A Season of Celebration at the Utah Shakespeare Festival
By Liz Armstrong, guest writer
The Festival is celebrating a momentous season, which includes a historic 65 years of the Festival, 10 years at the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts, and a tribute to 250 years of the United States of America.
The Festival welcomes friends, patrons, company, and staff to celebrate more than six decades of artistic excellence and attention to meaningful storytelling. Since its founding in 1961, the Festival has evolved from a small outdoor stage into a Tony Award-winning institution, and has endured as a cornerstone of community and cultural innovation in the American West.
“Since our inaugural year, generation after generation has come together to build, share, and experience the work at the Festival,” says Executive Managing Director Michael Bahr. “We welcome all to join the legacy!”
Generations Gather Here
Generations Gather Here is this season’s inspiration and tagline. For many, coming to the Festival includes coming with friends or family year after year, and creating time-honored traditions of seeing theatre together and then sharing it with others. It is not uncommon to see three or four generations seated together in Festival spaces; in fact, many of today’s adult patrons first discovered the magic of the Festival as children attending with their grandparents.
Founder Fred C. Adams was a master at sharing his love of Shakespeare and other storytellers, and wanted all ages to feel at ease here, to gain an appreciation for the art of theatre, and to bring loved ones to experience it too. This season, we will be sharing stories, including the impact Fred had on Festival guests and artists.
Patron Gaylene Anderson says:
“When I first came to the Utah Shakespeare Festival years ago, I wondered who the friendly white-haired man with the fancy shirts was. He would walk around all over campus talking to everyone, acting as if each person was his long time friend. It was easy to get to know him. He would walk right up to you with a smile on his face and begin a conversation in the most comfortable way. As we attended the Festival each year I found myself looking for him to continue our conversation. He was absolutely part of the Festival for me.”
10th Anniversary of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts
This year’s anniversary also marks a decade since the opening of the Beverley Taylor Sorensen Center for the Arts, a transformative facility on the campus of Southern Utah University. In 2016, it brought together the Festival with the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), which is celebrating its own 10th anniversary.
The kick off to this special season, there will be an all-day celebration on June 26th, including opening week performances in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre and Randall L. Jones Theatre, opening exhibits at SUMA, live music, a vendor street fest, and other special events to honor the ten-year anniversary of the Beverley Center.
“We are partnering with SUMA, providing items for them to create a 65th anniversary exhibit celebrating the Festival and in particular, Hamlet, which was produced in the Festival’s first season and is being produced this season as well,” Properties Director Ben Hohman says.
In 2016 when the Beverley Center was dedicated, a three day celebration took place. The lead donors, James Levoy Sorenson and Beverley Taylor Sorenson, for whom the center is named, held a deep-seated belief that the arts could “lift us, enchant us, and beautify our world.”
“I was so fortunate to be a part of the Festival at that time, and witnessed the planning, construction, and completion of this incredible Beverley Center,” Bahr says. “We are so grateful to have these facilities––the dreams of visionaries that became reality and continue to bless generations, all edified together by performing and visual arts.”
Fred C. Adams and Jimmie Jones, a visual artist whose work is housed at SUMA, were major parts of building the $39.1 million complex.
“This arts center will provide inspiration and a place to reflect and learn for hundreds of thousands of guests and artists for years to come,” Adams predicted in 2016.
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Beverley Center proves just how right Adams was with this statement.
“Lots of fun and interactive activities are planned throughout the season as we gather again this year to celebrate the power of live theater and the arts, and how they can bring us together,” Hohman says.
Celebrating America250
Celebrating 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Festival is excited to include a tribute to our country in this season’s lineup. One of the Greenshows, directed by Trey Plutnicki and written by Britannia Howe, will exhibit an “Americana” theme.
Plutnicki says that last season he realized the tunes during the Mountain Wilderness Greenshow felt so at home in that space.
“[Watching] audiences singing along to familiar music, dancing to new age folk, it was harmony. With Americana Night, I want to similarly evoke that bit of nostalgia,” Plutnicki says.
Ultimately, the Greenshow director hopes to evoke the feeling of hope and belonging––inspired, in part, by his own experiences.
“Americana Night is about celebrating that sense of community that I found in Cedar City all those years ago, and I hope audiences find it on the Greenshow lawn, too,” Plutnicki says.
Bahr noted that it will be a “landmark year to be in Southern Utah.”
“We are honored to celebrate so many thrilling anniversaries in Cedar City this year,” Bahr said. “It isn’t just a look back at all these milestones; it’s a launching pad for the next decades of humanity, community, and discovery.”
The 65th anniversary season at the Festival features an exciting lineup that balances classics with vibrant modern stories, including Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Something Rotten!, See How They Run, She Loves Me, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Book Club Play. For tickets, visit bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX.
