CEDAR CITY, UTAH: Utah Shakespeare Festival has announced its 2021 season, featuring eight plays in three performance spaces. The season will run from June 21 to Oct. 9, 2021.
“The 2021 season at the Utah Shakespeare will be like no other in our history,” said executive producer Frank Mack in a statement. “It is our 60th year, it is dedicated to our founder, Fred C. Adams, and it marks our return to producing after missing 2020. It will be a magnificent experience.”
The 2021 season with start with three Shakespeare productions running in rotating repertory at the outdoor Engelstad Theatre.
First will be Shakespeare’s Pericles (June 21-Sept. 9), about a statesman’s search for happiness in the wake of loss.
Next will be Shakespeare’s Richard III (June 22-Sept. 10), about the last ruler of the House of York and his struggle to keep power. This production is the next installment in the Festival’s History Cycle series.
The final Shakespeare play in repertory will be The Comedy of Errors (June 23-Sept. 11), about two sets of bewildered twins causing confusion and laughter.
The season will continue with The Pirates of Penzance (June 25-Oct. 9), by Arthur Sullivan and William Schwenck Gilbert, a comic opera about a pirate who falls in love with the Major General’s daughter.
Next up will be Ragtime (June 26-Sept.11), with book by Terrence McNally, and score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. The musical is based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel about families pursuing the American dream at the start of the 20th century in New York City.
Following will be The Comedy of Terrors (July 29-Oct. 9), by John Goodrum, a madcap farce that follows two twin sisters, two twin brothers, and a third brother, all played by two actors.
Next will be Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (June 16-Oct. 9), a mythic tale based on the legends of Celtic British King Cunobelin.
The season will close out with Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel (July 17-Oct. 9), about a single African American woman in early 1900s New York City working her way out of poverty as a seamstress.
The programming will also include backstage tours, seminars, orientations, and numerous classes.
Founded in 1961, Utah Shakespeare Festival is a destination theatre that presents classical and contemporary plays and musicals in rotating repertory.
