[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10199-10200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       UTAH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to the Utah 
Shakespeare Festival, the Nation's premier regional theater and one of 
our State's crown jewels, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
  Great things often evolve from small or modest beginnings. That was 
certainly the case in 1961 when Fred C. Adams and his late wife, 
Barbara, founded the event in Cedar City with lofty goals, a bargain-
basement budget of $1,000, and 21 volunteers. They envisioned what few 
others could see--that the 150,000 tourists who flocked to the area 
each summer might also be gathered for a theater festival.
  Today, the Utah Shakespeare Festival is the proud recipient of a Tony 
Award for being the ``outstanding regional theatre in America.'' It 
operates year-round, boasts a $6.6 million budget, employs 26 Equity 
actors and has another 300 community volunteers. Its repertoire has 
also expanded. Yes, Shakespeare is still the main attraction, but the 
festival also stages plays from three centuries of playwrights from all 
across Europe and the United States.
  Not bad for a festival that is 250 miles from Salt Lake City, the 
State's largest metropolitan area.
  Geography, though, can hardly be the sole consideration for theatre 
aficionados who wish to attend the festival. It is simply too good and 
too glorious to miss, for mileage's sake. That is why I and millions of 
others have eagerly gone the distance many times to take in 
Shakespeare's plays at the open-air Adams Memorial Theatre--modeled 
after the playwright's famed Globe Theatre in London--and other 
offerings at the indoor Randall L. Jones Theatre. Every time I have 
gone, I have been thoroughly entertained and richly rewarded.
  But the past is past, or, as Shakespeare put it, ``What is past is 
prologue.'' I look forward to many more productions there, and for the 
event to capture ever-more acclaim and captivate ever-larger and more 
appreciative audiences. Perhaps the Bard of

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Avon's words best sum up the festival's future: ``The golden age is 
before us, not behind us.'' I firmly believe that to be true.
  On this, the 50th anniversary of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, I 
salute the visionaries like Fred and Barbara Adams, Executive Director 
R. Scott Phillips, and the scores of organizers, performers, and 
volunteers who have and continue to make this wonderful event possible.
  I commend them for a wonderful 50 years and wish them well as they 
embark on the next 50 and continue to carry out the festival's mission 
to ``entertain, enrich and educate.''

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