Christmas Memories of Fred

Barbara and Fred C. Adams in front of their Christmas tree sometime in the early 1980s.

This will be the first Christmas that the Utah Shakespeare Festival will be without its founder, Fred C. Adams, who passed away on February 6, 2020. All of us (staff, patrons, and friends) have our favorite memories of him. But his family members, of course, have the most poignant and playful. So, in the spirit of Mr. Adams, who loved Christmas, family, and the Festival, we have gathered some reminiscences from his family to bring the spirit of the holidays into all our lives during this season.

Dorcas Woodward, daughter

“Some of my favorite Christmas memories of dad from when I was a little girl in the ’60s and early ’70s, center around the ‘Hall of Enchanted Trees’ in the Auditorium Theatre foyer. The tradition started when some of his college students couldn’t go home for Christmas, so he organized this project with and for them, and it turned into a Christmas gift for the whole community. They would spend hours collecting materials from the scene and costume shops and from local businesses to create imaginative ‘themed’ trees to fill the foyer. Dad always loved creating beautiful and interesting things, and this was the perfect outlet. . . . Our favorites were always the candy trees—until the year of the upside-down tree that hung from the ceiling. It was pure magic!” 

“As a young woman I was the model for the Juliet statue [which is now in the Pedersen Shakespeare Character Garden]. In those days, they cast several miniatures and sold them to raise funds for the large statues. Oh, how I wanted one, but I knew they were considerably out of our family’s budget. One of our dear family friends who was a volunteer at the Festival for many years, bought one; and every time she saw me, would say ‘You are looking so beautiful in my living room!’ Years went by, and I figured there was no way I would ever own a Juliet. One Christmas morning the extended family was busily opening gifts when dad pushed a box toward me. I opened the box to see Juliet lying there. I started sobbing and looked up at Dad and said “How?” He was trying to control his emotions and gruffly said, ‘Well, you had to have her.’ Later, I found out that months earlier, he had gone to this friend and her children and explained things, and they had decided that Dad would pay her outstanding care center bills and when she passed away, Dorcas would have her Juliet.”

Glynis Neves, daughter

“One of the most vivid memories of my childhood Christmases with Dad is the decorating of the tree. When Dorcas, Addison, and I were all very young, Dad liked to have the tree just so! It was a showpiece! We would pick a tree out at a lot as a family. Those trees were always so beautiful! Thick white flocking with little bits of greenery peeking through. When the tree was delivered, it was always an ordeal to wrestle it into place in the front room. Dad would have several canvases placed on the floor to catch any flocking that might fall, and a ladder at the ready. Dad and at least two other men would wrestle that tree into place, centering it in the windows. Then the fun began! Mom and Dad had boxes and boxes of fancy ornaments. They would stack them on the sofas and dad would begin the decorating. We kids were not allowed to help: this was DAD’S tree! He would start at the top with small gold and white ornaments, and he would place them each carefully. As he moved down the tree, the ornaments grew bigger and shinier. Once all the ornaments were placed, Dad would pull out a small shoebox and call us kids around. Handing us each a small rag dipped in vinegar water, he would open the shoebox to reveal crystal teardrops. Our job was to polish those crystal drops until they sparkled. Dad would then hang them from the points of the branches. We were so proud to be a part of the decorating process.”

“Another memory surrounds Christmas Eve. This was a big family party at our house. All our family that lived in town came for dinner, games, and fun the night before Christmas. Dad would spend the day making potato soup, and mom would make pumpkin bread. As an extended family we would eat together: kids in one room and the adults in another. Dad would light the fireplace and have Christmas music playing in the background. It was magical! After dinner, we would all gather around, and the kids would put on a show. This was the one night of the year we all showcased talents. There were songs, violin pieces, Addison playing ‘Jingle Bells’ on the bugle mouthpiece, etc. The evening would end with Dad opening up the family Bible to read the story of the First Christmas. As he read, the children would act the story out, using costumes my mom and her sister put together from robes, towels, and bits of tinsel. We thought we were as good as anything we ever saw on the Festival stage! It was always wonderful to hear Dad reading the story in his ‘actor’ voice. It gives me chills, now, to remember it!”

Addison Adams, son

“Dad used to flock our Christmas tree using a canister vacuum to apply the flocking. His old neighbor and friend Bob Clark would find him a tree large enough for his eighteen-foot ceiling, and Dad would set up in the vacant lot next door and start applying bags of flocking. Now, the flocking nozzle would frequently clog with wet clumps of material, and Dad would dig it out with a butter knife. Once I reached the seasoned age of about five or six, I was allowed to hold the butter knife in between nozzle jams. I would also hold the ladder for Dad as he got the highest branches. After about half an hour mom would drag me away, to save my tender ears, as the machine’s nozzle got clogged more frequently. Mom always joked about this being where my colorful vocabulary all started!”

“In more recent years, I loved watching Dad interact with all the grandkids walking through Christmas Lane. The decorations were always magical to him.” 

Joshua Adams, son

“Every year, Christmas Eve was spent at our house, and Dad would end each Christmas Eve reading the story of Christ’s birth from the Bible, followed by ‘’Twas the Night Before Christmas’ (not from the Bible). It’s this last memory that sticks with me, as I have now been living 3,000 miles away from Utah for thirteen years, unable to spend the holidays with my Utah family; so when my sons were very small, Dad recorded himself reciting this and attached it to a hard-back version of ‘’Twas the Night Before Christmas,’ and it is now one of the most cherished gifts my boys have of their late Grandfather—and for me. It allows that old memory to live on.”

