Festival Employee Recognized as Fellow

Long-time Utah Shakespeare Festival employee Judy Adamson was recently made a Fellow of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology at its conference in St. Louis. Adamson represents the very best in costume technology in the United States today and is committed to practicing what she preaches. This major award acknowledges her achievements.

As a draper at the Utah Shakespeare Festival each summer since 2002, she has worked with designers Bill Black, David Mickelsen, Holly Payne, and Kevin Alberts on Hay Fever, Born Yesterday, Morning’s at Seven, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, HMS Pinafore, Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Private Lives, Pride and Prejudice, Scapin, Anything Goes, and The Cocoanuts. Festival audiences might remember the breathtaking red silk dress she created for Carole Johnson in Hay Fever.

Eight of her students or student’s students will work in the Festival costume department this summer and create costumes for the 2017 season. 

Her work includes a long list of Broadway credits. At Barbara Matera Ltd., she was a costume draper for Broadway shows Hairspray, Aida, Crazy for You, Miss Saigon, Lion King, Jelly’s Last Jam, The Secret Garden, Showboat, Sideshow Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and others, working with designers Willa Kim, Irene Sharaff, Miles White, Toni Leslie James, Theoni Aldredge, Florence Klotz, Pat Zipprodt, William Ivey Long, Bob Mackie and others.

She has also created costumes for American Ballet Theatre, Elliot Feld and Paul Taylor Companies, as well as concert clothes for the Pointer Sisters and Mick Jagger.

She has been the costume director in the Department of Dramatic Art and head of the costume production program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1993. At PlayMakers Repertory Company at UNC, she works professionally as a draper and shares her extensive knowledge in the classroom with her students.

Festival Announces First Round of Casting

Cassandra Bissell

Melissa Graves

Melinda Parrett

Kelly Rogers

Jonathan Gillard Daly

James Newcomb

John G. Preston

Paul Michael Sandberg

CEDAR CITY, UT — The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced the casting of the first eight actors for the 2017 season. All are familiar faces, having appeared at the Festival in the past. They are Cassandra Bissell, Jonathan Gillard Daly, Melissa Graves, James Newcomb, Melinda Parrett, John G. Preston, Kelly Rogers, and Paul Michael Sandberg,. Please check for the latest casting news at www.bard.org.

Festival audiences will fondly remember Cassandra Bissell who appeared at the Festival in 2014 as Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and Adriana in The Comedy of Errors. For the 2017 season she is returning to play three varied women: Rosalind in As You Like It, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and another Rosalind in The Tavern. “My first season [at the Festival] exceeded my wildest expectations,” said Bissell. “I am thrilled to be a part of the indescribable energy, enthusiasm, talent, and hard work that the Festival represents (and I also can’t wait to get back to some of the best hiking in the country)!”

Jonathan Gillard Daly**,** last appeared at the Festival in 2011 as Antigonus in The Winter’s Tale and Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder. Other roles at the Festival have included Gratiano in Othello, David Bliss in Hay Fever, Cymbeline in Cymbeline, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and several others. This season he will be appearing at the Festival as Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, Fennyman in Shakespeare in Love, and Arvide Abernathy and Rabbi in Guys and Dolls. He also directed Always . . . Patsy Cline in 2000.

Melissa Graves said that the Utah Shakespeare Festival “is the ultimate actor retreat—great people, great work, and the great outdoors!” In 2017 she will be playing Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Snout/Moth in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mrs. Shotwell in The Tavern. Last season she played the roles of Portia, Popilius Lena, and Young Cato in Julius Caesar, as well as Cecily Pigeon in The Odd Couple. In previous years she has played Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Queen in Richard II, Ceres in The Tempest, and Lady Faulconbridge in King John.

