The Utah Shakespearean Festival recently announced its 2007 season schedule of plays. The forty-sixth season will feature three well-known Shakespearean plays and another which isn’t produced quite as frequently. Factor in a British comedy, an American classic that served as the inspiration for a famous Broadway musical, and a hilarious musical adaptation of an already highly successful Broadway comedy, a modern play all about art, and a beloved murder mystery and you have a marvelous season to look forward to.

Shakespeare’s King Lear, of course, is one of the greatest tragedies ever written.  The part of the king requires a marvelous range of acting ability as he is plagued by intrigue, betrayal, and his own willful vanity. “A very foolish old man, fourscore and upward,” Lear has sorely misjudged his daughters as he divides up his kingdom among them. Who will be merciful to Lear, or will he be forsaken by all?

What words can do justice to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night? Airy? Playful? Magical? Shakespeare is at his comedic best as, once again, his characters take delight in confusing each other. Orsina loves Olivia (who won’t give him the time of day).  Olivia loves Viola (whom she thinks is a boy). Viola loves Orsino (who doesn’t even know she’s a girl). Malvolio loves himself (naturally), and Sir Andrew, Sir Toby Belch, and Maria love life to its fullest (and its most outrageous). Only Shakespeare can straighten this out!

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus relates the tale of a man well schooled by his forceful mother in the Roman lessons of honor, nobility, and class superiority. But his devoted and sensitive wife sees, instead, arrogance, prejudice, and dangerous intrigue. This monumental struggle of wills literally fills the stage in this rarely performed play, as Coriolanus grapples to find his footing among the many seductions of ambition, love, and family.

George Bernard Shaw’s classic play Candida will engage and charm. The Reverend James Morell’s joy in his comfortable marriage to Candida is shaken by the arrival of the young poet, Marchbanks. Both men adore her, and both believe they can influence her actions.  Marchbanks thinks she can choose between the two men; Morell trusts that she is bound by marriage vows. They both forget she is her own woman.

The romantic comedy, The Matchmaker, by Thornton Wilder, relates the now familiar and very funny story of the widow matchmaker, Dolly Levi. When Horace Vandergelder hires her to find a wife for him, the matchmaker decides on a very unusual match for the eligible tradesman—herself. The story, the inspiration for the musical Hello Dolly!, is one of America’s greatest farces, filled with delightful surprises, multiple love stories, and fun for the entire family.

The orchestra is warming up, the supporting cast is abuzz with excitement, the curtain will soon rise, but wait! Where is the world-renowned Tito Morelli, the lead tenor? Thus begins the Festival’s high-spirited world premiere of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, Brad Carroll and Peter Sham’s musical adaptation of Ken Ludwig’s enormously successful Lend Me a Tenor. The show must go on, but how! The answer sets the pace in this giddy screwball comedy of mistaken identity, hysterical plot twists, and rollicking confusion. 

The fall season will continue the excitement of live theatre with three new productions set amid the beautiful fall colors of southern Utah.

Start out the season with Shakespeare’s wonderful flight of fancy, The Tempest.  A tale of magic and mystery, and of eventual wisdom and maturity, Shakespeare’s last romance will take you to a small island with the deposed Duke Prospero and his daughter, Miranda. There, they face monsters and fairies, storms and spectacle, as they learn of harmony and humanity and struggle to find their place in a “brave new world” of intrigue, revenge, and romance.

Yasmina Reza’s comic play, Art, provides us with an interesting conundrum. When Serge buys an outrageously simple modern painting for an outrageous amount of money, he and his friends have widely varying opinions regarding its value. Is it art or just expensive doodling? How does one define art anyway? Thus begins anew the ages-old argument, with Serge and his friends all defending their views, sometimes insightful, sometimes perplexing, and always funny.

Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery, The Mousetrap , will round out the fall season. Murder lurks around every corner of the Monkswell Manor where everyone is a suspect—and a possible victim. Is the murderer the architect who would rather be a chef, the retired Army major, the strange young man who says his car overturned in a nearby snowdrift? Or is it the police detective, supposedly there to solve the crime? For over fifty years this, the English world’s longest-running play, has kept audiences guessing and shuddering with delight.

There is always something to look forward to at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Tickets for the 2007 are available and may be purchased online at www.bard.org; by telephone at 800-PLAYTIX; by mail at Box Office Utah Shakespearean Festival, 351 West Center Street, Cedar City, Utah 84720; by fax at 435 586-1944; or in person at the Box Office, 300 West and Center Streets in Cedar City.

The Utah Shakespearean Festival is hosted on the campus of Southern Utah University and is dedicated to the presentation of repertory theatre, which illuminates the human condition in an atmosphere where playgoers can watch, participate in and be immersed in experiences which entertain, enrich, and educate.