Shelly Gaza, Taming of the Shrew Tour Director

Shelly Gaza returns to the Festival to direct the Educational Tour production of The Taming of the Shrew. We last saw Shelly here in 2007; she played Viola in Twelfth Night and Cordelia in King Lear. Since then, she’s settled in Colorado where she is on faculty at Northern Colorado University, teaching voice, speech and Shakespeare.

Is this your first time directing?

It’s not my first time directing but it is my first time directing for USF which I’m really excited about. I have done some directing in Minnesota and Colorado and I just finished directing As You Like It for UNC this past fall. I do focus mostly on Shakespeare, which I love.

What’s your experience with Shrew?

I was an actor in the Educational Tour in ‘05 and we did Shrew. I played Kate. It was just an accident that this is the one I’m directing and it’s a happy accident. It’s fun to come back to the show.

How do you cut the script to allow for an acting company of seven?

I made some adjustments; we refigured the casting doubling. We’re doing something I’m really excited about. The 4 lovers (Petruchio and Kate, Bianca and Lucentio) play only those characters throughout. And we have 3 actors who play what we’re calling “The Zanies.” They are splitting up every other character in the show.

Can you describe the production?

We have combined different periods and genres. The concept was developed with the help of Christina Leinicke (Costume Designer). The ideas she presented really pushed me toward the direction I was kind of flirting with. We drew our inspiration from three worlds: circus, commedia dell’arte and a gypsy carnival. We’re really creating our own look, period and style. Colorful, exuberant, musical. Those are the three worlds.

How will you make Shrew relevant for this audience?

It’s certainly a challenge. I think it’s safe to say that it did have misogynistic overtones when it was written. It was a different time and gender roles were very different. I think it’s ok to cut Shakespeare some slack on that. He was writing for his time.

In order to make it relevant for today we have to take that into account. As far as Kate’s final speech – when you look at it on the page, the words are much more about learning to be a good life partner with someone as opposed to being a subservient wife. Mostly it’s about playing it correctly, it’s about choosing the right actors who can give it the right nuance. It’s more about compassion – teaching women and men who want to be in a loving relationship that it’s not about getting your way all the time. It’s not about being negative. It’s about humbling yourself to your partner. To me that speech could be said by Petruchio as well as Kate.

This year’s tour will play in three states (UT, NV, AZ) between January and April. You can learn more at

http://www.bard.org/education/tour.html

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Happy Holidays!

We at the Utah Shakespeare Festival wish you a happy and healthy holiday season.

We are taking a blog break and will be back in January with news about the 2014 School Tour and updates about our exciting 2014 season.

You can find the latest information on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/utahshakespeare and our website www.bard.org.

Until then, stay warm and safe.

World Premiere of Sense and Sensibility in 2014 Season

Our 2014 season features a world premiere of a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved Sense and Sensibility. Authors Joe Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan shared their thoughts about the play and their creative process.

When were you approached by David Ivers and Brian Vaughn (USF’s artistic directors) about creating this adaptation?

J.R. Sullivan: Conversations about a USF commission of the work to premiere at the Festival began in 2011. An agreement to move forward was reached in 2012.

What are the challenges of adapting such a well known work to the stage?

Sullivan: Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a lengthy nineteenth century novel and the first difficulty is devising a dramatic scheme that will tell her story in a compact but dramatically effective way. Taking place over the course of nine months, there are multiple settings, both exterior and interior. As with Pride and Prejudice, it has been our method to devise a production scheme that can tell the story swiftly, imparting a theatrical ingenuity to its style while also realizing dramatic momentum and suspense.

Joe Hanreddy: The initial challenge is getting past the hubris of doing it at all. Sense and Sensibility  is a finely detailed, sublimely subtle masterwork of fiction—a perfect work of art…The great fear is coming off like a graffiti artist desecrating a great monument.

What do you think is the essence of the book?

