‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ takes starring role on Utah Shakespeare Festival lineup
Different boats for different folks.
Technically, ships play a role in only three of the six plays opening next week at the 52nd annual Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City: Shakespeare’s magical “The Tempest,” the snappy Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes” and the regional premiere of the Tony-winning “Peter Pan” prequel “Peter and the Starcatcher.”
But even without a seagoing vessel involved, the three other plays on the festival’s summer schedule — Shakespeare’s “King John” and “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” plus the jury-deliberation drama “Twelve Angry Men” — promise voyages of imagination, inspiration and conflict, dramatic and comedic.
“King John” launches the festival’s “History Cycle,” which presents Shakespeare’s historical dramas in chronological order. (“Richard II,” due in September, is next.)
“The commitment to the history plays that the Utah Shakespeare Festival is making — it doesn’t happen often enough,” according to “King John” director Robynn Rodriguez. “And to see them in a kind of chronological order is thrilling.”
The rarely presented “King John” — along with the beloved “Tempest” and the hardly-in-heavy-rotation “Love’s Labour’s” — also figure in USF’s “Complete the Canon” initiative, which began last season and will see productions of all 37 Shakespeare plays by the end of the 2023 season.
But this season’s undisputed star is “Peter and the Starcatcher,” which will continue straight on until Oct. 18, spanning USF’s summer and fall seasons.
Fresh from a Tony-winning Broadway run (and currently running off-Broadway), “Peter” represents “a major coup for us,” according to USF executive director R. Scott Phillips. “We’re getting calls and emails from other theaters asking, how did we get the rights.”
The answer to that inquiry: “a lot of hard work,” according to David Ivers, the festival’s co-artistic director.
After Ivers, fellow artistic director Brian Vaughn, Phillips and festival founder Fred C. Adams saw a workshop production in New York, “we fell in love with it,” Phillips recalls. “We said, ‘This would be perfect for Utah and perfect for our audiences.’ ”
Pursuing the rights to “Peter and the Starcatcher” meant negotiating with, among others, Disney Theatrical Productions; officials there who wanted “to see how it plays at a regional theater” before the show’s national tour, Phillips says.
“We’re very, very thrilled,” says Vaughn, who’s directing “Peter,” especially “to know we were chosen, amongst many other people vying for” a play that “celebrates everything about the theater and make-believe.”
In Vaughn’s view, “one of the main things that attracted” the producers to USF “was the fact that we’re tied to a Shakespeare company,” he says, “and it’s based on a literary classic. They were very intrigued with the pairing.”
Staging a regional premiere of such a high-profile production “puts pressure on us,” Ivers admits, “but it’s a good pressure,” because of “the kind of attention it brings” to the festival.
That “a thriving theater company can exist in such a small community” proves audiences “are willing to make the pilgrimage to these places to see classic theater — and that’s rare in this country,” says Rodriguez, who’s making her USF debut after 22 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.
Gordon calls USF “destination theater,” because it requires a little bit of planning and effort” for audiences to attend. (Almost 87 percent of the festival’s 2012 audiences drove more than 80 miles to attend; for Las Vegans, it’s about 170 miles to Cedar City.)
At the end of the journey, however, there’s “a whole sort of total experience,” Gordon says.
The festival experience extends beyond the plays themselves to include free outdoor Greenshows with Elizabethan-style music and dance and August’s New American Playwrights Project (featuring presentations of three new works), plus production and literary seminars, backstage tours and other activities.
At the heart of that experience, however, one thing remains, according to Vaughn: “Our celebration of the written word and classic text.”
Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.
Preview
52nd annual Utah Shakespeare Festival
June 24 through Aug. 31: "Anything Goes," "King John," Love’s Labour’s Lost," "Twelve Angry Men," "The Tempest"; June 25 through Oct. 18: "Peter and the Starcatcher"
Southern Utah University, Cedar City (2½ hours northeast of Las Vegas on Interstate 15)
$16-$74 (800-752-9849; www.bard.org)
Summer lineup
To quote Hamlet, the play’s the thing. So without much ado, here’s what USF team members have to say about this summer’s productions:
"Anything Goes"
Classic Cole Porter tunes, from "I Get a Kick Out of You" to the title number, power this 1930s favorite about a London-bound luxury liner with a passenger list that includes a wealthy debutante, her stowaway stockbroker sweetheart, a gangster masquerading as a priest and evangelist-turned-nightclub singer Reno Sweeney.
A touring version of the latest Broadway revival docked at The Smith Center in February, but that doesn’t concern USF executive director R. Scott Phillips — now.
"We worried," he admits, "but people said, ‘I saw it and I want to see it again,’ or ‘I missed it.’ "
Either way, "Anything Goes" qualifies as "good old-fashioned musical comedy" — and a welcome relief after last season’s "Les Miserables," says director Brad Carroll.
Although audiences will know the "Cole Porter hit after hit after hit" tunes, "that’s part of the fun for the audience — to see those songs" in context, says Carroll, who’s directed eight previous USF musicals. Some of those hits "make sense where they are," while "others are just dropped in there."
