In the photograph above Connie illustrates what the canyon looks like by the pictographs. Not that it helps much I admit. There is a Forest Service marker at one point that warns you not to touch the rock art. We looked at the rock, and even took pictures, but we could not see any art in it at all. Mark went further up the canyon, climbed around some rocks, and found the pictographs.

Mike told us that it is best to come up in the Spring when the pictographs are freshly painted.

Related posts:

1. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictographs
2. City Creek Canyon Trail
3. The View From The Living Room

At the trailhead: Mark, Connie, Kent, Melissa, Jill, Rick(ety), Mike, and Paul. Susan is on camera duty.

On Labor Day at 8 am nine adventurous souls set off to find the Parrish Canyon Fremont pictographs. The pictographs are not very far up the canyon. It was a little cold and Mark loaned Jill his coat. I am told it is a thirty minute hike but I didn’t time it. According to the minutes of the Centerville City Trails Committee meeting held Thursday, April 10, 2008, the pictographs had been damaged:

Mark Day reported he hiked to the Fremont pictographs in Parrish Canyon, and he said they have been vandalized. He said some of the pictographs have been scratched, and others have been rubbed out. (Trails Committee Meeting Minutes)

So we set off to see if we could take some pictograph photographs. I will show you first the path we took to the pictographs and then in the next post the pictographs themselves.

We set off on the trail. We got lost. Asked directions. Continued.

When you get to the bridge, cross it and turn right.

Take a picture of the waterfall and continue.

Follow the creek just like Connie and Susan are doing here.

At this point in a normal blog you would see the pictographs. But there are too many photographs already so the pictographs are in the next post.

Paul and Mike continued onward and upward. I followed. I wish I hadn't.

We got back before the others and met Merrill on Red.

Red is an Arabian Paint and his real name is in Russian which I can't pronounce much less spell.

Related posts:

1. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictograph Photographs
2. City Creek Canyon Trail
3. The View From The Living Room

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The Festival website states:

The Adams Shakespearean Theatre, dedicated in 1977, was designed by Douglas N. Cook, Festival producing artistic director, along with Max Anderson of the Utah State Building Board, and is patterned after drawings and research of sixteenth century Tudor stages. Experts say it is one of a few theatres that probably comes close to the design of the Globe Theatre in which Shakespeare’s plays were originally produced. It is so authentic, in fact, that the British Broadcasting Company filmed part of its Shakespeare series there. It is named for Grace Adams Tanner, a major benefactor of the Festival, and her parents, Thomas D. and Luella R. Adams. It seats 819, plus 66 gallery-bench or standing-room seats.

I took a few more photographs on this last leg of the tour. Backstage there is less room and little storage space compared with the Randall Theatre. There are plans for the New Shakespeare Theatre with a goal of completing the fundraising campaign in time to celebrate the Festival’s fiftieth anniversary season in 2011.

The new theatre, including the lobby, will be enclosed in a glass “shell” with a retractable roof to bring the outdoors into the theatre. I have included a photograph of a scale model of the theatre below.

Fog producing machine

Adams Theatre trapdoor

Model of the New Shakespeare Theatre

Next: Cedar Breaks National Monument

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Randall Theatre Backstage Tour
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: The Greenshow
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Much Ado about Nothing

The Festival website states:

The Randall L. Jones Theatre, dedicated in 1989, was designed by the firm of Fowler, Ferguson, Kingston, and Ruben, with theatrical design by the California firm of Landry and Bogan, as well as Cameron Harvey, Festival producing artistic director. It was built at a cost of $5.5 million, to expand the Festival’s offerings, especially in the area of world classics, and was featured in the August 1990 edition of Architecture magazine. The theatre is named after a Cedar City native known as the father of tourism in southern Utah. It seats 769.

On the Backstage Tour we got to see what it really takes to produce a major dramatic production. We learned about theatre sets, costumes, and lighting and the designers and technicians who bring it all to life. Our tour guide was one of the costume technicians and she was able to knowledgeably answer our questions.

Jill asked for permission to take a few photographs and it was granted. Click on the images to enlarge.

Randall Theatre backstage. In the far corner is the set for Great Expectations.

The set for Great Expectations, a New Musical

Randall Theatre trapdoor

Wigs ready for showtime

Next: The Adams Shakespearean Theatre Backstage Tour

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Adams Theatre Backstage Tour
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: The Greenshow
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Pride and Prejudice

The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

The perfect mood enhancer for the Festival’s productions can be found each summer evening on the beautiful green and courtyard surrounding the Adams Shakespearean Theatre. The Greenshow features the spirited song, dance, and costumes of Shakespeare’s day, and it’s free! Add storytelling, juggling, and Elizabethan sweets, and you’ll have a fun-filled frolic to prepare you for the main stage performance that follows.

