The Marx Brothers in the Modern World

By Brooke Vlasich

If you ask someone what they know about the Marx Brothers, they will most likely look at you with uncertainty and confusion.  In today’s world, the comedians we most recognize are late night talk show hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert and purveyors of over-the-top comics such as Sacha Baron Cohen. Our comedy very likely comes from Saturday Night Live and South Park.

It seems the comedy of the Marx Brothers is all but lost in the modern world of outlandish humor, but we couldn’t be more wrong in that assumption. If we look closer at the Marx Brothers, we will see how this comedic family continues to influence our entertainment, nearly 100 years after they heyday of the famous brothers.

One aspect of the Marx Brothers’ comedy that makes them still relevant today is their choice of controversial topics that reflect current situations. While it may not seem like Marx Brothers’ movies and plays have a significant plot line, their stories satirize concepts like imperialism, politics and art elitism. Horse Feathers (1932) pokes fun at higher education and prohibition, while Duck Soup (1933) satirizes dictators and authoritarian governments. Even The Cocoanuts revolved around the 1920s land bust in Florida that contributed to the Great Depression, a circumstance not far off from the economic recession after the housing crisis in the early 2000s.

In addition to choosing controversial plot lines, the Marx Brothers’ comedic influence can be seen in just about everything. Perhaps what makes modern audiences overlook them is that their brand of comedy cannot be clearly defined since it contains elements of multiple comedic styles including vaudeville, spontaneous gags, slapstick and musical numbers. Every subject is fair game in the Marx Brothers’ comedy, which is what makes it incredibly brilliant and memorable.  Once modern audiences experience a Marx Brothers’ show, it’s hard to forget Groucho’s iconic moustache, eyebrows and cigar; Harpo’s trench coat filled with gags and his honking horn; Chico’s Tyrolean cap and curly hair; and Zeppo’s cheerful, romantic lead. With their wildly hilarious routines and tricks, it’s easy to see how their comedic styles are alive and well in modern humor.

If modern audiences are tired of the same jokes and forced attempts to be humorous, the best cure for them might be seeing a Marx Brothers show. With plot lines that contain situations relevant to today, quick lines and gags and unforgettable characters, a Marx Brothers show will be the best bet to hit the refresh button on comedy. 

The festival’s production of The Cocoanuts runs from July 1 to October 15. Other shows in the season are Much Ado about Nothing, Henry V, The Three Musketeers, Mary Poppins, Julius Caesar, Murder for Two, and The Odd Couple. For more information visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.

The Three Musketeers: Superheroes on Stage

Tasso Feldman (left) as Aramis, J. Todd Adams as Athos, and Todd Denning as Porthos.

By Ryan D. Paul

I remember my first literary encounter with The Three Musketeers. I was sitting in the waiting room of a Midas Muffler in Layton, Utah, while my 1969 Pontiac Tempest was undergoing repairs. As I settled in for the long wait and cracked the cover of my Bantam paperback, I was swept away into the world of the Musketeers. Since that time, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and the young d’Artagnan have become my good friends and accompanied me on many adventures. Now, once again, I get to travel with them through the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 production.

Ken Ludwig, who wrote the adaptation of The Three Musketeers, says in the Introduction to his play, “Reading The Three Musketeers . . . is like reading the best and longest comic book in the world.” The comic book essence of the story, the visual imagery combined with the snappy, driving dialogue helps propel the narrative forward. The best comics, graphic novels, books, plays, and movies are the ones that not only tell good stories, but those that also create a sense of relevancy in our lives.

Alexandre Dumas joins other notable authors such as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Stephen King in that his story of the musketeers and their adventures began in serial form, printed in a French newspaper between March and July 1844. The serial format, akin to the radio dramas of the mid-twentieth century, brought readers to the precipice with each installment as action was left unresolved until the next issue. Dumas was very familiar with this method of writing and publication as it began in his homeland. “In 1836 a Parisian businessman was trying to figure out how to get subscribers in the habit of buying a daily newspaper instead of the typical weekly. He decided that the best way to hook readers was to include pieces of an original novel in his publication. He approached the most popular novelist of his day, Honorè de Balzac, and the serial novel was born.”

