Festival Feature: Meet Festival Charge Artist Shiloah Frederick

The success of the 2023 season at the Utah Shakespeare Festival has been a team effort. It’s the result of the ultimate collaboration between many departments and staff––from props, sound, set, costumes, marketing, company management, guest services, acting, administration, and much more. 

Shiloah Frederick was a huge part of the creation of the plays this season. As Festival Charge, Frederick oversaw painting teams as they prepared the sets for the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre and Randall L. Jones Theatre. 

A charge artist is responsible for the painting and service treatment of the scenic elements for a production. But for Frederick, her title encapsulated much more than that. Along with creating high quality sets for the plays, cultivating a team that created a positive atmosphere and worked well together was a priority for the artist. 

Frederick received the Festival’s Gene Chesley Memorial Design Award for the 2023 Season. The honor is awarded to a young Festival designer in recognition of outstanding talent and dedication. 

“Shiloah has been selected because of her outstanding talent in transforming surfaces into theatrical works of art that help tell stories to Utah Shakespeare Festival’s audiences,” Interim Artistic Director Derek Charles Livingston said, “And for her leadership with her colleagues and among the artists as the Festival Charge.” 

Frederick adamantly noted that she wouldn’t have received the award without her team. 

“Everything we do is such a team aspect, I wanted to give [the award] to the whole painting department,” Frederick said. “But my leadership is something I’m proud of, because I put a lot of intention into creating a vision for the summer.” 

Frederick’s Journey from Painting to Theatre

Originally from a town outside of Chicago, Frederick attended the University of Illinois to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting. 

During her education at the university, Frederick took a one hour practicum class in the theatre department to decompress from the stress of Fine Arts. 

“I started working in scenic design and I loved it,” Frederick said. “It took everything I liked in Fine Art and put it into something that had a career possibility.”

After completing a two-year training program at Cobalt Studios in the Scenic Artist Training Program in White Lake, NY, Frederick took a position as a charge artist at a theatre in Logan, Utah, where she worked for Lyric Repertory Company.

As for coming to Cedar City, one of Frederick’s classmates from Cobalt previously had the Festival Charge position, but after taking a full time job elsewhere, asked Frederick if she would be interested. 

Frederick was extremely interested, and fell in love with the job, returning for her second season in 2023. For the artist, being Festival Charge is the perfect intersection between art, leadership, and theatre. 

Her Work at the Festival 

This season, Frederick worked most closely on the plays in the Randall L. Jones Theatre––A Raisin in the Sun, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, and The Play That Goes Wrong––although she also oversaw and assisted the painting team that worked on the Engelstad shows. 

“I feel most proud of the Emma floor with the deep blue/green and gold inlay,” Frederick said. “We do a lot of brick, wood, and stone [flooring], and so to do something that was so lovely was [fun].” 

The Play That Goes Wrong was Frederick’s favorite show she worked on at the Festival. 

“We did all the stenciled wallpaper, which was a long and tedious process,” Frederick said. 

But the hard work was worth it, as now audience members get to admire the art as they watch the production onstage.

In addition to painting the sets, a large part of Frederick’s work at the Festival is cultivating relationships with her team. 

“Once a week, we got the team together to talk about communication and processing emotions,” Frederick said. 

As Festival Charge, Frederick also does the hiring for the painting team, oversees the budget, decides the schedule, and creates a team culture that she and her team want to keep coming back to. 

“One of the huge benefits of being at the Festival is the dedication other people have for making other people’s lives easier,” Frederick said. 

To see Frederick’s hard work, purchase tickets to the 2023 season by calling 800-PLAYTIX or by visiting bard.org.

Festival Employees Share Personal Experiences Regarding Believe Campaign

Believe (verb): To embrace a conviction with the heart and mind, drawing certainty from personal experience or intuition

To inspire connectivity this 2023 season and beyond, the Utah Shakespeare Festival excitedly launched the Believe Campaign. With this campaign, the Festival is asking beloved patrons to believe in the organization and the transformative power of live theatre. 

However, the campaign doesn’t just appeal to patrons, but to Festival employees as well. Directors Jessica Kubzansky and Valerie Rachelle share their experiences with the power of theatre, and Scenic Designer Jason Lajka describes his experience designing the set for Jane Austen’s Emma the Musical.

