News From the Festival
A Big River of Americana
By Kathryn Neves
This season Big River is the show that has everyone humming here at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. With its catchy bluegrass songs and fun familiar story, this musical is one of the most American performances you could ever see. After all, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the basis for the musical) has been taught in American high schools for well over a century. But it’s also been debated for just as long— ever since it was published in 1884, some parents, teachers, and moralists all over the United States have called for it to be banned. It is currently number fourteen on the list of Top 100 Banned Books. When someone says “censorship,” the knee-jerk reaction is to think of Huck Finn. So why bother to read the book at all? Why bother to watch the musical if some people seem to hate it so much?
The answer to that is simple. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic American novel— perhaps even the Great American Novel. There is nothing more true to the American spirit than the story of Huck Finn and his adventures on the mighty Mississippi.
At its simplest, Big River is about overcoming bad circumstances. It is about escaping, and it’s about becoming a better person. Throughout the story, we see both Huck and Jim escape from their horrible circumstances— Huck from an abusive household and Jim from slavery. We watch them learn how to navigate the enormous Mississippi River and then the world. We can see them grow and improve themselves, becoming better people and getting more out of life. And isn’t that the American Dream? To rise above your station and to succeed? It seems like the story should be embraced and lauded, not condemned!
However, the opponents of Twain’s story have a point. The book studies race and discrimination in a very complex way. Some argue that the book portrays racist stereotypes through Jim. Those who would ban the book hold up the racist attitudes of the characters— even Huck himself. They claim that the whole book is racist and has no place within our culture. But is that true? Shouldn’t we try to be as accurate as possible to the time period it was written in? To sugarcoat the treatment of slaves and African-Americans would be worse than including the racism— it would be denying that racism existed back then.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain’s real name) lived through the American Civil War. He saw the emancipation of the slaves and the rampant racism that grew ever larger afterward. He was a member of a society whose values were far different than ours— he lived in a world where racism was the norm. He was even considered forward-thinking for his time. We have to accept his story as what it is— a product of its time.
Even more important, though, is the message at its core. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story about friendship overcoming everything else. Huck and Jim differ on many levels besides race. Their upbringing is different, their personalities and their ideologies clash, and their sense of moral rights and wrongs usually contradict each other. However, throughout the story, they overcome each of these differences and bond together as brothers in the human race. This message is more important now than ever. The country is divided along so many lines, and anger towards each other is rampant. To say that Big River and Huck Finn are not relevant any longer is just not true. It is a story that everyone should hear again; in some ways times today are not so different from Mark Twain’s time. Differences aren’t important, whether they are political or racial, big or small. The only thing that matters is friendship and humanity.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of America’s past, present, and future; and Big River tells it with such fun music, written by Roger Miller, that you can’t help but stomp your feet and clap your hands. It is definitely a must-see this season— after all, if Huck Finn is the Great American Novel, then perhaps we can say that Big River is the Great American Musical.
Three Eclectic Players Take New Leadership Roles
Donn Jersey, development director; Kami Paul, general manager; and Tyler Morgan, marketing and communications director.
A puppeteer with years of corporate marketing experience, a classically-trained pianist who most recently co-founded a high school to help teens with addiction problems earn their diplomas, and an MBA recipient who loves both spreadsheets and theatre—all three have recently taken on leadership roles at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Tyler Morgan is the new marketing and communications director; Donn Jersey, the development director; and Kami Terry Paul, the general manager.
All three have been long-time fans of the Festival, and their wide-ranging interests and experience will enable them to easily be part of the mix of leadership at the Festival and help it maintain its status as one of the premier professional theatre companies in the United States.
Tyler Morgan comes to the Festival as its new marketing and communications director after five years as senior marketing programs manager at Health Catalyst, a healthcare IT company in Salt Lake City, and six years as marketing consultant/team leader at Dun and Bradstreet. But, his first professional love is theatre, especially puppetry. He has an MBA in marketing intelligence and non-profit management from the University of Connecticut, as well as a master of arts degree in puppetry from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor of arts degree in theatre studies from the University of Utah.
“I am excited about this job for many reasons,” he said. “It is the culmination of my career path and experiences. I get to take the skills I have honed in the corporate world and apply them to the world I love, theatre.”