Noted comic book author and serial writing professional, Grant Morrison, who has penned tales of some of the most well-known superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Flash, the Justice League, and the X-men noted: “If we spin a tale of guilt and failure with an unhappy ending we will live that story to its conclusion. If on the other hand we emphasize our glory, intelligence, grace, generosity, honesty, creativity, and native genius those qualities will be made manifest in our behavior and in our works. It should give us hope that superhero stories are flourishing everywhere because they are a bright flickering sign of our need to move on, to imagine the better, more just, and more proactive people we can be.” It is no wonder that this thrilling tale has been adapted for stage and screen and in 1941 became the first issue of Russian born publisher Albert Lewis Kantner’s Classic Comics. Kanter, seeing the appeal of comic books thought that he could use this format to introduce young readers to great literature and he saw in The Three Musketeers all the elements that comics were known for.

At its core, The Three Musketeers is essentially, a superhero story. It is a tale of individuals who band together to fight against evil, tyranny, and corruption. The musketeers live by a code: “One for all and all for one.” The friends remain loyal to each other despite the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and Lady de Winter, the troubled villains of the piece.

Dumas, with great imagination and literary flair brings France alive and invites us to share in the adventure. This summer, director B. J. Jones and the Utah Shakespeare Festival will do the same. Ken Ludwig’s adaptation captures the spirit and essence of this classic story, and, while there will be no super heroic flying, I am sure capes will be involved.

Meet Festival Lighting Designer Donna Ruzika

By Marlo Ihler

Long-time lighting designer Donna Ruzika is always up for an adventure. Her career in lighting design spans decades of working at theatres all over the country and the world, and this summer she is celebrating her seventeenth year with the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The Festival caught up with her as she was arriving in Cedar City for the adventurous 2016 season.

The Shakespeare Globe: How did you get started in theatre lighting design?

Donna Ruzika: When I was in college, I started out as a business major, but I went in search of a new major. After trying physical education and social sciences, I literally ran into this guy that suggested I try out for a production of Hair in the theatre department. He was the keyboard player and lighting designer. I was cast in the show. We dated. I found my major. When I graduated, we got married. Tom Ruzika became my wonderful husband and, in a way, my lighting mentor. 

Globe: You have worked with the Festival for a long time! How did the connection with the Festival begin?

Ruzika: Yes, I go way back! My husband’s graduate studies professor (and former Festival associate artistic director), Cam Harvey, asked Tom if he could go to Utah and design the lights for the 1973 season. Tom said yes—if there would be a job for me. So, I was the ticket office manager that summer, and later the first company manager!

As life moved forward, I developed my freelance career as a lighting designer. Cam then asked me if I would design for the Festival. That started my tenure as lighting designer at the Festival.

Globe: What have you done to prepare for this exciting summer in the new Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre?

Ruzika: I worked for days figuring out how to transfer my work from the old Adams Theatre into the Engelstad Theatre. During seventeen seasons in the Adams Theatre, I developed a very effective repertory light plot that was flexible enough to enable me to light the three productions each summer. Designing in a new theatre always has challenges. Designing for one that isn’t finished is even trickier. So, it’s going to be an exciting summer for all of us figuring out how to work in the new space.

Globe: What is your process when formulating lighting designs and how much is done before being onsite?

Ruzika: I read and analyze the play then have discussions with the director regarding his or her concept. Once the scenic and costume designers design, I get their information and go to work. The light plot is the document that shows where each of the 400-plus lighting instruments is placed in the theatre. Each light does a specific job. I not only figure out where those lights are placed and what their purpose is. I also choose the color and templates (patterns) that are used, and much more. The tools and information that enable me to light the production is on the light plot.

Once I am onsite, I watch rehearsals to see how the director is utilizing the space. After hours (usually 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.) my crew and I focus the lights. This takes three to four sessions. We then build all the cues. Building a light cue is like painting a picture with light. The theatre, scenery, costumes, and actors are the canvas, and the lights are the paint. The cues convey to the audience the various moods, time of day, and seasons, and sometimes (without their knowing it) shows them where to look. Hopefully all the cues create a cohesive overall look for the play and take the audience on a journey that mirrors and enhances what is happening on stage.

Globe: And finally, what advice would you give someone interested in pursuing lighting design as a career?

Ruzika: Each designer’s path is different. What we all have in common is that at one point we just decided to try it. So, my advice is to just do it. It’s a great life working in the theatre.