Hanreddy: The antithesis of the title reflects two very different mind-sets towards love, courtship and marriage. Marianne’s notions of love aren’t different from those at the heart of popular romantic movies, books and songs today. She believes that love happens at first sight, and she straightaway falls for a handsome young stranger who heroically comes to her aid in a storm. Elinor, on the other hand, loves more slowly. Elinor realizes that time is, in fact, essential to nurturing a truly deep connection.

Sullivan: As Austen’s title suggests there is sense and sensibility at issue in the story, abstract concepts that are much in play in the real lives of the characters. Reason and emotion might be another way to talk about this now. While Elinor is a character that governs her feelings and is circumspect in her expression of them, Marianne is one who acts impulsively and is passionate and emotional about her likes and dislikes…Jane Austen’s interest in examining the value of Sensibility- which by the novel’s publication had evolved into the full blown cultural trend of Romanticism – forms the basis of the novel and so it is that Marianne’s journey from sensibility to sense forms the arc of the play.

What role will you each play in the production?

Sullivan: Joseph Hanreddy will be directing the premiere of the play for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. I will be in residence for the first week of rehearsals and then return when the production is in tech and dress rehearsals.

How have the recent readings and workshops influenced the script?

Sullivan: Hearing the play read by good actors makes an enormous difference to the progress of the work. Important adjustments were made after each of the play’s readings – the first in Chicago in March of 2013, and then in Cedar City in October 2013.

Why will we love it?

Hanreddy: Jane Austen was the first great realist of literature and wrote brilliantly entertaining, revealing and funny stories that transcend time, culture and gender. At their core, modern relationships have almost everything in common with the ones Austen writes about in Sense and Sensibility.

Sullivan: It’s a great story filled with great characters. Its romance is balanced with its drama, its comedy with insight and sharp perception into human nature. Jane Austen created a deeply memorable and much beloved tale with Sense and Sensibility and it is our hope that this adaptation does full justice to her times and ours with an exciting rendition.

Sense and Sensibility opens June 24, 2014 and is one of eight plays in the 2014 season. You can learn more about the season and purchase tickets at www.bard.org

JR Sullivan

Joe Hanreddy

“To have faith is to have wings” 52nd Season Soars at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

2013, Peter and the Starcatcher

Mattfeld (Blackstache) and Galligan-Stierle (Smee), 2013 Peter and the Starcatcher

The Utah Shakespeare Festival soared this year in more ways than one. Not only did the Festival produce a regional premiere of a Tony Award-winning play, it continued the Complete the Canon initiative, started the History Cycle, and the company is preparing to break ground on a new arts center. The Festival continues to push the envelope and through countless hours and a resilient company of artists, the Festival once again received tremendous praise this year for an artistically successful season.

Jones as King John

Judith Reynolds, a journalist for the Durango Herald, said it best, “With its multimillion-dollar production budget and cast heavily sprinkled with Equity Actors, the Utah Shakespeare Festival continues to mount spectacular and thought-provoking productions.”

Ivers (Richard II) and Bull (Bullingbrook), 2013 Richard II

The biggest coup for the Festival this year was receiving the rights to produce the regional premiere of Peter**and the Starcatcher. It played to sold-out houses and broke the million-dollar mark at the box office. “It was an amazing experience, and to top it all off, the Festival received positive comments and kudos from Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Group,” said Festival Artistic Director Brian Vaughn.

Peter and the Starcatcher, by Rick Elice and based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, was a thrilling, imaginative, theatrical experience about Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, and all the memorable characters he encounters on his journey to Neverland. Festival guests raved about the production, and many returned to see it for a second, third and even fourth time.

In 2012, the Festival announced an exciting new initiative to produce the entire canon of Shakespeare’s thirty-eight plays called Complete the Canon. This year, the Festival introduced the second phase of the Complete the Canon program, the History Cycle. Audience members can expect to see all of Shakespeare’s 10 history plays in chronological order starting this year with the rarely-produced King John and Richard II. One of the goals of the History Cycle is to give a cohesiveness to this series that will be engaging and dramatic.

According to Barbara M. Bannon, reviewer for the Salt Lake Tribune, “King Johnis not staged often, but this strong production makes it well worth seeing. Its vivid portrait of England’s unstable political climate sets the stage for the histories that will follow.”