James Newcomb has played numerous roles at the Festival since 2007, including Earl of Gloucester in King Lear, Lord Chief Justice in Henry IV Part Two, and Count Johann Kilian von Strack in Amadeus (all in 2015), as well as Juror #7 in Twelve Angry Men, Stephano in The Tempest, Iago in Othello, Caius Martius/Coriolanus in Coriolanus, and several others. This summer he will appear at the Festival as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Big Jule in Guys and Dolls, and Zachariah Freeman in The Tavern.

Festival playgoers have loved performances by Melinda Parrett since 2007 when she first appeared at the Festival as Miss Proserpine Garnett in Candida and Maria Merelli in Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical. Last season she played the roles of Milady in The Three Musketeers, Penelope Martin in The Cocoanuts, and Gwendolyn Pigeon in The Odd Couple. Other notable roles have incuded Ariel in The Tempest, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Emilia in The Winter’s Tale, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Belinda Blair in Noises Off! This season she will be returning to the Festival as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Woman in The Tavern.

John G. Preston is returning to the Festival to play Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in As You Like It, Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Henslowe in Shakespeare in Love. In 2015 he played Captain George Brackett in South Pacific, Van Helsing in Dracula, and Col. Sir Francis Chesney in Charley’s Aunt. Previously, he has played such roles as Doctor Pinch in The Comedy of Errors, Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure, and Francis Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Kelly Rogers, who last year appeared as Montjoy in Henry V, Constance in The Three Musketeers, and Margaret in Much Ado about Nothing, is returning this year as Puck/Philostrate in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Phebe in As You Like It, and Sally-Mae in The Tavern. Other roles at the Festival have included Cordelia in King Lear, Amy Spettigue in Charley’s Aunt, and Mina in Dracula in 2015. “I am simply delighted to return to Cedar City for a third spin at the Festival,” said Rogers. “I’m particularly excited about playing Puck—though I’m going to need a strict cardio regimen if I’m going to be able to ‘put a girdle about the earth in forty minutes’ come July!”

Paul Michael Sandberg has a history with the Festival dating back to 1991 when he played Biff in Death of a Salesman and Marcellus in Hamlet. He returned last year to play Julius Caesar and Strato in Julius Caesar and Roy in The Odd Couple—and will be back this year as Captain Smollet in Treasure Island, Sheriff in The Tavern, and Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When asked about this summer, Sandberg said, “I couldn’t be happier to be returning for my third season with the Festival.”

Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s 56th season, which will run from June 29 to October 21. 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).

How Does Long John Silver Stack Up?

By Allison Borzoni

CEDAR CITY, UT—Long John Silver of Treasure Island fame may be the best-known pirate, real or mythical, of all time. But how does Robert Louis Stevenson’s character stack up when compared with real pirates? How does he rate when it comes to diabolical acts and a pirate’s life? To see where he is on the scale, we’ve compared him to seven infamous pirates who have each terrorized the ocean in their own special way.

L’Olonnais is the first on the list for his incredible violence and drive to survive. When he captured a Spanish town and demanded ransom, the Spanish responded with a raiding crew. L’Olonnais beheaded all of the attackers, but left one alive to deliver a threatening message back. “The Bane of Spain” committed one act that put him above all other pirates: eating a human heart. During an expedition to Honduras, his crew was attacked. He escaped the bloodshed with two Spanish captives that knew the way to safety, but both refused to speak. L’Olonnais cut the heart out of one captive and ate it in front of the survivor, threatening that he’d eat his heart too if he didn’t start talking. Ironically, L’Olonnais was later captured and eaten by natives when his ship ran aground.                                          

Second up is Bartholomew Roberts, who never balked at overwhelming odds. This English sailor got a promotion when the Portuguese authorities killed the captain of his ship, Captain Davis. Roberts was then voted captain, and his first move as the new captain was to sail back to the Portuguese settlement, burn it down, and kill everyone in it. Although “Black Bart” was a religious man who held his crew to high standards of no drinking and gambling, he did not abate his cruelty. He often used prisoners for target-practice when they refused to become pirates. One of his greatest successes was in 1720, when his crew of 60 defeated all 22 ships and 1,200 men in Trespassey Bay. “The Great Pyrate Roberts” destroyed 400 ships during his career and was eventually killed during an attack.

