Fred Adams still influences Utah Shakespeare Festival
One way to describe Fred C. Adams would be to cull words from the various awards he's received through the years: leader, entrepreneur, pioneer, visionary.
While those all apply, a better way is to describe Adams is from the words of those who have worked with him through the decades at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which he founded in 1961.
"Fred has been a friend and a mentor and sort of a sidekick at times," says Brad Carroll, who is directing the musical "South Pacific" this season.
"He's a great man," says Peter Sham, who is acting in "The Taming of the Shrew" this season under Adams' direction. "He's truly one-of-a-kind."
Betsy Mugavero, who acted in the 2011 production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" under Adams' direction, calls him both funny and formidable, raving about his love for Shakespeare and his influence on American theater.
"I'm incredibly grateful to Fred for making this place what it is and giving me a chance to grow in this theater community," she says. "It takes a lot of guts to start a theater company. It's a very brave endeavor. And to be successful at it is astounding."
Adams founded the festival in 1961 and staged its first season in 1962. He was a new face at the College of Southern Utah, now Southern Utah University — fresh off a few years on the New York theater scene.
Southern Utah's summer tourism economy proved to be part of his inspiration for the festival, knowing it contained marvelous potential for providing theater patrons. So off he went to Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to get ideas. He returned home with the seeds for Cedar City's own festival.
That first season saw productions of "The Taming of the Shrew," "Hamlet" and "The Merchant of Venice" performed by a small company of college students and townspeople on a temporary, outdoor platform. The two-week season drew 3,276 audience members and $2,000 toward a second season.
The festival Adams built has now grown into a multi-month event with more than 150,000 theatergoers and a budget in the millions.
For many years, Adams served as the festival's producing director and executive producer. He still holds the titles of founder and executive producer emeritus. Those are typically the kind of titles given to someone important to an organization but who is not necessarily still involved with the day-to-day workings of that organization.
Not so with Fred Adams.
At 84 he still holds the title of director of the Festival Capital Campaign. It's not an honorary title. He still goes to work every day. He still travels the country — and the world — for the festival.
His primary goal is raising funds and awareness for the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts, which will include the new Engelstad Shakespearean Theatre, an Elizabethan-style, open-air theater like the current Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theatre, which the festival and university will retire this year. The complex will also include the Southern Utah Museum of Art as well as other facilities for the festival.
With a price tag of $38.6 million, it's a hefty job. So far, though, $37.6 million has been raised, leaving only $1 million to go before the October deadline. The Engelstad Theatre will open for the festival's 2016 season.
"I'm looking forward to the opening because I think it's going to be a huge revelation to audiences that nothing has been lost — that the charm, the intimacy, the special qualities and environment of (the Adams Theatre) are still there in a new space," Adams says. "We'll miss the trees for a few years. But when I built the Adams there weren't trees. We had to plant our trees. In 40 years, people will walk around the Engelstad surrounded by glorious trees and they'll say, 'My heavens, what a perfect setting!'"
That quote there is part of why so many involved in the festival look up to Adams. He's a visionary man. He has the kind of outlook where he always seems to see a magnificent future.
That vision has helped him through previous fundraising efforts for other theaters. It kept him focused through the six-year construction of the Adams Theatre in the 1970s, piece by piece as funding came available.
In the late 1980s he helped lead a campaign to raise funds for the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Soon after the ongoing campaign for an entire center for the arts began. It will finally be complete more than a quarter of a century later.
"I don't like raising money," Adams says, in striking disparity to his usual jovial nature. "I don't like asking people for money. … There are people that do it well; they're trained in development. And my hat's off to them. I have found this to be a very difficult calling. I do it because it's got to be done and someone's gotta do it."
He does what he does not only out of necessity, but for a love of Shakespeare. Celebrating the works of the Bard has consumed Adams' life. It's more than just literature or theater to him. It can change a young person's life, he says. It can bring richness to an older person's life. It brings awareness to new parents embarking on the journey of starting a family. It teaches life lessons.
That is why he goes to work everyday to do something that makes him uncomfortable.
"I shouldn't be embarrassed (to ask for funding) but I'm a Depression child," Adams says. "I was born during the Depression. I grew up during the Depression. Money has always come hard to me so I guess I value what somebody has done that has the funds to significantly help an organization."
Adams' friends and associates may have lofty titles for him, but when looking at his job directing the capital campaign he calls himself "the carrot." That's because Adams is a people person. People love him and he loves them. Whether he's talking to an individual donor or an entire group about his love of Shakespeare, it's difficult to not be inspired.
So he's the carrot. He gets potential donors in the door, then his associates with the capital campaign "make the ask."
Many decades ago Adams told his father — who had some theater background himself — that he planned to go into directing theater. His father gave him one piece of advice: "Just remember, hell is working eight hours a day at something you don't love."
"I've never forgotten that," Adams says. "And I've never had a single day in my entire career that I haven't looked forward to going to work — excited to go to work."
Living legacy
It's often after death that one achieves the kind of legacy Adams has enjoyed for many decades already.
"Of course, this festival is Fred," Carroll says.
That's a statement where it would be difficult to find someone who disagrees. The name "Fred Adams" is synonymous with the Utah Shakespeare Festival. In some ways, that name is synonymous with Cedar City. After all, the Utah Shakespeare Festival is the standard bearer of the Festival City.
Carroll says that when he is out in the theater world and it comes up in conversation that he has worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, one of the first questions is always, "Do you know Fred?"
As the festival's co-artistic directors, David Ivers and Brian Vaughn have had many opportunities to work with Adams in a variety of capacities — both artistic and administrative.
"We wouldn't be here without him," Ivers says. "He's created a life and profession for so many, many people."
Vaughn says Adams has every right to put his feet up and take a backseat. He deserves to do it. But he's not doing it.
Adams has a tenacity and drive that pushes him forward. It's inspiring, Vaughn says, adding that he hopes he can be like Adams when he's in his 80s.
The artistic directors both treasure the opportunity to travel with Adams. Ivers says Adams has anecdotes about everything. But they are more than just stories; they are aimed at both educating and entertaining.
They all just returned from a two-week trip to Great Britain where they had the opportunity to walk around Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, with Adams. Vaughn says it was a unique chance to see the inspiration that led to the creation of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
Sham says he and other festival regulars like Ivers and Vaughn have their own love of Shakespeare because of Adams' mentoring.
"You can see why he has built what he's built," Sham says. "There's a countenance to him. He's in love with life and Shakespeare. Boy, he's in love with Shakespeare."
Yet Adams himself downplays his role with the festival. He says his triumph in life is his family, "four of the most remarkable children on the planet and 14 phenomenal grandchildren."
"That's my triumph," he says. "The festival has been a joy, but anyone could have done it. I just happened to be here with an idea at the right time. And it was the right time. Everything clicked."
Follow Brian at Facebook.com/PasseyBrian or on Twitter and Instagram, @BrianPassey. Call him at 435-674-6296.
If you go
Utah Shakespeare Festival 2015 Season
• When: Plays open July 2-4 and run through early September
• Where: Adams Theatre and Randall Theatre at Southern Utah University in Cedar City.
• Tickets: $28-$73
• Information: Visit Bard.org or call 800-752-9849.
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