“The second fond memory I have is short and silly. When the four of us children were small, Dad and Mom would have all of us sleep on the floor of their bedroom, so we couldn’t sneak out into the living room before he was ready for us on Christmas morning. It kept us all in one place, so they could do whatever voodoo they had to prep for Christmas day. Dad would NEVER allow us to leave their bedroom, no matter how early we woke up, and he’d twist the knife a bit and do his best to sleep past 8 a.m., then make us wait even longer as he went out, put on some music, started a fire, and made us orange juice and toast. This was all preparation for Dad to be able to have a good seat in the living room, so he could witness all of our faces, one by one, as he called to us to ‘come on out.’ His greatest Christmas gift was to see the joy on our faces—and maybe his yearly puzzle.” 

Marina Sandall, granddaughter

“One of my favorite memories was the year Grandpa decided to switch from a gold to a purple Christmas. I was thrilled because purple was my favorite color. He had all the ornaments, decorations, even a purple nutcracker. But he couldn’t find the right lights for a Christmas tree, so we spent hours together hand painting the bulbs on strands of white lights, purple. And when we finished, he stood back and just stared at the tree in amazement. It was perfect.”

Olivia and Jamison Woodward, grandchildren

“I will always remember how excited Grandpa Fred was to decorate everything at Christmastime to make his home feel like a cozy winter wonderland. He loved putting up lights, blingy Christmas trees (the purple ones were favorites), and most of all a tiny, multi-colored, twinkling ceramic Christmas village. When we would visit, I remember seeing the scenes that he had so carefully constructed and being mesmerized by the miniature details. He was so proud of his beautiful decorations, and I think he loved them so much because of the joy that they brought to everyone.”

Katie Neves, granddaughter

I remember every year when I was a little girl, my grandpa would dress up as Ebenezer Scrooge for his role in A Christmas Carol: On the Air. While I would be in the kitchen helping my mom make Christmas treats, my grandpa would stalk out, top hat and cane, glasses perched on his nose, and a gravelly voice. He would walk into the kitchen, scowl around at all of us, then say, “Bah Humbug.” He made a pretty scary Scrooge! Then, after a beat, he’d wink at me, and I knew that he was still my grandpa underneath the costume. He’d whirl a scarf around his neck and leave the kitchen, and I knew I was in for a treat at the theatre that night.”

Alan Neves, son-in-law

“One of Fred’s great Christmas family traditions was sharing Disneyland with his kids and grandkids. He made it a year-long occurrence. Even though we would only travel there as a family every couple of years, he started it with Christmas and would hang tickets for each individual on the tree. That would build excitement for everyone and in turn would fuel his passion for this family tradition. This year will be difficult having Christmas without Fred but we will be forever grateful for him and the path he put forward for all of us.”

Gene Woodward, son-in-law 

“A few years ago Dad had stopped at the huge Christmas store in Wisconsin and brought back cardboard glasses that you could wear, and when you looked at Christmas lights the glasses would turn the lights into stars, snowflakes, reindeer, Santa faces, etc. He couldn’t get over how magical they were. When the family was all together in December, he let the grandchildren all pick the one they wanted; and we headed off to Christmas Lane. He could hardly contain his excitement watching the grandkids swapping glasses to try all the different kinds and he giggled and oohed and aahed each time one would make him try on their glasses.” 

Holiday Light Display DEBUTS at the Festival

By Parker Bowring

The Utah Shakespeare Festival added its own spectacular lighting display to Cedar City’s historic downtown “All Is Bright” celebration this holiday season, promising an amazing new tradition of holiday spirit downtown, along Center Street, and all across the Beverley Center for the Arts.

Cedar City festivities were November 28 in front of the city offices, 10 N. Main Street, including holiday music, fire barrels, a visit from Santa, a Tuba band, and fireworks. The evening culminated as the lights are turned on downtown and at the Festival.

The Festival’s lighting display is part tribute to Founder Fred C. Adams’s love of Christmas lights and part the beginning of a holiday tradition the Festival hopes to build on every year. As such, the Tony Award-winning theatre company has called in the help of professional theatre and architectural lighting designers Tom and Donna Ruzika, who have joined forces with Festival technicians and artists to create a display that will dazzle with over 100,000 lights, wreaths, icicles, and other decorations.

The husband and wife design team have enormous experience, including time at the Festival. Tom designed lighting for plays at the Festival in 1973, the year they were married; and Donna has designed nearly seventy shows since 1998. “Coming back to the Festival is a homecoming,” said Tom.

 The Ruzikas’ vision for the Festival lights combines traditional Christmas lights and music with theatrical and architectural lighting. They hope that holiday revelers will be immersed in a festive, glittering environment as they stroll through the Festival grounds.

Due to their background they are envisioning this exciting project as if it were a Shakespeare play.  “We are approaching this project as if the Festival grounds are a performance, as if the lights are the actors,” said Donna.

“The end result is to hopefully have the community remember the Festival during the winter and enjoy an enchanted magical area to help everyone get out of what we are going through this year. It will be something very special,” said Tom.

In order to create a memorable experience Donna strived for a holiday theatricality as she imagined the Shakespeare theatres decorated in thousands of lights, wreaths, and decorations, with familiar and nostalgic holiday songs playing on the Festival’s outdoor sound system. The crown of that theatricality is a seven-foot star on the top of the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre that will be visible from much of Cedar City.