“The superb acting and pleasant designs helped me realize that Richard II is one of the most underrated of Shakespeare’s plays,” said Russell Warne, managing editor for the Utah Theatre Bloggers Association. “The Utah Shakespeare Festival has created an excellent installment of their Complete the Canon initiative to produce every Shakespeare play over the course of 12 years.”

Last fall, the Festival joined forces with Southern Utah University in order to build the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts. The Center will include a long-awaited new outdoor Shakespeare theatre, studio theatre, the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), and the Festival’s much needed artistic and production facility. This partnership has propelled the campaign forward, and in the spring, a $6 million gift was given from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation in order to create the multi-million dollar arts center.

The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts will incorporate visual arts, live theatre and dynamic arts education and will dramatically enrich the cultural life of Cedar City. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the spring of 2014, and the Center will be completed for the opening of the Festival’s 2016 season. Construction will not impact the Festival experience, and guests can continue to expect exceptional customer service and quality entertainment.

The Festival continues to offer more than just plays; guests were able to experience the free nightly Greenshow, the New American Playwrights Project, Bardway Baby!, production and literary seminars, orientations before every show, backstage tours, educational classes, and Repertory Magic.

Other season highlights include the many community outreach programs that the Festival participated in. These include Military Appreciate Night, Free Night of Theatre, July Jamboree, Groovefest, the Iron County Care and Share Fall Food Drive and Relay for Life.

Although the plays have closed, the Festival staff is hard at work preparing for the 2014 season. “The Utah Shakespeare Festival is proud to continue to offer performances of the highest caliber for our thousands of guests from across the US,” said Executive Director R. Scott Phillips. “We continue to explore the power of live theatre and appreciate the on-going support of our loyal theatre patrons.”

“The Utah Shakespeare Festival once again proves that all the world’s a stage — and every stage is a world,” said Carol Cling, journalist for the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is located on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City. Tickets for the Festival’s 53rd season in 2014 are available by calling 1-800-PLAYTIX or by visiting the Festival website at www.bard.org.

Schoolhouse Rock with Michael Bahr and Josh Stavros

This fall, the Festival’s Education Department is switching things around. Instead of a Playmakers where the local schools come to the Festival for a performance, they’re taking Playmakers to the schools with a production of Schoolhouse Rock. During November, Schoolhouse Rock will perform for five Iron County schools.

Tell us about Schoolhouse Rock.

Rehearsal

Michael Bahr: Schoolhouse Rock was very popular during the 70s and 80s.

Josh Stavros: It was originally a series of television commercials, cartoons, that would air on Saturday morning on a number of different educational topics: How a Bill Becomes a Law, Multiplication, History, Parts of speech, etc.

Bahr: My daughter knows the preamble of the Constitution because of the song, “We the people…”

Rehearsal

Describe the production.

Bahr: We’re taking a group of 33 kids and we’re performing the music of Schoolhouse Rock: it’s 14 songs and 45 minutes long. These songs are very catchy while teaching great lessons. They have great resonance with a crowd.

What do the performers learn?

Bahr: It’s really great training ground if you’re trying to teach someone how to act, sing and dance. Which is harder - tour or production? They both bring different challenges and they teach different things to the kids.

Having a touring production, I can teach kids how to set up, how to walk in and perform in a different space. That’s a very different skill set. During auditions we told the parents “it will be your job, parents, to get them to the schools, to rehearsals at this time.” This is an experiment; there is no lead here. This is an ensemble piece. All the kids perform every time. The youngest is 8 and the oldest is 17.

Who are some of the performers?

Stavros: Some names familiar to Festival patrons would be Britton Gardner (Gavroche in Les Mis), Bailey Duncan (Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird), as well as Eliza Allen and Kailey Gilbert who were fairies in Midsummer.

How is this program funded?

Bahr: SUU’s Beverley Taylor Sorenson College of Education funds this via the Center for Innovative Education. This is money given to SUU specifically for educational outreach.

Any closing thoughts?

