The Insider: Utah Shakespeare Festival

If the hottest August ever recorded in Vegas has you looking for a day away during your vacation, why not ‘shake’ things up by checking out the Utah Shakespeare Festival this fall. Located a gorgeous 2 hour drive north up the I-15 and on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, the “Utah Shakes” as it has affectionately become referred to runs annually from May through October. Every Summer, the festival features 9 different plays, and contrary to the festival’s name, they have a wide variety of musicals, comedies and dramas from multiple playwrites not just Shakespeare. One of the highlights is definitely the Adams Theatre, which is modeled after Shakespeare’s own Globe Theatre in which the plays were initially staged. The Adams theatre is an open air performance space with a wooden facade that has hosted many theatre companies throughout the years, including the BBC during the filming of their “Shakespeare Series.”

Show tickets are reasonably priced anywhere from $20-$70 per show (and that includes the priceless bonus of seeing Mormon adolescents dress like Old English Wenches.) ‘Utah Shakes’ gives you the choice of matinee performances at 2pm and evening shows at 8, Monday through Saturday. But the festival doesn’t end when the curtain closes. There are also daily literary seminars, a free Greenshow at 7pm, hosted luncheons and symposiums. You can find more information and tickets at www.bard.org.