The Playwrights Behind the Comedy
After you have seen William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) this summer, you may find yourself asking: “Who are these guys that could take Shakespeare’s canon and turn it into such hilarity?” Well, these guys are the enigmatic Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor. You can thank them for this vaudevillian play coming to the Utah Shakespeare Festival this season. Martin, Tichenor, and the play itself are all from the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) which has left audiences in tears of laughter ever since the RSC began in 1981.
Meet Director Christopher V. Edwards
What should a playgoer expect when he or she enters a theatre to see a play with a title like Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)? Granted, the script was originally created by the world-famous Reduced Shakespeare Company, and the Festival’s production is a regional premiere. But, what is this play?
Thanks for Your Comments
Every year, the Utah Shakespeare Festival receives thousands of comments from our guests telling us about their experiences here. It is always gratifying and instructive for us to read through them. Granted, not all the comments are positive, but even those that aren’t are helpful as we look to make your experience even better. . . .
Top Ten Shakespeare-Related Books, Picked by the Festival Staff
These days the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s offices are all abuzz with the opening of the 2017 season. We all have Shakespeare on our minds as the plays become a reality and we welcome you to our theatres. But we also enjoy Shakespeare in other genres, especially in good books. In fact, we have some great recommendations to add to your summer reading.
Announcing the 2018 Season
As part of its opening week celebrations for the 2017 season, the Utah Shakespeare Festival on July 7 announced its 2018 season. The fifty-seventh season, which will run from June 28 to October 20, will include eight plays in three theatres.
Festival Founder Still Hard at Work
He’s eighty-six, no “eighty-six and one-half” years old, and has loved and lived the Utah Shakespeare Festival dream for nearly sixty years, but Founder Fred C. Adams shows few signs of slowing down.
Welcome to Shakespeare U
Would you like a little more “hands on” adventure as part of your play going this summer? Are you, your friends, or your family looking for something with a little more verve, that will connect you more closely to your theatrical experience? If so, then the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s new Shakespeare U may be just what you are looking for.
Festival Receives Two NEA Grants
The Festival recently received word that it has been awarded two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to help fund the world premiere of Neil LaBute’s How to Fight Loneliness and the Festival’s Shakespeare-in-the-Schools 2018 touring production of The Tempest.
Meet the Festival's New Leadership
After two major announcements and leadership changes in the past few weeks, the Festival now has the right leaders to steer it into the future. To help you get to know Executive Producer Frank Mack and Artistic Director Brian Vaughn better, we recently asked a series of questions about the Festival and its future. We think you will enjoy their answers.
Festival Announces New Executive Producer
The Utah Shakespeare Festival announced today the hiring of Frank Mack, a veteran of theatre companies across the United States, as its new executive producer, replacing the recently retired R. Scott Phillips. Mack will join the Utah Shakespeare Festival on September 1.
A Season of Adventure
From swashbuckling pirates to feuding fairy royalty, from young lovers and warring families to singing and dancing gamblers, from a mysterious vagabond in a tavern in the middle of the Utah desert to magical forests—the 2017 season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival promises a season of adventure for all.
Change in Shakespeare's Forests
Forests are often just a rustic setting, but in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It, forests are more than just a place. They are an adventure and an escape. In both plays, characters go to the woods and begin to change in ways they never would have predicted.
To Imagine or Not to Imagine: Treasure Island
Treasure Island is a classic story with a cast of characters we’ve been familiar with since childhood. There have been over fifty adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island, and most still keep the original characters. The Utah Shakespeare Festival is following this tried-and-true principle this year, by bringing and exciting and adventurous adaptation by Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation to the stage—complete with a full cast of swashbuckling pirates.
Final 2017 Casting Is In!
The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced the last of its casting for the 2017 season, including the three actors who will perform in How to Fight Loneliness: Brian Vaughn, Corey Jones, and Tessa Auberjonois. In addition, Festival Founder Fred C. Adams will play Adam in Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Artistic Director Headed to Arizona Theatre Company
David Ivers, Festival artistic director since 2011, announced today that he will be leaving the Festival later this month to accept the role of artistic director at the Arizona Theatre Company, based in Tucson and Phoenix
The Controversy of Shakespeare and Marlowe
Speculation continually follows William Shakespeare, especially since we know so little about him. Only a few certain facts are known, and even fewer documents survive. But Shakespeare isn’t the only playwright during his time period to be surrounded by speculation. His contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, is also a victim. Rumors about Marlowe range from espionage to collaboration. . . .
Casting for Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare in Love
The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced many of the actors playing roles in Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare in Love this summer. The two plays are complementary to each other (Shakespeare in Love imagines how the Bard may have written Romeo and Juliet), and many of the actors will play the same or similar roles in the two plays.
Shakespeare Cinema Celebration Scheduled
The Utah Shakespeare Festival Education Department and Southern Utah University’s Center for Shakespeare Studies are sponsoring the second annual Shakespeare Cinema Celebration on April 22 in the Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre.
Shakespeare: The Man and the Myth
William Shakespeare is a name that conjures up a lot of thoughts. From Iago to Katherine, his plays have inspired us for hundreds of years. However, this influential artist is difficult to pinpoint historically.
Ten Shakespeare Plays You Didn't Know You Knew
Whenever we gather in a theatre for a Shakespeare play and settle into our seats, we’re excited to get started and watch the show. But if you haven’t seen the play before, you may flip open the program and read the synopsis to get familiar with the story. The likelihood, though, is that you’ve already seen parts of these Shakespeare plays.