Monday, March 7

Actors Returning to the Utah Shakespearean Festival

Hey I pulled this off the Utah Shakes web site.

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CEDAR CITY, UT - “Hang out our banners on the outward walls; / The cry is still 'They come'” (Macbeth, 5.5.1-2). Excitement fills the air at the Utah Shakespearean Festival as actors for the 2005 season are being hired and prepare once again to grace our stages. Several actors who have performed here before (and whom audiences have grown to love) are contracted and ready to return. They include the following:

Leslie Brott, a Festival favorite since 1992, will be playing Holofernia, in Love's Labour's Lost and Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Past roles include last season's Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew and Ida in Morning's at Seven. In 2003, she played Mrs. Hedges in Born Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, and Mistress Overdone in Measure for Measure. Other past roles here include Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Martha Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, Louise Seger in Always . . . Patsy Cline, and Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Joe Cronin is returning for his fifth season with the Festival, and will be playing Montague in Romeo and Juliet, and Egeus/Fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Last season, Cronin played Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, and Theodore Swanson in Morning's at Seven. Other past work here includes the title role in Julius Caesar, Sid Davis in Ah, Wilderness!, and Leonato in Much Ado about Nothing. Having worked at theatres in the United States, England and Scotland, he is one of the founders of Portland, Oregon's Artists Repertory Theatre.

Phil Hubbard will be playing Dull in Love's Labour's Lost, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and several roles in Doctor Faustus. Last season he played Sir Walter Blunt/Owen Glendower in Henry IV Part One and Lord Boxington in My Fair Lady. During the 2003 season, he played John Dickenson in 1776. Other roles in six seasons at the Festival include Governor/Innkeeper in Man of La Mancha, Corin in As You Like It, McComber in Ah, Wilderness!, the King in The Shoemaker's Holiday, the Doctor in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Buckingham in Richard III. Hubbard heads the acting program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

David Ivers will be playing Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, and will assume what is perhaps his most challenging role, as he plays Jake in Stones in His Pockets. This season will be Ivers's eleventh at the Festival, and he has been seen in a wide variety of roles in over twenty productions. Last year he played Polixenes in The Winter's Tale, and Homer Bolton in Morning's at Seven. Other favorite roles include Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, Caliban in The Tempest, and Gary in Noises Off!

Ben Livingston will portray Don Adriano de Armado in Love's Labour's Lost and the nefarious Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus. He last appeared at the Festival in 1990, when he played Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest and Sempronius in Titus Andronicus. Since that time, he has appeared in six major movies, including Bruce Almighty and Dracula, Dead and Loving It; numerous network television sitcoms and dramas including JAG, ER, Dharma and Greg, and Frasier; and numerous stage productions extending from the Pasadena Playhouse to the South Coast Rep.

Melinda Pfundstein will appear as the Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. This will be her seventh season at the Festival. Most recently she played Eliza Doolittle in last season's hit production of My Fair Lady and Lady Percy in Henry IV Part One. Past roles include Martha Jefferson in 1776, Clarice in The Servant of Two Masters, Belle in Ah, Wilderness!, and Gloria Thorpe in Damn Yankees.

Brian Vaughn will take on the role of Arthur in Camelot, and will appear in the challenging role of Charlie in Stones in His Pockets. Vaughn appeared last season as Hotspur in Henry IV Part One, the son of the shepherd in The Winter's Tale, and Smudge in Forever Plaid. Vaughn has assumed more than twenty roles over the past eleven years, including his 2003 portrayals of Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing and Edward Rutledge in 1776

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