In 1988 Chambers and three of his friends (Ty Brown, Brenda Fowinkle, and Chuck Guy) founded the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Before forming The Festival, this theatrical quartet had produced a single show together. Returning from college, childhood friends Brenda and Chambers were shocked to find their high school drama teacher dead from AIDS. As a a tribute to their mentor, Mr. Martin, they formed Theatrevolution and produced Larry Kramer’s blistering play The Normal Heart. The Normal Heart was produced as a benefit for the local AIDS organization, Nashville Cares. Starring some of Nashville’s finest actors, Heart received rave reviews and played to standing room audiences. With the enthusiasm of the young and foolish they then decided “to give a gift to the city” and start the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Their first production was Shakespeare’s As you like it. Starring the fabulous Kate Forbes As you like it was produced in beautiful Centennial Park on a stage made of tye dyed fabric. Opening night was almost called because of pouring rain. That is until one of the actors suggested to Chambers that he might want to first look at the audience. There sitting in the rain were 400 theatre lovers waiting for the show to start. And start it did. The next day’s reviews called the show “a miracle!” And with that The Nashville Shakespeare Festival was launched. As artistic director the next season Chambers produced a trio of plays, Craig Lucas’ Reckless (which he also directed), Shakespeare’s The Adventures of Pericles (which he also directed), and his playwrighting debut Desperate For Magic. When Chambers moved to Los Angeles he turned the reins of the company over to Donald Capparella. Mr. Capparella has taken the company to new heights including adding a winter season and performances in the schools. The Festival may have changed a lot in the seventeen seasons since four friends got together and decided to put on a play as a tribute to their teacher. But some things haven’t changed. Every summer audiences still flock to Centennial Park to see shows by the world’s greatest playwright. Teenagers that saw the first shows now bring their kids to see the productions. Plays hundreds of years old still excite and enthrall the audiences. The gift Brenda, Ty, Chuck, and Chambers gave to the city still grows and grows.