Donn Jersey, the Festival’s new development director, is the past publisher of digital platforms for the Greenspun Media Group (GMG) in Las Vegas, including LasVegasSun.com and VegasInc.com. He also published several magazines for GMG, including The Sunday, Health Care Quarterly, and VegasInc. In early 2016, after a decade in the news, he pointed his efforts to helping teenagers struggling with addiction, co-founding Mission High School, the first public recovery high school in the country. In the process, he spearheaded fundraising efforts to see this dream become a reality. He was a classically-trained pianist as a young man, then transitioned to jazz in his late teens. He still loves to play and compose music.
“I am incredibly excited to be a part of a theatre company that my family has attended and loved for thirty-five years,” he said. “It is special here; there is a good team that cares about people. It is a company of big hearts and big brains, a company of people who love their guests.”
Kami Terry Paul has worked at the Festival for sixteen years as marketing manager, marketing director, and marketing and communications director and was promoted to her new position of general manager in October. She grew up in Sandy, Utah and received her bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Weber State University in 2001. She earned an MBA in 2007 from Southern Utah University.
“I am thrilled with this new opportunity and new role here at the Festival,” she said. “From attending my first Festival play in the Adams Theatre in 1994, to the sixteen seasons I have worked here, I love what the Festival is; and I am happy to be a part of its future as well.”
Paul and her family have lived in southern Utah for sixteen years, but Morgan and Jersey are both relocating here with their families. Also, both are moving here partly because of their parents. Morgan’s parents live in Cedar City and Jersey’s in Parowan. Both sets of parents were pro-active in encouraging and pointing out employment openings at the Festival.
“It was a bit of serendipity,” said Jersey, “but it was also like it was meant to be.”
“I’m really excited to become a part of this community,” added Morgan.
“The Festival was supremely fortunate to have attracted such great professionals for these critical leadership positions,” said Frank Mack, executive producer. “We were so lucky to be able to promote someone we knew was a consummate professional, Kami Paul, because she had been working here for sixteen years. We worked hard to find great people for the other senior staff positions of director of development and director of marketing and couldn’t be more pleased with the results.”
Of course, now that the three are settled into their new offices, their view is focusing of the future—and all three agree it is bright, promising, and challenging.
“The Festival has seen massive amounts of change in the past three years,” said Morgan, pointing to the new Beverley Center for the Arts which the Festival moved into just two years ago. “Change is difficult; it is hard. We’re at a period of coming out of that now. The game board is set, and now we get to move forward.”
“We have had a number of changes in recent years, and we are now firmly settled into new offices and theatres,” Paul added. “We are stronger and looking forward to an exciting, meaningful future.”
Perhaps Jersey summed it up best: “I see steady, healthy growth in the future for the Festival. There is so much opportunity; it’s a real exciting time to be working here. I am so grateful, so full of gratitude, that this has happened in my life.”
Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s fifty-seventh season, which will run from June 28 to October 13. This year’s plays are Henry VI Part One, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Big River, The Foreigner, An Iliad, and The Liar*.* For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
Announcing a Ninth Play for Our 2018 Season
The Utah Shakespeare Festival has announced the addition of an exciting ninth play to its 2018 season. An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare will be performed from July 12 to August 22 and will feature Artistic Director Brian Vaughn as The Poet, the only character in this spellbinding play.
It will join the previously announced season of Henry VI Part One, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Big River, The Foreigner, The Liar, and Pearl’s in the House.
“An Iliad is an exciting addition to the 2018 season,” said Frank Mack, executive producer. “This one-person show is a wonderful stage version of Homer’s classic tale, and it’s ideal for theatre goers who enjoy ancient stories told in inventive, theatrical ways.”
In this modern retelling, the Trojan War is over, and the Poet saw it all, including the unquenchable rage and endless battles, not just of this epic war, but of war through the ages. As he tells his tale in modern language, it at times threatens to overwhelm him; but he continues because he hopes, by shining a light on the history of man’s attraction to violence, destruction, and chaos, he can perhaps end it. “Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last time,” he says near the beginning of the play.
“For me, this will most likely be the most challenging thing I have ever done,” said Vaughn as he prepares for the role. “It’s a massive undertaking both in regard to the line load and the play’s overall emotional complexity. However, I am eager to dive into the work and hope Festival audiences will check it out. The story is worth retelling.”
An Iliad was originally developed as part of the New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspects Program, with its off-Broadway premiere produced by New York Theatre Workshop in 2012. It has since been produced a number of times around the country, but this will be the first production in the Intermountain West.
