By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
The monumental works of William Shakespeare, written a half-millennium ago, maintains a modern resonance and still stand as a monolith casting the shadow of its influence over all of the dramatic arts and, indeed, all of literature; that has come into existence since. Thus, in our modern society, so utterly fixated upon the dramatic arts of cinema and television, there are really only two types of people: those who love and revere the works of Shakespeare, and those who don’t yet recognize that they do.
Appealing to either category of people, there is the annual Utah Shakespeare Festival which officially opened this year on June 23 in Cedar City, just a 1½ hour drive from Moapa Valley (construction traffic willing) north on Interstate 15.
For those unabashed Shakespeare fans in that first category of people, this year’s festival offers much to enjoy. Four of the Bard’s works will be performed throughout this summer. These includes the brilliant comedy of “Twelfth Night”, the slapstick humor of “Comedy of Errors”, the more grave comedic material in “Measure for Measure” and the provocative history play “Henry IV Part 1.”
This last work is the second in a set of history plays which portrays an era; from “Richard II” (performed at the festival last summer), through the two parts of Henry IV (the second part of which will be performed next summer) and concluding with the triumphant Henry V (to be staged in the festival’s 2016 season).
But even without the advantage of watching the cycle from its beginning, this year’s feature, “Henry IV Part One,” can stand completely on it’s own. In the words of the festival’s co-artistic director Brian Vaughn, who is also directing this production, the play is “equal parts prose and verse, comedy and tragedy, truth and fiction; and it is commonly regarded as a masterwork of story and character.”
The play is about the strained relationship between an ambitious, demanding father (Henry IV, played by Larry Bull) and his rebellious teenage son (Prince Hal played by Sam Ashdown) who is struggling with the inevitability of someday inheriting his kingly destiny.
Serving as a juxtaposition to his royal father, Prince Hal’s drinking and carousing companion, Sir John Falstaff (played by Henry Woronicz), is not just a jolly comic figure. He also provides the depth of one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters. A fat, vain, boastful and cowardly knight, Falstaff is also full to the brim with the joy of life. He provides a non-judgmental father figure to the wayward Prince during his adolescent time of self-searching.
But in a famous soliloquy of the play, Prince Hal recognizes that he will eventually be forced to put off his life of debauchery, forsake Falstaff and “pay the debt he never promised” by becoming the king he was born to be.
The second Shakespeare play this season, the sophisticated comedy “Twelfth Night”, is “a nearly perfect play” putting Shakespeare’s genius “on full display with plots and subplots weaving in and out while mistaken identity, loyal friends and seemingly impossible love triangles play out against the tide of the Adriatic Sea,” according to the play’s director David Ivers.
In this play, Viola (Nell Geisslinger) finds herself shipwrecked in the land of Illyria and assumes that her twin brother and travelling companion, Sebastian (Zack Powell) is dead. She disguises herself as a man and enters the service of Duke Orsino (Grant Goodman). Of course Sebastian is not dead and, unaware of Viola’s survival, also arrives in Illyria.
This premise sets the stage for a series of complex gender-bending episodes that builds to a humorous climax. In the end, the various masks are dropped, all is revealed and nearly everyone comes away happy.
The next work on the Shakespeare playbill this year is “The Comedy Of Errors.” For this production, director Brad Carroll says he was urged to “think outside the box.” As a result, rather than use the more conventional Elizabethan setting, Carroll decided to bring the play into the Old West world of the 1849 California Gold Rush.
“What might it be like to hear this language given a new life through regional American dialects and rhythms?” Carroll mused.
This production gives a delightful contextual twist to an old classic. The new setting leaves the audience free to reveal layer upon layer of comedy and meaning that had not ever before been noticed in the work.
The fourth Shakespeare production this season is the darker comedy “Measure for Measure”. Shifting between the tragic and the comic, this play doesn’t tie everything up neatly in the end as is customary for Shakespeare’s comedies.
