Shakespearean Festival's Fred Adams moved by honor

Intermountain Catholic

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Fred Adams, founder and executive producer emeritus of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, is the recipient of the 2007 Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities. He will receive the award June 3. In 2000, the Utah Shakespearean Festival received the Antoinette Perry – Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theater. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

CEDAR CITY – Fred C. Adams expects excellence from himself and from those with whom he works. He is not only the founder and executive producer emeritus of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, he also has acted sung, and danced on the Festival stages. He claims to have and angel on his shoulder, and those who know him well only hope he will share that angel’s good works with them. Adams inspires people to stretch themselves as actors, technicians, directors, and volunteers. They stretch themselves willingly because they see Adams stretch himself.

There are two things Adams told the Intermountain Catholic he never expected. He never expected to be hauled before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities, but he was. And he never expected to be in a position to accept a Tony Award®, and he did that, too, in 2000.

The House Committee on Un-American Activities wanted to know why a U.S. Army Private, a translator from Russian English, was producing a play ("Finian’s Rainbow") for Pentagon officers, the fees for production of which were going to the Communist newspaper, The Daily Worker. "I didn’t know the playwrights’ were the president and vice-president of the American Communist Party," Adams said. "It’s just a good show."

Adams lost his top-secret security clearance ("I was a soiled flower") and was put in charge of staging USO shows that toured the battle fields of Korea. "I enjoyed that work immensely," he said. "I worked with some of the dearest people in my life – Judy Holiday and Shirley McLaine. It really became a turning point in my life... and I wasn’t getting shot at."

The new position left him time to pursue more schooling in theater. He’d already begun studying for his Master’s of Fine Arts Degree at Brigham Young University. Because he was still in Washington, his BYU advisor put him in touch with the legendary Dominican Father Gilbert V. Hartke, then teaching at Catholic University of America. Adams studied under him for 18 months, then finished his MFA at BYU.

Born in Delta, Utah ("I’m a Delta Duck"), Adams was coaxed back to Utah from New York, where he was understudying swing dancers in Jerome Robbins’ "Can Can," and began teaching at then Southern Utah State College in 1959. Under Royden Braithwaite and Senator Wallace Bennett (who played a large part in bring down Sen. McCarthy), Adams founded the Utah Shakespearean Festival 45 years ago.

Adams not only has brought immeasurable talent into Utah to participate in the Festival, but has brought millions of tourist dollars into the state with the growth and the fine reputation of the Festival.

Today, Adams is director of the Festival Center Project, the next step toward the fulfillment of his dream. The Festival Center will include three theaters, including a new outdoor theater with a movable roof that will cover it during inclement weather, scene and costume shops and rehearsal space, as well as retail shops designed for a total Elizabethan theater experience.

"The total cost of the Center is estimated at $18 million," Adams said. "I have raised $7.5 million, and have approached foundations for grants of $5 million and $5.5 million. If we get both grants, we can break ground in the fall."

Adams sees the Festival Center being built in two phases, with the first ground breaking in 2008.

"We could open the new theater on our 50th anniversary," he said. "That’s a dream and a hope of mine."

When that dream is fulfilled? Adams, married and the father of four said, "I’ll have time to walk around and look at it. Then, we’ll get busy building the third theater."

For further information about the Madeleine Award Dinner call 328-8941.