Reviewers have been effusive in their praise for An Iliad. Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune said “This is a formidably powerful piece of solo theater that evokes the rubble of history and of lessons mankind consistently fails to learn.”
Don Aucoin of the Boston Globe called it “a starkly powerful experience that leaves you with not just a sense of the horror and absurdity of war, but also . . . its inevitability.”
And, Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times concluded “An Iliad is unquestionably a victory of the theatrical imagination. . . . At the center of it all is one of the greatest stories ever told.”
“In a season that is filled with plays that examine marginalized individuals within our society, this play is an in depth look at the horrors of war and how the power of storytelling can capture the most epic tale in simple theatrical ways,” concluded Vaughn. “It blends both the classical with the contemporary and transports the epic poem into the hearts and minds of the viewer. I think our audiences are in for a real treat.”
Tickets are now on sale for the season, which will run from June 28 to October 13. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is part of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University, which also includes the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA).
Educational Tour Hitting the Road
CEDAR CITY, UT– The Utah Shakespeare Festival is once again hitting the road with its Shakespeare-in-the-Schools touring production—this year performing the story of monsters and fairies, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
The tour will be performing 67 shows for over 120 schools and 25,000 students throughout the states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The cast and crew will be on the road for fourteen weeks from January through April to bring this classic comedy to schools, community centers, and correctional facilities. Students will have the chance to watch the show and then participate in a post-show discussion and workshops in Stage Combat, Performing Shakespeare’s Text, Technical Theatre and Developing Character through Improvisation.
The Tempest will premiere on January 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. General admission tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Festival ticket office at 800-PLAYTIX (800-752-9849) or online at www.bard.org. Tickets purchased ahead of time will be available at will call in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. On the night of the performance, only cash and checks will be accepted at the Randall Theatre door, whereas credit and debit cards will be accepted at the main ticket office next to the Anes Theatre. Admission is free for SUU students.
Christopher DuVal is returning to the Festival, this year as director of the touring production. He worked at the Festival as an actor in numerous roles in the 1990s and as the fight director in various shows from 2012 to 2015. He is currently the head of the Actor Training Program at the University Utah and has worked extensively in many theatres across the country, including eighteen years at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
There are some familiar faces this season who have worked at the Festival before. Trent Dahlin (Prospero) is a Cedar City native and has appeared at the Festival the past two years, most recently as Dennis in As You Like It and Abraham Grey/Musician in Treasure Island in 2017. He received his BFA in musical theatre from Southern Utah University. Josh Durfey (Ferdinand/Antonio) is a Salt Lake City-born actor who has performed at the Festival since 2014. He studied classical acting at SUU and has appeared at Pickleville Playhouse, the Neil Simon Festival, Hale Center Theatre, and more. Stefanie Resnick**,** originally from New York, appeared in the 2017 Festival tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Hermia/Quince/Peaseblossom. She received her M.F.A. in performance from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas and has worked regionally and in New York City. Tony Sloan (Stephano/Sebastian) has worked in the Festival Ticket Office the past couple of years and received his B.S. degree in theatre and political science from SUU where he is currently a candidate for his M.A. in arts administration. Previous work includes The Laramie Project, Twelfth Night, and directing Really Really.
The other actors in the cast have brought their talents to The Tempest from many different theatres and productions across the country. Erica Alexandra Carvalho (Miranda/Boatswain) received her BFA in theatre from the University of Utah. She has acted for Pinnacle Acting Company, The Grand Theatre, Plan B Theatre, and Salt Lake Acting Company, and Pioneer Theatre Company. Ava Kostia (Ariel) is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a B.A. in musical theatre. Most recently having played Laertes at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, she is also a certified Apprentice Teacher of Dueling Arts International. Christobal Iniguez Perez (Caliban/Gonzalo), a California native, received a B.F.A. in acting from Utah State University. He has previously worked with Pacific Conservatory Theater (PCPA), Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival, and Lyric Repertory Company.
The three crew members on the tour come from various backgrounds and experience. They work behind the scenes to make this Shakespeare-in-the-Schools production possible. Emma Horvath (Stage Manager) hails from the Chicago area and graduated from Northwestern University. She recently completed an internship with Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity and is returning to the Utah Shakespeare Festival after working on The Tavern last fall. Devery North is a Kansas City native and graduate of Stephens College. She worked previously with the Festival for the 2015 season and the 2016 and 2017 educational tours. She has also worked with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Ryan Turpin (technical director) is a graduate of SUU and has worked at the Festival for a number of years, most recently as audio supervisor for the 2017 season.