Director Valerie Rachelle on Believing in the Power of Theatre 

Director Valerie Rachelle’s experience with the power of theatre began at a young age. 

“I have believed in theatre and performing arts since I was a child,” Rachelle said. “My parents were professional magicians, so I grew up seeing how performing could not just entertain, but lift the hearts of an audience.”

In 2011, Rachelle had an incredible experience that further cemented her love for theatre. 

“I was in a production of Chicago in Los Angeles, and the woman playing Velma had just returned to performing after seven years,” Rachelle said. “We were backstage talking, and she was expressing how thankful she was to get back onstage.”

“It was a production she saw in Solvang of Les Miserables that gave her the courage to try again. She said the woman who played Fantine made her cry and inspired her to perform again,” Rachelle said. “I looked at her in disbelief, because I was that performer who played Fantine in Solvang.”

It is that same transformative experience that Rachelle had that she hopes audience members experience from the show she directed this season, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical.

In an early interview, Rachelle explained that she hoped by the end of the show, the audience members would be uplifted, hug their spouse, hold hands with a loved one, or say “I love you” to someone they care about. 

“After our first preview had ended for Emma, there was a couple sitting in front of me. The wife looked at her husband and asked, ‘Are you crying?’” Rachelle said. “The man didn’t say anything, he just hugged her. And that was my goal for Emma––that the power of theatre would inspire the audience to spread pure joy and love to others.” 

Egeus’ Transformation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Director Jessica Kubzansky 

In an exclusive 2023 season interview, Director Jessica Kubzansky encouraged patrons to look for Egeus’s transformation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Through the power of theatre, Egeus realizes the error of his ways and comes to a startling realization regarding his daughter.

Kubzansky explains the transformation below:

“Nathan Hosner, playing Egeus, made a gorgeous discovery for the character and the story. Egeus is the one person that doesn’t go through the woods at night, and he’s insisting his daughter marry someone she doesn’t want to. He shows up the next day [but the Duke] overrrules him.

“When he ends up at the celebration of the nuptials of the couples, the mechanicals’ perform the play Pyramus and Thisbe, a star-crossed lover’s story very much like Romeo and Juliet, which is particularly fitting, given the Festival’s current season. 

“Egeus watches that play and suddenly realizes that what happened to Thisbe could have been what happened to his daughter, if the Duke hadn’t overruled him. He discovers the power of theatre. . .and perhaps now he’s going to have a happier and more fulfilled life.”

Jason Lajka on the Set Design Process of Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical 

Much of Lajka’s job as a set designer is believing that the choices he makes will connect with an audience, months before the audience is even in the theatre. 

The process of designing Emma started last August with initial design meetings––ten months before the show opened. 

Some of the questions during these brainstorming sessions included: What story are we trying to tell? What emotions are we trying to evoke? Would the story be best told on a square/angular set, or a circular/organic set? How much story does the scenery need to tell in relation to time and location? 

From there, Lajka makes “a bit of a leap of faith.” 

“I then design the set. I put down on paper what I think is going to fulfill the discussed needs,” Lajka said. 

From there, Lajka met with directors, designers, and production staff often, pushing and pulling the design to align with their intentions. 

Then, the audience arrives. 

“We’ve been working in a bubble for so long up until this moment––now it’s opening night, and we’re sitting in the audience not only as creators of the immersive experience, but now as members of a connected group.” 

Sitting in that audience, Lajka and other Festival staff members ask themselves: “Will what we decided to do in the design process resonate? Will the audience believe?” 

It is at this moment that the designers’ hope in their own work is handed over to audience members, giving patrons the ultimate control to believe in the power of theatre for themselves. 

For more information or to purchase tickets for the 2023 season, visit bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX.

The Greenshow: Q&A with Director Britannia Howe

Director Britannia Howe has been an integral part in the production of The Greenshow at the Festival for years, including the four seasons she wrote and directed The Greenshow. She made her main stage debut at the Festival in 2021, directing Cymbeline. Howe has also directed at Cabaret Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Women of Will, and Innovative View Theatre Company.

