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Show SUU TBlS SUMMER • SOUTHERN trrAH umvEllsri'Y • MONDAf, JUNE 2'1t 1994 THE CAMPUS 3 1994 Utah Shakespearean Festival curtain to rise H it the spotllght! Raise the curtain! Start the actionl Opening night at scenery for three plays and have it up and ready for the technical runs. the Utah Shakespearean Festival is only days away and the Wit h all the scenery completed, Robinson said the task now at hand is to excitement is building as finishing touches are being applled to integrate the sets into the action of the play with the actors on stage. what promises to be a fantastic season. Sometimes the first rehearsal with sets and costumes can reveal problems in The actors, directors, and designers, the scenic, technical, and properties terms of set pieces blocking sight lines or interfering with the action on stage. Adams Theatre audiences can look forward to seeing some wonderful pieces crews, the administrative and support staff have all spent many long days and even longer nights working toward the Festival's June 27 opening. So far all of set construction in the shows. For example, in Shakespeare's Richard Ill, there are two statues and a gargoyle on stage which look as if they are made of efforts have gone on without a hitch! The Festival will open six plays in six days beginning with William wood and weigh about 200 pounds each. Actually, all are constructed of large blocks of Styrofoam which have been carved and painted. Shakespeare's As You Like It June 27, Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday June 28, and Shakespeare's On the Adams stage during Shakespeare's As You Like It look Richard Ill June 29. All three are in for artificial trees made out of the outdoor Adams Shakespearean painted wood and Styrofoam. Theatre. Following that will be While not the real thing, the perungs in the Randall L. Jones craftsmanship and artistry of these Theatre: the French farce A Flea in pieces helps add reaUsm to the 1-/er Ear on June 30, the American pastoral feel of this production. dassic A Streetcar Named Desire Also in this production, look for on July 1, and Shakespeare's Love's several large pieces of pattern Labour's Lost on July 2. painted fabric called roll-drops. After opening week, The They will be used as backgrounds "hoemaker's Holiday will be in several spots on stage. nerformed every Tuesday and The Adams Theatre isn't the Fnday evening. A s You Like It will ,Jay Monday and Thursday only place where set construction has been taking place. The scenic ~venmgs and Wednesdays and crew at the Randall L. Jones Saturdays in matmee. Richard III will be staged every Wednesday and Theatre has been working just as Saturday evening. hard to create sets for Georges Love's Labour's Lost will play Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, Tuesday and Friday evenings and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and Shakespeare's Mondays and Thursdays in Love's Labour's Lost. matinee. A Streetcar Named Desire Tom Umfrid, the set designer will be performed Monday and for the Randall theatre, has put Thursday evenings and Wednesday together four wonderfully crafted and Saturday afternoons. A Flea in sets this season. Umfrid said that Her Ear will be staged Wednesday set construction has been an extra and Saturday evenings and Brian Kurlander as Roland Lacy (left) and Tyler Layton as Rose in a scene from the Utah challenge for his crew because Tuesdays and Fridays in matinee. Sh ak espearean Festival production of 'Tbe Sboemaker's Holiday' playing fune 23-Sept. 3. unlike th e Adams, the Randall All evening performances begin stage has no pre-existing set. at 8:30 and all m atinees at 2, and Therefore, each set had to be bu ilt from the ground up! Umfrid added, "There the Festival runs through September 3 . At the same time that these six plays are opening, the Festival will also has been a much greater demand for scenery in the Randall, thus a greater physical demand from the scene crew." preview and open its popular Green sh ow and the renaissance-style evening of Never fear, the Randall scene crew is working right on schedule and food and entertainment, The Royal Feaste, as well as numerous workshops, audiences will surely appreciate the imaginative and realistic sets awaiting orienta tions, seminars, and other pheripheral events. The compllmentary G reenshow is performed each evening at 7:30. The Royal Feaste is presented them. For example, the set of A Streetcar N amed Desire has wallpaper as well as painted walls and features a bathtub with real running water! The set of each Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday; and tickets must be purchased at the Box Love's Labour's Lost brings audiences into the academic yet romantic mood of Office. the play with its ivy, exposed brick, fences, and colurrms. And of course the set In preparation for this coming week, the Festival grounds have been of A Flea in Her Ear m atches the rollicking pace of the play, complete with lots humming of late. For nearly five weeks now it has been commonplace to see of doors to slam, windows to peek through and rich, sophisticated Parisian actors lying on the grass quoting Shakespeare, darting amongst the trees style furnishings. swinging prop swords, shields, and daggers during fight rehearsals, or dancing While the actors were rehearsing and sets were being built, another and singing on Th e Greenshow stages. So far, the actors have spent their time important element of the Festival was being completed also: costumes! Both in Cedar C ity diligently memorizing and rehearsing their lines. And if the the Randall and the Adams Theatres have their own costume shops and they rehearsals taking place in both the Randall L. Jones and Adams Shakespearean have been hard at work creating clothing, hats, shoes, armour, and jewelry for Theatres are any indication, Festival audiences are in store for top rate all six shows. performances no matter what show they purchase tickets to see. A sampling of costumes ready for opening night includes everything from And speaking of purchasing tickets . . . the London of Shakespeare's day to the New Orleans of the 1940s. A Flea in Festival Box Office Manager P. J. Rockwell warns that those who haven't Her Ear features exquisite dresses and suits modeled after 1897 Parisian reserved their seats for this season's shows yet should hurry. "Tickets are selling really fast for the entire season," Rockwell said, "but with the exception fashions. Look for large women's hats complete with lots of plumage sitting atop very high, expertly coiffed wigs; corseted waists and bustles; and top hats, of the opening night performance of As You Like It, there are still good seats tails, and pin stripes. Turn of the century academ e abounds in Love's Labour's available." Lost and audiences can expect lots of baggy trousers, beautifully tailored T ickets for all six plays, as w ell as Th e Royal Feaste, are now on sale. To blazers, and tennis sweaters on the men and parasols and bejeweled and order by telephone, simply call 801 -586-7878; to order by mail, write: Box embroidered dresses on the female characters. Office, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Cedar City, UT 84720. Of course the Shakespearean plays taking place in the Adams Theatre, like If it has been commonplace on campus to see the actors preparing for their Richard III, are full of capes, pantaloons, crowns, and gowns in rich and regal roles, it has been even more commonplace to hear the hammers and saws of colors and fabrics with fur appliques. All in all the costume designers and t he scenic and technical crews as they go about the all-too-important task of costume/crafts technicians have succeeded in preparing delightful pieces that cons tructing the sets for this season's shows. perfectly match the times and the characters that the plays present. Dan Robinso'n, the set designer for the Adams Shakespearean Theatre, is For the thirty-third year in a row, the Festival is on a roll, ahead of schedule, more than satisfied with the progress th e scenic crew has made in building sets and won' t stop until the last curtain call on closing night. Utah Shakespearean for the outdoor performances. Robinson said, "The build has been quite Festival Director of Marketing and Public Relations Doug Kirchner adds, "The successful du e largely to the tal ented crew I'm working with this summer." concepts, ideas, and dreams are fast becoming realities, and we have a few T his hardworking crew of painters, carpenters, electricians, assistants, and surprises in store for our patrons this summer as well." more has managed, in just a few short weeks, to complete all the Adams |