Utah Shakespeare Festival 2025

Since 2014, my wife has attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival, usually with a friend, on a week that the kids and I were camping somewhere. We have dropped by occasionally if we are camping in the area. Back in 2016, however, we joined her for a second trip to see the fall plays. (They used to have some in summer, some in fall, with a brief overlap if you did it right. At this time, they appear to be doing just one set of plays throughout the whole period.) 

 

That 2016 trip was a lot of fun, so we returned in 2021, and again in 2023 and 2024. These days, we are down to our two youngest kids, as the older ones are in college, with their own lives. Time moves on. I have mentioned that my wife and I went to see a play (Comedy of Errors) for our first date over a quarter century ago, so we anticipate being that couple after the kids all move out. 

 

This year, due to schedule and interest, we ended up seeing six out of the seven plays. 

 

In my last year’s post, I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed this season with the play selections. My wife has been friends with the Managing Director of the festival for some years - a good friend of hers took theater from him back in the day, and he does one of the seminars, so we got a chance to talk. 

 

Apparently, financial issues since the pandemic meant making rather conservative choices, including, unfortunately, only plays by white males this year. Tthe casting was, fortunately, as wonderfully diverse as ever, with some incredible performances by actors which I very much hope to see return. 

 

I will also note that, after the initial announcement of the season, there were some additions. First, they were able to put a play in the Anes Theater, the small venue which us theater die hards love for the intimacy of productions. In this case, they put on Dear Jack, Dear Louise by Ken Ludwig, which was excellent. (See below for individual play discussions.)

 

Second, they were able to get Lauren Gunderson to come out for a read-through of her new play. Unfortunately, this happened the weekend after we were there. Since our kids are back to school this week, that would not have worked for us, but definitely great that they were able to do that.

 

The 2026 season at least has one female playwright (and a play adapting a book by a female author), but still no minority playwrights, which is a bit disappointing. Particularly since an established festival like this should have the pull and budget to take some chances. Past plays by black playwrights, for example, sold tickets, and sparked excellent audience discussions. (And, I will note, my teens particularly considered them the best ones they saw.) 

 

As I said, otherwise the festival remains committed to diversity even in the face of a hostile political environment. 

 

Regarding this year’s season, I will also mention that the one play we did not see, Steel Magnolias, apparently resonated with a lot of people. My wife mentioned that she had not expected to hear from so many older men deeply affected by the story. This is certainly a positive. In our era of a shrinking masculine emotional palette due to toxic masculinity, it is good to see men finding constructive ways of talking about their emotions. 

 

Finally, before I dive into the individual plays, let me mention that for my wife and I, the festival is an entire experience, not just a series of stage performances. We attend the Cabaret, which is a fundraiser for young artists, held way too late at night, but still a lot of fun. This is how you get to see things like seeing Chauncy Thomas solving complex math problems in his head…while juggling. (He also was badass in roles in all three Shakespeare plays this year. I don’t know how actors keep all that in their heads, but it is amazing to me.) 

 

With that, I’ll jump into the individual plays, in the order we saw them. 

 

The Importance of Being Earnest

 

This play has been one of my favorites ever since I read it as part of my high school education. Oscar Wilde was, to say the least, one of the most witty and hilarious writers of all time, and Earnest is the kind of play that never gets old. 

 

I have seen it live twice before, once as a gender-swapped version at our local university, and once with Ronnie Warren in drag as the platonic form of Lady Bracknell. 

 

My 14-year-old said this was her favorite play of all we saw at USF this year. My past posts indicate that she has seen it three times now, so it clearly isn’t getting old for her.  

 

Every time I see the play, I notice different lines. This year, Lady Bracknell’s line sounded a whole lot like the RFK Jr. approach to public health:

 

Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. 

 

Yep, just lecture the ill a bit more - it is their duty to either be healthier, or hurry up and die. As one who was a sickly child myself, I am all too aware of how much of health is simply luck of the genetic dice. 

 

On the surface, Earnest can seem silly, but underneath is a pointed social satire. 

 

As far as the performances, they were as excellent as one could expect from a professional production. I will particularly call out Rob Riordan as Algernon (and also Monty in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) as being particularly hilarious. His physical acting was amazing, every bit as important to the story telling as the words. 

Algernon and Jack

 

Katie Drinkard and Christopher Joel Onken, as Gwendolyn and Jack respectively, were properly stiff in comparison, with their embrace of conventionality even as the play subverts it. Valerie Martire was frivolous and petulant as Cecily, a bit less naive than other portrayals I have seen. I also thought that Melinda Parrett was particularly fun as Miss Prism - played as more flirty and less uptight than other versions. 