This season, Howe has written and directed two Greenshow performances—The Hills of Appalachia and English Regency Garden, inspired by our 2023 productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, respectively. The Festival was able to catch up with Howe and visit with her about her process as a director and theatre practitioner.

The Festival: Why were you excited to direct The Greenshow again this season?

Howe: I love The Greenshow. Being overwhelmed with the task my very first year, I remember walking into Special Collections at the Southern Utah University library and asking for the scripts of the past Greenshows. They handed me a big cardboard box and in it I found sheet music, scripts, and even Barbara Adams’s (late Founder Fred C. Adams’ wife) handwritten notes of “Greenshow Goals.” What a legacy! That was where I started, with Barbara’s handwriting.

The Festival: As audience members, what should we watch for in these performances that would help us enjoy them even more? Are there any special “Easter eggs” you have implemented as a director?

Howe: The Hills of Appalachia was inspired by the fairy magic in Midsummer. When I write Greenshows, I like to create a setting first. This gives me a box I can work inside of or a canvas I can start painting. I knew I wanted to make a night with Pixie Magic, but we have already seen English and Irish fairies on our stages. I started researching about Appalachia and I found it carries pixie folklore.

Regency Night has Jane Austen “Easter eggs” and most of the jokes I wrote are celebrating or poking fun at the relationships or story structure of her writing.

The Festival: What do you hope audience members take away from seeing The Greenshow?

Howe: I hope audience members feel like they are watching a new Greenshow but also feel nostalgia hearing the folk songs and stories of the past.

The Festival: Why should people come see The Greenshow?

Howe: The Greenshow is a community celebration. We offer three differently themed Greenshows, including the two I wrote plus Paiute Heritage and Celebration created by the local tribe. There’s something for everyone––humor, dance, music, and narrative.

In addition to the free daily Greenshows, the 2023 lineup of production include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, A Raisin in the Sun, The Play That Goes Wrong, Timon of Athens, and Coriolanus. Tickets and information are available by calling 800-PLAYTIX or visiting bard.org.

The Charismatic Character of Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By Liz Armstrong

This is the eleventh time that the Utah Shakespeare Festival has produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream––Shakespeare’s magical tale of fairies, lovers, mischief, and moonlight.

Perhaps the most humorous character in the production is Nick Bottom. Overly confident, dramatic, and self-assertive, Bottom believes himself to be the very best of the actors in the troup of mechanicals presenting a play-within-a-play. A fun and vibrant character, let’s take a look at who has taken on this iconic role throughout the years, as well as dive into what it’s like to play Bottom with current season’s actor Topher Embrey.

1964 - Paul Vorkink

1969 - Norman Langill

1973 - Derek Weeks

1978 - Gregory Leach

1986 - Irwin Appel

1993 - George Judy

1999 - Jay Russell

2005 - John Tillotson

2011 - Max Robinson

2017 - James Newcomb

Topher Embrey on Playing Nick Bottom

This season, Bottom is played by actor Topher Embrey. He started acting in middle school, and his love for the 1982 film of Annie with Carol Burnett and Tim Curry inspired him to be an actor.

This is Embrey’s fifth production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and his second time playing Bottom. Embrey played the charismatic character on a 2019-2020 tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the American Shakespeare Festival.

“The first character I played was Francis Flute/Thisbe, in high school, and I fell in love with the play,” Embrey said. “It was one of the plays that we had to read in high school, and it was interesting because there were fairies…Bottom’s head gets turned into a donkey…there are the lovers that quarrel!”

Embrey gets along well with Bottom’s character, as he finds similarities between the character and himself.

“My interpretation of Bottom is that he is very lovable and, like me, loves the attention,” Embrey laughed. “He wants to do it all, because he thinks he can do it all.”

Embrey finds Bottom especially comedic because he is overly confident, but likable because he still loves his friends. For Embrey and Director Jessica Kubzansky, the challenge with Bottom’s character was trying to find a happy medium in his presentation to the audience.

“The challenge was not making him the type of diva that people don’t love or root for,” Embrey said. “It’s important to make sure that Bottom is not the villain of the mechanicals. He’s a team player, just passionately so.”