Mary Poppins: From Screen to Stage

Elizabeth Broadhurst as Mary Poppins

When it comes to adapting a famous movie musical that people of all ages have come to love into a stage play, many elements are transformed along the way. For many Utah Shakespeare Festival audiences who plan on seeing this year’s production of Mary Poppins, there are a few changes to be aware of before heading to the Randall L. Jones Theatre.

Popular songs like “Spoonful of Sugar,” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” “Jolly Holiday,” and “Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious” can still be found in this adaptation, but their arrangement within the play is not the same as the movie. In order to add content from the book by P. L. Travers into the script, composer and lyricist team George Stiles and Anthony Drewe lengthened songs and added musical numbers and Jullian Fellowes adapted the script. Animated dancing penguins are nowhere to be found in the play, but dancing statues and characters in the park make this production just as entertaining as the movie version.

Beyond these plot changes, the stage adaptation also has a significantly different theme and atmosphere than the movie. George Banks’s past growing up in a strict environment combined with his stressful life at the bank and Winifred Banks’s struggle between being a responsible housewife who loves her husband and wondering on her past life are all more prominent elements in the play than the movie. While plot points like these give the play a more serious undertone, that doesn’t mean it’s lost any of its charm. Numbers like “Practically Perfect” and “Anything Can Happen” are reminders of the continued hope and joy this musical will bring to audiences for years to come.

The festival’s production of Mary Poppins runs from July 2 to September 3. For more information visit http://www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.

Festival to Present Shakespeare in Love in 2017

The Utah Shakespeare Festival has been selected as one of three theatres to present the United States premiere of the play Shakespeare in Love, adapted from the Academy Award-winning film of the same name by Lee Hall.

The Festival will present the play during its 2017 season, along with Romeo and Juliet and an eclectic mix of Shakespearean and other classic plays. The balance of the 2017 season will be announced at a later date.

Shakespeare in Love is about young William Shakespeare, who, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet. These complementary story lines have provided the impetus behind the Festival producing these two plays in repertory in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre with a shared cast and set. “This juxtaposition will allow viewers of the two plays to experience the artistic and thematic connections between the two productions in a bold manner,” said Media and Public Relations Manager Joshua Stavros. “It will be an exciting theatrical event.”

Shakespeare in Love and Romeo and Juliet will also share a set and many of the principal actors, adding even more synergy between the two, as they are both presented in the outdoor Engelstad Theatre, with much of the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

“This is the perfect vehicle for the Festival and continues our strong commitment to producing plays that serve our mission,” added Artistic Director David Ivers. “I am confident that audiences will love having access to Shakespeare in Love and appreciate the Festival being one of a handful of American theatres which have been granted the production rights in 2017.”

The production is based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard and is adapted for the stage by Lee Hall. The play, which debuted in London’s West End in 2014, is presented by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.

“We are honored to present one of the flagship premieres of this production. It speaks to the reputation of the Utah Shakespeare Festival in the international theatre community,” said Artistic Director Brian Vaughn. “We love the show, and know it is a perfect fit for our guests.”

Visit www.bard.org for the latest information on 2017 as it becomes available.

Festival Commemorates Shakespeare's Death (and Legacy)

CEDAR CITY, Utah — In conjunction with theatres and Shakespeare organizations around the world, the Utah Shakespeare Festival will be commemorating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death (and legacy) with two events for southern Utah residents and visitors. Bard’s Birthday Bash will be April 21 and 22, and the Shakespeare Cinema Celebration will be April 23.

Bard’s Birthday Bash is a party primarily for elementary schools in Iron County. They will be attending one of four sessions, two each day from 9:20 to 11:20 a.m. and 12:40 to 2:40 p.m. Included are numerous events for the students to take part in, including maypole dances, jousting, improvisation training and performing, cake with Queen Elizabeth, and a chance for schools to perform or watch their student Shakespeare plays in the Adams Theatre. The public is invited to observe the student plays.

“This is one of the ways we celebrate Shakespeare and reach out to students in our area,” said Michael Bahr, Festival education director. “Kids are not afraid of Shakespeare or his plays, and this is a fun, exciting way to introduce them to theatre and the world’s greatest playwright.”

Unfortunately, if weather is stormy, this event will be canceled.