In addition to support from the Shakespeare for a New Generation program which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, this tour’s school performance partners are the Utah State Office of Education: Professional Outreach Programs in the Schools, Mountain West Small Business Finance, Ally Bank, and Southern Utah University.
For more information, visit www.bard.org/tour
Festival Announces Auditions for Expanded Playmakers Programs
CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced an expansion to its popular Playmakers youth program, as well as auditions to enroll and perform.
The program trains youth in theatre techniques and performance etiquette and produces a musical for the youth to perform in. Traditionally, it has been one program for children up to eighteen years old. This year, however, Festival Education Director Michael Bahr is adding Playmakers Junior, for youth five years old and older who want to learn theatre fundamentals, including how to sing and dance with a live piano, rehearsal and performance etiquette, and how to work, share, give, and play with others. Culminating the experience will be public performances of the hilarious new musical We Are Monsters on March 23 and 24.
Britannia Howe is directing and teaching this program. She created a similar program for young performers in Ashland, Oregon, and is thrilled to provide this training for young artists here in Cedar City.
“For years we have wanted to provide Playmaker training for younger students,” said Bahr. “With this change, they will receive a foundation of theatre and performance fundamentals that will empower them throughout their lives.”
The traditional Playmakers program will continue for youth ages seven to eighteen. During the training, students will rehearse The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, an irresistible story of a fourteen-year-old boy growing up in the heartland of America, based on Mark Twain’s classic novel. The Playmakers will then perform the show for area schools on March 21, 22, and 23 and for the public on March 23 and 24.
Bahr will teach the class and direct the performance.
Auditions for both programs will be January 25 from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Frehner Rehearsal/Education Hall at the Festival. To sign up, visit www.bard.org/playmakers. If cast in the one of the programs, students will pay a $200 registration fee for Playmakers or $100 registration fee for Playmakers Junior. However, scholarships are readily available.
To help children prepare, the Festival is offering an audition workshop for anyone interested. It will be January 25 from 3 to 5 p.m. The workshop is optional, but can be very helpful.
For more information, call 435-865-8333 or visit the webpage at www.bard.org/playmakers.
Imagine, Re-Imagine, Refine, and Create
The Merry Wives of Windsor Scenery design by Apollo Mark Weaver
The Merry Wives of Windsor Costume design by Bill Black
The Merry Wives of Windsor Costume design by Bill Black
The Merry Wives of Windsor Costume design by Bill Black
The Merry Wives of Windsor Costume design by Bill Black
The Merchant of Venice Scenery design by Apollo Mark Weaver
The Merchant of Venice Costume design by Bill Black
The Merchant of Venice Costume design by Bill Black
The Merchant of Venice Costume design by Bill Black
The Merchant of Venice Costume design by Bill Black
Henry VI Part One Scenery design by Apollo Mark Weaver
Henry VI Part One Scenery design by Apollo Mark Weaver
Henry VI Part One Costume design by Lauren Roark
Henry VI Part One Costume design by Lauren Roark
Henry VI Part One Costume design by Lauren Roark
Big River Scenery design by Jason Lajka
Big River Scenery design by Jason Lajka
Big River Costume design by K. L. Alberts
Big River Costume design by K. L. Alberts
Big River Costume design by K. L. Alberts
The Foreigner Scenery design by Jason Lajka
The Foreigner Scenery design by Jason Lajka
The Foreigner Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
The Foreigner Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
The Foreigner Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
The Liar Scenery design by Jason Lajka
The Liar Scenery design by Jason Lajka
The Liar Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
The Liar Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
The Liar Costume design by David Kay Mickelsen
Othello Scenery design by Tom Buderwitz
Othello Scenery design by Tom Buderwitz
Othello Costume design by Kyle Schellinger
Othello Costume design by Kyle Schelllinger
Othello Costume design by Kyle Schellinger
Pearl’s in the House Scenery design by Tom Buderwitz
Pearl’s in the House Scenery design by Tom Buderwitz
Some of the most creative theatre professionals in the country were in Cedar City recently to do what creative people do: imagine, re-imagine, refine, and create. The annual Utah Shakespeare Festival design meetings were the first chance for the directors, designers, and artisans hired for the 2018 season to meet face-to-face and work through what the season plays will look like this summer and fall.