Anne Bonny was about as crazy as they come. She was as beautiful as she was violent, even before she turned to piracy. She killed a serving girl with a knife; and when a suitor made advances on her, she attacked him so fiercely that he was in bed for weeks. Anne eventually met and fell in love with Calico Jack, and the two went into piracy together. Anne Bonny stole a docked ship for their escape—armed with only a pistol and sword. Her pirating career would end about a year later when a British ship attacked her ship. The drunk pirate crew hid below decks—except for Anne, Mary Read, and one unnamed crew member who fought until they were captured. During her stay in prison, Anne had this to say about Calico Jack: “If he had fought like a man, he need not have been hang’d like a dog.” She wasn’t executed immediately due to her pregnancy, but there are no records showing what happened to her or the baby. 

Charles Vane was another dangerous pirate who sailed in the Atlantic**.** For his pirating debut, he captured two Bermudan ships and then tortured and murdered their crews. He was wildly successful as a pirate, but was also known as a selfish captain. When the governor of New Providence sent two ships to capture him, Vane piled explosives onto one of his smaller ships, set it on fire, and sent it towards the enemy. The distraction worked long enough for Vane and his crew to escape. His crew eventually mutinied, probably because Vane had a bad habit of fleeing battles when the other ship was larger. They left Vane on a deserted island, where he was eventually rescued, recognized, convicted, and hung for his crimes.

Mary Read’s life was of Shakespearean proportions. In order to get money from the in-laws, Mary’s mother masqueraded the little girl as a boy for her whole childhood. Mary never grew out of it, joining armies and navies for several years. She ended up working as a privateer in the colonies until her ship was captured by Calico Jack. She was forced to join the pirate crew and even fell in love with a crew member. When her lover was challenged to a duel by a fellow pirate, Mary took things into her own hands. She challenged that same pirate to a duel and won the fight-to-the-death just before her lover was scheduled to fight. Her career ended when a British ship attacked them, and nearly the entire crew hid below deck. Disgusted, Mary shot into her own ship, killing two of her shipmates. They were all captured, and Mary later died of fever in prison.

Second to last on the list is Calico Jack, a man known for his motley, brightly-colored clothing. He began his career as a pirate captain by mutinying against Charles Vane. He was brave and successful during this time in his career, but ended up taking a pardon. Later, Jack returned to the pirate life with Anne Bonny by his side, stealing a docked ship and shoving the guardsmen over the side once Anne subdued them. He captured more ships and treasure for about a year, but then his ship was attacked by the British. Jack hid below deck with all of his crew except for Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and one other pirate who fought on deck to protect them all. His execution was also on the showy side.  Calico Jack was hung, gutted, and displayed as a warning for other pirates.

Benjamin Hornigold’s pirate crew spawned one of the most famous pirates ever: Blackbeard. Hornigold apprenticed the young Blackbeard, and even gave him the famous ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. Hornigold started out as a privateer for the British Royal Navy, but turned to piracy once resources began to run low. Once Governor Rogers began offering pardons, Hornigold left the pirate life. Governor Rogers commissioned Hornigold to go hunt pirates, and gave him the authority to capture or kill any pirates who had broken their pardon. He chased pirates like Charles Vane, Major Stede Bonnet, and John Auger. Out of all of the pirates that accepted pardons, Hornigold was one of the few who regained his esteem and fame through hunting pirates.

Long John Silver’s actions throughout Treasure Island make it tough to categorize him. He was a pirate to the core, leading his cohort of men to mutiny against Captain Smollett and take the treasure for themselves. Despite murdering Tom and attacking Captain Smollet’s men, he did show different sides to his personality. For example, Jim Hawkins described Long John Silver as a clean, pleasant man to be around. Silver even went out of his way to protect Jim from the other pirates throughout the book. Treasure Island doesn’t share much about his past, but Long John Silver is still remembered as a dynamic pirate with selfish motives and an almost-golden heart. Braver than Calico Jack, but less violent than L’Olonnais, Long John Silver seems to fit somewhere in the middle among these historic pirates. For these reasons, we’re putting him in the same area as Mary Read. Hopefully he never gets in a duel with her though, because Mary might just win that one.

