head, was walked, and promptly took second base. He advanced to third on a wild pitch in Justin Lebron’s at-bat, paving the way for Lebron to steal second when he was ultimately walked as well.

The successful baserunning instantly paid off, as Brady Neal drove both in with a double to left-center field before John Lemm walked two at-bats later. Both runners stole their respective bases on the same pitch in Jason Torres’ plate appearance, meaning that four of the first five batters of the game stole a base.

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Alabama has been exceptional on the basepaths, sitting at 30-for-30 on the season. Lebron, who swiped two bags on Wednesday, leads the team with 12. The junior had an up-and-down night, hitting his eighth home run of the season, but also committing an error at shortstop for the fourth consecutive game.

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“Get those things out of there now, baby. The dude is unbelievable,” an unconcerned Rob Vaughn said on Tuesday of Lebron’s errors. “We’re going to look up at the end of the year, and that guy is going to have five or six errors, which one he’s got right now, and we’ll be like, ‘Man, that guy is the best of all time to do it.’”

Wednesday’s game was a very prototypical midweek contest with no shortage of quirks and oddities throughout its nearly four-hour runtime. Fifteen Alabama batters were walked, falling just one shy of the program record, and the hit by pitch record was tied as seven batters were plunked.

The game was never competitive from an on-field standpoint. After barely escaping with a 2-1 win in the first matchup with the Hornets two weeks ago, this was a far more accurate representation of what these games typically look like, as Alabama now leads the all-time series 15-0.

Freshman Joe Chiarodo made his first career start, allowing two hits and one walk over two scoreless innings. He was named the winning pitcher. Luke Smyers, Connor Lehman, Anthony Pesci and Tate Robertson were the other pitchers to take the mound. Lehman allowed a three-run blast in the sixth inning, and those were the only runs until the incredibly-named Skywalker Mann drove in a run off Robertson in the ninth.

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Perhaps the most shocking figure from the game was that Alabama had 19 runners left on base. The Crimson Tide left the bases loaded in four different innings. As stated, this was just a bizarre baseball game across the board. With the midweeks out of the way, the Crimson Tide gets to prepare for its final weekend tune-up before SEC play as North Florida heads into Tuscaloosa on Friday.



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Alabama

New Alabama law to set screen time limits for kids in day care, pre-K and kindergarten

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New Alabama law to set screen time limits for kids in day care, pre-K and kindergarten


The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act was signed on Wednesday, March 4, by Governor Kay Ivey to introduce limits on children’s screen time access in Alabama.

The Act is one of Ivey’s 2026 legislative priorities.

“Video screen access in classrooms can boost learning skills among our young children, but too much screen exposure can also be detrimental, harming critical social and cognitive development,” Ivey said. “The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act ensures our youngest students are provided a healthy balance of screen time and traditional learning in order to protect social and emotional development.”

Under the Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act, the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education will be required to work with the Department of Human Resources and the State Department of Education to develop guidelines for screen-based media.

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Guidelines will be implemented in early childhood education programs like day care centers, day care homes, night care facilities, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and group day care homes. The Act was sponsored by Representative Jeana Ross and Senator Donnie Chesteen.

“House Bill 78 establishes clear, research-based expectations for how technology is used in early childhood settings,” said Ross. “The goal is not to eliminate technology, but to ensure its use is developmentally appropriate and never replaces the hands-on learning and human interaction young children need most. By setting thoughtful guardrails and aligning classroom practices with the best available research on early brain development, this legislation supports educators, protects the quality of early learning and reinforces our commitment to giving Alabama’s youngest students the strongest possible start.”

A training program will also be created by the Department of Early Childhood Education to create a baseline for the appropriate use of child screentime for teachers and staff members supervising children.

“The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act represents another important step in ensuring Alabama’s youngest children grow and learn in environments that prioritize human interaction, exploration and healthy development,” said Chesteen. “Building on the progress made with last year’s FOCUS Act, this legislation continues our commitment to protecting the most formative years of childhood. I am grateful to Governor Kay Ivey and my colleagues in the Legislature for recognizing the importance of this issue and working together to support Alabama families.”

The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act will become effective on January 1, 2027.

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