Embrey wanted to find a middle ground of not overdoing Bottom’s character, but not underselling it either. For this actor, nothing is better than making people laugh.

“I know a lot of people are seeing The Play That Goes Wrong, but if you want to see the original play that goes wrong, you can see the play-within-a-play in Midsummer,” Embrey joked.

Embrey has been auditioning for the Festival since 2016, and is thrilled to be cast in the 2023 season.

“I’m so grateful to be here––I got to revisit one of my favorite characters in Shakespeare,” Embrey said. “And I got to work at one of the most prestigious regional theatres in the country.”

To see Embrey onstage playing Nick Bottom, visit bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX to purchase tickets. In addition to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the 2023 lineup of productions include Romeo and Juliet, The Play That Goes Wrong, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, A Raisin in the Sun, Timon of Athens, and Coriolanus.

Q&A with Director Jessica Kubzansky on A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Jessica Kubzansky directed this season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s story of fairies, mischief, and finding love. Kubzansky is the Artistic Director of Boston Court Pasadena, where she developed and directed world premieres of Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies, Sarah B Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened, Luis Alfaro’s Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and more. She has also directed The Father at The Pasadena Playhouse, Othello at A Noise Within, and Hold These Truths at Arena Stage DC, among others. Awards include Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre. 

Kubzansky teaches graduate playwrights and directors at University of California, Los Angeles. She received a Master of Fine Arts in direction from the California Institute of the Arts after obtaining an undergraduate degree in creative writing from John Hopkins and Harvard University.

The Festival had the chance to visit with Kubzansky about her experience and process of directing this wonderful show.

The Festival: This play is such an audience favorite. As playgoers, what should we watch for that would help us enjoy it even more? 

Kubzansky: I hope the journey the characters go on is that they move from a terribly rigid, rule-bound world in Athens where love is thwarted, to this magical adventure in the forest where strange and wondrous things happen. They discover freedom and true love in the course of their sojourn in the wood and come back to Athens enchanted and renewed, to a better sense of who they want to be, and what rules they no longer need for the kinder, better world they want to inhabit.

People should look for the fact that everyone is walking in straight lines and sharp corners in Athens, but when they come back, no one is walking that way anymore. 

The Festival: What realization do you hope audience members leave with after seeing the play?

Kubzansky: I hope they’re walking away with a sense of joy and fulfillment, and see that true love– romantic, parental, friendship, and theatrical fulfillment–  is spreading warmth and joy amongst everyone.

The Festival: Why should our patrons see this play? 

Kubzansky: I had such an amazing cohort of artists who brought this production to life. The actors are splendid, the costumes are ridiculously gorgeous, the set is beautiful and inventive, the music and dance is rich, and the use of magic is delicious. Every element of the production is amazing. 

The actors manage to capture both the high stakes of what’s happening and the brilliant comedy in [Shakespeare’s play] that comes from the difficulty of their given certain circumstances. 

The Festival: What was your favorite part of directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream? 

Kubzansky: I loved discovering the magic of this story for the first time. Much of my team had done Midsummer before, but I treated it like a new play because I hadn’t encountered it in a directorial way. 

The Festival: What was your journey into theater?

Kubzansky: It started with creative writing. I would write and direct my own plays, and then I started directing other people’s plays. I found that directing was more immediately gratifying because it’s collaborative. 

The Festival: Why do you enjoy directing? 

Kubzansky: It’s my happy place. I love the intellectual challenge of solving a play like a puzzle and the emotional challenge of finding the heart of a play. I also love the opportunity to build in collaboration with so many great minds and hearts. 

For more information on Kubzansky, visit her Performing Arts Center website bostoncourtpasadena.org.

To see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, go to bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX. Don’t wait to purchase tickets, as it closes on September 9.

Festival Feature: Meet Costume Draper Steven Schmid

By Liz Armstrong

Steven Schmid has a long and extensive history in theatre production, from working in construction to costuming to teaching. This season, he took on the role as a draper in the Festival’s Costume Shop for the production of Timon of Athens.

Schmid’s Work in Timon of Athens 

As the draper, Schmid worked with Costume Designer An-Lin Dauber, interpreting her drawings and developing the patterns to fit the actors. He also supervised fittings, the cutting and construction of new items, and the alterations and re-engineering of the pieces pulled from previous productions. 

