Utah Shakespeare Festival educates as it entertains
I was chatting at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City last week with a blogger from Salt Lake, who commented, “I came here to cover the plays for the first time. I didn’t realize the plays were just one part of the festival.”
I’m glad it took him just a few hours to figure that out. I’ll admit I feel near-pity for the person who rushes here from Vegas, takes in one show, and then rushes home. Apart from the sometimes riveting productions, the fest offers, for free, entertaining looks at background information to some of the greatest works to ever hit the stage.
I know many people are baffled by Shakespeare (and other “classical” works). They’re put off by the language, which can seem incomprehensible; the plots that don’t seem to make any sense; and the multitude of characters that makes it difficult to figure out who’s doing what to whom.
Just before each of the productions, the fest offers a preview talk. It’s headed not just by a qualified person who knows his stuff, but a person who comes across as an actor, someone who will make you laugh as you take in valuable info.
Example: Before the opening night of “Titus Andronicus,” associate educational director Josh Stavros, after describing the fantastical plot (my blogger acquaintance called the play “a Renaissance slasher”) explained what may have motivated The Great One to pen his most gruesomely violent work. Stavros said over-the-top spectaculars involving blood and gore were very in vogue when Shakespeare started writing, and it may well be the Bard was having fun trying to take the absurdity one step further. It’s rumored, Stavros said, that Shakespeare authored the play on a dare. No one today knows the truth, but it certainly helps to appreciate the festival’s production if you take this information into consideration.
New plays festival director Charles Metten pointed out that Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a fast flop when it was first published. It wasn’t until Readers Digest ran a series of condensed versions that it became an enormous success and won the Pulitzer Prize. Hard to believe today, since the work (and the play and movie upon which it’s based) is so much a part of Americana. Metten also touched on the race conditions that were prevalent in much of the nation during the 1930s, when the story takes place. He also noted that Lee wanted Spencer Tracy to play the lead in the film, but reluctantly had to accept Gregory Peck. But they became fast friends, and Peck went on to win the Academy Award of 1961 for the role.
Point being: The festival is a place where you can relax and talk freely about how you feel, what you know, what you don’t know and what you’d like to know. Or you can just enjoy the spectacle and the groves and the friendliness of scores of people.
Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s good for you.
Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.