Thanks to Our Volunteers

The evening of March 20 was set aside at the Utah Shakespeare Festival to recognize our wonderful volunteers. Over 200 men and women put in countless hours each year hosting, ushering, preparing mailings, and completely numerous other tasks.

Thus, at the Volunteer Recognition evening, the Festival honored them with short speeches, a lively performance by the Festival Playmakers, and dinner, as well as years of service pins to those who have served for five, ten, twenty, and more years.

Thank you, our indispensable volunteers and friends!

Nathan Detroits through Time

By Allison Borzoni

Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit

Guys and Dolls has been popular ever since it premiered on November 24, 1950. It has won dozens of awards throughout its runs and revivals, and, through time, there have been many faces for Nathan Detroit. From Bob Hoskins to Patrick Swayze, famously talented men have taken on the role in their own way. Here are just a few through the decades:

Sam Levene (1950): The man who first took on the role of Nathan Detroit was an American Broadway and film actor. He was prolific on Broadway, appearing in 37 shows over 50 years—a majority of which were original Broadway productions. Nathan Detroit’s solo of “Sue Me” was written in one octave because of Levene’s limited vocal range. A hit from the very beginning, the first production of Guys and Dolls ran for 1,200 performances and it won five Tony Awards along the way. If you’re wishing that you could have been there, just buy the original cast recording—it was transferred onto CD in the 1980s.

Frank Sinatra (1955): Ol’ Blue Eyes sold more than 150 million records worldwide and won eleven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity. He produced his own record label and acted in movies, as well as musicals. Finally, he beat out Sam Levene for the role of Nathan Detroit in the 1955 film version of Guys and Dolls. Frank Loesser wrote three new songs for the movie version, and “Adelaide” was written specifically for Sinatra. The movie made over $5 million and has a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Robert Guillaume (1976): Guillaume toured the world as a cast member of the Broadway musical Free and Easy. He soloed on The Tonight Show and was a member of the Robert De Cormier Singers. He was also nominated for a Tony Award for his role as Nathan Detroit. Guillaume was a part of the all-black cast for the first Broadway revival of the show in 1976. Guillaume and Ernestine Jackson were nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards while Ken Page won a Theatre World Award for his performance. The show closed after 239 performances and 12 previews.

Nathan Lane (1992): Lane has covered all of the bases as an American stage, film, and television actor and writer. You may recognize him as the voice of Timon from The Lion King or from his roles on Modern Family. He had the role of Nathan Detroit for the most successful revival of Guys and Dolls since the premiere. The show ran for 1,143 performances and received eight Tony Award nominations. The show won four of those nominations, including Best Revival, as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival. This run featured several revisions, including new music and redesigned orchestrations.

Henry Goodman (1996): He’s been in movies as well as theatre, such as Doctor List from Avengers: Age of Ultron. He has won the Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor three times, as well as a London Critics Circle Theatre Award. He brought his talents to the role of Nathan Detroit for a revival of Guys and Dolls in Great Britain. This rendition of Guys and Dolls received three Olivier nominations and won Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. The Critics Circle Theatre awarded the revival Best Direction and Best Musical.

In the summer of 2017,  the Utah Shakespeare Festival will introduce a new Nathan Detroit, who will continue the oldest established permanent floating craps game in New York, in Cedar City, Utah. Buckle your seats for Havana and back, ladies and gentleman—we’re bringing Guys and Dolls to Cedar City this summer.

Top Ten Shakespeare Plays in Pop Culture

By Allison Borzoni

There is no question that Shakespeare has influenced our language, our literature, and our way of looking at many things. But it may surprise you how much of the Bard’s plays have crept into our modern culture, not just words, but entire plots and characters in many cases. We are sure you can find plenty of examples of your own, but here are our choices for the top ten plays in pop culture today.