The director of each play led the discussions with costume, scenery, lighting, and sound designers, as well as year-round Festival staff who will be tasked with taking these designs and ideas and building all the elements that make theatre magical.
“The purpose of our annual design meetings is to get an overall view of where each of the plays are in relation to their designs,” said Artistic Director Brian Vaughn. “They entail hearing the directors’ thoughts on their shows, viewing preliminary costume sketches, scenic designs, and detailed prop lists and providing each team the opportunity to talk through the play scene-by-scene to establish their various needs and visions.”
For instance, how do you take a play like Shakespeare’s Othello, which in the past has been produced on the Festival’s large outdoor stages, and perform it in the smaller Anes Studio Theatre? “I want it to be about the words and the actors,” said director Kate Buckley. “We will strip it down to the essentials in order for Shakespeare’s words to be powerful for the audience in this intimate space.”
Or, how do you breathe new life into a play like The Merchant of Venice, which has been produced at the Festival several times in the past and thousands of times across the world for four centuries and which contains references to anti-Semitism at best and blatant prejudice and racism at worst? According to director Melinda Pfundstein, the key is to openly discuss the consequences of how we treat each other, especially outsiders or those who are different from ourselves. Her vision of the production focuses on bonds of oath, religion, and love, with the highest bond being the internal compass where the true “quality of mercy” resides.
And there are hundreds of other questions: How do designers create the Mississippi River on the stage of the Randall L. Jones Theatre for Big River? How do they bring all the pageantry, war, and humanity of Henry VI Part One (a rarely produced play) to the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre’s famous “Wooden O?” How do the Festival artists create 1643 Paris on the stage in the fast-moving, fast talking The Liar? (Scenery design Jason Lajka has some interesting, farcical ideas.) Or, how . . . Well, you get the idea.
It was a whirlwind week, with ideas bubbling to the surface and scenery sketches, costume swatches, and clips of music and sound being passed back and forth in an amazing creative brew—tempered only a bit by the realities of budget, space, and time that all artists must deal with.
“Because we are working on eight productions at once, with multiple designers doubling up on shows, the meetings provided an in-depth look into each play and allowed the director and design teams to connect face-to-face prior to beginning rehearsal in May,” said Vaughn. “In the process, we must make sure each of the shows fall in-line with their proposed budgets. This takes an in-depth examination of overall material and labor costs, and provides a blueprint for building each production efficiently within our means.”
Yet, in the end, the creative passion that makes the Festival a world-class, Tony Award-winning theatre, always rose to the top. “We had a great round of meetings,” said Vaughn. “It’s a terrific group of people with great artistic ideas, and I think audiences are going to be totally engaged with the final product on our stages.”
Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s fifty-seventh season, which will run from June 28 to October 20. This year’s plays are Henry VI Part One, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Big River, The Foreigner, An Iliad, The Liar*.* For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is part of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University, which also includes the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA).
Long-Time Costume Director Expands His Role
Costume Director Jeffrey Lieder has been a familiar face at the Utah Shakespeare Festival for thirty-two years. In fact, beautiful costumes and Lieder have become almost synonymous at the Festival; but, surprisingly, his position at the Festival has always been seasonal. Now, beginning January 1, that has changed, and the connection between Lieder and the Festival has become even stronger with Lieder joining the Festival full-time staff in Cedar City.
“What began as a part-time, seasonal job has grown larger and larger each year,” said Lieder. “I am excited that now I can be involved with the Festival year-round and be even more closely connected with this great organization.”
Lieder was hired as a summer costume director in 1982 by then Associate Producing Director Douglas N. Cook. “I thought at first it was going to be a great job just for the summer, but I’ve been coming back every year since,” he said. “It has now become my artistic home.”
He has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for thirty-two years, and recently retired as a professor of theatre—and has made the move from Milwaukee to Cedar City.
His list of other credits is lengthy and varied. Lieder has designed costumes at Milwaukee Rep, FirstStage Milwaukee, Arizona Shakespeare, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. He was also a milliner for Michael Pink’s Peter Pan (PBS 2014), The Nutcracker at Milwaukee Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Alberta (Canada) Ballet, Austin Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, in addition to work at a host of other theatre companies, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, and Grace Costumes, New York City.