Bahr: I know the kids will love it - it’s high energy and interactive. The teachers will love it - they’ll probably sing along. And I don’t want to minimize the training opportunity with this group of 33 kids. Every kid sings, every kid dances, every kid is part of an ensemble. Every kid will tour.

My first dream is to take these students out touring in the schools. And the second dream is that we can tour all year because it provides training for those that are performing and curricular engagement for audiences. We can provide a construct for them to have conversations about the educational material.

You can find examples of the Schoolhouse Rocks cartoons on YouTube. Here’s the link for the Preamble to the Constitution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30OyU4O80i4

and Nouns http://www.schooltube.com/video/21001073474c19344891/.

You can learn more about the education programs of the Festival at http://www.bard.org/education/index.html

David Ivers & Brian Vaughn on Casting

Brian Vaughn

Have you ever wondered what goes into casting for six plays that open in three days and play in repertory? We spent some time with David Ivers and Brian Vaughn, artistic directors, to get those questions answered

David Ivers

Where do you start?

Brian Vaughn: The very first thing we do is find out how many roles there are in the season and then we break it down - based on the numbers of actors budgeted and how many people we need to fill each show.

We also have an Actor Count Comparison Chart - how many roles in each show are needed and then you think about that in the rep scenario. For example: Starcatcher had 12 actors - 11 men and 1 woman and it played opposite The Tempest, which had 18 actors. We look at that comparison - how many people are available per night and then it’s fitting the number of people we have in the budget and the number we have to cast.

David Ivers: We use an Excel spreadsheet with the plays across the top and the actor column is classified by equity, associate artist, non-equity, Greenshow performer, interns and understudies.

Where are you auditioning this year?

Ivers: This year, we will conduct auditions in Cedar, LA, Chicago, NY and Alabama. We have auditions by invitation based on submissions - actors apply and we invite them based on their headshot and resume. For equity principal auditions, any equity member can come and they get an appointment when they show up.

How big will the 2014 company be?

Vaughn: There are over 100 roles and we’ll probably have an acting company of over 60.

What goes into the decision process?

Ivers: We tend to land actors in the equity company in major roles as our guideposts. We’ll have a landmark of one role and then that opens a window - here’s the only other place they could be available. Twelfth Night I’m sure will be a linchpin as Peter was because it’s the show that carries through into the fall. So the cast of Twelfth Night is going to dictate much of the fall casting. It’s a lot of Brian and I going back and forth and hammering it out.

Vaughn: There will be a lot of incarnations. It becomes about putting the right person in the right role. Where is this person going to be the most valuable? For example: Is it going to be more valuable for us to have Melinda Parrett play Reno Sweeney versus something in King John? Probably because we know she’s going to tap and sing her heart out. So let’s put her in there and where else can we use her? It also comes to what the director is looking for, so we cross-reference all the directors’ notes.

What’s the hardest part of casting

Vaughn: Narrowing it down. It’s not just one thing. You have to fit people into 2 or 3 things and then it’s a numbers game. We make sure we don’t overwork the non-equity people and make sure the equity people are used to their full potential.

Ivers: It’s the most important job we do, other than selecting the plays. And it’s probably one of the most labor intensive, between the travel, the auditions and the manipulation of all the information into something that makes sense. We’re always thinking about it on and off the job.

How important is the Company versus the individual?

Ivers: I believe in company. I believe in us having a company of people. I believe in promoting that for the benefit of the work. You have to find the right kind of people who remains hungry and doesn’t take things for granted. That’s the other component - finding good company members who play well with others and are willing to do heavy lifting - be part of the ensemble as much as they are a lead.

When will we know the cast for 2014?

Ivers: We hope to wrap it up by the end of December and we should announce by early 2014.

You can check our website at www.bard.org for casting updates and we will have a blog posted as soon as we know!

Meet Don Weingust, SUU's Director of Shakespeare Studies

Don Weingust directed his first play at age five, an imaginary western starring himself as gun-blazing cowboy, set in his best friend’s suburban Michigan home. Later in a high school drama class, he was introduced to the playwright who would shape his career, and though he has since professionally acted and directed every genre of play imaginable, as director of the Shakespeare Studies program and theatre professor at SUU, he has devoted much of his life’s work to William Shakespeare.

