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Show ; Sllxlll . -- i Utah shakespearean festival mew ML some&B&iaBg Iv David L. Beck Tribune Staff Writer & t WHEN THE audience files in for the oi ning of the 1 1th annual Utah Shakespearean Festvival Thursday night, there will be a little something new awaiting them: a balcony. And a little The Merchant of something old: Venice. The balcony is just an overwhelming difference. exudes Dr. FredC. Adams, the producing director of the Festival since its inception. And well have one section of permanent seats, he adds something the Festival has been working tow ard for years. The Festival will once again offer while Bolingbroke, his opponent, sways public opinion. Using soldiers with pikes, he says, we re trying to give the sense of an armed camp, a state that is on the verge of civil war. Gradually these pikemen close in on Richard, limiting his movement, until, firmly in check, he Jk Ok it ' w s Two Gentlemen of V Verona; U r Hamlet tD. Scott Glasser) confronts Ophelia (Marilyn McIntyre) in last years Two Gentlemen. This year: Hamlet. Richard II, Merchant, has run off with, and the air of ritual and religious orthodoxy that hangs over him. But thats one part that I find attractive about him, m a way. The committment to his God and his prophets It lends him a certain purity motivating factor. Sam Tsoutsouvas, the actor who will play Shylock. calls it a part thats open a to so many ditferent conceptions ery difficult part to approach in terms of modern-da- y sensibilities. ... SYMPATHETIC is something that you work for in total. I dont think it would be a very good performance if you felt sy mpathy with the character at every moment. You try to make them understand why he goes as far as he does, and with understanding comes compassion cated Milan and the forest, laden with who are all of course very outlaws, good people underneath. Im trying to place all the scenes out to give it of doors in the springtime that light feeling, the proper time when ... Mr. Tsoutsouvas, a Californian currently resident in New York, has been researching Judaism and Jewishness for the part, a task he finds difficult in Cedar City. Theres not a Jew in What Im going to he laments sight, have to do is go to Las Vegas. says the Elizabethans had perhaps a more realistic attitude toward these matters: They could understand something without feeling sorry for it . . (they could) realize that his actions may he monstrous, but the reasons for them are justified. There are, of course, aspects of Hes a caricature to the role. moneylender, and the scenes where he breaks out in outbursts about the loss of his money that his daughter, Jessica, . . He . , FOR TWO GENTS, director Howard Jensen says, Im trying to go with emphasis on youth and young people in love, and the foolish situations they get themselves into. In many ways its a in fact, that will be the very light play emphasis, light, a spring feeling to it, people awakening to love and trying to cope with it. The play has three locales, he says, each with a different feeling to it: the rustic f countnl ied Varone , the JuiphLsU , v you can fall In love. Craig Zehms will play Proteus and Terrance MacNalley Valentine, with Jamie Olsen as the beautiful Sylvia and Virginia Bingham as Julia. Of the d.rectors, Dr. Adams, of course, is with Southern Utah State College, which hosts the Festival; Mr. Jensen, who played Hamlet at the first Utah Festival, heads the acting program at Indiana University; and Burt Peachy, who is directing Richard II, is the head of the acting program at California State University, Long Beach. WERE WORKING on a concept says Mr. concerning entrapment, how public opinion can Peachy overwhelm an individual regardless of his strengths or shortcomings, Richard is overwhelmed1 by the forces on the stalw,. the. .power, p( -- ft, A "It's also a plea for sensitivity . . . the fact that the political leaders are men, besides being politicians, and we sometimes over look that . . . Because of the Watergate and the situation with Nixon resigning, we thought that the play might be timely. A year from we might have a then i.e., now little more perspective to deal with the play. Richard Rossi will play the reckless king, and Paul Baccus will play Bolingbroke, with Sam Tsoutsouvas as Northumberland and Dan Johnson as York. Joining Mr. Tsoutsouvas in Merchant" will be Peggy Bon Giovanni as Portia, Paul Craggs as Basanio and Lon Huber as Antonio. MR. CRAGGS, a newcomer to Cedar City, has just finished a three-yea- r masters program at Penn State. I came from a program . . . that was mainly designed as a kind of nonelassi-ca- l program; it dealt with a sort of method acting, and we did very few on Friday night and Verona "Richard" on Saturday, after which they will rotate six nights a week (closed Sundays) through Aug. 9. DR ADAMS is also directing the third production of Merchant the play at Cedar City. "Its a very popular piece with the Utah audiences, he says. We opened with it 14 years ago. The last production w as sev en years ago. This w ill he totally a different director, totally different different designers. The concept, I think, is the biggest change that we have. Were playing Shylock very symphathetic, giving him more motivation for the hatred that builds up in him. I think its a stronger concept. Usually they still let him be fairly the archetypcal villain. Well go heavier on the loss of his daughter as a A $ throe Shakespearean plays in repertory. This year, in addition to Merchant," there will be "Richard II and tT other side, ei u t!? Vfc classical shows." At Cedar City, he says, he hopes to get some good training and good experience in doing classical plays . . . "You can apply the same kind of things to classical plays as you do to more realistic shows, but the style is merely a different level of reality. And learning to accept that kind of . . . heightened style is a problem that its necessary for an actor to work on." Mr. Jensen too found Cedar City practically his first classical acting 1 thought it was wonderexperience ful." At the time, though, the actors had to set up the stage themselves, lacking a permanent one, and there was neither a vocal nor a movement instructor, roles being filled this year by Marjorie Chandler and Betsy Hamilton. (Miss Hamilton has also taken charge of the pre-pla- y activities, which are absolutely spcctactular, according to Dr. Adams. "Its a totally programmed show now, like clockwoi k.) Sam Tsoutsouvas, another veteran was here a long time ago remains pleased with the experience. One of the things is, theres not a great deal of time. You have such a limited amount of time to do three plays. Its an intense work period in a very, beautiful place with nice people. I 7 S; u |
