The Utah Shakespeare Festival will perform a 75-minute rendition of “Hamlet” at the Montezuma-Cortez High School auditorium.
Tickets will be available for all who wish to attend the performance, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 22.
The Utah Shakespeare Festival, which is located in Cedar City, Utah, and is affiliated with Southern Utah University, was established in 1961 as a way to bring Shakespeare performances and theater to Utah.
The festival later expanded, creating an educational branch in 1993 that travels to schools throughout Utah, Arizona and Colorado performing Shakespeare plays and educating students about theater.
In 2024, the festival is traveling from Feb. 1 to April 20.
According to MCHS Theatre Director Nicholaus Sandner, the troupe does more than just perform when they visit schools.
The day of the performance, students will have the opportunity to spend time with the actors and participate in three workshops.
All three workshops will take place at the same time, and students can decide which one they would like to participate in.
Sandner said this year’s workshops include stage combat, improv and acting for Shakespeare plays. Following the workshops, students help the troupe prepare their sets and are able to ask questions following the show.
“It’s cool because they come and they do workshops with our students in the afternoon, and then the students help them move the show in and we get to watch the show and they do a Q&A at the end. Then our students help pack it all up and send them on their way,” Sandner said.
While the actors perform for free for schools in Utah due to government grants, they have to charge fees for out-of-state performances.
Sandner said they were able to bring the troupe back thanks to the generosity of the LOR Foundation.
A parent who knew of the Utah Shakespeare Festival and their education program brought it to the MCHS theater program’s attention about five years ago, and the troupe has been coming every year except for 2020 during COVID-19.
“They said, ‘Hey, we should get involved in this,’ and we made contact with them and we’ve been able to get on their radar,” Sandner said.
In 2020, they performed and recorded “Julius Caesar,” which was then sent to schools to be watched online. The troupe performed “Macbeth” in 2022, as well as “Romeo and Juliet” in 2023.
Now, the troupe is revisiting “Hamlet,” which was performed prior to COVID-19.
According to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s website, the story of Hamlet encapsulates Hamlet’s journey to find truth, which they said is relevant for young people as they grow and begin to ask, “Who and what can I trust?” and “Do I go with the flow or forge my own path?”
Sandner said the whole experience is invaluable to theater students.
“It’s really fun for our students to see the loading process of the show because they bring their own sets, their own costumes, their own lighting, their own sound stuff and our students help them set it up and set it up fast,” Sandner said. “Then they watch the play and do the Q&A and get to mingle again with the actors and see the sets taken down again … it’s a fun experience to see how a touring show works.”
Tickets for the Feb. 22 show cost $6 for students and seniors, $10 for adults. Children can attend for free.
For more information, visit bard.org.