Melisa Pereyra (top) as Juliet and Chris Klopatek as Romeo in the Festival’s educational touring production of Romeo and Juliet, 2013.

1. Romeo and Juliet
The greatest love story ever retold has been done in dozens of different ways. From Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” to the animated movie Gnomeo & Juliet, we just can’t seem to get enough. There’s always another way to spin this Shakespeare classic, or you can snap it out to West Side Story instead. With all of these popular adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, it has definitely made a mark on our collective psyche, or on our brains like in the zombie movie Warm Bodies.

Danforth Comins as Hamlet in Hamlet, 2012.

2. Hamlet
The most popular scene of Hamlet may just be the misuse of poor Yorick’s skull during Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy. Even Nightmare before Christmas references it in “Jack’s Lament.” One of the most well-known adaptations is The Lion King, but one way to get everyone on board with a Shakespeare adaptation is to translate into—that’s right—Klingon. The Klingon Language Institute has taken Chancellor Gorkon seriously and brought the original Klingon version back to us humans in The Klingon Hamlet.

Chelsea Steverson (left), Lillian Castillo, and Monica Lopez as Weyward Sisters in Macbeth, 2010.

3. Macbeth
The witches seem to have taken the throne when it comes to references to Macbeth. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban contains a choir rendition of “Double double toil and trouble.” And even Spock shares his opinion of, “Very bad poetry, Captain,” when a version of the witches appears in the Star Trek episode, “Catspaw.” However, Beauty and the Beast takes it back to the main characters when Gaston appropriates Lady Macbeth’s line, “Screw your courage to the sticking place” while riling up the villagers—maybe he reads more than Belle gives him credit for.

Brian Vaughn (left) as Petruchio and Melinda Pfundstein as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, 2015. 

4. The Taming of the Shrew
The most shocking connection between Shakespeare and pop-culture may be that the word ‘Bedazzled’ actually comes from The Taming of the Shrew. And Katherine doesn’t use the word to describe how she has studded her hem or cat with plastic jewels, but to say, “so bedazzled with the sun” (4.5.46). One adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew is the movie, 10 Things I Hate About You, but the movie’s real achievement is giving to dads everywhere the hero that is Walter Stratford. The teenager’s explanation: “Mr. Stratford, it’s just a party.” The dad’s response: “And hell is just a sauna.”

Nell Geisslinger (left) as Viola (disguised as Cesario) and Grant Goodman as Orsino in Twelfth Night, 2014*.*

5. Twelfth Night
Shakespeare is the man to thank for inspiring this quote: “And when I close my eyes, I see you for who you truly are, which is UUUG-LAY.” Yep, She’s the Man is an adaptation of *Twelfth Night.*Although the plot of the movie follows pretty closely with the tangled net of love triangles in the play, don’t read the play looking for characters flashing each other in a soccer stadium.

Sam Ashdown as Henry V in Henry V, 2016*.*

6. Henry V
As BBC’s Sherlock comes to a close, there’s one more mystery to solve. “The game’s afoot,” did not originate with Sherlock Holmes and his deerstalking cap. King Henry shouts the phrase before his army goes, “once more into the breach.”  This Shakespeare quote has made its way into pop culture from the days Arthur Conan Doyle all the way to the present day through the household name of Sherlock Holmes.

Elijah Alexander as Richard in Richard III, 2011*.*

7. Richard III
Yet another quote we shout at one another has a misunderstood origin. The bulbous Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland was not the first to use the phrase, “Off with her head!” The subject of execution is a man in Shakespeare’s play, but Richard’s four-word answer to the problem of Lord Hastings is, “Chop off his head.” Another reference is the Netflix series, House of Cards, which borrows the soliloquy nature of its anti-hero from Richard III. In both play and show, the audience is in on the murderous plots from the very beginning. Whether its king or president, Richard and Underwood will make their way to their rightful place. 

