News From the Festival
Festival Season a Wholehearted Artistic Success
The most recent season at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the last in the iconic Adams Shakespearean Theatre, was a wholehearted artistic success, according to Artistic Directors David Ivers and Brian Vaughn. The last spotlight was dimmed on October 31, after a Halloween production of *Dracula—*and now 2015 is one for the books.
“I am very pleased with the artistic excellence of the season,” said Ivers. “The Festival continues to attract top talent in our field, and the strength of our programming, coupled with the immense beauty and welcoming spirit of our community continues to keep us on the radar as one of the top destination theatres in the country.”
“The season was generally very well received by audiences, reviewers, and theatre professionals,” added Vaughn. “It was a solid artistic season.”
The Festival this year put a lot of resources and effort to new technology in the theatre, bringing an enhanced experience to the plays. For instance, the Festival purchased new computerized moving lights and high-tech projection equipment to provide some amazing lighting effects in such shows as Amadeus and beautiful (and spooky) projections in Dracula. “We embarked into new territory in some of our production areas,” said Ivers. “By allocating resources to our these areas, we were able to attract top-notch artists and improve the quality of our final product.”
But, putting technology and special effects aside, the historical appeal of the Festival has long been the strength and quality of its actors, and 2015 was no exception. “It was one of the strongest acting companies we’ve had in a long time,” said Vaughn.
Especially memorable for both Ivers and Vaughn was the Festival’s production of the extraordinary Amadeus. Both mentioned the size and scale of the production (especially Ivers, who played the huge and challenging role of Salieri), and both were proud of the work. “It was one of the most powerful productions we have had in some time,” said Vaughn, “and it was ascetically beautiful across the board.”
Memorable for Executive Director R. Scott Phillips was The Taming of the Shrew. Phillips was assistant director on the show, while Fred. C. Adams, Festival founder, was the director. “The Taming of the Shrew was the most popular show with our audiences and also received universally positive reviews,” said Phillips. “It was a joy to work on and was a fitting conclusion to the amazing life of the Adams Shakespeare Theatre.”
Of course, no discussion of 2015 would be complete without exploring how it helps set the stage for the huge changes planned for 2016. The 2015 productions of Henry IV Part Two, King Lear, and The Taming of the Shrew were the last Festival productions in the aging Adams Theatre.
Next season, the Festival will have moved into the new Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts, including the new Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre which replaces the Adams Theatre, and the new Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre, a 200-seat theatre designed for intimate productions, as well as the existing Randall L. Jones Theatre.
The move gives the Festival a dedicated rehearsal hall for the first time in its history, as well as the latest technology and audience comforts in all three theatres. The audience experience will also be enhanced by having everything—including plays, seminars, The Greenshow, and the new Southern Utah Museum of Art—all in a cohesive center, with everything easily accessible.
In addition, having all three theatres will open up some exciting scheduling and production possibilities for the Festival, and the excitement generated during the 2015 season as construction as been moving ahead rapidly will definitely carry over to 2016.
“It was a bittersweet year as we bid farewell to the Adams Theatre, and it is with great excitement that we look forward to an engaging first season in the new Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre in the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts,” said Ivers.
The 2016 season includes Shakespeare’s warm comedy Much Ado about Nothing, the conclusion of the story of Prince Hal/King Henry in Henry V, and a new, swashbuckling Ken Ludwig adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers in the new Engelstad Theatre. In the new Anes Theatre will be a modern version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and a hilarious two-person tour-de-force musical, Murder for Two. The Randall Theatre will feature the Festival’s production of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins, Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, and the hilarious Marx Brothers farce, The Cocoanuts.
Tickets and more information are available online at www.bard.org and by calling the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX.
Play On Podcast | Ep. 54: Brad Berridge, Sound Designer
Check out the latest episode with sound designer, Brad Berridge. Brad designed for both Dracula and The Two Gentlemen of Verona for our fall season. Learn more about his journey in the arts, the process of a sound designer and listen to some sound clips from this season’s Dracula! You don’t want to miss this!
Come “Dressed to the Teeth” for Dracula’s Costume Night
Tyler Pierce as Dracula
Cedar City, UT – Celebrate Halloween and the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s spooky rendition of Bram Stoker’s gothic story by attending Dracula’s Costume Night.
