The arts aren't just good for your creative juices, but for the economy.

That was the message Michael Bahr, education director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, delivered to a congressional hearing Thursday in Washington, according to this Salt Lake Tribune report.

"Art in Cedar City is not a luxury; it is business," Bahr said. "It hires an educated and talented work force. It provides positive economic impact far beyond the theater."

Also testifying (according to the AP's account of the hearing) was actor Tim Daly, who cited the direct financial impact of a single episode of his TV series, "Private Practice." An episode of the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff takes nine days to shoot, employs hundreds of people, and spends about $20,000 on food, $25,000 to $40,000 on clothes and costumes, $2,500 on dry cleaning and $15,000 on furniture for the sets.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, also testified at the hearing - and, of course, ascribed the woes of the arts community to the Obama administration. Bishop said Obama's budget proposal, by reducing the amount that rich people can deduct from their taxes, would remove the incentive to donate to the arts.

Bishop said that charitable donations create an "emotional bond that government funds couldn't match." Apparently, though, that bond isn't strong enough to continue in a smaller tax shelter.

Labels: politics, Utah Shakespearean Festival

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow

Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

It seemed appropriate to evoke Shakespeare for this sad news: Barbara Gaddie Adams, who with her husband Fred Adams founded the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, died Wednesday at the age of 76.

Barbara Adams was dean of women at Southern Utah State College (now Southern Utah University) in 1961, when she and her husband conceived the idea of a theater festival in Cedar City. That festival has now grown into a national treasure, and a Tony winner for regional theater.

"She worked hand-in-hand with Fred in the dreaming and the working to make it happen in those early years," R. Scott Phillips, the festival's executive director, told the Tribune's Roxana Orellana. "She was the first person who really provided the thread for all of the music at the festival."

Labels: Utah Shakespearean Festival

You ever wonder how the Utah Shakespearean Festival does it every year? The logistics of mounting a world-class theater event are staggering.

Just consider one aspect of the event: Costuming.

DramaBiz magazine, a trade publication for theater groups, talked in its July/August issue to costume experts who either work for or subcontract costuming for troupes nationwide - including Jeffrey Lieder, USF's costume director since 1986 (pictured at right).

For a major play like "Cyrano de Bergerac" (pictured at left), Lieder said, USF builds a third of the costumes, pulls another third from its wardrobe inventory, and borrows a third from other theater organizations - a nice trade, because those theater groups then borrow from USF.

And when it comes to cleaning the costumes, the rules are strict. For a union theater, rules say all costumes must be washed once a week, and garments that touch the body - socks, shirts, underwear - must be cleaned daily, for the health of the actor and the olfactory sensibilities of the front-row patrons.

Lieder has a 10-person crew that cleans the washable parts of every costume between each show - and gets the costumes ready for the actors. He also takes preventative steps: Removable dress shields for the women's costumes, and T-shirts under the men's doublets.

(Photos: Utah Shakespearean Festival)

Labels: Utah Shakespearean Festival