“This man understood extraordinarily 
the human condition and forged a path 
that no one even knew existed,” explains 
Weingust of the easy decision to focus 
so much of his talent and energy on 
one playwright. “Through Shakespeare’s 
plays, it’s possible to learn so much of 
what one needs to know about life: how 
to be a successful teacher, scholar, friend and family member.”

And with that, he now traces the Bard’s footsteps to unravel one of theatre’s most complex individuals with hundreds of students each year, making a 400-year-old subject relevant to 18-year-olds through the University’s growing ThunderBard Project.

The ThunderBard Project engages the entire freshman class in directed readings, discussion and a viewing of a professionally- produced Shakespeare play shortly after they arrive on campus— home to the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. Under Weingust’s direction, students glean meaning from the world’s greatest playwright as they acclimate to the University, the community and one another.

And though it may seem arbitrary to some with interests beyond the performing arts, Weingust has a clear vision for all of SUU’s students and is confident the Bard can help bring them along.

“The ThunderBard Project allows students to relate to Shakespeare, of course,” says Weingust. “But as importantly, we open their minds to ideas outside many students’ ways of thinking, and that experience carries over into the rest of their lives.”

The results are tangible, and Weingust’s efforts have directed many undecided students toward a minor in Shakespeare Studies.

On top of administrating ThunderBard and teaching theatre courses, Weingust is an active scholar and thespian. His first book, Acting From Shakespeare’s First Folio: Theory, Text and Performance, revolutionized the field by deciphering what the Bard meant in his first scripts and changing the way others interpret and perform Shakespearean plays.

“I see a light bulb turn on when a student realizes the incredible power, artistry and depth of humanity available to them in Shakespeare’s works.” He adds, “That’s when I know I am doing something right. It ensures me I am right where I need to be.”

Since his early days as a heroic cowboy, Don Weingust has become a vengeful Hamlet, a terrorizing Richard III and even a lovesick Romeo. No matter the character, his ability to excite today’s college students in a centuries-old subject matter and inspire a similar passion in their own academic pursuits shines brighter than any spotlight.

Festival Wins Prestigious Publications Award

Parrett as Ariel, 2013 Tempest, Cover of 2103 Program

The Utah Shakespeare Festival continues to produce quality award-winning work both on and off the stage. This September, the International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) paid tribute to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s marketing and publications at the 58th Annual Convention and Expo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Festival earned two awards in the prestigious IFEA/Haas &Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards competition. The Festival earned a gold award for the best event program and a bronze for best promotional brochure.

Sponsored by industry leader Haas & Wilkerson Insurance, the professional competition draws entries from among the world’s top festivals and events. Awards are given in honor of the highest degree of excellence for a variety of promotional publications, representing a multitude of national and international organizations. Awards were handed out in 69 different categories in total.

“We were competing with organizations from around the world,” said Phil Hermansen, the Festival’s art director. “That puts us in a mix of very large organizations with very expansive resources, so we feel honored to receive this award again.”

Winning entries came from organizations as diverse as the Kentucky Derby Festival, Louisville, KY; Memphis in May International Festival, Memphis, TN; 500 Festival, Indianapolis, IN; Des Moines Arts Festival, Des Moines, IA; Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, CO; Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, CA and the Burlington Sound of Music Festival, Burlington, ON, Canada.

International contenders included such diverse event organizations as the Seoul Lantern Festival, Seoul, South Korea; World Gourmet Summit, Singapore; Grolsch Artboom Festival, Krakow, Poland; Stichting Rotterdam Festivals, The Netherlands; Festival Lent, Maribor, Slovenia and the Sentosa Leisure Management, Sentosa, Singapore.

