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Fairy Tale Festival @ Thanksgiving Point
As rough a year-plus as it has been for all of us, it has been a particular challenge for children, navigating the shifting realities of their school and social lives in a way that has disrupted all sense of normalcy. Parents might all be looking for ways to bring a little magic back into their young ones’ lives, and this weekend offers just such an opportunity with a fanciful celebration of the stories that have delighted children for generations.
This weekend, Thanksgiving Point brings magical tales of fairies, forests and folk tales to life with its midsummer tradition of the Fairy Tale Festival. Visitors are invited to dress in costume and come for a chance to meet some of their favorite characters in real life while they explore the facilities enchanting gardens, go on adventurous quests and listen to storytelling. For an additional cost, you can even join in one of three Fairy Tale Tea Parties taking place throughout the day, hosted by the
Mad Hatter and including a wide variety of snacks and drinks along with the special character interactions.
The event takes place Saturday, June 19, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Thanksgiving Point’s Ashton Gardens (3900 N. Garden Dr., Lehi). Online ticket purchase or reservation is required, and included with standard Ashton Garden admission, or free for Thanksgiving Point members; Tea Party tickets include ticketing to the rest of the Fairy Tale Festival activities. Visit thanksgivingpoint.org for additional details, and for information about all of the other delightful experiences available at the location. (Scott Renshaw)
COURTESY PHOTO
Myriam Steinberg: Catalogue Baby @ King’s English virtual author event
Fertility challenges can be one of the loneliest circumstances to affect our lives—an intimate part of one’s experience that isn’t always shared with others, and when it is shared with others, can leave people not sure how best to be supportive. But as writer Myriam Steinberg discovered, opening up to the world about your story can lead not just to feeling less alone oneself, but providing a sense for others having the same experience that they aren’t alone, either.
In her new book Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)Fertility, Steinberg chronicles her experience as a woman who, having just turned 40, decides to embark on a journey of trying to conceive a child without a partner. With the support of family and friends, she selects a sperm donor, and launches a path filled with the exultation of successful fertilization, and the despair of losing pregnancies. But while the choices required and the experiences were emotionally fraught, Steinberg opted to share those experiences, exploring the lack of a societal language for talking about fetal loss and the accompanying grieving process. With humor and honesty, and in the unique form of a graphic novel with art by Christache Ross, Catalogue Baby becomes not just one woman’s story, but a resource and a rallying cry in support of all those whose lives have taken similar turns.
Steinberg participates in a live-streamed Crowdcast event sponsored by King’s English Bookshop on Tuesday, June 22 at 6 p.m. The virtual event is free, but advance registration is required; visit kingsenglish.com for more information. (SR)
DIANE SMITHERS
Utah Foster Care Chalk Art Festival
As Utah Foster Care notes on its website, “The pandemic has not reduced the need for foster parents in our great state.” For more than 20 years, the organization has been dedicated to finding, training and supporting families who are willing to provide homes for children in the Utah foster care system. And one of its showcase fundraising events returns in 2021, looking slightly different but still combining the chance to see amazing street art with support for this important organization.
The Chalk Art Festival takes up residence in its familiar home along the streets of The Gateway (400 West 200 South) for a weekend-long exhibition of artists at work. While fewer artists have been invited to participate this year due to physical-distancing policies keeping more space between the artist locations, there will still be many opportunities to check out pieces featuring beloved popculture characters, recreations of great classic works of art, trompe l’oeil and other visual sleight-of-hand, plus much more. Additional opportunities for virtual participation—with artists creating works on their own home driveways and sidewalks—have also been added this year, available to view on Utah Foster Care’s social media networks.
Artist work begins Friday, June 18, 5 p.m. – 9 p.m., and continuing Saturday, June 19, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., with completed work available for viewing on Sunday, June 20 (potentially making it a fun Father’s Day activity). Also on Saturday, join special guests including Utah First Lady Abby Cox, Nathan Osmond and a visit by princesses from Wish Upon a Party. (SR)
Utah Symphony Summer Outdoor Season
When the Utah Symphony re-launched limited-seating indoor concert performances in the fall of 2020, it was one of the earliest signs that the arts community had a chance to return to normalcy, and that the COVID19 pandemic wouldn’t last forever. While the organization continued with virtual presentations as well, there was hope in the chance to be delighted by live orchestral music. And as more and more parts of life get back to normal this summer, the Utah Symphony takes to the road to bring its musical masters throughout the state in a wide variety of open-air venues.
The performances begin Tuesday, June 22 with the launch of the Summer Community
Concert Series at Draper Amphitheater, with a performance of new and works and symphonic favorites. The series continues June 24 at Taylorsville Dayzz, July 5 at West Valley’s Cultural Celebration Center, July 6 at downtown Salt Lake City’s Gallivan Center and July 7 at Thanksgiving Point’s Waterfall Amphitheater. Then, in August, the Symphony visits smaller Utah venues including Cache Valley’s American West Heritage Center (Aug. 10), Angels Landing in Kanab (Aug. 13) and the O.C. Tanner Amphitheater in Springdale (Aug. 14).