That reflects the show’s 1934 origin, when "it was all about the songs and the people singing them," Carroll says. (Including Broadway legend Ethel Merman, the original Reno Sweeney.) Their motto in those days, Carroll says: "Short on plot — and long on gags."
"King John"
Launching the festival’s History Cycle, which presents Shakespeare’s historical plays in chronological order, the seldom-produced "King John" focuses on "the only medieval king that Shakespeare wrote about," according to director Robynn Rodriguez.
John reigned from April 1199 until his death in 1216. He’s the king who signed off on the Magna Carta — after a baronial revolt forced his hand. He’s also the guy who tried to steal the throne while his brother Richard the Lionheart was away, fighting in the Crusades. (As anyone who’s ever watched a Robin Hood movie will recall.)
Unlike those simplistic portraits, however, Shakespeare’s "King John is a complicated, challenged human being and yet, he is the king," Rodriguez says. In the play, Shakespeare explores the notion "that you can have a flawed leader, but in order to the keep the country together, you have to follow him."
And if that sounds like something confined to medieval times, think again.
A contemporary version "could have a set where the whole back wall of the stage could be nothing but Barack Obama’s birth certificate," she says. "That’s a play that’s got relevance to today."
"Love’s Labour’s Lost"
When director Laura Gordon first began compiling notes for this Shakespeare comedy, "two words came to mind," she recalls. The first: "beautiful." The other: "problematic."
Some months later, she’s come to a different conclusion about this romantic romp, in which young King Ferdinand and his idealistic pals swear off women for three years to devote themselves to quiet study. That is, until the princess of France and her equally lovely ladies show up.
"I love the structure of the play and the way language is used," she says. With "everything from blank verse to rhyming couplets, language games and banter," the comedy "is just loaded with rhyme."
Beyond the beguiling language, however, "Love’s Labour’s Lost," in Gordon’s view, is "ultimately about finding balance between the head and the heart." And, of course, "realizing that love takes time — and some work."
"Peter and the Starcatcher"
Direct from Broadway (and off-Broadway), the regional premiere of this multiple Tony Award-winner serves up a "Peter Pan" prequel in which audiences learn, among other things, how a particular pirate captain gets his hook — and how a special orphan finds his way to Neverland.
"It’s the best kind of theatrical storytelling," comments David Ivers, USF’s co-artistic director, citing the play’s "perfect mix of contemporary and classic themes" and its "highly physical, highly theatrical" approach.
Beyond "the wonderful theatricality of the piece, it’s an identity story," observes director Brian Vaughn, USF’s other co-artistic director.
As for the pressure of staging the first regional production of a multiple Tony-winner — one that could help raise USF’s profile in the wider theatrical world — "I keep trying not to think about it," Vaughn says. "I hope we do it justice."
He can take heart in what Vaughn says Peter and his shipmates discover on their voyage: "with a sense of friendship and faith and believing in oneself, you can do anything."
"The Tempest"
Most likely the final play written entirely by Shakespeare, this romance conjures considerable magic, figuratively and literally.
That’s because its island-dwelling protagonist, Prospero, uses his magical powers to whip up the title storm, triggering a shipwreck that enables Prospero to exact revenge on those who have wronged him — that is, until he learns to forgive.
"Prospero is one of the great roles," according to actor Henry Woronicz , who’s playing Prospero for the first time in Cedar City, but the second time in his career. "You’re lucky to get to do them once. It’s great fun to revisit the role."
Although Prospero "starts out as a very angry man," Woronicz says, he experiences "a wonderful journey" toward forgiveness and understanding — of others, and himself. Longtime USF audiences have experienced Woronicz’s journey from "a very young kid" (he made his festival debut in 1982 as "Henry V") to veteran. In addition to playing "Macbeth’s" title role and Antonio in "The Merchant of Venice," Woronicz has directed USF productions of "As You Like It," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Coriolanus" and "Titus Andronicus" and will direct "Richard II" for the festival’s fall season.
"There’s a sense of coming home a little bit," he says of returning to Cedar City. "The festival is dedicated to these plays — and I love these plays."
"Twelve Angry Men"
Reginald Rose may have written this jury-debate drama in the 1950s — first for TV’s "Studio One," then for the big screen and finally for the stage.
But it’s far from a period piece, according to USF artistic co-director David Ivers, who’s staging the production.
"There’s something quintessentially American" about "Twelve Angry Men," he says.
Its tale of a dozen nameless jurors, debating an accused murderer’s fate on a sweltering New York City summer night, seems particularly timely considering "the climate of Congress and our political leaders," Ivers explains. "They seem so polarized," and the notion of compromise "doesn’t seem to be part of (their) vocabulary."
With "Twelve Angry Men," he adds, "it’s great to reminded of a time where that was not the case."
The "enormity of responsibility you carry" as a juror, and a citizen, is "part of America’s soul," observes R. Scott Phillips, USF’s executive director. "We should never forget everyone has a right to be heard — and that one person can make a difference."