The Festival communications department writes, designs, and produces over 100 publications each year, and also designs, produces, and maintains the Festival’s website, as well as coordinating all media and public relations and marketing efforts. “We’re very proud of our publications,” said Bruce C. Lee, Festival communications director. “We feel that we represent the Festival very well and we have a great team here to accomplish that. This award tells us that we compare very favorably with many other organizations and the world.”

“The IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards Competition recognizes the outstanding accomplishments and top quality creative, promotional, operational and community outreach programs and materials produced by festivals and events around the world,” said IFEA President & CEO, Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE. “Striving for the highest degree of excellence in festival and event promotions and operations in every budget level and every corner of the globe, this competition has not only raised the standards and quality of the festivals and events industry to new levels, but also shows how event producers can use innovation and creativity to achieve a higher level of success.”

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) is The Premiere Association Supporting and Enabling Festival & Event Professionals Worldwide. In partnership with global affiliates under the umbrellas of IFEA Africa, IFEA Asia, IFEA Australia, IFEA Europe, IFEA Latin America, IFEA Middle East, and IFEA North America the organization’s common vision is for “*A Globally United Industry that Touches Lives in a Positive Way through Celebration,"*The Association offers the most complete source of ideas, resources, information, education and networking for festival and event professionals worldwide.

For a complete list of winners and more information on the IFEA, go to www.ifea.com.

If you didn’t see a program, you can see it online at http://issuu.com/bruceclee/docs/2013brochure

37th Annual Shakespeare Competition

This weekend, more than 3000 students from six states and 118 different schools will descend on Cedar City for the 37th annual Shakespeare Competition, hosted by SUU and the Festival. Competitors range from sixth grade to high school seniors. Each participating school is invited to prepare up to three monologues, two duo/trio scenes, and an ensemble scene, as well as an interpretive dance, minstrel and madrigal music, and several presentations in technical theatre. Performing on Festival stages and in many classrooms on the SUU campus, students are adjudicated by professional actors, directors, dancers, musicians, and artists.

We grabbed a few minutes from Michael Bahr, Education Director and Josh Stavros, Associate Education Director, to learn more.

Is this the biggest year ever?

Stavros: Yes! There are a lot of returning groups, and about a third are schools that are new or returning after a long absence.

The new schools are tied to the Utah Advisory Council for Theatre Teachers (UACTT) http://www.uactt.com/. There’s a much more cohesive group and new teachers are being brought into the fold sooner.

Bahr: Over the last four to five years, 120 – 150 teachers have joined UACTT. Now when you attend their conference and hear “are you going to the Shakespeare Competition?” “ I’ve never been; how do I go…” - there are lots of good things happening and momentum building.

What are the key points of the competition?

Bahr: There are five key elements:

● High quality adjudication - the judges are theatre professionals with a wide diversity of ages, experience and geography.

● Standards: we measure everyone by voice: diction and projection…and the text itself.

● The festival nature of the competition – a kid will see 18 different monologues, so he learns from his own critiquing and from that of others.

● Celebration of their work - Our system allows a best in the round and allows for everyone to be the best.

● Training component - This was the most important theatrical event of the year when I was a teacher. And it set the tone for the year. Many teachers hold competitions at their schools to determine who comes here, so we’re seeing the best of the best.

How does SUU fit into the picture?

Stavros: This is a great recruiting tool for SUU. At the beginning of the school year, I took an informal poll with the faculty of the Theatre Department. By their estimates, 2/3 of the students had participated in the competition.

SUU also uses this for training. For example, the music department is heavily involved, doing more clinics than they’ve ever done. A school group will come down, they will perform a madrigal number, they will get a clinic at that time, then they will also make appointments with music faculty for coaching sessions.

SUU is using more students to teach their technical classes and they’re using it as a training ground. Not only do we have the professionals here training but now professionals in training. There’s education happening on multiple levels. You have the professionals giving back to the up and coming protégés.

Again this year, we will use social media to keep participants and interested followers up to date.

Visit our Twitter at @UTShakesComp, our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/shakespearecomp, and our Instagram @ShakespeareComp to see updates and changes about the competition – these updates will be posted as soon as they are made. Updates will include: schedule changes, live results from the competition, and photos from that day of the competition.

