Utah Shakespeare Festival

Now celebrating is 50^th year, Utah Shakespearean Festival as a destination theater in partnership with Southern Utah University and is committed to entertain, enrich, and educate audiences through professional rotating repertory productions of the works of Shakespeare and other master dramatists. The Festival’s commitment to celebrating the past, elevating the present, and cultivating the future is reflected in its mission to present life-affirming classic and contemporary plays in repertory with Shakespeare as their cornerstone. Performances are enhanced by a variety of educational activities that enable patrons to better understand and appreciate the richness of the theatrical experience. The festival offers orientations and discussions prior to and following each performance; costume, properties, and acting seminars once a week; and backstage tours, guided by actors and company members, twice a week. It performs in three theaters: the renowned outdoor venue, Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theatre (819 seats); the Randall L. Jones Theatre (769 seats); and the Auditorium Theatre (853 seats). The Auditorium Theatre provides patrons with the opportunity to see matinee performances indoors, and also serves as a rain stage in the event that an outdoor performance faces inclement weather.

As part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, Utah Shakespearean Festival will present A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of its Shakespeare-in-the-Schools touring program, which tours to schools and communities throughout Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho. This production will have a cast of ten and will be presented in such a way that the students will be able to connect to the resonance between our time and that of Shakespeare's. Activities include study guides distributed to teachers prior to the performance; teacher workshops; and workshops on movement, stage combat, and acting using Shakespeare's text. These workshops create opportunities for the students to engage with the actors, and the teaching artists will receive additional training throughout the rehearsal process on how to engage students within the specifically-designed workshop. The Festival will expand its present programming to include eight new underserved schools, including inner-city schools in Las Vegas and rural communities in Utah, such as Manila and Dutch John, as well as in communities on the Navajo reservation near Tuba City, Arizona.