Nestled among some of the country's most breathtakingly beautiful national parks is the real gem of Southwestern Utah, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, in the small town of Cedar City on the campus of Southern Utah University.
From its humble beginnings in 1962 when a small band of college students and townspeople presented three plays by Shakespeare over a two-week period, on an outdoor platform -- creating their own sets, props, and costumes -- the Utah Shakespearean Festival has morphed into an award-winning organization.
In 2003 USF is presenting six plays, three of them by Shakespeare, as well as an historical play, a comedy, and a farce over a nine-week summer season of Measure for Measure, Much Ado about Nothing, Richard III, 1776, Born Yesterday and The Servant of Two Masters), continuing through August 30, 2003, in addition to a month-long fall season from September 18-October 18 which includes Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's musical comedy, Little Shop of Horrors, and the Oscar Wilde perennial, The Importance of Being Earnest.
These plays are presented in repertory in two different venues: the indoor state-of-the-art Randall L. Jones Theater and the outdoor Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theater patterned after the Globe Theatre in London. Many of the actors are Equity performers (members of Actor's Equity, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.)
In addition to producing plays, the USF utilizes talented college students from throughout the country for their Revels Company. They perform in the Greenshow, a complimentary show on a small stage set up in a town-square fashion in the courtyard of the Adams Theater. On the night we attended, they put on a spirited display of Scottish dancing. On other nights they perform English and Irish dances.
Another highlight by these versatile students in the Royal Feaste, an evening of food and revelry, served by this troupe dressed in period costumes enacting scenes from the period of Henry VIII while they serve food to 'party-goers' at long, communal banquet tables in a climate-controlled tent.
In 2000 the Utah Shakespearean Festival, upon the recommendation of the American Theater Critics Association, was awarded the coveted Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, presented by the American Theater Wing and the League of American Theaters and Producers.
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