Lieder is also an active member of United State Institute for Theatre Technology and the South Eastern Theatre Conference.
In his role as costume director, Lieder is responsible for recruiting and hiring over sixty staff and working with costume designers to realize their vision of the show. Any costume that is built, purchased, borrowed, or re-imagined from old stock goes through Lieder’s office. He is also responsible for the costume budget, purchasing, scheduling, and a host of other day-to-day duties to build the hundreds of costumes in the Festival shows every year.
Many things have changed in over three decades in the Festival costume shop. For instance, the staff has grown from about a dozen to over sixty, and the costume shop has been in four different locations.
Lieder is gratified and excited with this change in employment and location. “The quality of the work that we do is important,” he said. “It has an impact on the city and the region. I am eager to be participating in this organization full-time.”
Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s fifty-seventh season, which will run from June 28 to October 20. This year’s plays are Henry VI Part One, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Big River, The Foreigner, The Liar, and Pearl’s in the House. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is part of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University, which also includes the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA).
Christmas in Shakespeare's Day
By Kathryn Neves
We may not know many things about Shakespeare, but most scholars assume that he knew how to have a good time! Will Shakespeare seems like the kind of man to turn any occasion into a party—especially Christmas.
In fact, the Yuletide season was the most exciting time of year for most of Elizabeth’s England. They celebrated Christmas for twelve days; from the December 25 to the Feast of Fools on January 6. Here at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, we have collected a number of Tudor Christmas traditions that you may want to use to make your own Shakespearean Christmas!
The Yule Log
One of the most popular traditions at Christmastime was the burning of the Yule log. “A large log would be selected in the forest on Christmas Eve, decorated with ribbons, dragged home and laid upon the hearth” (Ben Johnson, “A Tudor Christmas,” Historic UK). Then, the log would burn throughout all twelve days of Christmas. Making a yule log is easy; wrap and tie festive ribbon around a log of your choice, hot glue candles or cranberries or mistletoe as decoration, and you’ve got yourself your own traditional Yule log— to burn, or to use as a centerpiece.
The Kissing Bough
Today, we have the Christmas tradition of kissing a sweetheart underneath a sprig of mistletoe. This tradition actually dates back centuries; all the way to Elizabeth I, and even earlier. In Shakespeare’s time, one of the most popular Christmas decorations was called a kissing bough. This was essentially a wreath or a globe “woven from mistletoe, ash, hazel or willow, covered in evergreens . . . visitors would be embraced under the bough as a sign of goodwill” (James Hoare, “12 weird and wonderful Tudor Christmas traditions, from boy bishops to Plough Monday,” History Answers). If you want to make your own kissing bough, visit http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/how-to-make-traditional-tudor-christmas-decorations/ .
Christmas Food
Everyone knows that the best part of Christmas is the food; this was no different in Shakespeare’s day. Feasts and suppers with family and loved ones were an important part of the Christmas holiday; from boar heads to pies to wassail, here are some of the best Elizabethan recipes to make this holiday season.
Elizabethan Mince Pies
Today when we think of mince pies, we think of sweet apples, raisins, and cinnamon. In Shakespeare’s day, though, the pies were full of mutton and beef and were a lot heartier than the pies we eat today. For a recipe, visit http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/a-shakespearean-christmas-with-traditional-minced-meat-pies.
Elizabethan Sweets
Sweet candies, or as the Tudors called them, “sweetmeats,” were an important part of an Elizabethan Christmas. The sweetness of the food was used as a show of wealth; the course of sweets “was created more as a feast for the eyes than for the taste buds. . . . Increased imports of sugar from the West and East Indies, as well as just Morocco and Barbary, ensured the English aristocracy soon developed a sweet tooth” (Marta Patiño, “An Elizabethan Christmas Feast: Sugar, Spice, and All Things Nice,” TimeTravelBritain.Com). Recipes for marchpane, gingerbread, and leach of almonds can be found at http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/christmas/feast.shtml.
Elizabethan Wassail
Wassailing was an important part of the Shakespearean Christmas season. According to Ellen Castelow, “the lord of the manor would greet the assembled multitude with the toast waes hael, meaning ‘be well’ or ‘be in good health,’ to which his followers would reply drink hael, or ‘drink well’” (Ellen Castelow, “Wassailing,” Historic UK). Usually, the wassailers would serve the beverage in a large bowl and sing carols as they drank. A recipe for wassail can be found at http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/12/elizabethan_yuletide_feaste_re.html.