This time I only saw a few minutes of The Greenshow — just long enough to snap a couple of photographs. In prior visits I have watched a whole show for they are very entertaining.

Next: The Randall L. Jones Theatre Backstage Tour

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Randall Theatre Backstage Tour
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Adams Theatre Backstage Tour
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Much Ado about Nothing

The set of Pride and Prejudice in the Randall L. Jones Theatre

Having already seen The 39 Steps and Much Ado about Nothing, we were looking forward to Pride and Prejudice to finish our two days at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen. It was begun in 1796, her second novel, but her first serious attempt at publication. She finished the original manuscript by 1797 in Steventon, Hampshire, where she lived with her parents and siblings in the town rectory. Austen originally called the story First Impressions, but it was never published under that title; instead, she made extensive revisions to the manuscript, then retitled and eventually published it as Pride and Prejudice.

The play is adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and J. R. Sullivan and directed by B. J. Jones. The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are desperate. With no sons, they are determined to arrange profitable marriages for their five beautiful daughters. However, when two eligible young men arrive in the neighborhood, excitement and passion begin to rule; and the Bennet household is in danger of being tipped firmly on its end. Fully capturing the spirit of the classic book, this adaptation is delightful, romantic, and fun for the entire family.

My wife owns the notable 1995 television version produced by the BBC starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. Also the 2005 movie starring Keira Knightley (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen. She also has the book. So it was destined that she would see the play.

For me, already knowing the plot and the ending, didn’t spoil the play. The interest now is not in what happens but how the story is told. It seemed to me that all the story was covered — I did not notice anything that was left out. But I do not think I would catch omissions anyway as I have not read the book.

Wikipedia has an interesting Pride and Prejudice Character Map showing the relationships between characters.

Next: The Greenshow

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Much Ado about Nothing
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: The Greenshow
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Randall Theatre Backstage Tour

The play is directed by B. J. Jones. The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

Meet Beatrice and Benedick. To them love is a game of wits. Then meet Hero and Claudio. To them love is, well . . . just love. This vibrant and comic celebration of life and romance will introduce you to these opposite lovers, and to a host of villains, clowns, and eccentric characters. And you will cheer when these lively couples finally learn realities about life, love—and themselves.

The play is shown in the Adams Shakespearean Theatre, dedicated in 1977. It is patterned after drawings and research of sixteenth century Tudor stages. Experts say it is one of a few theatres that probably comes close to the design of the Globe Theatre in which Shakespeare’s plays were originally produced.

I found watching Much Ado about Nothing in an open air theater just adds to the experience. The play was very entertaining and funny. Sometimes, watching Shakespeare drags for me, being the uncouth man that I am, but I enjoyed this play and the time was gone all too soon.

Next: Pride and Prejudice

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Adams Theatre Backstage Tour
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: The Greenshow
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Randall Theatre Backstage Tour

For our 30th anniversary Jill and I spent two days in Cedar City. Our first stop was the play The 39 Steps showing at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The original was the 1935 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll.

The play was adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel and is directed by Eli Simon. The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

What do you get when you blend Alfred Hitchcock with Monty Python? A hilarious mystery spoof that will keep you guessing! Murder, betrayal, and espionage intertwine with sly and hysterical nods to many of Hitchcock’s films, resulting in one of the funniest plays to ever hit Broadway. See if you can figure out whodunit as this cast of four transforms into over 150 farcical characters!

It took me awhile to catch on but there are only four actors in the play. This is where a lot of the humor is involved as characters, at times, are switched at a frenetic pace. There were an amazing amount of costume changes as there are over 150 characters.

It was clever (and funny) how the train and car rides were simulated. At one point, one of the actors was so funny that the other actors had a great deal of trouble keeping a straight face. This set off the audience laughing anew.

This mystery spoof is intertwined with sly and hysterical nods to many of Hitchcock’s films. Most of these had gone over my head before I finally caught on.

Really, my theater ticket was wasted on me.

Next: Much Ado about Nothing

Related posts:

1. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Much Ado about Nothing
2. Utah Shakespearean Festival: Pride and Prejudice
3. Utah Shakespearean Festival: The Greenshow

And over the pulpit a couple will hear how debt is worse than the plague, how they should work hard, that they should nurture and provide for their family, and not rely on government.

So while most of the credit goes to Jill for making our marriage great, the Church and its supportive members have to be recognized for the great contributions they have made to our marriage.

Our favorite daughter-in-law honored us on her blog today over at Ada Shot Me.

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