“The costumes are integral to the story in Timon of Athens,” Schmid said. “They’re not just ornamentation, but they [need to represent] a society full of the trimmings and trappings that can blind the true nature of people.”

For Schmid, the costumes represent the responsibility to live authentically and be genuine in our communications and our daily interactions in life. 

“Timon is a great showpiece of what we can do at the Festival—with the text, the technical support, and the costumes,” Schmid said. “And the actors are phenomenal.”

The first and only other time the Festival has produced Timon of Athens was in 1993, which was Schmid’s first season working here. Thirty years later, Schmid returned for the second production of this rarely-performed Shakespeare play.

His Journey in Theatre 

“I started doing theatre in my mid-teens,” Schmid said. “I found I not only liked being onstage, but I liked being backstage in technical work.” 

Schmid is a Southern Utah University graduate, and while attending school, met his wife, who was in the opening season of the Randall L. Jones Theatre in 1989. 

“We were both working in the costume shop,” Schmid said. “She started as a performer, and then a milliner at the Festival, and I was a stitcher.” 

Schmid held various positions at the Festival, and even designed the costumes for the Educational Tour for a few seasons.

“That’s a different, quicker process, but as an educator, I love the thought of taking the show out to people, primarily young audiences who might not yet have had exposure to [Shakespeare].”

Schmid received a degree in teaching and taught high school for fifteen years. When his wife got a job with Brigham Young University-Idaho as a full-time professor, Schmid became an adjunct professor. He teaches directing, voice and dialect, script analysis, dramaturgy, and more. In addition to teaching, Schmid freelances.

“I’ve worked with Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, Hale Center Theatre, and Utah Opera,” Schmid said. 

This season was a full circle moment for Schmid, as being back at the Festival means he is back in the career that once put him and his wife through college. 

“It’s been really fun to work over the years with drapers and designers,” Schmid said. “The Festival is a great place to work, as very few places take the time and care to produce shows at this level.”

Schmid believes that’s why so many people in the Costume Shop return each season. 

“The people [Costume Director] Jeff Lieder hires are a blast to work with,” Schmid said. “It’s a tricky blend, as you want to have new life and new blood each season, but also keep that legacy of those that have been here for so long. It’s keeping what the Festival has been—and shaping what it gets to be.” 

To see Schmid’s costuming work in Timon of Athens, purchase tickets at bard.org or call 800-PLAYTIX.

In addition to Timon of Athens, the 2023 lineup of productions include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, A Raisin in the Sun, The Play That Goes Wrong, and Coriolanus.

In Addition to Theatre, Enjoy Art!

Supplement your visit to the Festival this season with a variety of art exhibits, in addition to the Catherine and Robert Pedersen Shakespeare Character Garden and Stillman Sculpture Court both onsite at the Beverley Center for the Arts.

On Display at the Southern Utah Museum of Art: 

This summer, SUMA, just north of the Festival’s Randall L. Jones Theatre, will feature three exhibits through September 23. Of special note is “A Dream Deferred: New Perspectives on Black Experience.” Artists Aïsha Lehmann and Vitus Shell have contributed works to reflect the themes of the Festival’s 2023 production of A Raisin in the Sun.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play centers on defining the American dream while battling racial discrimination and disappointment. In response to the play, Lehmann has created a new body of work that uses printed maps to illustrate how “White power structures impact Black experience on a societal level.” Shell’s paintings, on the other hand, present an “every Black man” who is living these experiences. For details and hours of operation, visit www.suu.edu/suma.

On Display in the Randall L. Jones Theatre: 

As part of the Cedar City Railroad Centennial celebration, the Utah Shakespeare Festival will proudly be displaying the “All Abboooard! Historic Union Pacific’’ exhibition in the Randall. L. Jones Theatre lobby through September 2 from 1-7pm. 

The exhibit will feature 70 historic photos that chronicle the Union Pacific Railroad in Cedar City and Utah’s National Parks. Many of the photos were taken by Cedar City Native Homer Jones, the son of Randall L. and Lovina S. Jones after whom the theatre was named.