“It poses a ‘problem’ because it can’t be easily labeled,” says director Laura Gordon of the play. “It’s a play that raises more questions than it answers, and, as a result, feels very modern. A play that makes us laugh and feel and think. What a splendid problem!”
Of course, let’s not forget that second category of modern audience members who, for whatever reason, tend to shy away from Shakespeare. Perhaps the language is too difficult, the action too subdued, or the means of expression too antiquated. Well, this year’s festival offers plenty to please that crowd as well.
The world premiere adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” will bring the world of 19th century England into focus at the festival. This popular story by English novelist Jane Austen, is about two sisters with different ways of handling the stresses of life and love in England of the 1800s. The temperamentally opposite sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood have found that their fortune is lost, and so have significantly reduced prospects of making a good marriage and the experiencing the stability in society that it provides.
“Austen leaves us to work out our own balance between ‘sense and sensibility,’ inspired and/or cautioned by the steps and missteps of Elinor and Marianne,” says the play’s Director Joseph Hanreddy.
The final play featured in this year’s festival is Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning musical “Into the Woods” which gives the world of fairy tales a modern twist.
“Into the Woods” Director Jeremy Mann believes that Sondheim is “our ‘Shakespeare’ of contemporary American musical theatre.”
Indeed, in this play, Sondheim’s mastery is demonstrated. The play weaves together familiar characters from classic European fairy tales and stitches them into a single ‘American cultural fairy tale’, Mann said.
The play contemplates the consequences of the granting of fairy tale wishes. Several important questions are brought to light for Cinderella, Jack, the Baker, Little Red Riding Hood and everyone in the Woods. These include questions like: Does the pursuit of my wish justify the possibility of harming others?; Am I doomed to make the same mistakes my parents made?; Whose fault is it, really, when something ‘bad’ happens?; and, in the aftermath does it even matter who gets the blame?
“The characters in “Into the Woods” are forced to confront these pressing questions as they feverishly pursue their wishes,” Mann said. “The fact that each character’s fervent wish is often wildly at odds with someone else’s makes for wonderfully farcical and hilarious entertainment.”
Beyond the six plays, the Festival offers a free nightly Greenshow which is a Renaissance delight of simple country song and dance. The Greenshow even offers a special “Punch and Judy” puppetshow to entertain the kids.
In addition, the Festival holds a variety of seminars where experts talk about the plays and audience members can comment, discuss, debate and ask questions.
One of the great joys about experiencing the Utah Shakespeare festival is seeing the intense involvement and commitment of the casts, crews and administrators in this repertory theatre event. It is a tremendous work putting on the Shakespeare Festival, said Festival Executive Director Scott Phillips.
“The thing about the Repertory experience is that everyone is busy working as a team,” Phillips said. “An actor might be playing a role in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ during the afternoon and then perform again in “Henry IV” in the evening. They really have to be pretty versatile and adaptable.”
This season, the festival has 63 actors on the staff playing a total of about 168 roles.
The Festival has a rich history. The show has been going on every summer for 53 years now. It all began in 1962 under the direction of Festival founder Fred C. Adams with a budget of only $1,000. During that first year there were 21 cast members putting on three plays. By contrast, this year the Festival’s total budget is at about $7.1 million.
The Festival continues to grow. Work will soon begin on the long-awaited Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts which will become the new home to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The Center, which will be located across the street just to the east of Southern Utah University campus, will feature a new open-air theatre, modelled on Shakespeare’s Globe, that will replace the aging Adams Shakespearean Theatre currently in use. The center will also include a smaller studio theatre, an artistic and production building, rehearsal space, offices and a new costume shop. It will also be the home for the new Southern Utah Museum of Art.
Construction will begin later this month with completion expected in time for the 2016 season.
“That means that next summer will be our last season in the Adams Theatre and we have some big things planned for that,” Phillips said. “Then we will be looking to the future in a new home. And I’m happy to say that the future for the Festival is bright.”