Jonathan Earl Peck (left) as Othello and Lindsey Wochley as Desdemona in Othello, 2008*.*

8. Othello
This tragedy is also the source of a common quote. It’s usually used with the connotation of sharing your feelings with others as a sensitive soul, but when Iago said, “wear my heart upon my sleeve,” he was condemning it as a vulnerability. The name Iago should also ring a bell, as a certain parrot in Aladdin has the same name. Just like the real Iago, he acts harmless around the Sultan until the killer moment. 

Gary Neal Johnson (left) as Antonio and Tony Amendola as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, 2010. 

9. The Merchant of Venice
Speaking of, “I just want to be King”, Lion King II has a reference to The Merchant of Venice: “If you need your pound of flesh.” The young Kovu says the line when he crosses into the Pridelands by accident. For the Trekkies, Star Trek: The Next Generation also references The Merchant of Venice when the droid Data adapts a quote for his own use, “When you prick me, do I not leak?”

David Pichette (left) as Fool and Tony Amendola as Lear in King Lear, 2015*.*

10. King Lear
Adaptations cross cultures all the time (count how many American shows are direct adaptations from Great Britain’s shows, I dare you). This cross cultural adaptation is very evident with Ran (1985). The plot of King Lear is superimposed on the culture of Japan, and it’s as moving as the original. King Lear has also made it into song, in Elton John’s “The King Must Die.” The jester plays a major part in King Lear, and the first stanza of Elton John’s song references a jester, very possibly King Lear’s.

Take a Hilarious Look at William Shakespeare's "Long Lost First Play"

The Washington Post called William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) “a breathlessly irreverent and pun-filled romp!” DC Metro added that it is “vaudeville for our times!” And Metro Weekly called it “a non-stop crowd pleaser!”

Yet, the most apt description may come from one of the two playwrights responsible for this wacky Shakespearean send-up being presented this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival: “The show is a roller-coaster ride through the newly discovered first play that Shakespeare ever wrote and is not recommended for people with heart conditions, back problems, inner-ear disorder, or English degrees,” said Reed Martin, with his tongue firmly in his cheek. “The authors cannot be held responsible for expectant mothers.”

But seriously, what is this play, which is premiering regionally at the Festival from July 28 to October 21, all about? Austin Tichenor, the other half of this off-beat playwriting duo, told of touring the Folger Shakespeare Library vaults in 2010 and hearing from then-director Gail Paster that her holy grail would be an actual manuscript of a Shakespeare play in the Bard’s own hand. “Because we are nothing but givers,” said Tichenor, “we decided to hurry history along and create the long-lost manuscript we all hoped to find.” Seriously.

Martin plowed ahead: “The conceit of the show is that we find (in a parking lot in Leicester, England, of course!) the first play that Shakespeare ever wrote. He was seventeen at the time and it contained every character and plot device that we now see in his later plays, but they are all woven together into a brand new, 400-year-old storyline.”

The play they “found” was over 100 hours long, so the duo, thankfully, reduced it down to under two hours. Thus, William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) was born!

Christopher Edwards, who is directing the play for the Festival, added: “The play is a three-person comic romp. . . . That said, the three actors are taking on a daunting task trying to produce an un-producible play. The actors are a bit naïve, full of themselves, and ready for the challenge ahead, so conceptually they are actors putting on a play.”

Whew!

On the surface, the plot is simple: Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream has an ancient grudge against Ariel from The Tempest. As they call upon other characters and plot elements from various Shakespeare plays, however, things get frenetic as they turn the canon upside-down and in the process create such strange bedfellows as Hamlet and Lady Macbeth, Viola and Richard III, King Lear and the Weird Sisters, and Dromio and Juliet.

“The actual creative process involved equal measures of writing and archeology,” said Tichenor. “We wanted to dig around and find actual Shakespeare lines we could repurpose whenever we could. The fun part was mixing and matching characters and lines from throughout the canon and creating similar-but-new dramatic (and comic) situations.”