“These lights are also a reminder that we are still here and working toward a brighter future when we can be together again in the theatre,” said Festival Production Manager Richard Girtain. “I believe creating this aesthetically pleasing holiday display will provide a visitor some peace and holiday cheer in a very turbulent year.”

Cedar City has extended its glittering display down Center Street this year between Main Street and 100 West, bringing it nearly to the Festival’s front door, making it easy for the Festival to tie into the celebration. “I’m so excited that the Festival can be part of the Cedar City celebration and grateful to the wonderful lighting designers and our production staff for making it all happen,” said Executive Producer Frank Mack. “We are also grateful to Cedar City, Iron County, and Visit Cedar City • Brian Head for their support for this display. Many, many people have contributed to make this a success.”

“Cedar City and Iron County have a truly unique, hometown holiday attraction with the lights downtown, at the Frontier Homestead State Park, and at the Utah Shakespeare Festival grounds,” added Maria Twitchell, executive director of Visit Cedar City • Brian Head — the tourism bureau for Iron County. “In this time of Covid, it’s important we support efforts that not only celebrate the season but also bring families together with an activity that can easily accommodate social distancing.”

“There’s nothing like a small-town Christmas in Festival City!” concluded Cedar City Mayor Maile Wilson-Edwards. “This year, more than others, we needed some holiday cheer, and it’s been amazing to see the community join in on the fun. The true draw, however, will be the new Utah Shakespeare Festival lights, which will certainly add to the downtown experience and make Cedar City an even more phenomenal Christmas destination.”

Festival Offers Season’s Best Discounts on Cyber Monday

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is planning a big season in 2021, and is offering its largest discount of the year on Cyber Monday, November 30—every ticket will be discounted $8. To take advantage of the special pricing, go to www.bard.org/cyber, and select the Cyber Monday Discount option when you choose your seats at checkout.

This discount is available only on November 30.

“This is the only time of the year that we offer this across-the-board discount,” said Donn Jersey, development and communication director. “We are encouraging our wonderful patrons to plan ahead and prepare for what we know is going to be a fabulous season.”

After canceling its 2020 season, the Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced plans to return in 2021 with a blow-out sixtieth anniversary season: eight plays, numerous ancillary activities, anniversary events throughout the summer, and a full season dedicated to Founder Fred C. Adams who passed away in February, including a celebration of his life in August.

“The 2021 season at the Festival will be like no other in our history,” said Executive Producer Frank Mack in announcing the upcoming theatre season. “It is our sixtieth year, it is dedicated to our founder, Fred C. Adams, and it marks our return to producing after missing 2020. It will be a magnificent experience.”

The season will feature eight plays in three theatres, plus all the extra “Festival Experience” traditions and activities guests have come to love over the last six decades, The Greenshow, backstage tours, Repertory Magic, various seminars, orientations, and numerous classes.

The anniversary year will run from June 21 through October 9. The plays will be William Shakespeare’s Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Cymbeline, as well as Ragtime by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty, and Lynn Ahrens, The Pirates of Penzance by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Intimate Apparel by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, and The Comedy of Terrors by John Goodrum.

“This upcoming season is a mixture of plays rolled over from the cancelled 2020 season, with the addition of three exciting and reflective plays that capture the heartbeat of the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s enduring mission,” said Artistic Director Brian Vaughn. “All of these titles explore varying themes of identity and mortality; the debate of fate versus free will; and the examination of the human spirit’s ability to overcome injustice and oppression. Combined, they make up a rich tapestry of drama that magnifies the intricacies of our collective humanity.”

 “The confluence of many circumstances will combine to make 2021 an exciting season—celebrating sixty years of great professional theatre in beautiful Cedar City, honoring our visionary founder who made all this possible, and getting to produce shows for our wonderful audiences, by our amazing artists, after a year-long hiatus,” concluded Mack.

To receive your discount, go to www.bard.org/cyber. If you have questions, please call the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX.

Questions and Answers with Director Kent Thompson

Kent Thompson is returning to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2021 to directPericles, after directingThe Comedy of Errors *in 1987,*Cymbeline *in 1988,*The Imagery Invalid in 1989, andScapin in 2012. He is a recognized theatre industry leader, director, consultant, writer, and educator. He has served as producing artistic director of two major regional theatre: the Denver Center Theatre Company (2005–2017) and Alabama Shakespeare Festival (1989–2005). The following question-and-answer session was conducted via email and offers some interesting insights into one of Shakespeare’s most seldom produced plays.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival: Pericles is one of Shakespeare’s less often performed plays (the Festival has only produced it twice in sixty years). Why do you suppose that is?

Kent Thompson: Periclesis a strange, wondrous play. It’s a fantastical adventure far flung across the Near Ancient East and a harrowing tale as Pericles and his family endure trial and tribulation of separation, seeming death, and finally reuniting. Most scholars believe it’s a collaboration with a much younger writer, George Wilkins, whose prose work, entitled The Painful Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre, is a good description of the play*.*Wilkins’ contributions are less successful than Shakespeare’s and you can tell the difference easily. The cobbled together script is inconsistent in its effectiveness, but still interesting. It lacks some of the sophistication of Shakespeare’s other plays, including his romance plays, such as The Winter’s Taleand The Tempest. Also, it has very large cast, and lots of exotic locations. It’s tough to produce, but worth the effort—and I think the script is especially timely at this moment in our world.