 

The costumes were fun in this one (as was the costume discussion the next morning), and the set fascinating in its simplicity. 

 

Macbeth

 

Ah yes, the Scottish play. It has been eleven years since I have seen Macbeth, which is hard to believe. It was one of the first plays we took our youngest to (at age 3…), at our local community college. 

 

I realized as well that this is the first professional or even commercial production of this play I have seen. All previous ones were college plays. 

 

This particular play is also meaningful to me because I studied it in 12th Grade, with a truly wonderful teacher (via video) who brought out so many of the underlying themes, allusions, and history. One of the weaknesses of student productions is the difficulty in fully plumbing the depths of the emotions and the themes. 

 

For me, this was my favorite of the plays we saw this time. From top to bottom, incredible acting, creative staging, and deep vision for the nuances. 

 

Walter Kmiec played Macbeth with a human and vulnerable touch. You could see him wince as his wife attacks his manhood. His torment over his conscience was palpable, as was his gradual crumbling at the end. Likewise, Cassandra Bissell was haunting as Lady Macbeth, particularly in the iconic sleepwalking scene. Both felt like full portraits, not cardboard villains. 

 

Notable in this production was that not only was the character of Hecate retained, but she was given an even larger role, appearing (but not necessarily speaking) at various points in the drama, as the boss over the fates/wyrd sisters. She was given wings that were based in part on the arms of the bear in The Winter’s Tale last year, and required four actors to operate. It was pretty cool, and fit with the dark modern-rock-style soundtrack. Caitlin Wise played Hecate (in addition to other significant roles in other plays.) 

 Because you have to do this scene, right?

I want to also mention a couple of other actors who held multiple roles in different plays who shone in this one. Chauncey Thomas, previously mentioned, was Banquo here, and owned the stage whenever he was on it. He also was Pompey in Antony and Cleopatra, and Duke Senior in As You Like It. I really hope he comes back to the festival in future years. 

 

Likewise, Kathryn Tkel gave an emotional performance as Lady Macduff in this play, while portraying Cleopatra and Audrey in the others. Her voice projection was notable - she carried to the roof even in the quietest of moments. 

 

I’ll also mention the Porter scene, featuring Blake Henri, who worked the audience with the whole “Knock Knock” thing. (Arguably, Shakespeare wrote one of the original knock knock jokes…) 

 

This version of Macbeth was just incredible, and worth the price of driving to Utah and then some. My favorite this year. 

 

One of the things I did not know about this play is that the only version we have is a cut version. The original would have been significantly longer, and almost certainly would have included an extra scene or two involving Lady Macbeth. This is why Macbeth is often performed without further cuts. Just an interesting fact there. 

 

Dear Jack, Dear Louise

 

This play was a last-minute addition. Apparently, Artistic Director John DiAntonio wanted to find a way to get something into the Anes theater this year, and eventually decided that this two-actor play fit the bill. 

 

In addition, he could take one part, while his real-life wife Kaitlin Wise could take the other, just like they did last year as Kate and Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew. (Seriously, both of the really excellent versions of Taming I have seen had married couples in the lead roles - the chemistry is just different when you have people who already love each other and can play it all off as an in-joke.) 

 

Ken Ludwig, better known for formulaic comedies, such as the Gershwin song vehicle Crazy For You, which I got to play many years ago, departed from his usual fare to write this very personal play, based on the real-life courtship of his own parents. They were “introduced” through their extended families, and proceeded to have a correspondence-based relationship for several years while Jack was deployed as an army doctor. They finally met in person after the war, and the rest was, as they say, history. 

 

Ludwig’s mother destroyed the original letters, considering them too personal. It is unclear if Ludwig ever read the originals - I was unable to find any confirmation either way - but he apparently took the various family stories and wrote them into this play. 

 

The play is in the form of the letters between the two of them, which start out awkward and laconic, before each of them opens up, and they fall fully in love. 

 

As in real life, Jack is an army doctor who is shy and unsure what to make of the woman who writes to him. Louise is an actor, extroverted and sometimes over the top, who succeeds in drawing Jack out of his shell. The way the two of them gradually become more intimate over the years, revealing more of themselves, is what makes the play charming. 

 

It is also often hilarious, particularly in the parts by Louise, who has (as played by Wise) a bit of the Lucille Ball manic energy. There are also touching moments, and the heartbreak as circumstances keep them from meeting on several occasions. 

 

I’m glad they added this play in, as it was a welcome contrast from both the boisterous energy of the three comedies and the darkness of the two tragedies. 

