CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Utah Shakespearean Festival recently announced the two playwrights who will participate in the 2009 New American Playwrights Project (NAPP). This year the project will feature works by Jim Lord and Fred C. Adams, both of Cedar City.

"We were surprised and thrilled when we chose the two plays and found that not only were they both from Cedar City, but one of them was our very own founder, Fred C. Adams," said Charles Metten, director of NAPP. "None of our reader/judges knew who the playwrights were, where they lived, or anything else about them. It was a completely blind process."

Each of the plays will be given staged readings during the month of August. The Dance by Jim Lord will be performed August 13, 14, 25, and 26. Nell Gwyn by Fred C. Adams will be performed August 20, 21, 27, and 28. All readings will be in the Auditorium Theatre beginning at 10 a.m. Tickets are $8 per play. Tickets are on sale now at 1-800-PLAYTIX and www.bard.org.

The process of choosing these plays is fascinating, said Metten. Over 100 scripts were submitted this year for consideration. As they were received, any information identifying the playwright was taken off the manuscripts. They were then sent to a panel of readers across the western United States who narrowed the field down to the final two.

Intended to encourage the development of new plays, the New American Playwrights Project focuses on western playwrights, giving attention to western subjects, characters, experiences and themes. New plays featuring classical themes and subjects are occasionally chosen.

The Dance tells the story of Twain, a lovely young woman with a slight physical deformity, who awaits the gallows. As she struggles to prepare for her own death, she is taunted mercilessly by the spirit of her murdered sister. As the play unfolds, we learn about the dark side of sibling rivalry and the nature of sin, punishment, and redeption.

Playwright Jim Lord is a retired naval officer, business executive, and freelance writer who served two combat tours in Vietnam. A recent graduate of Southern Utah University, his theatrical design credits include thirty-five academic and professional productions. He is a burgeoning playwright whose short play, Blur, was a regional finalist int he 2007 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival playwriting competition. Another short play, Hot Spot, was produced by the Wasatch Theatre Company at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City. Big Dance is his first long play. He is currently the managing director of the Neil Simon Festival in Cedar City.

Nell Gwyn is set in 1660s London, after England's monarchy has been restored. Charles II is firmly ensconced on the throne; and London, after years of no public theatre under the reign of Cromwell, can once again embrace live performance. Into this frenzied world is thrust Nell Gwyn, a young, illegitimate Yorkshire wash woman. Under the tutelage of Charles Hart, one of the foremost actors of the day, she enters an acting world reserved strictly for men—and captures the attention and (finally) the hearts of all of London, including the dashing king himself.

Playwright Fred. C Adams, who writes under the nom de plume of Ashley Cruikshank, has most recently written adaptations for two Utah Shakespearean Festival productions, Peter Pan and The Servant of Two Masters. Among earlier plays written by Adams are Luvattu Laksu (The Valley of Promise), written for a Helsinki youth conference, and Is Nauvoo Burning?, written for the LDS Finnish Mission. Adams is better known for his postion as founder of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, now in its forty-eighth consecutive season.

The New American Playwrights Project will soon be accepting submissions for the 2010 season. For more information visit http://bard.org/plays/napp2008.html.

The Festival’s forty eighth season runs June 29 through October 17 and features The Comedy of Errors, Henry V, As You Like It, Private Lives, The Secret Garden, Foxfire, The Woman in Black, Tuesdays with Morrie, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). Tickets are available by calling 800-PLAYTIX or by going online to www.bard.org.