The Festival: Pericles is probably the first of Shakespeare’s “romance” plays, and he seems to be trying out new ideas and forms in Pericles. How does this play compare with plays Shakespeare wrote earlier and later?

Thompson: Periclesis an adventure story and likely Shakespeare’s first “romance” play. He’s experimenting with some new ideas and devices, starting with the medieval poet John Gower serving as narrator for the play. In many ways, a romance is an adult fairytale—a story about an epic hero with wild, often fantastical events and characters. Pericles fits the bill—it contains an incestuous father/daughter relationship, a jousting scene (although the script indicates it’s off-stage), a young woman sold into sex slavery, a woman seemingly raised from the dead by a magical doctor, a storm at sea that destroys everything but our hero, an appearance by the goddess Diana, and more. It’s as if Shakespeare filled the play with incident and wanted to explore epic stories (e.g., what Fate does to us, how the gods affect our lives, how we survive in spite of almost unbearable suffering) rather than psychological truth and an exploration of cause and effect. In this way, Pericles(and Cymbeline) are sometimes more “Game of Thrones” than “Hamlet.”

The Festival: In your Preliminary Director’s Concept you say that you want “to find a ‘ritual’ of storytelling.” Can you elaborate on that idea?

Thompson: With dozens of characters and multiple locations, Pericles could be produced as a Hollywood film with lavish and exotic sets and elaborate and ornate costumes. A highly cinematic approach is neither affordable nor practical—the transitions between scenes are often rapid—we have no time to watch massive scene changes, etc. Besides, in the theatre we value the live actor over the special effects of the movies. Instead, we will develop a ritual of storytelling that features a company of actors who perform all the roles, seamlessly moving in and out of character in front of our very eyes. Gower and the actors will also take on the role of “stage manager” and “crew”—they will help each other in and out of costumes, move the scenery, and watch scenes that they may not be in. The company will be telling the story as a ritual of remembrance.

The Festival: Pericles has numerous locales, storylines, and characters. As a director, how are you dealing with that to help audience members take the journey with you?

**Thompson:**Working closely with the designers, we came up with a color palette and specific silhouette for each of the major locations. Each color palette was chosen for its theatrical and psychological value. Pericles/Tyre is represented by a series of (heroic) blues; with its brothel scenes, Mytilene is hot, blood red; corrupt, incestuous Antioch is a (diseased) acid green; beneficent Pentapolis is off white and silver (where Pericles meets and marries Thaisa). Set fabrics and pieces will reinforce the costume color palette for each location, such as a blue and white sail for Pericles’s ship voyage. 

The Festival: A lot happens in this play, but do you think there are one or two overarching themes? What are they?

The theme of just rewards appears throughout the play. Helicanus describes a fire from heaven that strikes Antiochus for his incest and treachery. For their plot against Marina, the people of Tarsus rise up in rage at King Cleon and his wicked Queen Dionyza and burn them in their palace. 

A more important theme of the play is the power of faith, love, and endurance. Pericles, Thaisa, and Marina each suffer setbacks and horrific losses in their journey through the play, but each has the faith and endurance to trust the gods. Each is a good person, who strives to maintain virtue and survive. Character and strength carry them to a happier end. Certainly, their reunification is one of the most moving scenes in Shakespeare. 

The Festival: As playgoers, what should we watch for in this production that may help us enjoy it and/or understand it more?

Thompson: Audiences will enjoy how the play shifts gears into a tale of two strong female heroes late in act 3. In particular, Marina (Pericles and Thaisa’s daughter), becomes remarkably ingenious, powerful, and effective in determining her own destiny when she negotiates her way out of the brothel. Through her gifts as musician, tutor, and healer in the discovery scene, she brings her father back to life after his surrender to sadness and despair. 

The Festival: Your history of directing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival stretches from 1987 (The Comedy of Errors) to 2012 (Scapin). What attracted you here and why do you keep returning?

Thompson: The setting for working on these plays is magical at the Festival—surrounded by such beauty and grandeur in mountains and parks. And the theatre spaces are truly remarkable. There is also such a fierce pride in the Festival—by company members, audiences, the people of Utah, donors, and more. I find the audiences especially appreciative at Utah, and, given their knowledge of Shakespeare plays, they add so much to every production. 

Having directed over such a span of time, I’ve witnessed the remarkable growth in size and quality at the Festival. I was lucky enough to direct one of the first three shows in the Randall Theatre and cannot wait to direct in the Engelstad Theatre. We will miss the founding visionary and great good heart of the Festival this season—Fred Adams, but I know Fred’s spirit will be present as we bring the Festival back to life again.

The Festival: Besides theatre business, what is the one thing you plan on doing while in Cedar City?

**Thompson:**I like to hike, so I plan to take advantage of the remarkable outdoors around Cedar City. If I have the time, my wife wants to take me to the Grand Canyon which I have never seen.

The Festival: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thompson: All of us have experienced something similar to the journey of Pericles and his family in 2020. Fate threw us a wicked curve ball in the coronavirus. Death, destruction, hardship, and separation afflicted the world. As Periclesreminds us, faith, love, and and endurance will lead us through this hardship to a brighter future.

Shakespeare’s Romances: What Are They?

Tim Casto as Pericles in 2010.

