Steven Earl-Edwards has been reunited with his Excalibur.

For the third time in 25 years, the actor will be playing the same character, King Arthur, and wielding the same sword, trusty Excalibur, he carried in Park Playhouse productions of "Camelot" in the summer troupe's first season, 1989, and again in 1998.

There's a difference this year: Although Earl-Edwards is again playing Arthur, it's not in the stately, classic 1960 Lerner and Loewe musical but in the vastly sillier "Monty Python's Spamalot." The tuneful 2005 spoof, adapted by Python member Eric Idle from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," sends up the Arthurian legend with wicked merriment and comedic lunacy.

"We wanted to keep some of the purity of the ('Camelot') Arthur, of his spirit, but we're having a great deal of fun as well," says Earl-Edwards. He is returning to Park Playhouse this summer for the first time in a decade, but is familiar to longtime audiences for his work as actor or director on past shows in Washington Park, including "My Fair Lady," "The Music Man," "The Sound of Music" and "Kiss Me Kate."

After decades as an actor in New York City, Earl-Edwards, 68, has lived in Georgia since the early 1990s. He taught at LaGrange College, south of Atlanta, for 16 years and is now at Tuskegee University in Alabama. He plays Arthur as an earnest figure, at times baffled by the tomfoolery and ridiculousness going on around him.

"He expects wonderful things from each person he meets, but some of the characters are just a little off-center," says Earl-Edwards. "He doesn't get angry, but he sometimes just can't believe someone would say things like that."

Case in point: When Arthur and his growing band of knights encounter a pair of mud farmers, Arthur informs them, "I am your king."

OLD WOMAN: Ooooh! I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.

DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship, A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes —

OLD WOMAN: There you are, bringing class into it again.

After Arthur asks, "Who is your lord?" the reply is, "I told you: We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune."

The old woman is played by Vincent DePeri, who is in his third summer at Park Playhouse and, for the third year in a row, is wearing a dress on the stage.

"This time around it's more of a dirty frock than a dress," says DiPeri, who was in drag as Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray" last year and, in 2011, as the flamboyant Roger DeBris in "The Producers." He deadpans, "I prefer to be in flat shoes than in heels anyway, so that's better this year." DiPeri, a New York City-based actor, also plays the science-minded Sir Bedevere, who comes up with the Trojan Rabbit and the Holy Hand Grenade.

"' Spamalot' is cheeky and a little naughty, and it borders on childish, but it's very, very funny," says Owen Smith, now in his fourth summer as Park Playhouse's producing artistic director. After the PG-13 outrageousness of "The Producers" and the heavy, emotional subject matter of "Cabaret" last year, "I wanted to bring some levity to the stage," Smith says.

Audiences have responded to the Smith-led revival of Park Playhouse, which, before he took over, had stagnated artistically. Overall attendance last year was 55,000, up almost 20 percent from the year before, and strong sales for reserved seats brought in $72,000 more than projected in the 2012 budget of $345,000. (This year's budget is $392,500.)

"What amazed me last year is I had 30- and 40-year-old patrons coming up and telling me they had never heard of Park Playhouse before coming to see 'Cabaret,'" Smith says. "I think a big part of our growth with new audiences is that the diversity of the productions has expanded. I'm committed to always doing something that is family-friendly'' — this summer's second production is "Shrek the Musical," running Aug. 6 to 18 — "but I'm also committed to pushing the envelope a little bit."

The sword Arthur uses spent the last 15 years mounted on a plaque in the office and later the home of Albany real estate developer Herb Ellis. A past president of the Park Playhouse board, Ellis became friendly with Earl-Edwards and during some summer seasons let him stay in his house.

After the 1998 production of "Camelot" closed, Ellis bought the sword at a Park Playhouse charity auction, winning what he describes as a spirited bidding war with Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. When Park Playhouse announced that Earl-Edwards would be returning to play Arthur, Ellis had the sword, which had become dingy and pitted, refurbished at an autobody shop.

"It's beautiful," Ellis says. "It really came out nice. I think I may want to keep it after the season's over." Remembering that Jennings, who is not running for re-election in the fall, has long been a dedicated supporter of Park Playhouse, Ellis says, "Maybe I should give it to Jerry as a going-away present."

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