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Show j Efecorti attendance Qgpeeted for 13th annual Festival I One of Utah's most popular annual events is the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, drawing over 17,000 theatre goers last year and more projected for this year. The thirteenth annual Shakespearean Festival runs July 11 through August 10. The plays being presented in repertory include Hamlet, As You Like It, and for the first time in the Intermountain West, Henry VIII. Each summer the Utah Shakespearean Festival offers three of Shakespeare's plays performed on a new outdoor Elizabethan stage, designed after the original Globe Theatre. The facility allows traditional staging to be combined with the plasticity of modern innovations, according to Richard Johnson, Festival technical director, New permanent seating planned for completion for next year will increase house capacity from the present 675 to 1,000. Although the plays do not actually begin until 8:30 p.m., the festive atmosphere is introduced with a pre-performance orientation orien-tation by director Fred C. Adams. Strolling minstrels, yjlh flnr wnilii nniT'i ar-mwMiw TRADITIONAL SETTING. The Tiring House and outdoor surroundings make the Shakespearean Festival not only authentic but pleasant to view as well. sideration we have to deal with is co-ordinating different actor's personalities so they work together harmoniously. We really haven't had many problems with the actors because they have assumed professional attitudes of give and take." "Everyone connected with the festival is competent, talented and professional", commented Johnson. renaissance music, singing vendors and a Punch and Judy show, create a colorful pre-play mood of the Elizabethan Age. Dressed in rich fabrics, the actors ac-tors appear on stage in authentic costumes designed and created exclusively for each production. Men and women in this years Festival company come from top drama schools in the nation such as Penn State, Stanford, University of Texas, and various Universities of California. Six thousand posters are sent throughout the nation in January of each year announcing Festival auditions. "This year we had 600-650 600-650 applicants for the 17 company members" said Adams. Resumes, pictures, and ' " recommendations sent in by the applicants are used to select the company members. The actors arrive in June four weeks before the season opens to begin a series of intensive rehearsals. "Each of the actors must learn three different roles, one for each play presented." said Adams. Each play is rehearsed three hours a day, in addition to voice and movement classes conducted for the actors. Once the plays open, the individual in-dividual directors follow them closely to catch problems and work on details. Adams said, "The most impressive im-pressive aspect of the Festival as well as the greatest challenge is the audience. Another con- |