Martin and Tichenor are of course two of three actors who introduced the world to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) in 1987, a play that was popularly produced (with different actors) at the Festival in both 1999 and 2009. The humor and frenzied pace of that play carries over into William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged), but there are many differences.

“We wanted to write something in the spirit of all our previous Reduced Shakespeare Company shows but that was driven less by vaudeville and more by narrative,” said Tichenor. “Long Lost Shakes tells a single story from beginning to end and mostly features characters who aren’t even mentioned in The Complete Works. Also, at least 95 percent of ‘Long Lost Shakes’ is in verse!”

Edwards—who through his direction will be trying to take all this energy, focus it, and then let is loose on Festival audiences—is excited to be working on this comedy. “I love what David Ivers, Brian Vaughn, and R. Scott Phillips are doing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival,” he said. “It is a great opportunity to do this play for the first time in the United States outside of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Their plays are great and a blast to do as much for the creative team and the actors as they are for the audience.”

Okay. Now, the playwrights should get the last say on what this play is about and why Festival audiences will love it.

First Tichenor: “I think audiences are going to be surprised how familiar ‘Long Lost Shakes’ feels, which just shows how deeply Shakespeare is embedded into our cultural DNA,” he said. “As real as magic and the supernatural were considered 400 years ago, they serve today as a wonderful metaphor for the magic of theatre, which is what I hope ‘Long Lost Shakes’ ultimately celebrates.”

And Martin on what audience members should watch for: “Thieves and pickpockets. In keeping with Shakespeare’s original practices, we understand the Utah Shakespeare Festival employs gangs of roving vagabonds and ne’er-do-wells. [Editor’s note: No we don’t!] Watch your purse!”

Enough said!

Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s 56th season, which will run from June 29 to October 21. Other plays in the season are As You Like It, Shakespeare in Love, Romeo and Juliet, Guys and Dolls, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Treasure Island, The Tavern, and How To Fight Loneliness. 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).

Festival Announces 2017 Words³ Titles, Playwrights

CEDAR CITY, UT—The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced play titles and playwrights for its 2017 new plays program Words Cubed.

Featured in the play readings in the Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre will be Shrew! by Amy Freed (August 4, 5, and 30, and September 1) and Pearl’s in the House by Art Manke (August 11, 12, and 31, and September 2).

The Festival announced last autumn a new name, an increased commitment, and an enhanced mission for its new plays program, and this season will see the fruits of these labors thus far. The new name of the program, Words Cubed, comes from a line in Hamlet, “Words, words, words,” and focuses the new program firmly on the text and work of playwrights. The two playwrights will spend a week at the Festival working with professional directors and actors to refine the plays which will then be presented as staged readings, followed by an instructive discussion between the playwright, actors, and audience members.

Shrew! by Amy Freed

Most people are familiar with Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, but what if a modern playwright were to reinterpret the play in an attempt to give it more gender parity, more balance? What would be different? The answers are in Amy Freed’s delicious Shrew!, a hilarious new take on Shakespeare’s classic battle of the sexes.

Amy Freed is the author of  Shrew!; The Monster Builder; Restoration Comedy; The Beard of Avon; Freedomland; Safe in Hell; The Psychic Life of Savages; You, Nero; and other plays.   Her work has been produced at South Coast Repertory Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Playwright’s Horizons, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, Arena Stage, and other theatres.  Playwriting awards include D.C.’s Charles MacArthur Award, N.Y. Art’s Club’s Kesselring Prize, and LA and Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards.  She was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist (Freedomland.) She currently serves as artist-in-residence at Stanford University.                                                          

Pearl’s in the House by Art Manke

This small cast musical play focuses on the life of Pearl Bailey. A performer, writer, and special delegate to the United Nations in a racially-charged mid-twentieth century America, Bailey was a trailbrazer for African-American women and refused to be defined by the color of her skin. Yet, in Manke’s story, a talk-show host in 1987 questions many of her motives; so Bailey responds the only way she knows how—through her music.