By Kathryn Neves

 When most of us hear the word romance, we think of—well, romance. We think of love, couples, Valentine’s Day, chocolate hearts, long walks on the beach, Jack and Rose, Rhett and Scarlett, Elizabeth and Darcy. But when we talk about Shakespearean romances, we’re talking about something else altogether. Surprising as it may be, we’re not talking about Romeo and Juliet here. Shakespearean Romances are a separate genre, and they’re not about romantic love at all.

This year at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, we get the chance to see not one, but two of Shakespeare’s romances: Cymbeline and Pericles. These two often-overlooked plays are some of the Bard’s most beautiful works, and some of the most puzzling. These plays are not tragedies, but they’re not comedies—and they’re certainly not histories either. What are they? Actually, they are in their own separate category, along with The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, and (depending on who you ask) The Two Noble Kinsmen. The romances are Shakespeare’s smallest genre, the often-forgotten fourth category. But what exactly is a Shakespearean romance?

For centuries, people have had trouble putting these plays into the right category. In Shakespeare’s First Folio, Cymbeline was listed as a tragedy, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale were listed as comedies, and Pericles wasn’t included at all. However, these labels didn’t really fit. Cymbeline has a fairly happy ending; can it really be called a tragedy? And The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale don’t fit well with the rest of the comedies; they deal with a lot of serious themes and issues, and it’s really only their happy endings that make them at all “comedic.”

It wasn’t until 1875 that someone first used the label “romance” for Shakespeare’s works. In his book Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art, Edward Dowden says (speaking about Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest) that “the ties of deepest kinship between them are spiritual. There is a certain romantic element in each.” And, in the footnote to this page, he says that “the same remark applies to Shakespeare’s part of Pericles.” Dowden’s “romantic” label stuck, and Shakespeare lovers and scholars have accepted the romances as a new genre, a category beyond his tragedies and comedies.

It’s pretty clear that Shakespeare wrote these plays around the same time. These are some of the last plays he ever wrote. He was older, and perhaps more mature when he wrote these plays than when he wrote his other works. They all have similar themes. Long-lost relatives, families reuniting, strange locations, redemption, and magic are all important parts of these plays. Each play takes place over long periods of time; each play involves magic and pre-Christian gods, like Jupiter; they involve amazing onstage effects, like thunderstorms and shipwrecks and magical events.

Many of the characters in these romances are older. This is probably because Shakespeare himself was growing older; he began to understand more what age meant, and how it affects people; he was able to delve into the complicated emotions that come with age and parenthood a lot better during this stage of his life than he ever had before.

And, from a more practical point of view, Shakespeare’s actors were growing older too. It had to be a lot easier to write characters who fit the ages of his actors than to try to make his men look younger onstage.

The romances involve both tragedy and comedy, and sometimes even a sprinkling of history. Deaths of relatives, long-lost children and siblings, great misfortune and terrible villains all make for some pretty tragic plays. But in Shakespeare’s romances, the tragedy is reversed; families come together again, the long-dead seem to miraculously come back to life, couples get married, and fairy-tale happy endings prove that these plays are no tragedies. It makes sense that the romances are often called “tragi-comedies.”

For many people, Shakespeare’s romances are his best works. Whether or not that’s true, they are definitely masterpieces. They are so different from Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies—and yet, they’re very similar, too. The romances do what all of Shakespeare’s works do: they teach, they inspire and they show us what it is to be human. And best of all, they entertain.

Pericles and the Universal Odyssey Story

By Kathryn Neves 

Warning: This article reveals part of the ending and other “surprises” inPericles*. If you don’t want to know this information before seeing the play, you may want to reconsider reading more.*

If there’s one thing that William Shakespeare was good at, it was telling universal stories. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, *Othello—*they’re all stories that dive deep into themes and messages that we all understand. And this season’s Periclesis no different. Though it’s one of the Bard’s lesser-known works, at its heart, the story of the prince of Tyre is one of the most universal stories there is. Pericles is an odyssey story.

Obviously, the most famous odyssey story is—well—The Odyssey. The poet Homer in ancient Greece told the tale of a war hero who travelled from place to place, encountering monsters and damsels and kings on his way home. This is the classic quest story, and it spawned millions of others: the Arthurian Legend, Lord of the Rings, and even The Wizard of Oz just to name a few. The quest story is so universal that it can be found in every culture from every time period. It’s one of the things that humanity has in common: we all love quest narratives. And Periclesis perhaps Shakespeare’s best example.

From the very beginning, our hero Pericles is on a quest: he wants to find a wife. He travels from country to country, encountering deadly secrets and dangerous contests until he wins the hand of Thaisa, a princess of Pentapolis. Together they have a daughter, Marina, born during a storm at sea. All three are separated during the storm, believing each other dead. Marina is raised by a jealous queen, and is sent from a palace to a brothel and finally back to her mother and father; all three reunited by the help of the gods.

The gods themselves are a key part of odyssey stories. The Odysseywas written in the time of ancient Greece, when everyone believed in a pantheon of gods. There was a god for everything: for the ocean, for wisdom, for death, for beauty, for purity. The gods directly intervene in Odysseus’s journey, helping—and sometimes hindering—him on his path. Periclesis no different. Though it was written more than two thousand years later, it’s set loosely in ancient Greece—based on the story of an ancient hero. So the gods are a huge part of the story of Pericles, too. In fact, Diana appears directly to Pericles and tells him where to find his long-lost wife. Pericles is one of the few Shakespeare plays to feature a god or goddess as a character. 