The Centennial celebration, was a week-long celebration to commemorate the 100-year anniversary, was held earlier this summer. For more information on the events and where the display will move to next, visit cedarcity.org

This is an important exhibition, as rail service for the first half of the twentieth century helped shape Cedar City’s future. The railroad significantly impacted Iron County tourism, commerce, and agriculture industries.

On Display in the Eileen and Allen Anes Theatre: 

Steve and Diana Yates from Artisans Art Gallery in Cedar City, Utah, have curated an art display featuring local artists. Featured in the Eileen and Allen Anes Theatre lobby, the exhibit will run through October 7. Each piece will be available for purchase, one of which is an original of Festival Founder Fred C. Adams in stage costume. 

The 2023 season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival runs through October 7 and includes Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Austen’s Emma The Musical, A Raisin in the Sun, The Play That Goes Wrong, Timon of Athens, and Coriolanus, as well as all the experiences surrounding the plays, such as three The Greenshows, seminars, orientations, and backstage tours. Tickets and information are available by calling 800-PLAYTIX or visiting bard.org.

Q&A with Director Betsy Mugavero on Romeo and Juliet

By Liz Armstrong

Mugavero is a familiar face at the Festival, having been in 21 productions since 2008 including, Romeo and Juliet (2017), Peter and the Starcatcher (2013), and Shakespeare in Love (2017). She has also performed at the Folger Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Great Lakes Theater, to name a few. She was also Producing Artistic Director at the Southwest Shakespeare Company from 2018 to 2020. She received the Broadway Cleveland Award of Best Actress for her role in As You Like It.

The director received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine after earning a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University. She has taught various master classes at several universities.

The Festival was able to take some time to visit with Mugavero about her process and experience as the director of this season’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

The Festival: Romeo and Juliet is an extremely popular play. What should we watch for in this play that would help us enjoy/understand it even more?

Mugavero: I would like people to be open minded, as if they’re seeing the play for the first time. It’s a story we’re all very familiar with, but because we have different actors and made different artistic choices, it’s fresh. It’s exciting and alive, and I want people to see it through a new lens. I want them to care deeply for the characters, and see if they relate to them. Would they have made the same choice if they were in the shoes of the Friar or the Nurse?

The Festival: Because so many people have seen this show before, as playgoers, why should they come see this play?

Mugavero: I want Romeo and Juliet to be something that resonates with audiences through a community perspective. I want them to walk away seeing the people who are left, and how they’re going to pick up the pieces. I want them to feel like they have power within their own community to create a more peaceful environment for everyone.

The Festival: Are there any special “Easter eggs” you have implemented into the play as a director?

Mugavero: Shakespeare wrote a song in the play, and I’ve never seen it implemented in any show I’ve been in or seen. The song is after Paris comes to pick Juliet up, and they all discover her dead. He’s supposed to be coming with a couple of musicians, but I knew Alex Keiper, who plays the Nurse, is a great vocalist, so we chose to leave her onstage with Juliet for her to have this very private moment of mourning. It’s become one of the most powerful moments of the play.

The Festival: What statement/realization/feeling do you hope audience members leave with after seeing the play?

Mugavero: I hope they feel differently than when they walked in––that they feel compassion for the people involved in the tragedy, and that they recognize that they could have easily made the same errors in judgment. But I also want them to have experienced something they enjoyed and hope they went on a journey throughout the play, whether it was cathartic or if they [found humor] in something unexpected.

The Festival: What challenges came with directing this play?

Mugavero: Everyone thinks they know the play and have an opinion on Romeo and Juliet. It was a challenge to not let that bog me down and say, “No, this is a great play. The reason everyone knows it is because it’s a great play.”

The Festival: Why were you excited to direct this play?

Mugavero: It’s my favorite play. I love the journey that Juliet takes in the story, and getting to see Naiya McCalla carry that is so thrilling to watch. Watching Ty [Fanning] as Romeo and Naiya take two iconic characters and put themselves in them and fill it with their whole heart was exciting.

To purchase tickets to Romeo and Juliet this season, visit bard.org or the Ticket Office onsite, or call 800-PLAYTIX.

