Get thee to this fall’s Utah Shakespearean Festival

Marry Manning

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 | 8:22 a.m.

While Cedar City, Utah, is known by Las Vegas residents for its summer Utah Shakespearean Festival, this year for the first time in its four-year extended run, the fall season will include a play by William Shakespeare.

In addition to the bard, there are a host of new activities for audiences ready to enjoy the extended autumn theater season.

"Twelfth Night," one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, is included in the three plays opening Thursday and running through Oct. 19 in the Randall L. Jones Theatre located on the campus of Southern Utah University.

"This will be the first time that we've offered one of Shakespeare's plays during our fall season," R. Scott Phillips, the festival's managing director, said.

"People have been asking us to run a Shakespeare play since our first fall season in 1999," Phillips said. "This year, in addition to two excellent plays of a more contemporary nature, audiences will get their wish for more of the bard."

In addition to Shakespeare, more contemporary fare is also on tap, Phillips promised.

"I Hate Hamlet," written in 1992 by Paul Rudnick, is a comedy about dueling wits and clashing egos. The ghost of legendary actor John Barrymore coaches a reluctant up-and-coming daytime television actor toward mastering his ill-advised role as Hamlet.

Rounding out this fall season is Clark Gesner's "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip. This colorful musical brings the Sunday funnies characters of Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and the rest of the gang to life.

"We hope that people will take time out of their fall schedules to escape to Cedar City and enjoy these wonderful plays, as well as our magnificent fall foliage," festival founder Fred C. Adams said.

In addition to the plays, Adams said other activities are available for audiences to enjoy.

While festival literary seminar director Ace Pilkington guides morning discussions of the previous night's plays during the summer months, he is returning this fall along with festival education director Michael Don Bahr to conduct literary seminars Wednesdays through Sundays at 10 a.m.

Also new this fall are actor seminars scheduled at 11 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. Two actors will discuss their characters and the plays, addressing audience questions and comments.

Both literary seminars and actor seminars will take place outdoors, just to the east of the Randall Jones Theatre.

Backstage tours will move to 11 a.m. Thursdays and Saturdays. A one-hour tour gives audience members a peek at behind-the-scenes festival work. Tickets are $5 per person and can be purchased along with play tickets at the festival box office.

Before each play begins, free orientation seminars will be available in the lobby of the Jones Theatre at 1:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Entertainment by pianist Darryl W. Archibald will begin at 6:45 p.m. in the lobby before evening performances. Following evening performances, desserts and beverages are available at the theater's sidewalk cafe.

Tickets for the fall season are still available. For tickets or more information, call (800) 752-9849.