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Show Preperations underway for 1977 Shakespearean Festival Selection of company members for the 1977 Utah Shakespearean Festival will be held in Cedar City March 18 through 20, it was announced by Fred C. Adams, producing director for the annual summer event. Producers, directors, designers, and technical supervisors will meet at Southern Utah State College to select the 55-member company from the more than 800 applications that have been received to date by the Festival. "For the first time in many years we will meet on the site of the Festibal for these important business meetings," Prof. Adams said. "In former years, the spring meetings have been held on the East or West Coasts to facilitate attendance by production staff members living or working in those areas." Prof. Adams explained that the decision was made to hold the meetings in Cedar City so that those involved with the preplanning pre-planning of the Festival can become familiar with the facilities as they now exist. New this year will be a self-contained self-contained sophisticated lighting system for the outdoor Elizabethan theatre. "Much of the designing for costumes, sets, lighting, and other technical aspects of the Festival is completed well ahead of the company arrival time the second week in June," Prof. Adams said, "This makes it possible to have everything in readiness for rehearsals to begin immediately." Play dates for the 1977 season will begin on July 14 and continue through August 20, a one-week extension of former seasons. However, this does not lengthen the preparation time, which still remains at approximately one month from the time the company arrives to opening night. Now in its sixteenth season, the Festival will present "Romeo and Juliet" and "Taming of the Shrew," two of its most popular past season productions, and "Coriolanus," a Shakespeare play new to the Festival this year. In addition, Prof. Adams has announced a new feature this year with the introduction in-troduction of twice weekly matinee performances per-formances of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado." He will direct this production. "Advance ticket sales are well ahead of former years and indicate strong interest in all of the Festival offerings," Prof. Adams said. Director for "Taming of the Shrew" will be Brian Hansen, returning as a member of the directing staff after an absence of several years. Prof. Hansen is currently a member of the theatre artrs faculty at the University of Delaware. Charlene Bletson, head of the acting program at the University of Utah, will direct "Romeo and Juliet." She performed per-formed with the Festival acting company in 1908, 1909, and again in 1972. "Coriolanus" will be directed by Rick Risso, a member of the 1975 and 1976 Festival acting companies. He is now teaching in the drama department at the University of California at Riverside. In addition to Prof. Adams and the play directors others participating in this week's meetings at SUSC will be Douglas Cook, associate producer; Gary Mclntyre, managing director; Cameron Harvey, production coordinator; Scott Phillisp, public relations director; Gwen Sandberg, promotion coordinator; Barbara Cox, costume designer-director; Felice Proctor, Ken Simmons, and M. L. Baker, Costume designer; Gene Chesley, scenic designer; Dan Hall, technical director; Tom Ruzika, lighting designer; Betsy Hamilton, pre-show director, and Chris Barns, Stage manager. |