Betsy Mugavero on Playing Juliet to Directing Romeo and Juliet

By Liz Armstrong

Betsy Mugavero directed Romeo and Juliet this 2023 season at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, but her journey with the Bard’s most popular play began long before. 

A long time Festival actor, Mugavero has been in over 20 Festival productions since 2008. The last time Romeo and Juliet was produced here, in fact, was when Mugavero played Juliet in 2017. 

The director has been in four productions of Romeo and Juliet, playing Juliet in three of them. Her first time acting as Juliet was at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Mugavero was also in a production at Great Lakes Theatre in Cleveland, which was a co-production with Idaho Shakespeare Festival. She also played Paris’s Page in a college production at Temple University. 

“I was excited to tweak things in the way that I wanted [after having been Juliet] and seeing the play so many times. I was able to solve some problems I thought were in the play,” Mugavero said. 

It’s her favorite play, having acted in, watched, and now directed this popular Shakespeare play.

Acting versus Directing 

But this experience as a director at the Festival was an entirely different experience than when Mugavero played Juliet six years ago. 

First off, directing meant that for Mugavero, the production was her responsibility on a much larger scale. 

“As an actor, you [can collaborate], but you’re still only allowed to say the lines you have,” Mugavero said. “As a director, I’m able to share my love and nurturing of all of these other characters and encourage these other talented people to live in this story the way that I want them to.” 

The responsibility and challenge of directing wasn’t the only thing that was different for Mugavero. After becoming a mother to two children, she approached the play through an entirely different lens.

“When I played Juliet in 2017, my son was five months old and it was a crazy time in my life,” Mugavero. “This time, directing it at the Festival, I’m now a mom of two. I’m older, and I saw the story differently––from the perspective of the parents of Romeo and Juliet.”

In Mugavero’s Q&A interview with the Festival, the director expressed her hope that audience members would experience the play with a sense of compassion and understanding . . . and Mugavero did the same as a director. She found compassion especially with Juliet’s father.

“With the father having this outburst of rage, in past productions he just seems like an abusive person,” Mugavero said. “But in our production I wanted to portray him as someone who was just having a bad moment.” 

Mugavero stressed that these characters are not bad people—they are just acting out in ways that are completely and typically human. 

“I was lucky with the actors I had, as they are such open-hearted people that they couldn’t seem like bad guys,” Mugavero said. “The ‘bad guy’ is the lack of understanding.” 

Mugavero’s Start in Theatre 

“I got into acting in high school, where I did community theater. I loved the way I felt when I was performing, because I felt more myself,” Mugavero said. “As an actor, it’s like you’re putting on a mask, and because you’re hiding you get to be more of who you are . . . because it’s safe.”

After that, Mugavero went to school for acting, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine. 

Mugavero loves acting because of the symbiotic relationship between actors and audience members. 

“I get to talk with them and be with them and breathe with them and our hearts beat together . . . and tell this story with them,” Mugavero said. “When else do we get to do that? It’s a beautiful experience. We get to laugh and have fun and fall in love, and [theatre represents] so many of the best and worst experiences of life.”

Her Journey Into Directing

After directing such a compelling and beautiful production of Romeo and Juliet, it’s surprising to know that Mugavero was once very afraid of directing, having no ambition to shift from acting to directing. 

“But out of the opportunities I’ve had to direct . . . I enjoy it so much,” Mugavero said. “Not because of the power, as my experiences have been so collaborative, but because it’s fun to see what other people want to do and encourage them to go for it.”

This year, Mugavero is directing more than acting, and she is eager to direct again at the scale she did in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre this season at the Festival. 

“The Engelstad is perfect for Shakespeare, because Shakespeare is big and bold and requires space,” Mugavero said. “But every story is worth telling if it has integrity and a place for us all to grow, meaning audience members and performers alike.”

Mugavero approaches directing with this statement in mind: 

“We should go into every project considering it a chance to learn and grow and become better at being a person.”

To experience Mugavero’s work, purchase tickets to Romeo and Juliet at bard.org, call 800-PLAYTIX, or visit the Ticket Office onsite. With just four weeks left of the production––it closes September 8––now is the time to see the Bard’s timeless tale of tragedy and love.