 

Antony and Cleopatra

 

I am getting close to completing the Shakespeare canon, and this was one more to add to the list. Next year should be Troilus and Cressida, with The Two Noble Kinsmen to finish out the USF project. That would leave me with only two remaining: Titus Andronicus, and King John.

 

Several of the more rare plays are ones I have only seen here at USF, with Cymbeline and Timon of Athens standing out as particularly wonderful and creative stagings. (Not coincidentally, these were performed in the Anes - the small space led to some creative sets and ideas.)

 

Antony and Cleopatra has fallen out of style a bit during my lifetime, after its previous popularity. I suspect that some of this change in fortune came about due to the idea of portraying women as evil seductresses becoming problematic in a more feminist culture. 

 

But Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is more complicated than that. Even as he portrays her at times as a malign influence on Antony, an oversexed and emotionally manipulative siren; he also gives her an ironic line about how future generations will have her played as a caricature, and even by men. (Shakespeare’s actors would all have been male - it wasn’t until the later Restoration era that women were permitted on stage.) 

 

Nay, ’tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors

Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers

Ballad us out o’ tune. The quick comedians

Extemporally will stage us and present

Our Alexandrian revels. Antony

Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see

Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness

I’ th’ posture of a whore.

 

Cleopatra is also arguably the most fully written female characters in Shakespeare, getting the sort of introspective monologues that the male heroes usually get, and being allowed to be flawed, complicated, and noble in her own way. 

 

Having read (years ago) Virgil’s Aeneid, it is impossible to miss the influence that book’s tale of Aeneas and Dido, which is a rather close parallel to Antony and Cleopatra. 

 

If anything, Shakespeare’s Antony is a departure from the classic hero, seeming greatly diminished in both judgment and fortitude since his appearance in Julius Caesar. 

 

I won’t try to recount the plot here, in part because it is historically inaccurate - definitely do not go to Shakespeare for your history - and partly because it is convoluted and difficult to follow if you do not already know the (historically inaccurate) account in Plutarch. Fortunately, the USF version did a good job of simplifying the various battles (many of which are naval, and thus off-stage) and using flags as symbols of the different sides and also for sails. It was well done, and a lot easier to follow than the original text. 

 

In this version, Geoffrey Kent (a USF regular, I believe) played Antony with bluster and horniness, and the kind of weakness of judgment which leads to his downfall. Kathryn Tkel, though, dang. A truly command performance, riveting in every scene. She apparently teaches at Southern Utah University (home of the USF), which I hope means she will be on stage for years to come, because I could watch her in any role. 

Antony and Cleopatra in happier days

 

Again, plenty of good performances. Gabriel Elmore brought out the nuances of the young Octavian, who is at turns naive, generous, and cunning. Alia Shakira as Charmian, one of Cleopatra’s attendants. (She and Kayland Jordan gave actor interviews one morning, which must be stressful, given the range of questions they had to field…) 

 

I’ll also mention USF regular Chris Mixon in a rather larger role than usual, that of Enobarbus, who is torn between duty to country and duty to Antony, and finally dies of a broken heart. Chris also runs the Cabaret stuff, and probably a bunch of other behind the scenes work. He looks like a good old boy (in a good way), the sort that is a community pillar and good sport. Every acting community has one or more of these, the sorts that whenever you need someone on a bit part, well, “Chris will do it…” I mean, he literally makes baskets of pickles and peanuts to raffle off. Every year, he has some role in each Shakespeare play, and plays it well. 

 

Antony and Cleopatra may not have quite as many famous passages as some of the other plays, but it does have this line, which everyone knows but don’t always realize it is a line spoken by Cleopatra herself. 

 

My salad days,

When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,

To say as I said then! 

 

This is a fascinating play, and one that I suspect I will probably enjoy even more on subsequent performances, when I can revel in each line rather than try to keep the plot straight. 

 

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

 

This is a musical that my wife had suggested USF should do for years. We actually ended up seeing it first locally. It was interesting to contrast the staging and acting in each version. 

 

I mentioned in my previous review that the musical was based on an old book, Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal. That book was also adapted for a movie which I believe my wife has seen (I have not), Kind Hearts and Coronets. 

 

One of the things I learned through the discussion with the USF Dramaturg this year, was that there was actually litigation over the play when it came out. The holders of the rights to the movie claimed that the play borrowed from the movie, and should thus have had to pay royalties. In response, the writers of the play insisted that the play was based solely on the book, which was in public domain. 

 

The lawsuit was dropped, which would indicate that the playwright had some solid evidence in his favor. See, law intersects with everything! 