Pericles is, at its core, a journey story. LikeThe Odyssey, Pericles goes on a treacherous journey, defying the odds and risking his life in order to fulfill his quest. He faces an evil king with a murderous secret; he saves a kingdom from starvation; he competes against a band of knights to win Thaisa’s hand in marriage; he encounters shipwrecks and storms and great losses. Marina, too, goes on a journey—nearly as odyssey-like as her father’s! She’s born during a terrible storm and given to an evil, jealous queen; she survives a murder and pirates and a brothel before being reunited with her long-lost parents. In many ways, Marina is as much the hero of the story as Pericles himself.

LikeThe Odyssey, Pericles is about a long journey. But also like The Odyssey, Pericles is about an inner journey. This is a common theme in quest stories: we like to hear about the travels of a hero, because they are exciting and entertaining. But hidden within the hero’s quest is a journey of discovery and growth. Through his travels, Pericles learns how valuable his loved ones are; he learns the importance of virtue and morality; he discovers the significance of hope and faith in the long years of separation from his wife and daughter. Marina, too, goes on a hidden inner journey. Through her years of disaster and hardship, she learns to protect herself, she relies on her inner convictions and strength, she learns the power of the gods in shaping her life, and she understands the value of enduring her many disasters. And at the end, both Pericles and Marina discover the power of love and family when they are reunited with each other and with Thaisa.

 Odyssey tales have been passed down for centuries. We can all connect with these stories. Whether or not we’ve been on a perilous journey like Pericles or Marina (or Odysseus, for that matter), we can all relate to their adventures. Their journeys are more than just travels; they’re universal stories of discovery and endurance. It’s no wonder, then, that Periclesis such a beautiful play. As a quest story, it’s a part of one of humanity’s oldest—and best—traditions.

Questions and Answers with Director Vincent J. Cardinal

Vincent J. Cardinal is returning to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2021 to direct The Comedy of Errors, after directing Every Brilliant Thing in 2019 and The Foreigner in 2018. He has also worked as an artistic director, playwright, or director in theatres across the United States. The following question-and-answer session was conducted via email and offers some interesting insights into one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival: You are planning to shift the location and time of this production of The Comedy of Errors. Would you tell us the location and time period we can look forward to and give us some insight as to why you made this decision?

Vincent J. Cardinal: Shakespeare’s Ephesus would have been a tantalizing place.

“They say this town is full of cozenage:
As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin” (The Comedy of Errors, Act 1, Scene 2).

Ephesus must be a place that can be the setting of a romance which reunites a refugee family; the setting of a rough and tumble farce for the groundlings; an environment full of surprises and delight; and a place where cultures and traditions can clash. In thinking about all of those needs, it was clear to me that contemporary audiences wouldn’t make those associations with Turkey, where Ephesus is actually located, but they might see these qualities in a Greek island paradise in 1979. A sort of Mamma Mia meets Shakespeare with the sound of waves, seagulls, and ABBA-inspired music.

The Festival: It is not uncommon to update Shakespeare’s plays in various ways (especially to adjust the time and location of the action). Why do you think theatre companies and directors do this, even when they seldom do it with other playwrights? Is there something unique about Shakespeare’s plays?

Cardinal: Many of Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed with “contemporary” costumes, props, and references. These familiar elements would give the audience significant information about the play’s characters, context, humor, and social assumptions.  By updating the time and location, we provide these clues to our contemporary audience and offer the experience that Shakespeare’s audience might have enjoyed in their time.

The Festival: Several of the plays at the Festival this year deal with immigrants or “outsiders” (Ragtime, Intimate Apparel, Pericles, and perhaps others). Do you see some of those themes in The Comedy of Errors?

Cardinal: The plot of The Comedy of Errors turns on the arrest of a refugee who must find a family member in this strange land in one day or face execution.  Like so many of Shakespeare’s comedies, this story sits on the foundation of heartbreak but grows in zaniness and hilarity as the plot unfolds and finally leads us to the touching and surprising reunion of a long divided refugee family.

The Festival: Comedies are not always considered among Shakespeare’s masterpieces, but they are some of his most popular plays. What is the value of theatres producing comedies as part of their seasons?

Cardinal: As George Bernard Shaw reminded us, “Life does not cease to be funny when someone dies any more than it ceases to be serious when someone laughs.” It is not an original observation that comedy and tragedy are the two sides of one coin. Tragedy accepts life’s darkness and leads the audience towards greater compassion and empathy, while comedy defies the darkness and prods the audience into laughter to survive the miseries of existence.

Especially in the face of a global pandemic, a challenging societal reckoning, rampant wildfires, and political unrest, the call today to survive through laughter and humor seems particularly vital. Comedy offers an emotional catharsis that leads to strength, resilience, and hopefulness. 

The Festival: The Comedy of Errors was one of Shakespeare’s early plays, perhaps his first comedy. How do you think it compares with later comedies such as All’s Well That Ends Well and The Tempest?

Cardinal: I love the youthful and chaotic energy of The Comedy of Errors. One can feel young Shakespeare’s audacity and delight in taking Plautus’ Menaechmi and doubling its twins, contemporizing its plot, and over stuffing every turn with well-worn comic bits. Where The Tempest is sublime, even in its low humor, and transcendent in its final unfolding, The Comedy of Errors relishes the plot mechanics of comic momentum and celebrates high-spirited merriment over an organic, emotional denouement.

The Festival: As playgoers, what should we watch for in this production that may help us enjoy it and/or understand it more?

