2023 Utah Shakespeare Festival

“I’d rather see Shakespeare in Cedar City than in Stratford, England. My experiences have been better there. This is a professional theatre rated among the top three Shakespeare festivals in North America.”     – Dr. S Michael Wilcox

Michael has seen all of the plays offered each summer for over 20 years. No matter how busy he is, he finds time to experience Cedar City’s Shakespeare Festival. Everyone, even if you question your love of Shakespeare, will absolutely love this festival. It has 4 Shakespeare plays and 2 other musicals, comedies, or Broadway-type plays. Michael helps all of us understand each of Shakespeare’s plays by explaining the story and the characters before we go to each Shakespeare play. Knowing the story will make Shakespeare more enjoyable for everyone. Each day you will enjoy 2 wonderful plays.

Look at the fantastic line-up of plays for 2023

THE ENGELSTAD SHAKESPEARE THEATRE

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
This luxurious tale of fairies, dreams, and moonlight is Shakespeare’s most popular comedy. “The course of true love never did run smooth,” but when the feuding king and queen of the fairies interfere in the mercurial romances of mortals, the result is pure pandemonium and magical mayhem, spotlighting the roguish Puck, bumbling would-be actors, impish fairies, and young lovers.
WEST SIDE STORY
Tony, a leader in the Jets, a gang of white working-class youths, and Maria, sister of the leader of the Puerto Rican American Sharks, are in love—defying the gang tensions and ignoring racial differences. But, just as in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a feuding rivalry threatens to keep the lovers apart. West Side Story is a musical masterpiece that is just as relevant and provocative as when it premiered in 1957 and changed American musical theatre forever.

THE RANDALL L. JONES THEATRE

JANE AUSTEN’S EMMA
Jane Austen’s enduring love story is given new life as a romantic musical. Revisit with new wonder one of Austen’s most adored heroines, a well-meaning but bungling matchmaker who ignores her own desires for love while setting out to find a suitor for her friend Harriet. Sweet, intelligent, and buoyant, this musical will make you fall in love all over again.
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
Welcome to the opening night of the Cornley Drama Society’s newest production, *The Murder at Haversham Manor,*where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. The ill-fated play-within-a-play has everything never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). Nevertheless, the accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences!

ANES STUDIO THEATRE

TIMON OF ATHENS
Timon’s compulsive generosity makes him the most popular man in Athens. The people flatter and praise him, all the while accepting his gifts. Timon is everyone’s best friend—until his wealth is suddenly gone. Destitute and disillusioned with so-called friends who have abandoned him, he turns his back on the world. A play for our times, Timon of Athens is hilarious, satiric, and deeply moving as it explores friendship, wealth, and the foibles of a materialistic society.
CORIOLANUS
An arrogant, proud, and hot-headed military hero, Coriolanus is seduced by the notion of becoming Rome’s ruler, but he must go among the “commoners” he disdains to win their votes.  His loathing becomes public, and the people drive this skilled general from Rome and into allegiance with a sworn enemy. Coriolanus now threatens to attack those whom he sought to rule. This rarely produced play’s themes of ambition, love, family, and power will crackle in our intimate Anes Theatre.

Our BEST Seating!

Before tickets are open to the public to purchase, it is offered to those that contribute money or time to the Shakespeare Festival. Then they allow Fun For Less to purchase our group tickets before they open to the public. This makes it possible for us to get great seating for our group.