 

I already discussed the plot in some detail in my previous post, so I won’t repeat it. Monty Navarro, the son of the black sheep of the D’Ysquith family, realizes he has only eight relatives ahead of him in the line of succession to the title and the money. So, he, um, arranges for the deaths of the others. 

 

Well, sort of. The first death is a homicide by omission only. Which means it isn’t legally a homicide at all. And most of the others consist of setting people up to die, not of killing them directly. And the last one, which finally leads to Monty being charged with murder, is actually a murder committed by someone else. 

 

The whole play is hilarious, with various set pieces, puns, innuendo, and of course lots of singing. 

 

Rob Riordan, who also plays Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest, plays the lead part of Monty, and creates an entirely different character from Algernon while being equally hilarious. 

 

Graham Ward plays the part of the entire D’Ysquith family (except for Phoebe, who is after Monty in the succession, so she doesn’t need to be murdered.) This part is challenging because of the rapid changes not merely in character but in costume and makeup. In this version, one of the costume changes occurs on stage, to remind the audience that it is only one actor playing all of them. Ward also has some bit parts in Antony and Cleopatra. 

 Monty with one of the many D'Ysquiths

The most notable part of this particular production to me, however, was the music. The program isn’t entirely clear, but I believe Brad Carroll is the pianist and performer for the music. He pre-recorded sound effects, orchestral parts, and other sounds, but plays the piano parts and coordinates the rest live on stage. The props people built what looks like an upright piano for the set, but it actually contains a keyboard and a couple computers and monitors so that he can play it all from the stage. As such, he becomes a character as well as a musician. 

 

I heartily approve of this approach, if you cannot fit or afford a live orchestra. My understanding is that USF had to get permission from the publisher to re-write all of the parts for this production, which is one of the things I hadn’t thought about. All these modern, copyrighted plays include the duty to perform it as written, unlike the public domain ones which can be edited and modified as desired. 

 

As You Like It

 

As one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, this is one I have seen multiple times, in both professional and amateur productions. It was one of the first Shakespeare plays I saw live, more than 25 years ago. 

 

Perhaps because of this familiarity, I have opinions about the inevitable cuts. (All Shakespeare performed these days is cut, because there is a tremendous amount of repetition, recapping, and dated references. And also, nobody has 5 hours to devote to a play anymore. The art of cutting is indeed an art.) 

 

For me, the main loss in this production was the repartee between Touchstone and Jacques about the degrees of the lie. I know not everyone gets the humor or even understands the reference, but I think it is some of Shakespeare’s finest humor. You can read the passage in one of my previous reviews of this play. 

 

Other than this omission, I greatly enjoyed this production. Kayland Jordan played the central part of Rosalind, and was wonderful. (She also was one of the actors who fielded questions at the actor seminar - which is a tough job. I found her answer to what her dream role would be to be interesting. She noted that she will likely never get to play Juliet, because she is too tall - and indeed she is significantly taller than me. That was perfect for Rosalind, of course.) I very much hope she continues to be a part of the festival. 

Rosalind as "Ganymede"

 

One staging decision that was fun was that the wrestling match between Orlando and Charles was done as a true WWE match, with a real wrestling mat and crazy moves. Apparently, it took quite a bit of thought for how to do it without hurting anyone. And by anyone, I suspect the meaning was Gabriel Elmore as Orlando, because Lavour Addison as Charles was built as hell, showing off with flying pushups before the match. It definitely took some suspension of disbelief to believe that he could have lost a match against anyone in the cast. 

 

For both of them, this was a case of doing their own stunts, and major props for that. 

I’ll also note that the songs in this production were all original music, composed by Lindsay Jones. That’s always nice. 

 

Overall, I would say that the acting in this play was more understated than over-the-top. As You Like It can be done so many ways, all of them valid. Even without that one scene, I liked the interplay between Touchstone (Walter Kmiec) and Jacques (Cassandra Bissell) - there was great chemistry there. 

 

This was a great way to finish off our three days of drama. 

 

For those who live within a reasonable distance of southern Utah, I recommend the Shakespeare Festival for high quality artistry. And also for its commitment to diversity and all that is good about humanity. Historically, it pushed the boundaries with interracial romance, casting of minority actors in lead roles, and socially aware programming. 

 

The arts have always been targeted by fascists and other authoritarians, because the arts have always spoken truth to power, dating back to antiquity. One of the things we can do to fight back against this evil regime is to support the arts, both on the larger national scale, and in our own hometowns. The prophets of our time need to know they are not alone.