For 11 years, the cast of Alabama’s Official Folklife Play, “Come Home, It’s Suppertime” has chosen to stay “home” at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge.

On Saturday, the cast stepped out of its comfort zone and onto the stage at the Alabama Book Festival at Old Alabama Town in Montgomery.

“We’ve had several opportunities to perform ‘Come Home’ at other venues but we weren’t sure that the play would work as well at any other place,” said Lawrence Bowden, president of the Brundidge Historical Society, which produces the play. “But, when we were invited to perform a suppertime sampler at the Alabama Book Festival, we thought that Old Alabama Town would be the ideal place to venture out.”

Seven members of the 44-member cast and the We Piddle Around Theater house band, The Benton Bros. and Company, performed the 30-minute sampler to a responsive audience in the “town church.”

“We were pleased and felt like the audience enjoyed the sampler,” Bowden said. “Of course, it was very different from what we do at the theater and only a sketch of the scenes we do. But the audience seemed to grasp it and we thought it went surprisingly well.”

Bowden said members of the audience stopped to talk and said they would like to see the entire play at the We Piddle Around Theater.

“We think that we have one of the most unique theaters anywhere around,” Bowden said. “And, those who come to the play actually ‘come home’ at suppertime. We serve a family-style county supper in addition to the great pre-show music and the award-winning two-act play. So, it’s a different atmosphere but we really enjoyed, not only performing at the Alabama Book Festival but hearing the featured authors and visiting the booths and Old Alabama Town.

“We appreciate being invited and having the opportunity to venture out to an event as popular as the Alabama Book Festival at Old Alabama Town.”