Words Cubed to Present Staged Readings of The Value and Horse Thief

Starting August 11 and ending August 26, patrons have the opportunity to attend Words Cubed, the Festival’s new play development program. Plays are submitted through an open process, and the experience provides professional actors, directors, and stage management the chance to work with the playwright in a week-long workshop process.

During this time, playwrights, with the input of their actors and directors, revise their plays daily in preparation for the audience members who attend staged readings at the end of the week. 

The submission process allows playwrights of varying experience from across the country to submit plays on any subject. The writers submit a synopsis of the play, 15-20 contiguous pages of their choosing, and a character description. Interim Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development Derek Charles Livingston and a team of ten others with theatre backgrounds read and consider the submissions, searching for the two perfect fits for the season. 

“Is the play different from what we’ve done before? Does it balance with the plays on our main stages this season? Are the two plays different enough? Can the play have a reasonable development in the time allotted?” Livingston and his team asked questions like these while vetting the 534 submissions received this season. 

After much deliberation, Livingston decided on two new plays with complementary themes: The Value by Nicholas Dunn and Horse Thief by Christine Whitley. 

The Value follows a trio of petty thieves who have just stolen a painting. The plot reveals complicated pasts, wavering loyalty, and the ultimate question––what is the painting worth? Ultimately, the painting seems to reflect their own sense of intrinsic value in a society driven by money and power. For the full synopsis, click here. 

Nicholas Dunn is an award-winning writer, actor, filmmaker, and teacher based in Salt Lake City. He has had original plays debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and at Wasatch Theatre Company’s Page-to-Stage Festival. His plays have also been presented at Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, Riot Act Inc, Pittsburgh Playhouse, and the Canadian Play Thing. He has also written and directed several short films and commercials, is a script coordinator for films including HBO’s Mosaic directed by Steven Soderbergh, currently teaches in the University of Utah’s Theatre Department, and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Elijah Alexander, who is currently playing Timon in Timon of Athens and Tullus Aufidius in Coriolanus at the Festival, directs this reading. The cast includes Dylan J. Fleming, Tim Fullerton, Alex Keiper, James Ryen, and Marco Antonio Vega, who have also all been cast in the 2023 Festival season. The Value will be presented on August 11, 12, 23, and 25 in the Anes Studtio Theatre at 9:30 a.m.

Horse Thief is a modern Western that tells the story of treachery, penitence, and hope. It follows the horse thief Dutch, after robbing Mary’s stable. He shows up looking to make things right. But Mary holds Dutch at gunpoint, determined to discover who was actually behind the robbery. For the full synopsis, click here. 

Christine Whitley is also an award-winning writer and member of the Dramatists Guild. Horse Thief was the winner of the 2017 Playwrights First Competition and finalist for the Jerome Fellowship for Emerging American Playwrights. Another of her works, The Goatwoman of Corvis County, had a world premiere at Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts. Her play Miles Away was a semifinalist at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and won the Bloomington Playwrights Project Woodward/Newman Drama Award. 

Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Southern Utah University Lisa Quoresimo directs this reading. The cast includes Jasmine Bracey, Nathan Hosner, and Marissa Swanner, actors from the 2023 season. Horse Thief will be presented on August 18, 19, 24, and 26 in the Anes Studtio Theatre at 9:30 a.m.

“I’m very excited about this year’s plays,” Livingston says. “On the surface, they seem very thematically related in that they are both about thievery on some level, but the execution is so different.” 

He explains: “The Value examines three people who steal a painting without knowing its monetary worth and their interaction with a man whose connection to the previously stolen art is priceless. The way tension constantly mounts and the power dynamics shifts among the characters is a revelation on the value placed on inanimate objects and the value these characters place on themselves.” 

Livingston continues: “In Horse Thief, a seemingly repentant horse thief returns, wounded, to make amends to a victim of his ‘profession.’ He’s not expecting to face the gun she holds on him, and she’s not expecting the power he still holds over her. It’s kind of a western-revenge-mystery-love story. Both plays keep you riveted and wondering what will happen next. I can’t wait to have our audiences hear and contribute to these plays.”

Words Cubed tickets are $10 and can be purchased by visiting bard.org or the ticket office onsite, or by calling 800-PLAYTIX.