The second event, the Shakespeare Cinema Celebration, is geared to a bit older audience and to families in general. It is a free series of screenings of movies adapted from Shakespeare’s plays—plus food and discussion. The screenings are in the Sharwan Smith Movie Theatre at Southern Utah University.

The day begins at 9:45 with a live broadcast from the Folger Shakespeare Library: “Wonder of Will LIVE: Sharing Shakespeare Stories.” It will be followed by showings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (released in 1935) at 11 a.m., The Taming of the Shrew (1967) at 1:30 p.m., Henry V (1989) at 3:45 p.m., Much Ado about Nothing (2012) at 6:45, and Macbeth (2015) at 9 p.m.

Free food will be available throughout the day and a brief orientation will precede each play, with an open discussion after each showing.              

The Shakespeare Cinema Celebration is sponsored by the Festival, Southern Utah University, and the Center for Shakespeare Studies.

Festival Presents Children's Play—Junie B. Jones: the Musical

CEDAR CITY, Utah — As part of its continuing educational outreach programs, the Utah Shakespeare Festival is taking the popular children’s play Junie B. Jones: the Musical to a number of elementary schools in Iron and Beaver counties during the month of April.

In addition, the Festival is offering two public performances for the young-at-heart who graduated elementary school some time ago. These will be April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Canyon View Middle School and April 9 at 2 p.m. at the Southern Utah University Auditorium.

Tickets for the public performances are $5 for children and $8 for adults and can be purchased at the Festival ticket office (800-PLAYTIX) or online at www.bard.org. Tickets will also be available at the door, but only cash and checks (not credit or debit cards) will be accepted at the April 6 performance.

Junie B. Jones: the Musical is presented by the Festival Playmakers, the Festival’s youth-training program for children six to eighteen years old.

“This is a delightful and fun musical that children and anyone who remembers being a child will love,” said Michael Bahr, Festival education director. “And our wonderful student actors perform with gusto and spirit that will have you humming along and on your feet.”

This new musical, by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, is based on four volumes in Barbara Park’s Junie B. Jones series of books, illustrated by Denise Brunkus and published by Random House. It features outspoken, precocious, loveable Junie in a funny and fast-paced musical about new friends, new glasses, sugar cookies, the annual kickball tournament, and other various first-grade angst-ridden situations—as recorded in Junie’s “top-secret personal beeswax journal."

Former Literary Seminar Director Passes Away

Jerry Leroy Crawford

CEDAR CITY, Utah — It is with deep regret that the Utah Shakespeare Festival shares the passing of former Literary Seminar Director Jerry Leroy Crawford, 81, on March 20 from causes incident to age.

Crawford joined the Festival when the new Randall L. Jones Theatre opened in 1989, becoming the literary seminar director for the plays shown in the Randall Theatre. He loved the seminars, especially working with Ace. G. Pilkington who anchored the shows in the Adams play. Together, the seminars affectionately became known as the Ace and Jerry Show. He also served as the director of the Festival’s Plays-in-Progress program, the precursor to today’s New American Playwrights Project.

He received his B.F.A in acting from Drake University, his M.A. in directing from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. in playwriting from the University of Iowa. Among other positions, he served as professor of theatre arts/Barrick Distinguished Scholar at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and dean of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He was the author of over thirty plays and a book on acting.

“Jerry provided stimulating commentary during the seminars, as well as being a strong advocate for new scripts in the early days of Plays-in-Progress,” said Education Director Michael Bahr. “As a scholar, playwright, and teacher he provided an important dimension to the Festival.”

“Jerry was a shining light at the Festival,” said Executive Director R. Scott Phillips. “He brought enormous talent and a warm and giving personality to all he did. We will miss him greatly.”

As per Crawford’s wishes, there will be no formal funeral or memorial service. His body will be cremated and sprinkled with his wife’s ashes at Moss Point in Laguna Beach.

Children Invited to Audition for Roles in Festival’s Mary Poppins

Cedar City, UT- Auditions for child actors to play the roles of Jane and Michael in this summer’s Utah Shakespeare Festival production of Mary Poppins will be conducted March 19. The general call auditions will be in the Southern Utah University Auditorium Theatre (room 109) on the corner of 300 West and Center Street from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

“These are exceptionally important roles in telling the story of Mary Poppins,” said Artisitic Director Brian Vaughn. “Whomever we select will need to be skilled enough to carry these large parts throughout the summer performance season.”