Cardinal: Keep an eye on out for ways to distinguish which twin is which so you can anticipate and enjoy their reactions to the surprising plot twists.

The Festival: This is your third season in a row directing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. What attracted you here and why do you keep returning?

Cardinal: Under the leadership of Brian Vaughn and Frank Mack, the Utah Shakespeare Festival is one of the great theatre festivals. Its extraordinary artisans help realize the visons of some of the best creative teams I have ever seen assembled.  The Festival attracts an acting company made up of the nation’s most seasoned stage veterans and most exciting new talent.  When I was invited to join the Festival, it was an honor that I couldn’t pass up. Although very different, The Foreigner and Every Brilliant Thing were special, creative experiences and highlights of my theatre career. With The Comedy of Errors, I’ll be directing in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre for the first time.  I am excited by the challenge and eager to spend the summer in Shakespeare’s laughter-filled comedy.

The Festival: Besides theatre business, what is the one thing you plan on doing while in Cedar City?

Cardinal: Only one? Returning to Cedar City means catching up with friends, and some of that catching up happens in the areas restaurants: conversations over pizza at Centro or over coffee at The Grind. To burn off those calories, I love hiking in the area’s breathtaking parks including Zion National Park, Spring Creek Canyon, and Cedar Breaks. Cedar City and the Southern Utah University campus are also a walker’s delight.

The Festival: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Cardinal: The pandemic has darkened theatres all over the world.  It seems right that The Comedy of Errors will be among the first plays back on the boards at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  Its premiere by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men at Gray’s Inn marked one of the first productions offered after England’s plague quarantine of 1592–1594.

The Comedy of Errors: A Groovy Greek Island Paradise

By Parker Bowring 

Greek islands, sparkling waters, and costumes that ooze the groove of 1979 are all part of the Utah Shakespeare Festival 2021 production of The Comedy of Errors as its director and design team move the popular Shakespeare comedy to a colorful Greek island paradise in 1979, á la the the fun and lively movie Mamma Mia.

Set by Shakespeare in Ephesus, which would be present-day Turkey, The Comedy of Errors is “both a rollicking farce and classic romance, a story of hysterical mistaken identity and a tale of a family, torn apart by misfortune, in search of each other,” said director Vincent J. Cardinal,who isreturning to Cedar City this coming season after directing the Festival’s popular plays The Foreigner in 2018 and Every Brilliant Thing in 2019. 

One of the things that will make this play stand out from others this year is that the non-traditional setting. The plot, themes, and language of The Comedy of Errors will remain the same, while the setting will resemble a Greek island in the late seventies.

 “Shakespeare’s audience would have associated the port town of Ephesus with danger, romance, mysticism, the meeting of cultures, unfamiliar laws, and the intersection of the old and the new,” said Cardinal about his decision to reimagine the location and time of the popular comedy. “A contemporary American audience isn’t likely to make those associations with Turkey, but they do have a sense of the Greek Islands as romantic, fun, a bit touristy from cruise ship traffic, ‘foreign’ in culture and, perhaps, religion, mysterious, socially liberal but legally conservative.”

“The Comedy of Errors plays with the clash of rules and human needs as the family from Syracuse unwittingly falls afoul of Ephesus’s immigration laws,” he continued. “So too do American tourists find themselves misstepping in countries where the laws aren’t entirely what they expect.”

With the setting and vibe of the performance set to reflect a carefree and vibrant Greek island, the addition of Mamma Mia-type music is sure to bring the audience right into the heart of the play. “What inspires me about Mamma Mia the movie is that it is apologetically entertaining. Like The Comedy of Errors, it offers actors opportunities to indulge their theatrical virtuosity while sharing an evening of robust laughter and surprise with the audience. Both works lead with joy and fun,” said Cardinal. 

“The sunny, funny setting of the Greek Isles is the perfect match for a laugh filled summer night at the Festival,” he concluded. 

The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2021 season is scheduled for June 21 to October 10. Plays are The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, Richard III, The Pirates of Penzance, Ragtime, Cymbeline, Intimate Apparel, and The Comedy of Terrors. Information and tickets are available at www.bard.org or by calling the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX.

Shakespeare: The Original Comedian

By Kathryn Neves 

Everyone loves a good comedy. The Marx Brothers, Jim Carrey, Charlie Chaplin, Goofy—these are clowns that we all know and love. Their zany humor and wild slapstick keep us laughing and coming back for more. But there’s another name to add to this list: the king of comedy, the original jester—the one and only William Shakespeare. As evidence, we present The Comedy of Errors which will leave you in stitches, and show you just how funny the Bard really is.

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. Likely written in the mid-1590s, it’s an early example of the Bard’s brilliance and humor. Puns and wordplay, misunderstandings, mistaken identities and wild slapstick—this play has it all. Shakespeare poured everything he had into the comedy of this play— and it paid off. The Comedy of Errors is widely regarded as Shakespeare’s funniest play.

If Shakespeare loved any literary device, it was clowns. Nearly every play he ever wrote has a clown or two. Even the tragedies have clowns: the gravedigger in Hamlet, the Porter in Macbeth, and Lear’s fool all spark moments of comedy into otherwise bleak plays. The clowns in The Comedy of Errors makes the play exponentially funnier. The two Dromios, both of Syracuse and Ephesus, regale us with their jokes and their exaggerated mishaps.