You can also learn more about the competition at http://www.bard.org/competition/index.html where you can see videos from last year’s event.

The Marvelous Wonderettes Brings Back Three Original Creators

Bednarczuk (Cindy Lou), Storrs (Betty Jean), Cook (Missy), and Cozzens (Suzy), Act II Ten Year Reunion

It’s like old home week at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Three of the original creators of The Marvelous Wonderettes have joined together again to direct the Festival’s fall production of this musical trip down memory lane.

Playwright Roger Bean, directing alum of the Utah Shakespeare Festival and creator of *The Marvelous Wonderettes,*is directing the Festival’s production, which opens on September 21 at 2 p.m. Joining him will be Choreographer Bets Malone, who originally created the role of Suzy, and Musical Director Brian William Baker.

Bean, a graduate of Southern Utah University and former Festival marketing and public relations director, has spent nearly his entire life in the theatre. Now a successful director, creator, writer, and producer, he is primarily known for turning golden oldies into entertaining jukebox musicals.

In 1995, Bean directed the Festival’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, followed by The Mikado in 1996. Not long after, he began working with Milwaukee Rep, where the musical first played.

The idea for The Marvelous Wonderettes came from Bean’s mother, who was a song leader and member of a singing trio in high school. “I had absolutely no idea what a song leader was,” said Bean. “So I set out to find the answer, and what came out of my exploration was this sweet little show about four song leaders in high school performing for their fellow classmates.”

The Marvelous Wonderettes is about a singing group of four friends at their 1958 prom. The Wonderettes, four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts, sing their hearts out to popular ’50s and ’60s tunes like “It’s My Party”, “Mr. Sandman,” and “Dream Lover”. The girls trade gossip about high school hijinks and teenage romance. Toes will be tapping at this must-take musical trip down memory lane.

Choreographer Bets Malone, who played Suzy in the original production, met Roger Bean in Cedar City while she was a freshman at SUU in 1990. The two stayed close friends, and Bean actually wrote the role of Suzy with Malone in mind. Bean invited her to do the show at the Milwaukee Rep and he told her, “She’d be foolish to not do this project.”

Since then, Malone has performed in numerous productions of the show all across the country, including an award-winning Los Angeles production in 2006, an off-Broadway production in 2008, and an original cast recording.

“I was asked to choreograph the show a couple years ago and put my own spin on it,” said Malone. “I’ve now staged it a few times, including the national tour earlier this year, and it feels incredibly surreal to be back at the Festival.”

Musical Director Brian Baker has known Bean since 1988 when they worked together at a small summer stock theatre in Montana. Bean convinced Baker to attend SUU and pursue a degree in music. While in Cedar City, Baker continued to collaborate with Bean on outside projects, as well as working on several undergraduate musicals. He was heavily involved with the Festival.

Bean selected all of the songs and acquired the rights to use them for The Marvelous Wonderettes. However, he enlisted Baker’s help to manipulate and rearrange the songs. Baker created the sound that audiences will hear. According to Baker, “the goal of the production is to have the music and vocals sound perfect and crystal clear while appearing to be spontaneous and unrehearsed.”

As the success and popularity of his shows increased, Bean felt the need to create his own licensing company, Steele Spring Theatrical Licensing. The full-time staff now handles all of the licensing of The Marvelous Wonderettes and a few of his other shows for theatres all over the country. This allows Bean the flexibility to travel in order to direct or remount shows regionally, and, if he’s lucky, to find time to write new shows.

The Marvelous Wonderettes plays in repertory with Peter and the Starcatcher and Richard II through October 19 in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. For tickets or information, call the Festival ticket office at 1-800-PLAYTIX or visit online at bard.org.

Cate Cozzens (left) as Suzy, Natalie Storrs as Betty Jean, Barbara Jo Bednarczuk as Cindy Lou, and Victoria Cook as Missy, 2013 The Marvelous Wonderettes

Bednarczuk (Cindy Lou),Storrs (Betty Jean), Cozzens (Suzy), and Cook (Missy)