Art Manke is also the playwright, along with Douglas Langworthy, of an adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. He is an award-winning director whose work has been seen across the country at South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and many others. He is the co-founder and former artistic director of A Noise Within.

“The Utah Shakespeare Festival has committed its resources and vision to support new works. The ideas of these works should inspire audiences to engage about the importance of fostering the ‘Shakespeares of tomorrow,’” said David Ivers, artistic director. “The plays we have chosen for 2017 will drive that vision forward.”

Tickets are now on sale for all Festival plays: Words Cubed readings of Shrew! and Pearl’s in the House, as well as regular season full productions of As You Like It, Shakespeare in Love, Romeo and Juliet, Guys and Dolls, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Treasure Island, The Tavern, William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play, and How To Fight Loneliness. 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).

Festival To Honor R. Scott Phillips on His Retirement

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is celebrating the legacy of Executive Director R. Scott Phillips on Feb. 27 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Festival’s Livingood Artist Lounge. Phillips, who has worked at the Festival for forty years is retiring March 1.

Everyone is invited to the festivities to help celebrate Phillips and his contributions to the Festival. A brief program will highlight his career at 5 p.m.

Phillips graduated from Southern Utah University in 1975, with a double major in speech and drama and business.  He was the first full-time employee of the Festival and has worked as marketing director, manager director, interim Festival director and (for the past nine years) executive director.

While at the Festival, Phillips has contributed to many major milestones, such as expanding the Festival’s audience from 19,000 people per season to 113,000; the awarding of the Festival with the 2000 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre; and the crowning achievement of building the $39 million Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts.

Phillips has also served in many other organizations across the nation. He was the co-founder (1991) and past president, (1998-99) of the Shakespeare Theatre Association; past president, Rocky Mountain Theatre Association; and current theatre panelist, National Endowment for the Arts. Phillips’ outstanding work in the field has not gone unappreciated, as he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association in January and the Mark R. Sumner Award from the Institute of Outdoor Drama in October.

*Update March 1, 2017: Zachary Murray, the Festivals’s general manager since 2014, is serving as interim executive director until the position of executive director is filled. For more information on the open position, click here.

R. Scott Phillips Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award

CEDAR CITY, UT– R. Scott Phillips was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) Conference this January in Baltimore, Maryland. The Shakespeare Theatre Association created the award to celebrate the memory of Douglas N. Cook, who was a co-founder of the Shakespeare Theatre Association and the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s producing artistic director emeritus. Phillips, the Festival’s executive director, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding work in the Festival and the Shakespeare Theatre Association.

Brian Vaughn, one of the Festival’s artistic directors, echoed the Shakespeare Theatre Association’s recognition of Scott and added how deserved this award is. Vaughn said, “deserved is an understatement of profound measure.”

Festival Founder Fred C. Adams had high praise for Scott Phillips’ contributions to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. “For almost 40 years Scott has been the engine that has pushed us forward. Not only is he the repository of our history, knowing most season’s plays and directors from memory, but he has caught the vision of the Festival and kept us on course,” Adams said.  

In response to the award, Phillips said, “I am overwhelmed by the generosity of this organization that has bestowed this honor on me. It is doubly significant that this award is given in the name of long time Utah Shakespeare Festival producer Doug Cook. I worked with Doug for over 30 years and to be given this Lifetime Achievement Award that bears his name is deeply gratifying. I will continue to follow the values and vision of this organization and hope that collectively we can continue to change the course of discussion in the world.”

Phillips announced his retirement from the position of executive director in September and will continue until March 1, 2017. His 40 years of work has culminated in great success at the Festival, including the crowning achievement of the new Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts and now the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) was established to provide a forum for the artistic, managerial, and educational leadership for theatres primarily involved with the production of the works of William Shakespeare; to discuss issues and methods of work, resources, and information; and to act as an advocate for Shakespearean productions and training.