One traditional wassailing carol goes as follows:
Wassail, wassail all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown,
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree,
With the wassailing bowl we’ll drink to thee.
So here is to Cherry and to his right cheek
Pray God send our master a good piece of beef
And a good piece of beef that we may all see
With the wassailing bowl we’ll drink to thee.
To hear the full song, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfncJavzoB8.
Christmas Carols
Christmas carols were perhaps the most popular way to celebrate the Christmas season. Along with wassailing carols, people in Elizabethan England would sing Christmas carols to celebrate together and enjoy the festivities of the season. “It’s original meaning is . . . a dance with a song. . . . Carols flourished throughout Tudor times as a way to celebrate Christmas and to spread the story of the nativity” (Ben Johnson, “A Tudor Christmas”, Historic UK”).
Boar’s Head Carol
The Boar’s Head Carol was written sometime in the 1400s; it talks about a tradition of bringing in a boar’s head at the annual Yultetide feast. People sang it in Shakespeare’s day and even continue singing it today in some places.
The boar’s head in hand bear I,
Bedeck’d with bays and rosemary.
And I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio.
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.
The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedeck’d with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico.
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.
Our steward hath provided this
In honour of the King of Bliss;
Which on this day to be served is
In Reginensi atrio.
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.
The full song can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7adETaOYiQ.
Coventry Carol
The Coventry Carol is one of the earliest in the English language; though it is a sadder Christmas carol, people in Elizabethan England sang it in nativity plays starting in the sixteenth century; It’s one of the Elizabethan carols that we continue singing even today.
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child.
By by, lullay, lullay.
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child.
By by, lullay, lullay.
Oh, sisters two, how may we do
For to preserve this day?
This poor youngling of whom we do sing
By by, lullay, lullay.
Herod the King in his raging
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight
All children young to slay.
Then woe is me, poor child, for thee,
And ever mourn and say
For thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By by, lullay, lullay.
Lullay, lullay, my little tiny child,
By by, lullay, lullay.
The song can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jIYyPOoEc8.
We hope you will try out some of these ideas, and then share your experiences via our Facebook or Twitter feeds. Happy Holidays!
Casting: Complicated, Messy, and Exhilarating
How do you sort through the names, resumes, photos, and auditions of nearly 1,300 actors and narrow it down to about sixty needed for the 2018 Utah Shakespeare Festival acting company? And, while you are doing that, how do you keep in mind that each of those sixty actors will play roles in two or three plays. And, how do you incorporate the various visions and desires of each director and who he or she would like in each particular play.
Sound impossible? It’s not, but casting the Festival’s season is a complicated, sometimes messy, sometimes exhilarating process for Artistic Director Brian Vaughn and Executive Producer Frank Mack.
Vaughn, who is responsible for casting, and Mack, who has cast productions at other theatres and is learning the process at the Festival, recently conducted auditions in Cedar City, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Some of the auditions were for actors Vaughn had invited and others were open Equity auditions that any professional actor could attend. Vaughn has also read numerous resumes, looked at an assortment of audition videos, and talked to each show’s director about actors he or she would like to have as part of the company this year. Now, he is filling in the casting “matrix,” a chart of all the roles, including understudies, needed this summer, and manning the phones to make offers to actors he would like to see at the Festival.
“Now the math comes in,” he said. “All the factors come into play: when can they rehearse, what is the performance schedule, how many actors are needed for each play, how many are leading roles, and how can I help finalize the director’s vision? It’s tricky.”
So, what does Vaughn want to see from an actor at an audition? First, each prospective hire must perform a Shakespeare monologue in verse, a contrasting contemporary monologue, and a short song that shows the actor’s vocal range. This takes about three minutes, which Vaughn says is usually enough to inform his decision. Once he knows someone’s skills, he begins to consider how he or she would fit into the repertory: a performance and rehearsal schedule which some days requires actors to appear in a matinee as a leading character in a Shakespearean comedy, in the evening performance as a minor character in a contemporary drama, and in some other combination the next day.
“Finding good quality people who can also work within this system is key,” said Vaughn. “I am looking for great actors who are willing to work hard, work in an ensemble, and are good people.”
“Brian is casting eight mainstage shows and three greenshows,” said Mack. “This gets complicated very quickly.”
