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Utah Shakespeare Festival Celebrates 65 Years of Theatre
Special | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
Learn how the festival is celebrating 65 years of theatre, culture, and community.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival, a nationally recognized cultural festival in Cedar City, is celebrating 65 years of live theatre. Executive Managing Director Michael Bahr shares how this renowned festival draws over 100,000 visitors annually with world-class productions, educational programs, and family-friendly events.
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Contact is a local public television program presented by PBS Utah
Contact
Utah Shakespeare Festival Celebrates 65 Years of Theatre
Special | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
The Utah Shakespeare Festival, a nationally recognized cultural festival in Cedar City, is celebrating 65 years of live theatre. Executive Managing Director Michael Bahr shares how this renowned festival draws over 100,000 visitors annually with world-class productions, educational programs, and family-friendly events.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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(gentle music) - This year marks the 65th season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
It's a huge anniversary, celebrating the arts and people who love them.
Joining us to chat about the theme and how Utah Shakes is celebrating this major milestone is Michael Bahr.
Welcome, Michael.
- Thank you.
Thanks so much.
- So tell me about the theme for this year's festival.
- Oh, the theme is Generations Gather Here.
We've been around for 65 years, and in those 65 years, we've had families.
And I mean the story, you'll go out on the grounds and there'll be a grandparent and there'll be a parent, and there'll be the children.
65 years worth of that amazing history.
And we've got great plays this year.
We've got "Hamlet" first time on the Engelstad stage.
We've performed it 10 times in our history, and this is the first time in that outdoor space.
We're also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Beverly Center for the Performing Arts, and we're just very, very excited about it.
We also are doing "Twelfth Night," the comedy, "See How They Run," The great musical, "Something Rotten," "Troilus and Cressida," "She Loves Me," "Frankenstein," "The Book Club Play."
So it's gonna be a really, really amazing celebration with those eight plays all in repertory.
- And I remember before I went there for the first time, I thought it was only plays, but it's a festival.
There's something for everyone there, right?
- Yes, absolutely.
We start every evening with a Green Show that takes place Monday through Saturday.
It starts at 7:10 every evening, three different shows.
Monday, Thursday is Irish Night, Tuesday, Friday is what we're calling Shakespeare Night and then Wednesday, Saturday is Americana, celebrating the 250th anniversary with beautiful kind of folk country classics, all performed by these great six actors.
And in addition to that, the next morning we have seminars and prop seminars and actors seminars and costume seminars.
- [Liz] Wow.
- So really as you say something for everybody, - Yeah.
Salute to you, salute to the actors, and also the volunteers, the workers who put all this on.
You guys are incredible.
Thank you so much for joining us to share this information.
If you would like to learn more about the Utah Shakespeare Festival and get more information on how you can get tickets, all you have to do is go to bard.org for more information, the website, and you can head to the festival now through October at Southern Utah University.
I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you for watching "Contact."
(gentle music) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.
It's what brings us together.
Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.
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