For the last two showings of Dracula on October 30 and 31, the Festival is sponsoring a costume contest and inviting playgoers to come “dressed to the teeth” in hopes of winning a prize for the best Halloween costume. Audience members will vote for the best costume, and a grand prize of a pair of tickets to a 2016 play will be awarded each night. Other prizes of Festival memorabilia will be awarded to other costumes that we can sink our teeth into.
The play begins at 7:30 p.m. both evenings in the Randall L. Jones Theatre, but to enter the contest, you must be in the theatre in costume by 7:15.
“What better way to celebrate the end of our 2015 season and the spooky fun of Halloween than a night with Count Dracula and costumed fun?” asked Joshua Stavros, Festival media and public relations manager. “I can’t wait to see who and what will be there.”
The Festival’s productions of Dracula, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Charley’s Aunt continue through October 31. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
From Food Drives to Blood Drives
Cedar City, UT – Fall is the season of community involvement at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. From food drives to blood drives, from community donations to joint dramatic productions with the community—the Festival and the Cedar City area come together in unique ways during October and November.
Fall Food Drive
The 12th annual Fall Food Drive wraps up October 31, as the Festival and community members work together to collect food for the Iron County Care and Share. Thus far, the partnership has collected over 800 pounds, so there is still plenty of work to do.
Local residents can participate by donating six items of nonperishable food per individual on the day of the performance directly to the Festival and receive a half-price ticket to any Tuesday through Thursday performance. Food donation barrels are located in the Randall L. Jones Theatre lobby next to the ticket window.
“The support of our community is so critical to the success of the Utah Shakespeare Festival Fall Food Drive,” said Executive Director R. Scott Phillips. “Since 2003 the Festival has provided a forum where generous and caring playgoers can see great theatre and support those less fortunate through our annual fall food drive. And over the years, our guests have demonstrated time and time again their generosity and support of those in need by supplying food as part of a ticket purchase.”
Residents of Iron, Washington, Kane, Garfield, Sevier, Piute, and Beaver counties in Utah are eligible for the discount, as well as patrons from Lincoln County, Nevada. All residents should bring proof of residency and six nonperishable food items for each discounted ticket they wish to purchase. This offer is good Tuesday through Thursday on the day of the performance only. There is a limit of four discounted tickets per resident I.D.
Dracula’s Blood Drive
The Festival, the Red Cross and Count Dracula just completed a spooktacular blood drive Dracula (from this season’s popular horror play) encouraged ghouls, goblins and vixens to signup, roll up their sleeves and have their veins drained.
The one-day event netted 22 pints of blood, enough to potentially save the lives of over 60 people in need. Nine of the donors were “first-timers.”
In Utah, every eight minutes someone needs blood, and the Red Cross strives to collect an average of 2,350 units of blood in the state each week to meet patient’s needs. Blood is needed everyday for cancer patients, accident victims, premature babies, and other ill or injured people. The Festival and our community were happy to help.
State Bank of Southern Utah Challenge Donation
Citing their desire to give back to the community that has supported them for over 50 years, State Bank of Southern Utah (SBSU) officials recently presented a check for $50,000 to the Festival. The bank’s donation will assist with the approximately $750,000 still needed to complete landscaping and fund equipment for the $38 million complex, located on the campus of Southern Utah University.
“The Festival is a huge asset and will continue to benefit our community for years to come,” explained Tyler Brown, SBSU director of marketing. “We hope this gift will not only help the building of the new center, but challenge other community minded businesses that are able to give.”
Presenting the SBSU donation to the Festival were Brown; Eric Schmutz, president and chief executive officer; Kirk Jones, director of operations; and Linda Wilson, member of the board of directors.
The new center, which is currently under construction, includes two new theatres for the Festival and will be ready for the opening of the 2016 Festival season in July.
Exploring Human Origins and Staged Reading of Inherit the Wind
From October 16 to November 12, the Cedar City Public Library will be one of only 19 libraries in the county to present the Smithsonian exhibit, Exploring Human Origins. As part of the month-long celebration, the Festival has joined forces with the library and the community to present a staged reading of a scene from Inherit the Wind, a play which is based on the famous 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Tennessee.
The reading, directed by Festival Education Director Michael Bahr, will be November 11 at 7 p.m. in the Cedar City Festival Hall. A discussion with the performers will follow the performance. Admission is free.