“It is a very complex thing,” admitted Vaughn. “It’s a bit like 3-D chess. There seem to be an infinite number of moves, but I have to keep the end game in mind, as well as the next move as I rearrange the players on the board, call actors, then change things based on whether they accept the roles or not.”
Of course, auditions and casting always are full of surprises. “It is always a surprise, every audition day someone will surprise me, both in a good way and in a bad way,” said Vaughn. “Those are the great moments.”
Vaughn has made offers to several actors for this summer, but until the process if much further along he isn’t ready to announce anything. It is still too much in flux, too much subject to change.
“I like the challenge of it, the collective whole of bringing an ensemble together. Something is always new and enlightening,” he added. “And I like actors. Finding good people for our needs is an important element.”
So, now the matrix is being filled in, actors are being contacted, and changes are happening every day, all of it leading to the 2018 season. Watch for more information in the future and to see who is playing some of your favorite roles in this summer.
Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s fifty-seventh season, which will run from June 28 to October 20. This year’s plays are Henry VI Part One, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, Big River, The Foreigner, The Liar, and Pearl’s in the House. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is part of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University, which also includes the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA).
Enjoy a Festival Christmas at the Homestead
Are you looking for a fun, family friendly, affordable way to celebrate the Christmas season? How about Christmas at the Homestead and Holiday Market—at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum! The Utah Shakespeare Festival and the popular state park are once again partnering to provide a Christmas celebration for area residents and visitors.
Christmas at the Homestead will be Monday through Friday, December 4 to 8 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the park. Admission is $5 per family. The Holiday Market will add to the celebration on Friday, December 8 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, December 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the market on Friday is included in the Christmas at the Homestead admission price. On Saturday, the cost is only $1 per person.
“Christmas at the Homestead gives us a chance to celebrate our rich heritage, give something back to the community, and offer an exceptional shopping experience during the Holiday Market,” said Park Manager Todd Prince.
The celebration will feature lighting design by Festival Properties Director Benjamin Hohman—as well as Santa; various specialty Christmas trees; and free hot chocolate, popcorn, and baked treats. In addition, different entertainment will be featured at 6 and 7 p.m., and hands-on crafts will be available from 5:30 to 8 each evening. The schedule is as follows—
Monday, December 4: Marty Warburton and the Homegirls;Christmas cord and fingerprint Christmas lights
Tuesday, December 5: Brass Duet;Santa hat ornaments and rag dolls
Wednesday, December 6: Suzuki Strings; clothes pin snowmen and paper Christmas lights
Thursday, December 7: Washburn Family Band; popsicle stick snowflakes and paper snow globes
Friday, December 8: Bell Choir**;** candle dipping and printing press Christmas cards
Please note: This schedule is subject to change. Visit frontierhomestead.org/christmas-at-the-homestead/ for the latest information.
To cap it all off, the Holiday Market on December 8 and 9 will offer visitors an opportunity to recapture the sights, sounds, and ambiance of a pioneer Christmas market, providing a truly unique holiday shopping experience. Visitors can browse the work of over thirty artists and craftsmen then purchase the perfect handcrafted gifts, including exquisite photos and glasswork, historical reproductions, whimsical jewelry, and handmade candles.
Adding to the ambiance of the market on Saturday will be free hot chocolate, Santa, and live entertainment: Julie Griffin Family at 10:30 a.m., Red Rock Rangers at 11:30 a.m., Washburn Family Band at 12:30 p.m., Southern Utah String Quartet at 1:30, and Holiday Trio at 2:30 p.m.
Walking through the various museum structures throughout the week, visitors will get a feeling of yesteryear. Each building will be decorated with a themed tree and other decorations. Roving musicians will entertain holiday revelers as they walk among the various buildings.
“Nothing will get you in the holiday spirit quicker and more completely than spending an evening at Christmas at the Homestead,” said Joshua Stavros, Festival media and public relations manager. “It’s an enchanting experience with everything that makes Christmas special: music, friends and family, entertainment, and holiday goodies.”
“This is a great opportunity for individuals and families to benefit from an affordable and entertaining holiday experience,” added Park Manager Todd Prince. “Christmas at the Homestead gives us a chance to celebrate our rich heritage and give something back to the community.”
The park is located at 635 North Main Street in Cedar City. For the latest information and details, visit the museum website: www.frontierhomestead.org.