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Show 3 The Summerbird uh 31, 169 Cole: more than lucky Megan Cole uses words like lucky and fortunate when she describes her acting career, but that hardly explains the uniformly laudatory reviews of her current portrayal at the Utah Shakespearean Festival of Amanda Wingfield, the mother in Tennessee Williams masterpiece The Something other than mere good fortune must be at work here. Nor does luck account for her L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award and Dramalogue Award for her South Coast Repertory Theatre portrayal of Widow Glass Menagerie. Quin in Playboy of the Western World. She received another Dramalogue Award for AdaAnnabella in Childe Byron, and toured with the American conservatory Theatres U.S. State Department Tour of Russia, the Royal Shakespeare Companys American University Tour, and two Folger Library Shakespearean tours. Still, Cole insists, luck has played a part in her career. For example, she was in Cedar City last summer, as a student in Utah Shakespearean Festival Music Director Jeff Snedekers Early Music and Dance Workshop. She teaches Renaissance Dance in Seattle and picked the Southern Utah workshop for further study. "The very last day of the workshop, she smiles, I w'as eating lunch in the Student Union, and I heard someome say the Festival would do The Glass Menagerie in 1989 and it would be directed by Jim Somebody who has directed here before. Cole asked if the name might be Edmondson and w'as answered by, That sounds right As soon as she returned to her home in Seattle, she telephoned James Edmondson. She had worked writh him at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at Ashland, and knew and respected his work. Was he to be the director, she wondered, and could she audition for the part of Amanda? Indeed, Edmondson had been designated as director for the Tennessee Williams play, slated as the opening production for the new' Randall L. Jones Theatre. But, no, he would not audition her. If she wanted the part, Edmondson told her, it was hers. So Megan Cole came to the Utah Shakespearean Festival to play Amanda Wingfield, mother of two adult children. Cole hides her dancers posture and gracefulness to move as a middle-age- d woman, slightly stooped and stiffened in the joints by disappointment and her solitary battle to sescure her childrens future. She adopts mannerisms and minor tremblings, angles her elbow's away from her body and walks She also hides her dark brown hair under a grayish-blond- e wig and cosmetically ages her face. The fact that The Glass Menagerie would open the new' Randall L. Jones Theatre helped to attract her to Utah. It is a triumph to open a theatre instead of closing one, she says. This is a major venture. The Glass Menagerie continues through September 2 in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Coles other repertory role is Beline, the blonde, babbling money-hungr- y second-wif- e to Molieres The Imaginary Invalid, also at the Randall. Other plays at the Utah Shakespearean & stiff-hippe- d. Festival are Nothing Like the Sun, a new play by Doug Christensen starring Patrick Page, and three by Shakespeare: The Tempest, Macbeth and The Winter's Tale. For ticket information telephone the Festival Box Office, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. 586-787- 8, VV'V f y vv $ 0 iff I I "1 w ... vir features such performer as Umm.s U m n U V V. H: Megan Cole, as Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, is receiving rave revieus for her performance. The veteran actress and dancer is pleased to open a new theatre in the Randall L. Jones facility. The SeattleTased performer also appears in The Imaginary Invalid, as Beline. r. I A&.S activities augment Fest Day From feastes tours seminars, Shakespeare abounds here to to Visitors to the Utah Shakespearean Festival neednt worry about what to do during the day. Its busiest season ever is now in full operation. In adition to six plays in repertory in two theatres, the Festival provides a full schedule of The free and mghtls Gwenshou II: ? t I i: N daytime activities featuring educational programs, musical performances, and dancing and juggling on the green. Festival activities begin at 10 a.m. with a choice of literary seminar in a pine grove behind the Adams Shakespearean theatre or a backstage tour that includes both the Adams and the new Randall L. Jones Theatre. Literary seminars take place seven days each week. Production seminars are Monday through Saturday, and backstage tours Tuesday through Saturday. The Renaissance Feaste is presented Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the season, and A Royal Tea is on Mondays and Thursdays. On Renaissance Feaste days, the Festival can keep you busy until 11:30 p.m., with time-ou- t only for lunch. A Feaste day offers this schedule: literary seminar or backstage tour at 10 a.m ; production seminar at 11:30 a m; lunch on your own, matinee of The Imaginary Imalid at 2 p.m.; the Renaissance Feaste at 5:30 pm.; and at 8:30 p.m. a choice of either The Glass Menagerie in the Randall L. Jones Theatre or Macbeth in the Adams Shakespearean Theatre. Evenings at the Randall Theatre begin at 7:45 w ith musical entertainment in the foyer to set the mood for each evenings play. Evenings with Shakespeare begin at 7:15 with an orientation and Greenshow with music and dancing. Matinees are also preceded by foyer entertainment or a Greenshow. Matinee performances of Doug Christensens Nothing Like the Sun, starring Patrick Page, rotate daily with Molieres The Imaginary Invalid and William Shakespeares The Tempest. Nightly performances at both theatres bring the total number of choices to 18 per week. If you cant get tickets for one, you have 47 other possibilities. The three plays athe elegant indoor Randall L Jones Theatre are Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie, Molieres The Imaginary Invalid, and Doug Christensens Nothing Like the Sun. The trio of Shakespearean plays at the authentic outdoor Adams Shakespearean Theatre are The Tempest, Macbeth and The Winters Tale. For Festival ticket information, please visit the Utah Shakespearean Festival Box' Office at 351 West Center, Cedar City, Utah, or telephone (801) 586-787- 8. |