“I am so excited that we can come together to celebrate the things that make us human and discuss one of the great debates of the 20th century,” said Bahr. “Inherit the Wind is particularly appropriate because it formulates the arguments of both sides of the issue of evolution and religion in a way that elevates the discussion. I can’t wait to share it with our community.”
Tickets for the Festival’s 2015 season, which will run until October 31, are now on sale. The fall season includes The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Dracula and Charley*’s Aunt*.For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
Play On Podcast | Ep. 53: Samuel Clein, Brett Gardner & Natasha Harris, The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Our incredible talented musicians for this season’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, chat with us about gypsy jazz and how their outlaw band adds to the world of the play. They share with us some amazing music as we journey through Verona and Milan. You don’t want to miss this episode!
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Projections Designer Brings Stunning and Magical Special Effects to Dracula
Tyler Pierce (left) as Dracula and Jamie Ann Romero as Lucy in Dracula, 2015. Photo by Karl Hugh.
Take two 8,000-lumen projectors, stack them on top of each other, hook them to a powerful computer, and point them at a rear-projection screen. What do you get? In the case of the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s production of Dracula, you get bloody moons, shipwrecks, roiling oceans, and howling wolves.
Of course, it takes a lot more than fancy technology to provide the stunning and magical visual effects evident in the Festival’s production of this iconic horror story. It takes a talented designer to bring it all to life. In the case of the Festival, it takes Kristin Ellert, projections designer extraordinaire.
Ellert comes to the Festival from the Midwest where she works as a freelance scenic and projections designer. She has also worked at the Oregon Shakespare Festival, Park Square Theatre, First Stage, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, and others.
“At heart, projections design is still design,” says Ellert. All the aesthetic sensibility, the understanding of color and space that is evident in scenery, costume, lighting, and sound design is also part of projections design. Ellert starts with the director’s vision and understanding of the play, then adds to that the input of the other designers—then goes to work finding and creating moving images that are cast on the rear of a large screen at the back of the set and are visible to the audience.
For instance, the roiling waves and scudding clouds in one scene of the play started as stock video Ellert purchased. She then “changed it, cut things, added in stuff, adjusted colors, to make it my own,” ultimately providing just the effect and mood the play demands.
She uses software such as Photoshop and After Effects to create the projections then feeds them into the computer where they are controlled during the show by the light board operator using sophisticated control software.
The result is magic.
Rear projections are becoming more and more popular in recent years. “It is growing in the theatre,” said Ellert. “Everybody wants to do it, but the cost of the technology is extremely high, so smaller theatres are finding it hard to do. I am thrilled the Festival was willing to invest what it takes to achieve these projections.”
Ellert’s magical (and sometimes frightening) projections are visible in the Festival’s production of Dracula through October 31, Halloween. Also playing at the Festival are Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the hilarious farce Charley’s Aunt. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
“Let the Dog Be the Dog”: Comedy, Forgiveness, and a Loveable Mutt
Chris Mixon as Launce and Jake as Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 2015. Photo by Karl Hugh.
What does an actor do when, in the middle of a comic scene in front of a full house, the dog who appears with him on stage begins to wander toward the wings? “You let the dog be the dog,” says Utah Shakespeare Festival actor Chris Mixon, “trusting that his training kicks in, and he stays where he should.”
Mixon, who is appearing as the comic servant Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, faces dilemmas like this nearly every performance with his canine costar, Crab. He admits sometimes he has to be quick on his feet, but the dog’s training and the time the two have spent together pays off, and the show continues.
Crab is played by Jake, who is trained by Nick Massey. “Nick is really good at bonding him to another person, and has taught me how to communicate with Jake,” says Mixon.
However, as much as audiences love Launce and his canine friend, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is not all about a loveable dog or its comic “owner.” Instead the romantic comedy tells the story of two sets of adolescent lovers who are at times inconstant, impulsive, emotional, self-involved, and ultimately forgiving.
The play is about change and being imperfect, says Mixon. “The Two Gentlemen of Verona challenges our notion of happy endings. The people are flawed, and we have to forgive them in the end.”
This inconstancy is much more evident in the two young men in the play, than in their female loves. According to Mixon, men care about themselves, their own ambition, which “I think allows for inconstancy without forethought.” Women, especially Shakespeare’s women, care about the world around them and in the broader picture. “Shakespeare brings a woman on the stage when he wants to bring the world on the stage.”
In the end, the four lovers do transform. As director Robynn Rodriquez says, “four young people take the first stumbling steps toward becoming gentlemen—and gentlewomen.”
