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The Bard’s the star at 56th annual Utah Shakespeare Festival

Updated July 21, 2017 - 10:40 am

William Shakespeare’s the inspiration for the 56th annual Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. But he’s also the star.

The regional premiere of “Shakespeare in Love” — adapted from the Oscar-winning 1998 movie of the same name — puts the future Bard center stage, combining love and art when he meets the woman who will inspire him to create “Romeo and Juliet.”

Conveniently, that beloved tragedy also is on this year’s USF schedule, enabling audiences to experience both, in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre, on successive nights.

The season’s two other Shakespeare plays find lovers fleeing to the forest — finding not only themselves but each other — in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “As You Like It.” Rounding out USF’s current lineup: the musical “Guys and Dolls” and the pirate adventure “Treasure Island.”

Next weekend, the comedic romp “William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged),” running through Oct. 21, launches USF’s Anes Studio Theatre schedule, which includes the world premieres of Neil LaBute’s “How to Fight Loneliness” (Aug. 25-Oct. 14) and the madcap melodrama “The Tavern” (Sept. 19-Oct. 21). Also in the Anes in August: workshop readings of two plays, including the Pearl Bailey musical “Pearl’s in the House,” which will have its fully staged world premiere at USF next year.

Along with the plays, USF presents a free nightly Greenshow, backstage tours, daily literary seminars (to discuss the plays you just saw) and Q&A sessions with festival actors, costume and prop directors. (You can even buy a ticket to “Repertory Magic” and watch stage crews switch between matinee and evening performances in USF’s Randall L. Jones Theatre.)

The festival takes place at Southern Utah University’s Beverley Sorenson Taylor Center for the Arts, University Boulevard and 300 West St., in Cedar City — a 2½- to three-hour drive north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15.

Tickets range from $20 to $79; for complete details, visit bard.org or call 800-752-9849.

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