Of course, the centerpiece for the Symphony’s summer season remains, as it has for so many years, the Deer Valley Music Festival, which returns after last year’s absence. The Symphony pairs with music headliners including Kool & the Gang (July 9), Kristen Chenoweth (July 10), The Temptations (July 17) and Little River Band (July 30), plus several special themed concerts. Visit utahsymphony.org for full schedule and ticketing information. (SR)
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Utah Shakespeare finds the method to emerge from a crazy year into a 60th anniversary celebration.
In the spring of 2020, Utah Shakespeare artistic director Brian Vaughn had to deal with the uncertainty of a season that was off, then on again, then off again. This year, he has the pleasure to oversee not just a return to the stage, but a particularly momentous season for the nationallyhonored company.
This summer marks the 60th anniversary for Utah Shakespeare, recognizing the unique vision of the late Fred C. Adams to launch an annual Shakespeare festival in the middle of the Utah desert in 1961. The 59th season, unfortunately, fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, after the company initially announced that it would be able to hold a modified season before ultimately being forced to cancel the planned productions.
“It was a pretty tumultuous time, I have to be honest, as I think it was for most people in our industry,” Vaughn recalls. “There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of uncertainty. We were really pushing right up until the last minute to know what we could do. … The main reason we cancelled was recommendations from Actor’s Equity, and it just wasn’t right as far as case numbers increasing in our state. Making that call was incredibly challenging, but I think it was the right thing to do, especially looking at it on the other side of it.”
While an entire year without in-person productions strained the resources of many performing-arts organizations, Vaughn says, “I think we weathered the storm pretty strongly. We saw an outpouring of support from a lot of our patron base and donors. … We also had great support from local and state governments, foundation support was very strong, and Southern Utah University was extremely supportive in navigating what it might look like as far as our full-time staff here. It was really a community effort.”
“I think the timeline was in our favor a little bit, halting prior to everyone arriving” Vaughn adds regarding the ultimate decision to cancel the 2020 season. “Later, it might have been a little more challenging.”
Things still seemed uncertain in the spring of 2021, as the traditional dates for the summer season loomed. “We really didn’t get the full go-ahead until April,” Vaughn says, “which is really wild to think about, considering it’s June right now. … We had to go through a lot of measures, in conjunction with Actor’s Equity and the other professional unions we work with, and navigating state and local guidelines. Even now, it’s a little bit of a shifting target.”
One thing that was clear to Vaughn, however, was that most of the plays that were planned for the 2020 season—including the Shakespeare plays Pericles, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors and Cymbeline—would carry over to 2021. There was definitely a pragmatic component to that choice, as pre-production work on costume and set design had already begun for those shows in 2020. But for the other components of the season, Vaughn says, choices like adding the musical Ragtime and Lynn Nottage’s play Intimate Apparel came down to “a combination of us strategically thinking of what we would do for economic reasons, and titles that felt relevant, that could be conversation pieces.”
While those changes made sense from an artistic standpoint, they did mean that some of the individuals originally hired to be part of Utah Shakespeare’s 2020 repertory company wouldn’t necessarily be part of the 2021 company. “We set out to try to hold on to a lot of those agreements we had in 2020,” Vaughn says, “but the reality was that it’s a different season, and we had different directors, shows that had different demands. … We are a full rotating repertory company, which is in some ways a little bit of a dinosaur, because it’s challenging just for this reason, logistically as well as financially. Sixty actors have to do eight plays, and the demands shift for each play.”
With the productions themselves set, there was still the matter of the guest experience, and what would and would not be possible under current conditions. While the “backstage tour” component familiar from previous seasons has been eliminated to reduce artist/guest interaction, most of the other elements of a Utah Shakespeare season are in place. Vaughn notes that CDC guidelines for mask usage continue to evolve; at press time, Utah Shakespeare’s indoor venues will still require masking of all patrons, while the outdoor theater will be “mask-friendly” with fully-vaccinated guests welcome to go maskless.
Those who do attend will be able to join in that celebration of the company’s 60 years, including a planned tribute to Adams, who passed away in February 2020, adding another level of tragedy to last year. But aside from any specific commemorative events, as Vaughn observes, “a lot of it is just the reality of being open is its own terrific celebration. I’ve heard from countless people who are just so excited to come back to the theater. And for these artists to get back to doing what they love, is just so invigorating.”
The outdoor Engelstad Shakespeare Theater will again host audiences for the 2021 Utah Shakespeare Festival
UTAH SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Various venues in Cedar City Previews begin June 21; regular season June 24-Oct. 9 bard.org for calendar and tickets
