One of the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s best-known actors will be returning this summer to the Adams Shakespearean Theatre, but he won’t be on the stage. David Ivers, a long-time actor at the Festival, will instead be directing Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.

Ivers’s connections to the Festival and Cyrano de Bergerac are numerous and varied. “In many ways, this seems a natural extension of my tenure with the Festival,” he said. “Sixteen years ago, I made my Festival acting debut in Cyrano de Bergerac in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Randy Moore, a terrific actor who is a close colleague and fellow resident company member with me at the Denver Center Theatre Company, played Cyrano. I am now deep in rehearsal, directing a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, which Randy Moore is also in.”

Ivers also mentioned that he met his wife, Stephanie, in Cedar City, as well as the real estate agent who two years ago helped them find a new house in Colorado. And, if that isn’t enough, he is also directing two old friends in this year’s production: Brian Vaughn as Cyrano and Melinda Pfundstein as Roxane, both of whom he has acted with at the Festival.

“I have had an evolving relationship with Cyrano de Bergerac since the Festival 1992 production, and it remains, for me, the greatest play ever written,” said Ivers. “Its poetry, in harmony with its examination of love, death, selflessness, and introspection give it unparalleled status in the canon of dramatic literature.”