Children auditioning should be between the ages of 9 and 13 and be able to play the ages of Jane (11) or Michael (9). They must be available for rehearsals and performances in Cedar City, Utah from May 9 to September 3. The chosen actors will be paid and (if not from southern Utah) provided with housing.

Those interested must fill out the online registration form and also download sides and music for the audition at www.bard.org/auditions. Hopeful actors should arrive by 2:15 to check in and should come prepared to perform both sides and sing both songs. The general call will be followed by callback and dance auditions.

Neil LaBute Play Headlines New Plays at the Festival

Cedar City, UT- The Utah Shakespeare Festival recently announced the line-up of new play readings for this year’s New American Playwrights Project (NAPP). The 24th annual play readings, which have become increasingly popular over the years, will take the stage at the Utah Shakespeare Festival from August 12 to August 27.

The work of two playwrights will be presented as staged readings in the new Eileen and Allen Anes Theatre on selected dates. Chosen fromhundreds of plays submitted, this year’s lineup includes One Big Union by popular Salt Lake City playwright Deborah Threedy and How To Fight Loneliness by nationally-acclaimed playwright Neil LaBute. Audience members will have the unique opportunity to see a staged reading of these new pieces and take part in a discussion with the playwright, director and actors.                                                                            

Tickets are $10 each and are on sale now at 1-800-PLAYTIX and www.bard.org.

Neil LaBute

In addition, LaBute, who currently has two shows playing off-Broadway, The Way We Get By at Second Stage Theatre and The Money Shot at Lucille Lortel Theatre, has agreed to host a special lecture and discussion, “Conversations with Neil LaBute” about playwriting and his current work. The event is free to the public and will be Saturday, August 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the Anes Theatre.

“We are excited to have Neil here,” said Charles L. Metten, NAPP director and LaBute’s former teacher at BYU. “He is an accomplished, insightful playwright, and I look forward to working with him again.”

One of LaBute’s first well-known plays was In the Company of Men, which premiered at Brigham Young University, his alma mater, and which he later adapted into a movie starring Aaron Eckhart. He has since written numerous plays, including reasons to be pretty, which appeared on Broadway and was nominated in 2009 for three Tony Awards;In the Beginning; Fat Pig; Miss Julie; Reasons To Be Happy; Good Luck; Over the River and through the Woods; and many more*.* In 2013, LaBute was recognized with the Arts and Letters Awards in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

LaBute’s latest play, How To Fight Loneliness, will get its first reading at the Festival at NAPP. It explores a modern-day husband and wife, Brad and Jodie, who are at a life-changing crossroads. They must make a monumental decision, but can’t seem to do it on their own. To help, they enlist an old schoolmate, which brings unexpected results leading to a spiral of recrimination, deceit, and (ultimately) relief, in this surprising play about life, love, and the right to choose your own destiny.

Directed by David Ivers, Festival artistic director, How To Fight Loneliness plays August 19, 20 and 27.

Deborah Threedy

The other playwright featured this year is Debora Threedy, author of One Big Union. She has degrees in theatre arts and law. After many years appearing on stage in Salt Lake City, including at Salt Lake Acting Company, she turned to playwriting. She wrote and performed a one-woman show, Desert Wife, which toured the state with funding from the Utah Humanities Council. She has had a number of plays produced by Plan B Theatre in Salt Lake City, most recently The Third Crossing, which also was one of the winners of the Fratti-Newman New Political Play Contest in New York.

Her play, One Big Union, focuses on legendary union agitator Joe Hill who was executed by the State of Utah in 1915. Considered a martyr by many, his songs at the time envisioned gender and racial equality and criticized the gross income disparities of his time. Today, he remains an enigmatic folk hero, but beyond the mythology lies a larger story of protest, still relevant a century after his death.

Directing One Big Union is Jerry Rapier, producing director of Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City, and it plays August 12, 13 and 26.

 “Theatre companies have to look to the future as well as the past,” said Michael Bahr, Festival education director. “NAPP allows us to do this, and it helps audiences be informed by new works and the ideas of up and coming artists, as well as classic theatre. That’s when we can really tell the story of what it means to be human.”

Playwright biographies and more information are available at http://www.bard.org/napp.

The plays in this series are written for contemporary adult audiences and may occasionally contain themes and language not appropriate for children and that some may find offensive.