Yet, in between all these machinations between the four young lovers, comes the comedy of Launce and Crab, offering a bit of humor but also a grounded pragmatism, perhaps a counter-balance to the four adolescents, an admission that the world is complex and varied, and a sure sign of a master playwright at work.
Tickets are now on sale for The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Charley’s Aunt, and Dracula, currently being performed Tuesday through Saturday until October 31. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
Charley’s Aunt – Still Funny after All These Years?
By Ryan D. Paul
Betsy Mugavero (left) as Kitty Verdun, Michael Doherty as Lord Rancourt Babberley, and Kelly Rogers as Amy Spettigue in Charley’s Aunt, 2015. Photo by Karl Hugh.
Here’s a joke for you. A young New Yorker was introduced to a Boston girl, and before they were acquainted thirty minutes, she got so spoony that she had called him an asterolepis, a Silurian placoid, and cartilaginous vertebrate. He returned to New York by the evening train. Hilarious, right? I am not sure I got it either. This came from an 1890s joke book and is evidence that some things just don’t hold up well with the passage of time. Language and cultural context are often grounded in a specific era. How then does Charley’s Aunt, a comic farce written in 1892 and produced this season by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, hold up? Should it be in the comics section or the obituaries? I spoke with the play’s director, David Ivers to find out.
“This is a great, joyous comedy,” said Ivers. “Often people refer to it (I have myself) as an ‘old chestnut.’ Charley’s Aunt stands the test of time, and looking critically at the play, I find it’s brilliantly constructed. Charley’s Aunt is full of character driven action, full of optimism. I’ve acted in the play twice, so I know it requires rigor, detail, and specificity to make it appear easy, loose, and chaotic. As I have rediscovered the play, this time with a director’s eye, I have found myself laughing out loud again; refreshed and invigorated by what it all has to say.”
Ivers argues that while some find Charley’s Aunt to be a typical piece of comedic theatre, the message of the play goes much deeper. “Anyone can and should find love in any circumstance, and sometimes, we will go to great lengths at the expense of a great many to shape our destinies. Once in a while, a small window of opportunity presents itself—are you going to jump through it with reckless abandon or shut it out? At its core, Charley’s Aunt allows us all an opportunity to vicariously answer that question for ourselves. Through this comedic vehicle, the audience is asked the question: How far are we willing to go for love?”
Speaking about his vision for Charley’s Aunt, Ivers added, “This incredible situation the characters find themselves in results in comedy because the obstacle is so large. We can almost see the wheels inside their heads cranking away. ‘How are we going to pull this off?’”
Someone once said that jokes are like frogs, once you dissect them; they are no good any more. That’s something you will not have to worry about in this season’s production of Charley’s Aunt. This play is funny because comedy, true comedy, transcends generations. The relatable characters in this play remind us of the strange and often comic things we do for love. Those human stories, the ones that really make us laugh to our core, the ones that are told over campfires and bridal toasts, they resonate through this play. To answer my own question, yes, like my Great Aunt Alice, Charley’s Aunt is still funny after all these years.
State Bank of Southern Utah Donates to Festival
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State Bank of Southern Utah (SBSU) officials present a check for $50,000 to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Pictured are (left to right) Tyler Brown, SBSU director of marketing; Fred C. Adams, Festival founder; Eric Schmutz, SBSU president and chief executive officer; R. Scott Phillips, Festival executive director; Linda Wilson, member of the SBSU board of directors; and Kirk Jones, SBSU director of operations and board member.
Cedar City, UT – Citing their desire to give back to the community that has supported them for over 50 years, State Bank of Southern Utah (SBSU) officials recently presented a check for $50,000 to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The bank’s donation will assist with the approximately $750,000 still needed to complete landscaping and fund equipment for the $38 million complex, located on the campus of Southern Utah University.
“The Festival is a huge asset and will continue to benefit our community for years to come,” explained Tyler Brown, SBSU director of marketing. “We hope this gift will not only help the building of the new center, but challenge other community minded businesses that are able to give.”
Presenting the SBSU donation to the Festival were Brown; Eric Schmutz, president and chief executive officer; Kirk Jones, director of operations; and Linda Wilson, member of the board of directors.
The new center, which is currently under construction, includes two new theatres for the Festival and will be ready for the opening of the 2016 Festival season in July.