Throughout Shakespeare’s plays, the clowns have several things in common: they are commoners or peasants, they are exceptionally witty, and they have intelligence and insight that goes far beyond their station in life. This certainly holds true in The Comedy of Errors. Each Dromio, slave to his respective Antipholus master, is witty enough to keep even the most intelligent playgoer rolling in the aisle. One example is in the description that Dromio of Syracuse delivers about his supposed wife: “she is spherical, like a globe,” he says. In his banter with Antipholus of Syracuse, he cleverly compares each part of her body to a country: the Americas “upon her nose all o’er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires;” Ireland, “in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.” Lines that would have had Shakespeare’s audiences in stitches—and keep us laughing even four centuries later.

Shakespeare goes beyond just clowns. The Comedy of Errors is a play famous for its slapstick. With chase scenes, exaggerated comedic violence, and wild physical mishaps, this play could sit right alongside Woody Woodpecker and the Three Stooges. Slapstick goes all the way back to the 1500s. This style of comedy was very popular in Italian commedia dell’arte; in fact, the style is even named for an Italian special effect device—two sticks you would slap together to make an exaggerated, comical slapping noise. Slapstick is funny enough that it’s lasted for centuries; there are plenty of comedians today who use slapstick in their routines. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors was actually one of the earliest examples of the art form. All the smacking and chasing and wild physical nonsense may seem pretty ordinary for those of us who have grown up with Mr. Bean and Goofy, but Shakespeare’s slapstick was original—it was innovative, exciting, and pretty dang funny. Antipholus—both of Syracuse and Ephesus— spends the entire play whacking and pummeling poor Dromio; and like any clown worth his salt, Dromio takes it all with the most exaggerated and hilarious of reactions. Shakespeare’s slapstick definitely still holds up.

William Shakespeare is known for his complexity and his gravitas; his tragedies and his histories are full of universal human themes and emotionally moving moments that have given him his status as the Bard. But we shouldn’t overlook his comedies. He truly was a Renaissance man, master of every genre. With his slapstick, clowns, and wit, Shakespeare was the original king of comedy. Even 400 years later, Shakespeare far outshines every other comedian. The Comedy of Errors is a master comedy— and we can’t wait for you to see it!

Waltonland and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

David Everette as Puck

Mary Walton as Egeus

Nick Walton as Titania

Michael Walton as Oberon

By Parker Bowring

 CEDAR CITY, Utah — “Friends, patriots, countrymen! Lend me your ears because obviously the rest of your bodies will not be in Cedar City this year. To go or not to go, that was the question for a while. But then we learned we Shakespeare lovers would have to entertain ourselves this summer” (Prologue of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Waltonland, read by Julie Humes).

The 2020 Utah Shakespeare Festival was not what any of us planned; but some people just need their Shakespeare hit! And the Walton family decided if they couldn’t go to the Festival, they would bring the Festival to them—into their own backyards.

To fill the void of a summer without theatre, Mary Walton, a faithful patron of the Festival, took matters into her own hands and with the help of her family created their own production of Shakespeare’s beloved A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In order to complete such a project, the play was split into seven parts and given to seven households to complete. Rose-Marie Walton, daughter of Mary Walton, took the script and cut it down to an hour.

“That turned out to be a lot harder than I thought! The plots are such a tangled web, woven together by the master, of course. And I had forgotten just how many wonderful lines are from this play” said Rose-Marie. Each family then began to bring A Midsummer Night’s Dream to life. In order to create the music for the play, James, Rose-Marie’s brother, did not act and instead dedicated his expertise to creating the perfect soundtrack.

Through family members (and dogs) acting skills, puppets, dolls and other toys, and clever drawings, then cutting and piecing it back together, the Waltons created a masterpiece that showcased their love of theatre and Shakespeare. The production turned out to be an hour long, full of laughs and bards. The Walton’s production stands as a testament to their love of theatre and how, even through uncertainty, there is joy.

In talking about feedback the Festival as received in this summer without plays, Donn Jersey, director of development and communications, said, “There is a common theme to all of the outreach we receive from our wonderful patrons: they miss us. The Waltons weren’t going to go a summer without Shakespeare, so they created their own production.  It’s just wonderful, a really beautiful way to fill the hole caused by the current health crisis.”

  What is incredible about this story is how people came together in a time of uncertainty and created something really special. In the process of creating their production, the Waltons discovered that even though they could not physically be at the Festival, they still were taking part in the age-old tradition of storytelling.

“Producing their very own production to stay connected to the art and the Festival just touches our hearts; what a beautiful way to let us know they miss us,” added Jersey. “We can’t wait to welcome the Waltons and so many other friends back to the Festival in 2021 to join in the fun of our sixtieth anniversary celebration.”

“The Festival is a tradition for our family. It is a wonderful chance to get away and be totally immersed in theatre,” said Rose-Marie. “We’re either at a seminar, at The Greenshow, at a play, or talking about the plays with each other. It is so fun to discuss the shows together, hear from the actors and directors, and watch actors perform multiple roles.”

“Being part of this family production was a lot of fun, especially seeing how ‘hammy’ everyone was,” she added. “I think it was a great outlet for creativity and silliness with all the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic. It also reminded me just how much work, time, and talent goes into even an amateur production. I think we will all appreciate next season’s productions even more because of our little midsummer adventure.”

You can view the full one-hour production on YouTube here or a short preview here.

For more information on plays or the Festival in general, and to order tickets for the 2021 season, visit the Festival’s website at bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX